Programme Planning, Implementation and Evalution

PROGRAMME PLANNING, IMPLEMENTATION AND EVALUATION 2(1+1)

Lesson 29 : Participatory Rural Appraisal – PRA

Concept of Participatory Rural Appraisal

The basic concept of PRA is to learn from rural people. PRA is a refined and developed version of RRA which emphasized the participation of local people. Over a period of time, the concept of PRA has undergone several changes, but still the main thrust of PRA- “putting people first” remains intact.

Definitions of PRA

• Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) is a methodology for interacting with villagers, understanding them and learning from them. It involves a set of principles, a process of communication and a menu of methods for seeking villagers participation in putting forward their points of view about any issue and enabling them to do their own analysis with a view to make use of such learning. It initiates a participatory process and sustains it.

(Kunwar and Vashishtha, 2004)

• A family of approaches and methods to enable rural people to present, share and analyze their knowledge of life and conditions to plan and act.

(Robert Chambers, 1994)

• A semi-structured activity carried out in the field by a multi-disciplinary team and designed to quickly acquire new information on and new hypothesis about rural life.

(Mc Cracken et al., 1988)

• PRA is a growing family of approaches and methods to enable local people to share enhance and analyze their knowledge of life and conditions, to plan, act, monitor and evaluate.

(Kumar, 1996)

• PRA is an approach and method for learning about rural life and conditions from, with and by rural people. PRA extends into analysis, planning and action. PRA closely involve villagers and local officials in the process.

(Robert Chambers, 1992)

The above mentioned definitions arise the need for following basic questions:

1. How can participation of local people be increased?
2. What are the different approaches and methods applied in PRA?
3. What are the methods to be adopted to collect the required data and information?

With reference to these definitions, it can be said that PRA is an interactive process, which enables people to learn and analyze their problems and potentials on their own. The methods used are flexible which gives the freedom to the practitioner and people to enhance the quality of interaction and learning. In a nutshell, PRA methods are more adaptable, as they can be modified to suit the local conditions and situations and help to empower the people as their knowledge and ideas are incorporated.