Voices from the village.

AuthorAkula, Vikram
PositionUseful developmental programs in villages

Agricultural scientists experiment in research stations under controlled conditions to produce seeds that eventually prove to be inappropriate for the needs of poor, rural farmers. Education officials pump millions of dollars into rural schools that poor children are never able to attend because their families depend on their labor to survive.

Failures of this kind plague development efforts throughout the world. They stem from a misguided "top-down" roach. Planners typically work in cities far removed from the rural communities they are trying to help. At best, they make brief visits to well-off, accessible, roadside villages or rely on standard questionnaires that intimidate and alienate the usually illiterate rural poor. The result is that planners develop programs using incomplete, inaccurate information, and end up squandering huge sums of money on projects that don't work.

In the face of these failures, some development professionals began searching a decade ago for a better way to design rural development projects. One of the most promising approaches they turned up is "Participatory Rural Appraisal." It may sound complex, but PRA basically means asking local people what they need rather than telling them what they need.

Unlike conventional appraisal methods, the participatory approach emphasizes seeking out remote villages and using group activities that enable villagers to communicate their problems through visual means. While there are still glitches to iron out in the participatory philosophy, much of the development community-from large groups like the United States Agency for International Development to small grassroots groups - has shown support for it.

PRA emerged in Kenya in 1988, when a team from the country's environmental protection agency and Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, put the theory to the test in addressing soil erosion and water shortages in the village of Mbusyani.

The team had villagers draw a map of the area on the ground using items like chalk, stones, tin cans, and sticks. Not only was the exercise more engaging than a formal, sit-down interview, it was more informative. The mapping session and the discussion that followed gave a precise picture of the area - including rainfall, location of the community's most degraded areas, its water sources, and social stratification. Through the discussion, the development workers discovered, for instance, that farmers were having soil problems because...

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