Participation

A Nepalese Journal of Participatory Development

P a r t i c i p a t i o n

Women development : Way to impowerment

Year 1 No. 1 June, 1999

"Sharing without boundaries is absolutely essential for participation and PRA" - Robert Chambers

Nepal Participatory Action Network (NEPAN)

Participation In this issue Articles 3 9 15 18 23 27 30

Year

1 No. 1999, June

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Editorial Board

Getting a buzz out of particpation Towards Participatory Watershed Management Women development : Way to Empowerment Advocacy and NEPAN Paving the road Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation But when will you start doing something

Naomi M. Saville Basant Kumar Rimal Sangeeta Shrestha Prabhat Dixit Peter Malling Chandi P. Chapagain Girbanu C.P.M and Sanjaya Rana

Interview 40 "Sharing without boundaries is absolutely essential for participation and PRA" 2 Editorial

Rabi Chitrakar (Executive) Sameer Karki Kamal Phuyal Noami M. Saville Hukum B. Singh Layout/Design Rabi Chitrakar Sunil Shrestha (DECOS) Distribution

Robert Chambers

Published By: Nepal Participatory Action Network (NEPAN) Kuriya Gaun, Thapathali, P.O.Box:13791 Phone: 227471, Phone & Fax: 266330 E-mail: [email protected]

Sova Silpakar Anju Sunuwar

Opinions expressed in the articles are those of the authors themselves and do not in any manner represent the viwes of NEPAN.

Editorial

A Nepalese Journal of Participatory Development

Participation is a Nepalese journal of participatory development published once in a year by Nepal Participatory Action Network (NEPAN). This covers a wide ranges of experiences related to participatory development process and approaches.

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NEPAN from its inception, has recognised the significance of information in the development process maintaining substantive programmes of support aimed at improving acess to knowledge applied to participatory development process. There are several ways to improve access to knowledge applied to the process. One of the most effective and efficient means such as sharing of experiences, success stories, case studies, paper presented on workshop and seminars are documented and published as required and demanded by the members and others. As Robert Chambers says in his interview with NEPAN (published in this issue) "the idea of sharing without boundaries is absolutely essntial for participation and PRA". The activities of NEPAN include dissemination of research and contemporary findings through available media means such as organising seminars, workshops, conferences, monthly gatherings and publications. This issue is in your hand, please forward your valuable comments and suggestions along with your relevant articles for Participation . Cover page : Active participation on sharing of knowledge by PRA Practitioners. Photo: NEPAN

Participation ? 1999

Article

GETTINGABUZZOUT OFPARTICIPATION

- Naomi M. Saville

Communication with people from remote villages, who are unfamiliar with western women and their style of dressing, was opened up and trust and rapport with Jumla farmers was established. This helped enormously to access traditional beekeeping techniques and technologies and also in team building. When the outsider needs tuition from the village women to get her ‘dhoti’ and ‘patuka’ (traditional clothes) tied correctly, this sets-up a dynamic for two way learning and sharing between community members and the outsider. Participatory action research what is it?

ICIMOD, 1997) Jumla is developing fast to take the lead in the aid of its even poorer neighbours.

The ‘buzz’ word for development this decade seems to be ‘participation’. Every document we pick up is dotted with references to ‘participatory approaches’, but what does this mean in actual terms at the grassroots’ level? In ICIMOD’s beekeeping project we have been attempting to understand this question throughout a 3.5 year action research programme in beekeeping in Jumla, midWestern Nepal. Jumla’s situation Jumla is isolated from motorable roads by 3-6 days’ walk, the nearest road heads being Dailekh (when road conditions and snow on the passes permit) and Surkhet. Altitude ranges from c. 2500m to 3700m and much of the district is limited to growing barley and potatoes as staples. In the lower irrigated areas, both a rice and a wheat crop can be cultivated yearly, but this land is mainly owned by Brahmin and Thakuri (so-called ‘high caste’) landlords who employ Kami and other so-called ‘lower caste’ groups to farm it. Chettri caste people dominate at higher altitudes, where sheep and goat farming and associated spinning and weaving are important sources of income. As the Zonal centre of the Karnali zone, Nepal’s most impoverished area according to recent Human Development Index ranking (Indicators of development

Participation ? 1999

Jumla has a very strong tradition in beekeeping, especially at higher altitudes above the 2600m ricegrowing threshold. For those without productive irrigated land, trading rice for honey used to guarantee most households enough rice to eat for special occasions and to feed guests. The un-cultivable, steep rocky pastures and the high altitude forest used to give excellent honey yields, providing a high-value non-timber output with very little investment by farmers. Traditional beekeeping requires skills in the preparation of hollowed-out logs, baiting them with a mixture of beeswax, honey and various herbs. Then the hives are left on cliffs in the forest to attract bee swarms. There is no intensive investment in time or resources required, since the bees do all the work of making the wax and filling the combs with nectar and pollen. Moreover, the particular variety of the indigenous Asian Hive Bee (Apis cerana) native to Jumla was identified as a potentially highly-valuable genetic resource for beekeeping. The bee is larger and yields more honey than the variety found in lower altitudes and absconds less. Problems in beekeeping Inappropriate importation of exotix bees

A Nepalese Journal of Participatory Development

Why beekeeping?

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Photo: Naomi M. Saville

Article Training women beekeepers and extensionists is the best means to reach out to women farmers !

With such a rich tradition in beekeeping, why bring in modern ideas and change? If traditional systems of husbandry work well, why complicate them with ‘Western’ ideas? This is a good question that should have been asked long ago, before, with all good intentions, the European bee, Apis mellifera, was introduced into the district in the early-mid 1990s. This bee was introduced on a small scale through the support of an NGO. Unable to survive the severe cold and long dearth periods when nectar and pollen resources are scarce, the bees died out. Not before, however, they had transmitted an exotic disease to the native bees that infects the developing larvae (called European Foulbrood Disease).

A Nepalese Journal of Participatory Development

Inappropriate importation of exotic technology In 1994, a straw hive requiring a complicated wooden frame, with holes drilled in it and long expensive nuts and bolts, was introduced. This was not accepted by Jumla farmers for whom straw is a limited and valuable resource used for animal husbandry and compost. Threshing techniques that involve the trampling of straw by bulls also render straw an inappropriate hive-making material. Also, prevalence of the pine marten, which can even knaw through 6cm of wood to eat bee combs, along with harsh climatic conditions that quickly rot the straw, caused the hive to fail. Picking up the pieces

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By 1995, when the beekeeping action research project was started by ICIMOD, Jumla beekeepers were in trouble. Attempts to ‘develop’ beekeeping had resulted in an epidemic of bee disease and confusion and distrust amongst farmers about new ‘modern’ technology for beekeeping. Why? No-one had asked Jumla farmers to participate in the process of developing beekeeping in their area! Whose participation? The challenge of introducing ‘participation’ as the central concept in action research was accepted. Who should participate and how to elicit such participation? Traditional beekeepers, ‘low caste’ people and women previously excluded from beekeeping, the poorest communities most isolated from the bazaar and high above the rice-growing land, local NGO field workers and government extensionists were all potential participants. A process of investigating indigenous beekeeping methods, coupled with tentative introductions of appropriate technology and management methods for improvement of beekeeping, was started. Participant observation Instead of starting with PRA surveys with ‘a team of multi-disciplinary PRA practitioners’, the outside Western ‘agent of change’ participated in traditional beekeeping activities and customs, using ‘participant observation’ method. This meant join-

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Article

Using the ideas of local counterpart (Satananda Upadhaya), small adaptations to traditional beehives were introduced through establishment of a demonstration apiary at the Karnali Technical School. Here the traditional log hive, 2 adaptations of the same and two ‘modern’ hives (the straw design mentioned above and the western design ‘framehive’ made from machine cut wood) were colonised by bees to be tested for their performance and their insulating potential. Similar village-based trial apiaries to be managed by farmer-groups in communities were also set up. Brahmin and Chettri caste beekeepers from traditional beekeeping communities, and people from ‘lower’

castes with very little beekeeping history from four different altitudes and ecological zones, were selected to test the hives. Women were encouraged to take part, but menstrual taboos restricting women from touching hives and the already extremely heavy workload limited participation. Men have more time and traditionally took responsibility for hive building and baiting anyway, so initial efforts in testing hives were focussed with them. Women continue to be trained and women trainers are currently working with women beekeepers groups too. Farmer-participatory extension After nearly two years of struggling to keep the bees alive in the face of the disease epidemic, it became clear that location of a few trial beehives in four different sites where all the bees were dying was not going to succeed. The coincidence of new technology with the new disease inevitably led to suspicion amongst the local community. Without being seen to tackle the bee disease, nothing else in terms of beekeeping development could be achieved. So, using the lead farmers from the groups involved in hive testing, a farmer-led extension programme was initiated. Farmers trained in bee disease identification and control were employed by the project to survey the disease levels and educate traditional beekeepers in how to control or limit the effects of the disease. New initiatives in making candles and medicinal skin prepa-

Observation helps the outsider and the local women feel at home with each other !

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A Nepalese Journal of Participatory Development

ing in with and / or observing normal activities in Jumla communities, dressing like a Jumla woman and attempting to speak in local dialect. Communication with people from remote villages, who are unfamiliar with western women and their style of dressing, was opened up and trust and rapport with Jumla farmers was established. This helped enormously to access traditional beekeeping techniques and technologies and also in team building. When the outsider needs tuition from the village women to get her ‘dhoti’ and ‘patuka’ (traditional clothes) tied correctly, this sets-up a dynamic for two way learning and sharing between community members and the outsider. There is a feeling amongst the community that the outsider ‘is one of us’ and hence people feel more relaxed to express themselves. Farmer-participation in testing hive designs

Photo: Naomi M. Saville

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Farmer ownership of the project Slowly, as the farmer-trainers became more active, they managed to convince some of their fellow farmers that bees were worth saving and that changes in beekeeping technology and management might help. The farmers decided to form their own NGO to carry out beekeeping training and extension and organise co-operative marketing of honey and beeswax from the area. The Himalayan Beekeepers’ Association (HIBA) of Jumla was formed and a coalition is underway with Surya Social Service Society (4S), a local NGO involved in the marketing of bee products. With donor support and institutional capacity building for a few more years, plus facilitation of the honey and beeswax markets in Nepal, this farmer-led NGO should be able to manage beekeeping activities and reach out to more integrated development activities in the future.

ence ranking. As the programme progressed and farmer-trainers took over the extension, they had a little training in PRA and other exercises were increasingly employed. A summary of the PRA tools used in Jumla beekeeping project and the purpose for which they were applied is given in the Table 1. Who should be the main PRA practitioners? In this project, rather than employing ‘professional’ PRA practitioners to conduct the exercises listed above, the farmer-trainers employed in beekeeping extension themselves carried out the exercises. They could understand the local dialect and interact on a closer level with the community participating in the exercise. For extensionists, whose reading and writing skills are limited (e.g. class 5 or 6 pass), PRA provides tools for both the farmers and extension workers to analyse and understand together. Use of survey questionnaire forms yielded Photo: Naomi M. Saville

rations from the previously wasted and undervalued beeswax were established.

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Using PRA Early in the project (1995), training in PRA was organised for local NGO and government extensionists and ICIMOD project staff. But, with a two-person team to develop this project and a development remit entirely restricted to beekeeping, full-scale PRA was inappropriate on a large scale. It was considered that asking communities to give up time to conduct holistic PRA exercises could lead to increased expectations from the project, for which there was no budget or staff. Initially then, full PRA data were collected from only a few communities to assess the general situation and how beekeeping fits into everyday life. The most commonly-used exercises to start with were seasonal calendars and daily time schedules, time lines and prefer-

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Beekeepers making preference ranking of sources of livelihood, including beekeeping.

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Article data which were time consuming and difficult to analyse, but PRA results were visible immediately. Even illiterate participants could understand and discuss the results and farmers showed much greater willingness to give up their time to join in the exercises than when other meetings and interview techniques were employed. What next? The approach described above was expensive in terms of the time and commitment of the participant observer as an ‘agent of change’ and perhaps is not in line with mainstream policy about posting development professionals at the grassroots level to conduct extension. However, significant findings about ‘how to carry out development in beekeeping’ and ‘how to set up successful extension systems in general’ emerged. These have wider implications in many areas of community development. In this instance beekeeping was an entry point for developing community participation and team work.

With rapport between farmer-extensionists and farmers’ group members and potential financial benefits from co-operative marketing, development could move in many directions from this point. Is it time to question policies than keep outside professionals outside, visiting grassroots communities only to monitor and evaluate without having the time to understand? Could not more individuals take the meaning of participation a little further and try learning from communities as individuals, before conducting token PRA studies to satisfy donor-driven ‘logical frameworks’ which are meaningless to beneficiaries? Could we not de-compartmentalise development a little to allow groups such as these in Jumla to develop organically in a community-led process of integrated development? Naomi M. Saville is NEPAN Member.

PRA tool

Purpose for which the PRA tool was used

Semi-structured interviewing

Accessing indigenous knowledge in beekeeping.

Time lines and charts made by using stones

To find numbers of beehives in the community in different time periods to assess the disease situation.

Seasonal calendars showing workloads and agricultural activities, including beekeeping

To time beekeeping training and to when men and women have most free time, and to time extension programmes to periods of most intensive beekeeping activities.

Daily work schedules for women and men

To discover the best time to visit farmers at home and hold discussions and to assess the relative workloads of men and women in terms of who has time to participate

Pairwise and matrix preference ranking exercises

To assess the importance of beekeeping relative to other sources of income / food (Figure 1.).

Resource maps

To assess availability of forest resources for hive building and hive-baiting sites and of forage for bees.

Flow charts

To analyse the potential benefits of forming beekeeping groups and improving beekeeping.

Venn diagrams

To identify individuals or groups who can assist or block any activities occurring on the community level or with the local NGOs.

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Table 1. PRA tools that can be employed in a grassroots’ beekeeping project

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Preference ranking of beekiping in relation to other agricultural practices.

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Article An experience of Bhusunde Khola Watershed Project

- Basant Kumar Rimal

Towards Participatory Watershed Management

It has been seen that group which has sufficient capacity in organizing themselves for particular purpose can also plan well. Six months period is sufficient for the groups to show interest in participatory development and envisioning the future. The most significant tools for the planning purpose are - Resource map, Seasonal calendar including time availability, farming system, Problems identification based on resource map and opportunities.

Background The Participatory Watershed Management Program has been launched in Bhusunde Khola Watershed area and aims to identify and field test strategies methods and techniques for the promotion and consolidation of people’s participation in the conservation and development of upland watersheds by the inter-regional participatory upland conservation and development project GCP/INT/542/ ITA-(PUCD).

is vital for the conservation of the upland area . Forests fulfil the energy requirement and help in agricultural production and erosion control. Increasing population pressure and poor management, with no control over grazing, over several decades has contributed to progressive degradation of most of the remaining forest patches.

Bhusunde Watershed area is considered as a representative of a general situation in the middle hills of Nepal with regard to natural resource use and degradation. The total area of Bhusunde khola watershed is about 3200 hectares with approximately 70 % of the area having slopes steeper than 30%. The total estimated human population is 12000 which is very high in density. The livestock population is little more than the human i.e. 16000 including pigs and goats . Livestock and forest play the key role in subsistence agricultural farming system. Buffalo, goats and cattle are the major livestock in the area. Buffalo and goats are considered economically important for milk and meat. Cattle are mainly produced for the production of oxen for draft power and religious purposes. The average family land holding is under 1 hectare most having less than 0.2 hectare arable land per perThe forest

The activities in Bhusunde Khola watershed were started in September 1992. At the beginning there was no clear concept of participatory watershed management. RRA and PRA tools were used for situation analysis on an ad hoc basis. There was little success in identifying steps and guidelines to carry out project activities.

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Group mobilization was focused to Ward level groups and most of the activities were carried out through the agreement between Ward level group and project. Later the Ward level group lost the confidence and credit of the community. Women groups and disadvantaged group were marginalised due to a dominating high class group including the teacher and rich people at ward level. Many unrealistic plans arose due to large numbers of users having different interests. Many were beyond the

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First phase (1992-1994)

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Photo: PUCD

Article

capacity of the group. Despite this, many activities were carried out during the first phase. Implementation took place immediately without sufficient group strengthening and follow-up activities which made the group ineffective over the long term.

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There is not sub-watershed management plan. The question of a working units for participatory planning especially with the shortage of skilled staff was clear and gave rise to many tasks being inadequately performed over a short period. There was little cooperation and coordination from line agencies and local NGOs. The First phase was too short to produce a comprehensive result towards a planning process involving participatory development. Second phase (1994-1997) The concept of participatory watershed management became much clearer and more focused during the second phase (September 1994- August 1997). The situation analyses were carried out systematically using Participatory Rural Appraisal techniques and number of physical activities were identified and carried out simultaneously with a group mobilization process. Much more focus was given to a Group mobilization process with a real beneficiary groups such as disadvantaged group and women groups . The ward level group was oriented as a

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Listening to all for real participation !

forum for inter-group linkage and to share experience and resolve conflict through an Inter-Group Association Monthly Saving, regular meetings and self initiated actions by the group were identified as criteria for possible assistance and support by the project. Implementation of the participatory community action plans (PCAPs) took place within active groups. The active and inactive groups are differentiated on the basis of the criteria identified. The recruitment of group motivators for group assistance and the concepts of area facilitators became clear. Polices regarding contributions from group and the project emerged and became operational for conservation activities. Coordination and collaborative initiatives began by providing PRA training to the head of all the related line agencies, VDC chairman’s and project staff. An unproved team spirit for envisioning the concepts and working methodology arose between HMG and FAO expatriates through this process. A Participating Evaluation and Replanning workshop (PERP) became an effective tool to analyse the impact of activities and replanning for the future. The seasonal calendar and time availability maps enabled the formulation of more realistic plans. Key Steps Participatory watershed management is a slow and dynamic process and the current modalities may change in future. There has always been a learning process with a modified approach and flexibility at

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The participatory watershed program consists of four key steps, they are : Step-1: Local level capacity building and participatory planning phase The local level capacity building is slow but essential step in a participatory approach and sustainability of activities. The active involvement of local communities is only possible when users group understand their capacity to take their responsibilities fully in accordance with a participatory planning process. Such a process also needs to include the social economic and production systems requirements of concerned communities. User group capacity building is seen as a core element of our participatory development approach. Development activities are usually channeled through user groups. Limited organizational capacity and effectiveness of many of the users groups are a constraint to the participatory development process. Experience has taught us that development activities should

only be undertaken in collaboration with active groups. Active groups are characterized by (a) regular meetings (b) regular savings (c) utilization of saved funds e.g. in income generation activities and self initiated social activities. Skill required to organize an active and effective user group, include (democratic) leadership, group constitution making (formulation of realistic objectives), record keeping and monitoring and evaluation. Capacity building training is a key mechanism in developing the ability of user groups and their members to become self reliant, and to be able to effectively contribute to the development and management of their own resources including the watershed natural resources. Most user group executive committee members recognize their own group’s weaknesses and frequently request capacity building training. Several steps can be distinguished beginning with training and extension to make clear to people why user groups are needed, what users groups can do, how they can be democratically led and managed, to actual managerial skills training and self evaluation exercises. In some cases, however, it is necessary to impart basic literacy skills, before specific A Nepalese Journal of Participatory Development

each stage. This has become an essential part of the participatory planning and implementation process. General procedures and step wise methodology may not be suitable everywhere. The level of participation in planning, implementation and maintenance and operation will vary depending upon the people’s perception about the project/government policies and behaviour of the staff involved in it.

Capacity building through participation Participation ? 1999

Photo: PUCD

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Induced user group formation is not likely to result in viable self-reliant community organizations. Spontaneously formed groups are likely to remain for long periods and they need a lot of capacity building support to become well enough organized to be able to play a significant long term role in local development.

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Participatory planning should be carried out using PRA tools and techniques. It has been seen that group which has sufficient capacity in organizing themselves for particular purpose can also plan well. Six months period is sufficient for the groups to show interest in participatory development and envisioning the future. The most significant tools for the planning purpose are - Resource map, Seasonal calendar including time availability, farming system, problem identification based on resource map and opportunities. Transect walks and informal gatherings are some useful tools for participatory planning.

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In many cases, local communities are not able to link the situation analysis and the action demanded to improve their situation. It is necessary to establish relationship between the problems or physical and or social factors the actions that they demand. This can be done using a resource map, problem map and seasonality calendar which includes time availability. The actions should be taken up by the households affected by the problem and the Household heads available to do the job.This phase is generally carried out in the first year in particular area.

Step 2: Participatory community action plans implementation phase The implementation of participatory community action plans (PCAPs) follow the first step. In other words this is the second year program. This phase consists of participatory feasibility study of PCAP’s identified in the first phase, continuation of the local level capacity building process and execution of the feasible PCAP’s. The self assessment of the group and its performance is continuous process. The experience in Bhusunde khola watershed has taught us that a participatory feasibility study is an essential part of the effective implementation and operation of our program. In many cases technically feasible activities have become impossible due to social problems which occur during implementation. Occasionally the design has to be changed and revised with estimation of loss of time and energy included. Conflicts over resources, ownership and dominant power of the rural elite’s are some of the issues which need to be addressed by participatory feasibility study. The users group implement PCAPs following their agreement document. A continuous supervision and follow-up workshop is recommended during this phase. A minimum of two workshops should be conducted. The final payment is carried out during the last workshop with orientation of maintenance and operations.

Photo: PUCD

groups of people will be capable of effectively organizing themselves, especially women and disadvantaged ethnic groups.

Bearing responsibility of community development activities ! Participation ? 1999

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The participatory impact analysis, evaluation and replanning exercise is an important step. Emphasis has been given to this stage. This phase is primarily designed for the second and third year program along with the ongoing local level capacity building process. However, regular meeting and continuous training programs provide ample scope to evaluate the process so far adopted. The analysis of the impact of the activities with the beneficiaries should be done on a continuous basis from the beginning of group strengthening. This phase consists of a situation analysis by reviewing of the overall process including the PRA findings (especial emphasis should be given on cross referring with resource map and seasonal calendar) and the progress of activities. This should be done in each group on a settlement basis. workshop preparation and design, Preliminary visit Evaluation and replanning exercises are considered as an important steps for this phase. The preparation and workshop design must include meeting with workshop team, analysis of situation, strength and weakness of PRA planning process. The preliminary visit is essential to be familiar with the situation of the village and strategies or the action to be adopted. The three exercises have been proposed for evaluation and Replanning exercise. * A participatory impact mapping exercise. This is aimed to facilitate (1) identification of actual or expected changes in living conditions (and/or natural resource management) related to the implementation of PCAP activities. (2) a visual assessment of their distribution throughout the community territory and population (made possible by plotting identified “impacts” on the community map).

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* A series of on the spot visits to be completed or on-going physical activities aimed at facilitating an analysis of strengths and weakness in implementation and opportunities for future improvement, based on direct observation of positive and negative aspects of the work carried out and/or on recall of factors which affected the implementation process. * A participatory planning exercise, based on an improved participatory planning matrix. It consists of activity, expected changes, coverages (area), community inputs, external inputs, supporting organization/agency and so-on. Evaluation and re-planning exercises should be dine by users group themselves but at the beginning facilitators (consultant, area facilitators etc.) can facilitate it. Step-4 : Demonstration, service generation and sustainability phase. This is the third year program with the aim of sustainability, coupled with service generation and demonstration. In this step the local capability building process is given less emphasis. The degree of sustainability lies with the viability of the group and their service to neighbourhood group in terms of training, multiplication and demonstration of effect. It is carried out by the group or by their members. The sustainability of the program also depends upon the impact and economic return of activities carried out. The nature and scope of activities differ a lot in watershed management. The differences are due to direct benefits or income generated or by reducing the costs indirectly by maintaining ecological balance, which help to increase the productivity of land in general and lessen the social cost by developing infrastructure. There are direct income generating activities such as, vegetable gardening, buck distribution, fruit or fodder seedling distribution. Gully control, landslide

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Step-3: Participatory impact analysis, evalua-tion and replanning phase

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Article rehabilitation, trail improvement do not result in direct income but help to generate income indirectly and lower costs incurred by natural disasters. Similarly community soil conservation activities, infrastructure development conservation activities help in preventing natural disasters and support an increase in productivity. The direct benefited activities are sustained on an individual basis and result in economic returns and increased market value. Where as indirect or supporting activities which do not yield individual benefit and they need a community effort for their maintenance. This can be only dine through amiable and strong group. The capability of the group determines the sustainability of the program and power to maintain and operate it. The capability can be increased through various training/field visits and followed

by continuous support in group mobilization. Compulsory savings, regular meetings and self-initiated achieves are viewed as indicators to assess the capability of the group. These factors have been considered as key in group functioning and maintaining sustainability. Most of the development partners realized this but lack a concrete program, budget and motivation. Therefore this phase consists of training, site-visit and interaction programs with the neighborhood villages group. It would have multiplier effect in improving the farming system through seed generation and knowledge dissemination to interested group or individuals. Basanta Kumar Rimal is NEPAN Member.

Lesson Learnt ? In comparison to watershed level and ward level. User’s group at settlement level have been observed more effective and capable of generating funds and able to meet regularly, resolve conflict easily and encourage a high level of people’s participation both from women and disadvantaged group. It is able to minimize political differences and enhance social integration.

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? Local level capacity building process at settlement level is found to be more effective, appropriate for bottom-up planning (i.e. use of PRA tools) and implementation with minimum support with high degree of transparency and accountability.

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? The groups can be made capable of undertaking responsibilities for natural resource management and development activities. Six month to one year should be kept for implementation of local level capacity building process before executing civil or biological measures. ? The formation of users groups be not initiates if the group exists that is initiated by any other government to non-government organization. Any groups at settlement level should be considered for strengthening process and conducting a situation analysis if it meets the criteria of housing. Regular meetings, monthly savings and self initiated activities. ? PRA based action plans cover a wide range of activities which do not necessarily fall under the mandate of single line agency and therefore need close cooperation and help from existing government, non-government and even independent private organizations. ? The level of participation in planning, implementation and in maintenance and operation is dependent upon the perceptions of project/government policies and behaviour of the staffs involved in it.

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Article

Women Way to development : empower ? He was asked to prove the allegations he made against the women. The man confessed his misdeeds and appealed for pardon as he had scolded the women under the influence of alcohol. Not satisfied with his apology, the women demanded action against the offender. Instead of showing sympathy, the men laughed at the women’s meeting and again said the women have got a good excuse to pass their time.

It was another December evening in the rural hills of Lamjung. We sat around the fireplace in our kitchen and were discussing about the lessons for Parents Education Programme, after just finishing our dinner. We use to spend our evening in the kitchen around the fire to save ourselves from the chilling cold.

Another woman said: “You must do something otherwise our family members will not allow us to participate in the adult education classes.” Consultation with other women occurred and we finally agreed that we would meet participants of other classes and discuss a way to tackle this kind situation.

Suddenly, a group of women intruded into our kitchen and their serious faces told us that something was wrong. They did not speak but simply followed my advice to sit down. We were all silent and each of us was looking at those women’s faces. To break the ice, I asked “How was your class today?”. The women seemed dumb-founded. “What has happened to you?” I questioned sharply. Renuka, one of them, hesitantly said, “We are very much frustrated. A drunken man stormed into our class and threatened us. He abused us saying we are stupid and are skipping our household chores in excuse of going to literacy class, and that we are visiting the night classes to make fun and to romance with other adults.”

I could not sleep well that night. I was really shocked to hear about this incident and I tried to think over and over about how to proceed. Finally I decided that we call a mass meeting of women and may be we should constitute a women’s organization which will tackle this kind of problem unitedly.

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And came a bright and colourful morning. I found many women and men gathered outside our office. They called a mass meeting without any prompting from me. The women came to me and urged me to participate and address the meeting. The women conducted the meeting. Men sat around the women just smiling as if they were there

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- Sangeeta Shrestha

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Article to ridicule the women’s initiatives though some of them were cooperative. The women seemed very serious and emotional. The incident of last night had emotionally prepared the women to think something bold to counter the local threat to their development efforts.

Let us (women) unite and Assist each other Gambling destroys the property Alcohol ruins the body These habits are still dominant on us Let us remove this unitedly.

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The meeting called on the drunkard to explain why he misbehaved with the literacy class participants. He was asked to prove the allegations he made against the women. The man confessed his misdeeds and appealed for pardon as he had scolded the women under the influence of alcohol. Not satisfied with his apology, the women demanded action against the offender. Instead of showing sympathy, the men laughed at the women’s meeting and again said the women have got a good excuse to pass their time. At this allegation, I could not remain silent on looker. I became very angry. I could not see any other viable option out to defend the women castigated by more powerful men. It just emphasised the point that unless the women unite and form their own organization, it would remain difficult to pursuade men and of other to defend ways of doing things women’s rights. The meeting could not achieve more than an apology from the offending man but the women were still unsatisfied with the outcome and were eager to move forward to counter such threats in the future.

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Against the injustices and oppressions Let us demand our Rights to Equality There is no world without women Why are we subjected to repression? We won’t allow dominance on women What is there which we cannot do We will uproot the harmful norms and customs We will participate in the nation building work.

With the concept of a women’s organization already seeded, I am the women’s group for the next time and more than a hundred women joined our mass meeting. They reaffirmed their desire for me to show them a way to unite. Consequently we were able to give birth to a new organization called “Women’s Self Help Center”, and a Constitution was also drafted. It was decided to register the organization with the district government. During the meeting we also composed as opening song which is till now sung before starting any meeting. Time is fleeting ceaselessly. It is more than eight years now since the Women’s Self Help Center (WSHC) was formed. Its membership is increasing daily. Today, it has nine village chapters in 5

Let us fulfil our commitment in development programme ! Photo: PUCD

Participation ? 1999

Active participation on role play by a woman ! Village Development Committees (VDCs) and each chapter consists of 9 members elected by the general members of the respective areas. The chair person of each committee is nominated to the Executive Board. WSHC has 11 executive board members. As of this date, 1048 women have acquired WSHC membership in five VDCs. The organization is funded by membership fee. The women conduct their monthly meeting at different places and discuss their current problems and village women’s problems as a whole. Critical problems are solved through forming their small groups at ward level and assigning certain but concrete responsibilities. Apart from their own, the women have also solved men’s problems. The WSHC has gained reputation in a very short time and the once stubborn men folk have begun to trust the organization. The Center has operated various activities with support from government and non-government organizations. Some of them are: - Women Empowerment and Awareness Creation Training - Community Women’s Model Forest (in Bharate VDC) - Child Care Center in Pyarajung VDC - Community Building Construction in Mohoriya VDC - Home Based Child Care Center in Bharate VDC - Mahakali Multiple Cooperative society in Bharate VDC

Participation ? 1999

In addition, the Center has also planned to conduct Parents’ Education Programme, Child to Child Classes and Positive Deviance Programme in the new areas. When I look back at this organization from the early days, I feel proud of them and envision that one day their efforts would contribute to make a mere egalavion society in Lamjung. We have sent a lot of time and invested tremendous efforts to come to this stage, but there still remains lot to work hard to make this organization self reliant. My dream of a powerful women’s organization in rural setting such as in Bharate (Lamjung) will come true until WSHC becomes fully self-reliant and operational in the district and serves itself as a model for replication throughout Nepal. It needs our continuous support to fulfill these objectives. Last November, I visited Lamjing to facilitate a Strategy Development for WSHC. It was so good to see them discuss about-who are we? Where we want to go? What are the factors blocking us?, What needs to be stopped and what needs to be continued? Looking into zeal and collective determination, I fail to stop asking myself - Is this the way to real development? Is this the way to empower and mobilise the groups? Sangeeta Shrestha is Freelancer Sociologist.

A Nepalese Journal of Participatory Development

Photo: Lumantee

Article

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Article

Advocacy and NEPAN The goal of advocacy, therefore, is to challenge the powerful in favour of the deprived and disadvantaged. It is obvious that to fight against powerful ones is not an easy task. We need to build up coalitions, networking, civil disobedience, demonstrations, lobbying, etc. to force them to listen to the voice of the disadvantaged. To bring in a change in public policy and practice, it is necessary to launch a movement nationwide with target groups. Only this can sustain pressure on the powerful and make a continuous change.

A Nepalese Journal of Participatory Development

- Prabhat Dixit

Nepal Participatory Action Network - NEPAN is a network of about 275 individuals and 38 institutions/organizations devoted to the promotion of participatory approaches and tools/techniques. The main agenda of the networks advocacy of the participatory process in a platform. If we look back in history, we find that over the centuries, the ruling classes, promoted many norms, values, traditions, and cultures which created an environment discouraging the participation of the poor, marginalized groups, women, and children in decision making. These efforts were cemented by legislative, judiciary and administrative structures. After the overthrow of the Rana Regime, steps

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taken to negate these structures have not been very successful. Until now many of these structures, tradition, culture and religion have proved to be stumbling blocks in the overall development of the poor, minorities, women, children, disabled, etc. Not only that, unfortunately, due to their impact many new laws, rules, traditions, cultures were introduced in modern times having negative impacts on the overall development of marginalized people. Nepal’s present constitution ensures more democratic rights than in many other countries of the sub-continent, but administrative, judicial, and legislative structures still ensure that only the powerful and rich have direct access to the decision making process. NEPAN has been formed to challenge this and facilitate the participation of poor, women and marginalized people in the development process of Nepal. Therefore NEPAN’s advocacy work should probe the structural causes of non-participation of the poor and marginalized in decision making affecting their lives and promote methods and concepts that negate the effects of those structural causes. In this context, the main goal of NEPAN’s advocacy is to rally all forces including the oppressed and marginalized ones in fighting against these blocks/structures and to create a very positive environment for exercising equal rights by all Nepalese citizens, irrespective of their sex, race, caste, religion, or ethinicity in the nation building process of Nepal. What is advocacy? Advocacy is: “an organized and sustained campaign by targeted groups (poor and marginalized) to get their interest represented and addressed to the power centers in society, regarding changes

Participation ? 1999

Article

In other words, it is “a deliberate, systematic and organized way of influencing public policy, public attitudes and policy practices in order to change, implement or formulate new or alternative policies in favour of targeted area and groups (population) regarding certain issues in the process of nation building”. In this context, the Goal of NEPAN’s advocacy is ? to facilitate the participation of poor, women, etc. in the decision making process of Nepal. ? to facilitate the participation of local governments in the decision making process of Nepal. ? to empower the powerless, weak and marginalized for changing public policy. ? to translate the voice of people into the language of the authorities. Therefore, NEPAN’s advocacy has to be based on the fact that: “There are centres and institutions of decisionmaking detached from, but affecting the local communities, particularly the poor and marginalized. There is a necessity for changing the present development paradigm and faciliate a movement by the poor and marginalized to force the authorities listen to their voices.” For that, NEPAN should develop effective pro-

grams and actions to change policy, behavior, and practice at all levels, from personal to national, so as to overcome the interrelated causes of non-participation of disadvantaged groups in the process of nation building. This has to be done based on NEPAN’s own and its members’ experiences. To influence and change public policy in favour of disadvantaged people actually means changing power relations. Politicians, religious leaders, bureaucrates, development workers make and have control over decision about public policy, public attitudes, and policy practices. The goal of advocacy, therefore, is to challenge the powerful in favour of the deprived and disadvantaged. It is obvious that to fight against powerful ones is not an easy task. We need to build up coalitions, networking, civil disobedience, demonstrations, lobbying, etc. to force them to listen to the voice of the disadvantaged. To bring in a change in public policy and practice, it is necessary to launch a movement nationwide with target groups. Only this can sustain pressure on the powerful and make a continuous change. In general, advocacy encompasses the following activities: 1. 2.

Identification of a particular issue Access to and collection of relevant information 3. Media campaigns

Advocating rural youth on participatory development process ! Participation ? 1999

A Nepalese Journal of Participatory Development

in public policy or changes in practices or projects”.

Photo: Rabi Chitrakar

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Photo: Lumantee

Article Advocacy encompasses through awareness campaigns !

Awareness campaigns Mass mobilization Lobbying Coalition Civil disobedience Demonstration Litigation Networking Influencing discussions at the local governance levels 13. Influencing Parliamentary discussions

A Nepalese Journal of Participatory Development

4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.

On any particular issue some of the combinations of the above mentioned activities may be needed but in other situations only one activity may be sufficient. NEPAN has so far concentrated only on: networking and campaigns through training and orientation. In future, once advocacy becomes one of the main activities, NEPAN also might have to initiate other. What are needed for advocacy work? 1.

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Information is essential. It is the lifeline of advocacy without which we will not be able build up convincing public argument and negotiate with the system. The following information are generally needed: ?

Constitutional provision

? ? ?

? Court verdicts etc. ? Who has the real power to make the decisions and who are the actors? Information from the field: NGO, VDC/ DDC, etc. All the secondary information Information about social, economic, social situation/background of the issues Awareness and assertion by the target groups about the rights and duties regarding an issue are a prerequisite to stand up for a cause. When we challenge existing power relations, we should be prepared to deal with threats.

2. To fight is to win. To win one needs power and strategy. Powers come from people, knowledge, experience, and moral convictions. Being strategic means the ability to take right decisions and action at the right time to make an impact on the outcome of a policy change or practices. 3. The main power comes from the organized strength of the target groups and they should themselves feel the power of their organized strength rather than having it thrust upon them by NGOs. 4. Selection and prioritization of issues ? Select concrete issues in real life and always avoid abstract and broad areas. ? Issues should be the felt need of the people

Participation ? 1999

Article

? ?

Issues should directly be affecting the lives of people Objectives should be Specific-MeasurableAchievable-Realistic-Timely (SMART) Prioritize those issues around which the target groups will automatically mobilize and organize themselves and build up solidarity.

Human rights, Justice and Freedom, and Integrity, honesty in actions and accounts in the NGO context are non-negotiable. 8. Those who are the advocates of an issue should: ?

5. In many cases, there can be contradiction between Constitutional Values and Cultural/religious values. Hence we need to understand the political, cultural, social and economic situation and maneuver accordingly to make fruitful interventions. For example, our social and cultural values and tradition are not in favour of women’s and scheduled caste’s participation in decision making. Hence long term interventions and resistance are needed. 6. Nepal’s constitution is more progressive and democratic than many constitutions in Asia. But legislation and constitutional provisions alone can not help. People should demand implementation by asserting their rights and continuously bargaining with the power structures. When advocating an issue we should identify with the cause of target groups. If the target groups identify with us, we have the moral conviction or authority to advocate for with them. NEPAN should STAND UP and SAY “NO” to all the causes of non-participation whether provided under the constitution or not and encourage people to fight against injustice and abuse of rights. The first movement of the masses with a loud “NO” is the beginning of empowerment. For a clear-headed and realistic approach Make a distinction between RHETORIC and REAL is necessary. 7. Decide what are the negotiable and non-negotiable.

Participation ? 1999

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

9.

Inner urge and conviction have the prerequisite Be pro-active, planned and organized in thinking and action. Be open-minded but confident Willing to listen to others point of view and learn continuously Identifying with the target group and their cause to build trust and confidence Try all available devices Not negotiate on basic values and moral principles Work continuously with others, in team, alliances, collaborations, and coalitions Always identify proponents, friends, fence sitters or opponents.

Build pressure from the bottom and exert pressure from the top in influencing the decision or policy makers.

Yes and No about advocacy Advocacy is not self-promotion or propaganda. But, advocacy is not only : ? directed towards those whom you are advocating for. ? public relation ? for direct benefit to the organization i.e. NEPAN ? for organizational learning. NEPAN’s present advocacy should focus on: ? Give more focus on the institutional relationship between members and partners. ? Develop direct linkages with government bureaucracy and institutions.

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?

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Article ? ? ? ?

Build/strengthen relationship with DDC/VDC Federations. Organize training/workshops/seminars and publications on participatory process and methods. Develop linkages with other national and international networks/organizations. Develop and solidify links with media, particularly with those focusing on development issues.

Guiding principles on which NEPAN advocacy works must ? ?

? ?

be rooted in the promotion of local level initiatives and participation. be focused on participation of deprived and disadvantaged areas and population into the decision making. Be segregated also by gender and generation. Be based on the experiences of its members and partners.

What is to be done? NEPAN is a network of individuals and institutions/ organizations. Any networking for advocacy has to focus achieving specific advocacy objectives over

a certain period of time. Therefore, NEPAN also has to choose issues it’s advocacy strategy will focus upon. First of all NEPAN needs to establish an institutional mechanism to link its’ programs and advocacy work. More pertinently, it should clearly be realized that advocacy of PRA, which NEPAN has focused in the past, is much easier than advocacy of major policy change, i.e. changes in the status of poor’s participation in the development of its own area. NEPAN has yet to formulate some plan of action in advocacy field. In the last four years since NEPAN was established, many issues were discussed at the national and international levels but we lost the chance to participate and give direction. For example, Gender Equity, Participation in Local Governance System, Property Rights were some of the issues in which NEPAN had a very good chance to take up the lead but we failed. Some of the issues connected with those are still being debated and NEPAN can interverne. For that NEPAN should start now serious thought to advocacy.

A Nepalese Journal of Participatory Development

Prabhat Dixit is NEPAN member.

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NEPAN publication

Participation ? 1999

Paving the road

Photo: Mukta Lama

Article

Every INGO coming to Nepal naturally has its own objectives. Many Nepalis, however, find, that some INGOs want to implement these objectives regardless of the needs and wishes of their target group. Seen from this point of view, it is disrespectful - being a guest in the country of the Nepali people - to ignore a democratically elected government in order to force through your own ideas in the holy name of development. More than 5.000 organisations in Nepal are potential receivers of aid from the Nepali government (HMG) and foreign agencies. The competition between these to get a share of the massive foreign aid canalised through the non-governmental sector has never been more intensive than today. The intentions of some of these NGOs are more social than of others’. While a number of NGOs carry out an important social task, people working in the sector say that as much as 80% of the NGOs have been established primarily as a source of income for the people running the NGO. Social work has become a lucrative business for smart Nepalis,

Participation ? 1999

for whom the nearest family and friends are the most important beneficiaries. Of course you won’t be able to tell from the official agenda of a given NGO. Here you will definitely find statements about development by people, gender equality, sustainable development and consideration of the environment. Randomness and lacking overview In this anarchistic jungle of NGOs, foreign organisations coming to Nepal for the first time have a tough time finding a suitable partner. And

A Nepalese Journal of Participatory Development

- Peter Malling

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Article finding a partner is a must, as INGOs may not implement projects directly themselves. In many cases, the selection of Nepali partner NGOs and projects to support is made on a rather random basis. And too often the INGOs make their choice based on beautiful principles formulated by clever Kathmandu-based NGOs, who are able to tailorsuit the objectives of the NGO to the present trends in the international development agenda.

A Nepalese Journal of Participatory Development

Simultaneously, the Nepali society, represented by HMG, lacks exact figures about what is going on in the NGO sector. Statistics available are rough and imprecise, leading to a minimum of co-ordination and control from the government side. A Danish expert with experience from many developing countries was shocked after his visit to Nepal: “I’ve never seen anything like it - donors and international organisations can frisk about as if they were in the Land of Milk and Honey. There is no attempt from the local authorities to control what is happening here”. Independent INGOs While initiatives trying to co-ordinate the efforts on a rational basis are limited from the side of the Nepali government, the vast majority of INGOs are on the other hand reluctant to put their activities into a frame dictated by the Nepali government. Many INGOs state more or less frankly, that they want full control over what they use their funds for, and intervention from the Nepali authorities are rather avoided than welcomed. The reasons for this attitude are manifold. Many of the stronger INGOs, which have been working in Nepal for decades, have a good idea about what has to be done in the Nepali society to help the people in need. Some of the biggest INGOs use monitoring and evaluation systems which leaves behind the systems - or lack of such - sat up by various parts of HMG concerning the NGO sector. For such INGOs, being restricted by the often contradictory rules and regulations of HMG can be a serious obstacle, which is not decreased by a te-

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dious and tortuous course of consideration. Seen from another perspective, it can be difficult to understand for many Nepalis - and HMG - what it is, that drives the large quantity of INGOs to work in Nepal. Every INGO coming to Nepal naturally has its own objectives. Many Nepalis, however, find, that some INGOs want to implement these objectives regardless of the needs and wishes of their target group. Seen from this point of view, it is disrespectful - being a guest in the country of the Nepali people - to ignore a democratically elected government in order to force through your own ideas in the holy name of development. A historical perspective The concept of social organisations is not new in Nepal and reaches back to times far before the development boom caused by the democratisation in the early nineties. The first proper NGO in Nepal was Nepal Red Cross, started in 19??. Historically, all kinds of organisations have been registered at the district level by the Chief District Officer (CDO), who is responsible for law and order. This gave the police a great deal of control over the activities taking place around in the country. The registration was considered an important precaution in case of disagreements and disputes among the involved parties. Anyhow, the restrictive rules and regulations for organisations must also be seen in the light of the then ruler’s need for control with potential political opponents. In 1977, the Social Service National Co-ordination Council (SSNCC) was established, with the Queen as the ex officio chairperson. While the King’s influence on the government sector was indiscussible, the Queen played a major role regarding the non-governmental sector. After 1977 NGOs must register both at the CDO and at the SSNCC. Or, as was the preferred way of expressing it: the NGOs must have affiliation with SSNCC. The Queen soon became the strict and loving

Participation ? 1999

Article

The Council and the democracy SSNCC was accused of reinforcing the monarchy by giving priority to NGOs loyal to the King. Therefore it soon became a red cloth in the eyes of the democratic movement. The revolt put the Council - which had just moved into a new, impressing building - under heavy fire and the Council was even attacked violently by the crowd several times. After the democratic reforms, a public discussion about the future of the social sector took place. It was decided to maintain a body to co-ordinate the work among NGOs, but the act under which this body should work was made very vague as a backlash to the previous tight control. The double registration procedure for NGOs persisted: Registration at the CDO and a now more or less voluntary affiliation with the new body, Social Welfare Council (SWC). In practise, SWC was given no ways of sanctioning against NGOs not following the new Social Welfare Act. The new situation was difficult for SWC to manage. It soon started to suffer from identity crisis: what was its mission, what was its destiny? The same staff was still working in, what among friends was still called “the Council”. Anyhow,

the governing body of the Council was changed: Previously being appointed by the Queen, it was now politically appointed by the Government in office. Due to an unstable political environment in the infant democracy, the board of SWC was frequently changed. From being a mothership firmly placed in the sea following its lodestar, the Council was thrown to and fro by varying political agendas. Strategies and procedures decided by the former management were continuously overruled by the new-comers. Even obvious ideas shared by the varying boards were never put into effect. One of these ideas was establishment of an Information and Documentation Centre. The Information and Documentation Centre Shortly after the formation of SWC, it was realized that a major function of the new Council must be collection and dissemination of information concerning the NGO sector. The need became still more apparent as the number of NGOs increased at an exponential rate. In 1994, MS/Nepal fulfilled a request from SWC, posting a DW in the organisation with the objective of improving the information management. This included establishment of an Information and Documentation Centre, a shave-up of the library and overall development of a computerized Management Information System (MIS), originally implemented during a UNDP project from 1990-

Explaining situation analysis for planing ! Participation ? 1999

A Nepalese Journal of Participatory Development

mother of all NGOs in Nepal. The co-operation between NGOs was co-ordinated by SSNCC and all funds coming from external donors were canalised through “the Council”. By the time of the revolt leading to democracy in 1991, there were only a few hundred official NGOs affiliated with the Council.

Photo: Rabi Chitrakar

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Article 92. The DW was me. During my assignment at SWC, the database system used for registration of NGOs was drastically improved. Among other things, all data, which had previously been transliterated and entered into the computer system in English, were put back to its original Nepali form, easing the data entry and making the information accessible also for Nepalis without English skills. Software was developed to automatically generate an English version of the information (for use by foreigners). Statistics on different levels and conditions could be retrieved from the system. The system made it possible to retrieve important information about the NGO sector, if the efforts were made to collect and enter the correct information. And it would be available to the public, if efforts were made to establish structures for the dissemination.

Anyhow, the support from SWC as an organisation to fulfil the objectives of the posting, was rather limited. A number of changes in staffing and purchase of computer equipment were decided but never carried out in life and the scope of the project became virtually limited to the computer section. The reasons for this are manifold, but the bottomline is that the parts of the project involving interaction with people and organisations outside SWC were left unaffected. The need for a place where information on the NGO sector is collected and interchanged continues.

Need for co-operation Instead of maintaining a situation where different ministries, authorities and organisations within the NGO sector overlap and counterwork each other, the increasing importance of the non-governmental sector calls for co-operation and a conscious sharing of responsibilities and tasks so that the funds canalised through NGOs can be effectively utilised in areas where it can be of help for the poorest of the poor in Nepal. It is time to realise that SWC will never be in a position to control or even monitor the NGOs on a detailed level. Rather it should concentrate its energy on collecting, processing and offering information enough so that the Planning Commission can use it for planning on a macro level, and the NGOs and INGOs can use it for planning on the micro level. Paving the road for development.

Peter Malling was Development Worker at MS-Nepal for NEPAN.

The chaotic anarchy regarding the NGO sector in Nepal prevails while SWC puts much more effort into trying to evaluate and monitor the social sector without much co-ordination, than into establishing an actual MIS with a well functioning system for collection of the data and a w)ay of distrib-

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Photo: Rabi Chitrakar

A Nepalese Journal of Participatory Development

Problems in the implementation*

uting the information in a useful way. We are not talking about a handful of NGOs anymore; the amounts of data to be processed calls for highly effective and rational procedures, implying fundamental changes in registration procedures as well as rules and regulations.

Discussion for cooperation ! Participation ? 1999

Article

This short article on PM&E proceeds with introductory points on monitoring, evaluation and participatory monitoring and evaluation (PM&E). After the introductory points, PM&E is being dealt with by highlighting the ‘how’ and ‘why’ concerns of it. Monitoring is a process of routinely gathering information on all aspects of a project. Monitoring provides us information needed to analyse the current project’s situation, identify problems and find solutions, discover trends and patterns, keep project on schedule and measure progress towards expected outcomes. Evaluation is the process of gathering and analysing information to determine whether the project is carrying out its planned activities and to which extent the project is achieving its stated objectives and goals through these activities. We evaluate primarily the process in work plan, establishment of system, implementation of planned activities, achievement of objectives, effectiveness of project impact and cost effectiveness of the project.

Participation ? 1999

People were mainly asked for labor participation which cannot be termed as real participation. Real participation is self-motivated, advantageous for majority, can articulate community feelings rather then a catchy rhetoric or a mechanical order of the day.

Evaluation differs from monitoring in terms of timing, focus and level of details. Similarly, both monitoring and evaluation are interrelated. Monitoring data helps to carry out evaluation. Because of the interwoven relationship between M & E, both of the terms usually come together. Sometime they create confusion too. PM&E is a process which empowers community people to take decisions through their active participation in planning for the future and through the development of an action (implementation) strategy based on their practices. It encourages the project team and the community to work as partners. PM&E can also be viewed as beneficiary evaluation, a process largely controlled and owned by community for their own benefit. It is a collaborative assessment and is for the project stakeholders to arrive at a shared understanding of its underlying principles and concepts. It does not look practical to expect PM&E without the involvement of the target community people at all stages of development cycle. It is difficult to

A Nepalese Journal of Participatory Development

Photo: Rabi Chitrakar

Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation

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expect innovative result by frequently applying same techniques and tools. The application of participatory approaches in the continuation of time, is imparting lessons to bring necessary changes on development working styles. Such changes help to innovate new approaches and ultimately to flourish PM&E as well. In this connection, Appreciative Planning and Action - APA (an article of this approach is published in SAHABHAGITA , a NEPAN’s paper, Yr. 3, No-3, 1997) seems an innovative and powerful approach to make PM&E more practical by attracting target people at every step of development cycle. PM&E will remain only semi-PM&E if a working system could not be able to involve the concerned target people from project formulation to implementation and evaluation with self motivation. In PM&E, stakeholders decides what to monitor, when to monitor, selection of indicators and monitoring tools, analysis and use of findings. Stakeholder analysis has got strategic position in PM & E. Transparency is also equally important about it.

Stakeholders

Go al

hierarchy

(an example) Beneficiaries & project staff

Input = human resources, materials, monetary res.

CBOs

Process = planning implementation

VDC /DDC

Output = No. of drinking water supply project implemented

INGOS/NGOs/LNGOS

&

Govt. counterparts

Effect = No. of houses using safe drinking water

Donor(s)

Impact = Reduction in morbidity and mortality

DDC and are available in CARE Nepal). Semi-structured interview. Field observation. SWOT analysis. Myths/Folk stories/Quotes/Song. Real object (showing & comparing seeds, soil, plant, fruit etc.). Difference between PM&E & M&E ? ? ? ? ?

PM&E, A graphic presentation

A Nepalese Journal of Participatory Development

The below given figure gives an idea about how stakeholders measure the achievements participatorily instead of a few experts who decides it in conventional monitoring and evaluation system. Possible tools to be used in PM&E ? PRA. ? Village dialogue/ meeting/discussion. ? Appreciative (positive)inquiry. ? Spider Web Tool and Organization Assessment Tool (These tools can be used to monitor the institutional capacity of NGO, CBO, VDC &

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Some of the differences between PM&E and M&E are as below: Advantage of PM & E

chart

Participation ? 1999

?

? ? ?

It practically helps to empower the community including women & disadvantaged people. It promotes the feeling of pride and ownership of their programs and progress which helps to flourish participatory skills. It promotes the partnering skills in development. It gives practical information. It is educative and democratic because it equally enhances learning opportunities and

?

Sometimes outsiders view may take valuable position. Difficult to unite all stakeholders together at one time for PM&E.

Conclusion:

In the growing scope of PM&E, it is vital to make a practical base of it rather than to make it a catchy rhetoric by painting with particiPM&E M&E patory colors. PM&E asks for real Participatory Non participatory participation of community people More observation More use of statistical tools meeting/discussion throughout the whole process of Decentralized (bottom-up) Centralized (top-down) development cycle, which continuInvolvement of concerned Involvement of experts (Externals) ally motivates & empowers them. stakeholders Mainly produce qualitative It produce more quantitative information The major stakeholders or the information community people are almost exLow cost Comparatively expensive cluded while planning and decidPractical More theoretical Action oriented Abstract ing development activities mostly Socio-cultural Economic before and at present in to some monitoring skills of stakeholders. extent. People were mainly asked for labor partici? Continual opportunity for self improvement. pation which cannot be termed as real participa? It promotes transparency in development tion. Real participation is self-motivated, advantawork. geous for majority, can articulate community feel? Importance and use of local /indigenous knowl- ings rather then a catchy rhetoric or a mechanical edge. order of the day. ? Cost effectiveness. Partnering, transparency, decentralization are taken ? It creates harmony and consensus among stake- as building blocks of PM&E or of the participaholders upon any loss or benefit caused by their tory practices as a whole. We cannot expect own implemented action. PM&E only at the apex of activity completion with? It promotes individual and institutional capaci- out taking care the involvement of stakeholders in ties. planning and implementation processes. In this re? It is good for qualitative monitoring. spect it is better to recommend to enhance real ? It brings changes in attitude and behavior of participatory practices by involving community policy makers where participatory feeling is people (the major stakeholders of the development low. day) to the entire steps of the development spirals which flourish PM&E and even more leads toShort falls of PM & E wards sustainability or institutional promotion. ? ?

?

Local polities may influence PM&E. More self-judgment and bias in information because they do it by representing their own area. Everything cannot be effectively participatory.

Participation ? 1999

Chandi Chapagain is working as Senior Training Officer at CARE Nepal

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?

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Interview

Photo: Rabi Chitrakar

"Sharing without boundaries is absolutely essential for participation and PRA"

- Robert Chambers

Presented below is a full transcript of an interview of Robert Chambers taken by Sameer Karki and Rabi Chitrakar of NEPAN in Kathmandu.

A Nepalese Journal of Participatory Development

What question are you asked most frequently around the world? People are always asking what is happening in other countries, what the experiences are elsewhere, and what the frontiers seem to be now including applications and I quite like these questions. Because it means, I have a function, which is to help the sharing between different countries. What comes up again and again, particularly in the last three or four years is attitude and behaviour change, quality of PRA (including quality of training), adoption by government and by large NGOs, and spread. PM&E seems to be a very big subject, as it is here, and application. Here I have learnt a new application: in politics or in elections. I was told that people, particularly those, who have been working in NGOs, have been using social mapping to identify their supporters to use in canvassing in elections. I was told this over some rakshi (local alcohol) so I don’t know whether that is high or low-grade information (laughs). What changes have you noticed in Nepal since your last visit to Nepal?

ment of other networks: ERPAN, FORCE, and PANDA. Also the way in which NEPAN has developed and expanded; and become more established. What about general development trend, practices, or involvement of people? It’s difficult to say because my earlier visit was just for the Thankani workshop. When people like me drop into a country and changed, it is likely to be very superficial, very very wrong, and very second hand. I am hesitant to say ............ I think that the range and the depth of the use of participatory approach, PRA, is something that has continued to extend. There seems to be an enormous amount of use of PRA in Nepal. My guess is that there is probably as great a density of use of PRA and participatory approaches in Nepal as there is in any equivalent population group in the world. It’s difficult to think of anywhere where there is more; possibly Sri Lanka, but I think probably not, probably Nepal. You have been involved in Nepal for a long time, what do you think has contributed the most to the changes you mention?

The most obvious big change is the develop-

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Participation ? 1999

Interview

The trend towards decentralisation may be early to say. I have got a terrible sense of deja vu - 20 years ago there was a great more towards decentralisation in Nepal. Nepal was cited as one of those countries where there was going to be a lot of decentralisation. It is always like a cyclical thing that comes around and nothing happens (laugh) or nothing very significant happens! I think the crux of decentralisation is financial control and control over resources. If Nepal is serious about decentralisation, then it will be in the Decentralisation Act that tax money and other sources of revenue are controlled locally at very low levels indeed. This is happening in Uganda and because this is happening there, I think that decentralisation there will be real. What is the unit of decentralisation in Uganda? In Uganda, it is below the level of the equivalent of the VDC level here. Possibly, Ward level in your terms. The theory is that they will collect the money and they will pass on a proportion of it. The rest they will keep and use themselves in ways they see fit. Is that necessarily equitable because some communities will be a lot poorer than others will? It is not necessarily equitable at all. That depends on the nature of the local level democracy, and transparency, accountability and the like. There will surely be cases where local elite capture the benefits.

Participation ? 1999

In one forum recently you cited the example of Bolivia where a government Act on participation was introduced. Is such an Act help in decentralisation and development? I think so, but its’ early to say. I believe that it is important to have enabling legal situations and it’s important to have a rhetoric, which legitimates participatory activities. If you’ve got both of those together, those people and those groups that really want to go that way will be able or have a much better chance of being able to go that way and to move in a participatory democratic direction. So, I think that Acts are really important. How long has that Act been introduced? Three or four years now. I don’t know recent updates, but I do know that there have been quite a lot of PRA or PRA - type training for people in local councils. That is happening all over the world, as it is here. I was moved by the example Balkrishna Deuja’s presentation in the NEPAN workshop and what he is doing at the VDC level. It is not just top down enabling framework which is needed, it is not just rhetoric that is needed, but also people who have the commitment and the freedom, particularly for spread laterally at the local level, as he is doing with his training. I think that it is a very important development because it has got potential for having very widespread impacts. Do you believe that Nepal is in the right stage for the introduction of such an Act? Oh yes, absolutely. I think the conjunction of events and trends are very very favourable. It seems to me that very large numbers of groups that have been formed, the Forest User Groups are the most obvious example, have already moved very strongly in the direction of self management of natural resources at local level. Irrigation groups have been in existence for a long time. All

A Nepalese Journal of Participatory Development

I think NEPAN itself has had a lot to do with it. NEPAN is as active or more active, does more than any other network around the world, that is based very largely on voluntarism. There are organisations like PRAXIS, which do more in certain areas, partly because they have a larger staff and are financed in a different way.

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Interview these traditions were already there. Together with the new initiatives that have been added to them, it just seems to me that, there may be a certain density of these organisations when there could be a much bigger transformation in the society. It maybe Nepal is at that point. I would now like to touch upon the issue of misuse of PRA. What can or should NEPAN do?

A Nepalese Journal of Participatory Development

There are quite a number of us in other parts of the world who want to ask NEPAN that question. That is because you have more answer than anybody (laughs). The forms of abuse are fairly well known. Consultants who pop out of the woodwork and say that they are PRA trainers when they have very little idea of it. Training which is only concerned with the methods and not attitude and behaviour, training which has no fieldwork or field experience with local communities, the routinised application of the methods, although, it is not always bad. For example, PLAN-International in Nepal has, what seems from what I have heard, fairly standard approach to a community: social mapping to well being ranking to identifying those people with whom they are going to work. I would not want to say that that was bad because it was routinised. It is bad if it is not done sensitively. Donors have a lot of responsibility for this because people in donor agencies tend to jump quickly into it, in new ideas, set of word, jargon and to push it too hard and too fast. That often had had bad effects all around the world. One of the important things to do, I think, is to put brakes on donors and sometimes, on governments, if they seem to move too fast. Who can put such brakes? It has to be done by awareness and persuasion. One of the things NEPAN might think about us providing exposure and opportu-

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nities for learning experiences for people working in Nepal in donor agencies, giving them rather like the World Bank immersions, which they have for senior staff. Giving people from the donor agencies a week or two weeks in a community, in a completely different environment and setting so that they can see things from quite a different point of view can be really useful. Many of the better people in the donor community would love to do this. I think one approach is to try and persuade heads of donor agencies that they should make this a requirement for their staff and really make the time available, because they tend to be trapped in capital cities by visitors coming from abroad whom they have to meet. They need to be told that this has got a priority over meeting VIPs, consultants and other people coming. Talking of the donors, you mentioned that the World Bank plans to produce a report highlighting the voices of the poor. Could you elaborate on that? The background to this is that the World Development Report 1990 was on poverty. It took the typical economist’s reductionism view of poverty as being income poverty or consumption poverty. A lot of new understanding has become available in the last decade. The World Development Report 2000 will be on poverty but the concept of poverty itself, it is hoped by the team which is responsible for this, will be much broader and more inclusive. So, ideas of well being and ill being and ideas of depravation will, some of us are hoping, be in there. The World Bank is sponsoring a participatory study, which they hope will be in 20 countries, to enable poor people to express their ideas about how things have changed and what their priorities and their vision for the future, their concepts of well being and ill-being are. Complementing that, we are hoping, there will be searches and analyses of work, which had already been done in different countries. Shizu Upadhaya (of ActionAid Nepal) has

Participation ? 1999

Interview

Do you think that voices of the poor have been adequately documented? No. I think that the economist’s idea of poverty, as income poverty has been very dominant. We all, including I, talk about “poverty line” because that is something that can be measured, even if the measurements mean very little. So, in Nepal, in the newspapers, you read about whether there has been an increase or decrease in poverty, and there are different opinions about that. But, there are numbers put on it. I think that we have to get away from being dominated by number and much more enable people to express their own realities, their own priorities and try and see ways in which they can be enabled to be better off in their own terms. Do you think that Amartya Sen receiving the Nobel Prize for economics in 1998 might change the dominant economists’ views on poverty? It was wonderful, absolutely wonderful that he got the Nobel Prize. It is long overdue. They have been considering him, I think, for 10 years or so, because people have been proposing Sen. It is a very very significant landmark in the shift away from narrow concepts of poverty. He talks about depravation and capabilities, en-

titlements. He has enabled economists and others to think about development in a different way, a much more human way. I don’t want to appear to be wholly anti-economist; I am absolutely not. I think that they are terribly important and have contribution to continue to make. It is just that their way of thinking has dominated and that hasn’t been very helpful. So, I am hoping that World Development Report 2000 will have a concept, which is well beyond that old idea of poverty and will include things like gender relations. It may be that the potential for improving human well being by improving gender relations is far greater, far more practical, particularly through participatory methods, than is large scale development in many parts of the world. At a small scale, for example, enabling men to analyse what it is like to be a woman and how women spend their time, something as simple as that, using PRA visualisation can change the way in which men think about their own roles. It can lead them to thinking about how they can lighten the workload of their wives. There are cases where this has happened. I think the potential, supposing if you look at the Gangetic Basin, at UP (170 million or more people), Bihar (90 million plus), Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, in those areas where women are so heavily discriminated against, and where the sex ratio is such a powerful and awful indicator of depravation and

Sharing of voices ! Participation ? 1999

A Nepalese Journal of Participatory Development

done a pilot project here to try and find out what is available already in Nepal and to analyse that. She is going to share both what she has found out and what she has learnt about the process of finding out with us in IDS to help in the process in other countries.

Photo: NEPAN

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Interview Photo: Rabi Chitrakar

discrimination, and the potential for women and men being better off in their own terms seems to me to be enormous. It is because it is so awful at the moment the potential is so huge. And yet, NGOs and others tend to shy off those areas and they go to the tribal areas to work with the tribals. But they don’t work so much, including ActionAid, in this heartland of most massive concentration of discrimination in the world.

A Nepalese Journal of Participatory Development

Earlier you talked about participatory networks in Nepal, and you have also talked about networks in other countries. What do you think has influenced the emergence of such networks? What are the things NEPAN could learn from other networks? I think the networking has developed in as many places because people who are beginning to work in a participatory mode feel that they have things in common, that they have things in common, that they have excitement to share and that they need mutual support. The mutual support part is often not mentioned very much but it is very important when there are people who are minority within an organisation, which is hierarchical and they are trying to work within that. To change things within that, having a reference group a group of peers, who are supportive, can be very important because it can be very difficult to work and to change in such organisations. The Networks around the world now number perhaps about a hundred in 60 countries. I don’t think we know all of them. We, meaning those of us working at IDS, because we try and link up with networks.

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The Nepal pattern is somewhat similar to Tanzania and Kenya, with a tendency for regional networks to start up. However, in those and other countries, it is a struggle. I have a sense that among national and sub-national networks, FORCE and NEPAN are as strong and as well developed as anywhere else is. I think that is a very important and good development. There are many frontiers in networking and I know all of you in NEPAN are aware from your struggles and puzzles about what it is best to do and how to do it. One issue the rest of us may have a lot to learn is the development of networking at the district level. Dhankuta may be an unusual district and therefore it may not be that all districts could be Dhankutas. But, what has happened there seems to me very promising. We are finding, for instance in Tanzania, that problems of communication make it difficult to network effectively even in the regional level. I mean how can people from the middle hills get to Biratnagar or to Nepalgunj? It is very very difficult, unless it us a big occasion, to justify several day’s travel. So, the networking in the sense of having a group if people who share information and experiences, and provide mutual support has to be in a much more lower level, and the district seems to be the natural one. Tanzania is similar to Nepal in difficulties in communication, though it is much flatter. But, it is difficult to get from one place to another, the distances are huge and costs of travel are high. In one district, they are very close to having has a PRA process in every community, and there is a full time very good PRA trainer there. They may not call it network, but they may have informal meeting from time to time, which develops into something like a network. We may need a different word than network for that, but I think that is an important way to go.

Participation ? 1999

Interview

There are areas where there is nothing. Most of China is an example, although it is spreading there. There have been several trainings in China and Tibet, too. I know Lamu Sherpa (Nepan member) has done training there. As far as we know, other places include Myanmar, there is very little in Iran and Iraq, although there is a start in Iran. In Russia, not in the CIS countries where there is quite a bit going on, there does not seem to be very much going on. I suppose, in Eastern Europe. In the United Sates, surprisingly little is happening. Do you know of any grassroots level network of PRA trainers, practitioners, or CBOs using PRA or other participatory methods? The answer is probably West Africa, particularly Francophone West Africa. They have got very strong networks of CBOs there, but I cannot, off hand, think of nay other example. The fact that one does not know does not mean it is not happening at all. All our sharing systems of knowledge and learning tend to be through NGOs and through governments and not through things that are happening spontaneously. A lot of our adult attitude and behaviour has roots in our childhood. Do you know of any efforts at attitude and behaviour change in children? Some of the non-formal education, for example REFLECT with adults, have been used with children in parallel non-formal education streams, for instance in Uganda, where the style of “teaching” is much more in helping people to learn in a much more participatory approach. There, the teacher isn’t a “teacher” and there aren’t the school benches. I have

Participation ? 1999

seen this happening and I think that it is a very very exciting initiative. If it was possible for primary education to become less top down, less didactic, less “filling up empty vessels” and make it more participatory, more a whole series of learning experiences, I think the potential impact for the next century is just enormous. In attitude and behaviour, there is a great deal of conditioning. One of the most difficult people I ever had on a training told me later that when he was a boy at school, not only was he beaten a lot, he was not allowed to look at his teacher’s face. He could only look at his teacher’s feet! It was this incredible and terrible experience this person had been through that I think had impacted him. I think that one really big frontier is how we treat and bring up children and that is where we should be concentrating our attention more and more. Participatory approaches with children work really brilliantly. Learning from all over the world, and some of the early work was done here in Nepal, is that children have far greater capacities than we have supposed. They can do things far earlier than we supposed they could and that is very exciting and encouraging. We had a very good workshop at CERID on the possibilities of introducing graphics, particularly into primary education. I think that it is very difficult for people working in government to get the grips with issues like this because it needs changing the curriculum. It is difficult because you think have to throw something out to put something in. I don’t think you do, actually, in this case because I think that it could be integrated with the existing subjects. That is a very exciting possibility, so that all of us could, as we became adults, future became adults, they could have capabilities of using graphics for complex forms of analyses, which the present educational systems around the world tend to discipline out of us.

A Nepalese Journal of Participatory Development

The Networks are very well spread. In the major continents of the south, there is a great deal happening in all of them. In Western Europe, it is starting up, especially in the UK where there are several networks.

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Interview By graphics, what do you mean? I mean not just drawings, but I mean, for instance, mental mapping, things like matrix scoring, Venn diagramming, causal linkage diagramming. These are very effective and efficient ways of presenting, sharing and analysing complex realities, which we all face in our lives. We don’t have these as skills, which are enhanced by our education. On the contrary, all the emphasis on numbers, equations, neat handwriting, the whole verbal side of reading, writing, talking and listening, which is emphasised in education tends not just to neglect, but I think, to repress or suppress these other capabilities. They seem to be quite marked among people who are not literate, who have not been through that process. They may even be better if once they are uninhibited and released into doing this. They may even be better in things like mental mapping than those of us who have had formal education.

A Nepalese Journal of Participatory Development

You write essays and you don’t have diagrams in your essay even if they really sharpen what was being said. Even though we say a picture is worth a thousand words, we still go for the thousand words. Coming back to the Attitude and Behaviour, you have highlighted the fact that quite a

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lot needs to be done in the government sector. However, there are also many INGOs, NGOs and consultants who still need attitude and behaviour change? The difficulty here is that it is very easy to pass judgement on consultants because they are in there to make money, charging very high fees and so on. I don’t wish to pass any judgement on anybody. I mean I am paid a salary, which is high by Nepalese standards. I think that it is very unfortunate that the first pillar of PRA, being attitude of behaviour, the others being tools and sharing, is often overlooked. The moment anybody starts to say, “I know how to do this and other people do not and I am not going to share it” they have lost it. The idea of sharing without boundaries is absolutely essential for participation and PRA. If anybody discovers a new approach or new method, they should not put their stamp on it. They may even find it good to pretend that they didn’t invent it or discover it and jut let it spread. Let it be owned, developed by anybody and everybody. This is why we (IDS) have stressed no copyright; anything could be photocopied. In fact, if you find other people using your ideas or your methods, not knowing it or acknowledging it you should feel pleased, not that you have lost something. I think that we do need to pay a lot of attention to the sharing part of it. Because there is such a demand for PRA training, any good PRA trainer should be able to share their experi-

Learning by sharing ! Photo: Rabi Chitrakar

Participation ? 1999

Interview

What is it about governments’ worldwide that we associate unparticipatory attitude and behaviour? I think that it has to do with a number of things. We have got the problem in the UK. We have got corruption, too, not that much I think. We find that many civil servants enjoy their position of power, sitting behind their desks with people or supplicants coming to get their pension or whatever it is. So, I think that there is an element of power, which is a part of it. But, I do think that what is called corruption has a lot to do with other pressures. Speaking mainly from my Indian experience, as I don’t know the situation in Nepal particularly well, it is very difficult for civil servants who are in a post in which they expect and are expected to make money on the side from their position not to do so. They may have had to pay to get that employment and there is also a relationship between the family and corruption. There are strong family and social pressures on people working in the government or NGOs for that matter, to make money particularly for dowry. I think that if dowry was just wiped out, not only would the female across the sub-continent be better off, but also corruption would certainly diminish sharply. That’s a hypothesis, but I think there is a strong link there. Therefore, to change the system, you have also got to work at the family level. But if people are more concerned with

Participation ? 1999

power, surely that would be difficult to change? We tend to think of power as a commodity. We talk about gaining power and losing power. So, it is considered good to have more of and bad to have less of. However, it is not like that. Any PRA facilitator knows the huge satisfaction of enabling people do things that they didn’t know that they could and to see them take off and do that. The facilitator is disempowering her or himself, but at the same time gaining in terms of satisfaction, well being or fulfilment. The challenge there is to enabling people who are using power in bad ways, to realise that they would be better off in terms of personal fulfilment, satisfaction or peace of mind if they disempower themselves or if they don’t exercise power in the way they are at the moment and instead empower other people. I think that it is quite doable, I don’t think it is quite such a wild dream, because so many people have had this experience in their own lives. Many PRA facilitators have had this sort of experience, teachers can have such experience, who have been moving from being didactic to being facilitating and finding it being more satisfying and less stressful. How can PRA help in good governance? On governance, it is the whole issue of attitude and change among people working in government. There was a five-day workshop in Mussorie (India) at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration about three months ago on attitude and behaviour change in which the directors of a number of Institutes took part. It was introduced by the Secretary of Rural Development for India, N. C. Saxena, who stayed for two days. In the end, the workshop was concerned with two things, which seemed to be both very significant and with a lot of potential. One is Attitude Behaviour Change as a part of the training of government staff, including adminis-

A Nepalese Journal of Participatory Development

ences with others, to enable others to come on. They may feel that they are creating rivals, but if they are really good, they will keep at the frontier. The frontier is now partly attitude and behaviour training, partly participatory monitoring and evaluation, there are actually new methods, and there are new applications in new areas. Any consultant who is really good will keep changing and keep ahead of the game.

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Photo: Helvetas

Interview Through discussion by Local leaders of good governance !

trative probationers and forest office probationers. The other one was the change in the style in furniture, seating arrangements, lecturing, and rest of it of training institutions themselves, a change in their culture. Unless we change that culture, it will end up by people lecturing about not lecturing. One issue that is very much in public debate in Nepal is the issue of equal right of inheritance by women and men. What are your views on this?

A Nepalese Journal of Participatory Development

I think that women should be treated equally. One really burning issue now is children. Women are adults and they can organise themselves and articulate. They can get their views across, and there are elite women who raise these issues and who develop movements. Children don’t have anybody except adults to represent them. Children cannot organise themselves very easily. So, that’’ a very big frontier, respecting children. NEPAN aims to promote sharing among all levels, but we seem not to have very many new things to share among ourselves? This could really be the question for the executive committee of NEPAN “Can you be alert to innovation? Can you lay out forum where the emphasis is on new things and experiences learnt?”

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The presentations at the NEPAN sharing were very very interesting. It was quite clear that a lot of things were going on. I would have thought that what Bal Krishna Deuja is doing is very very interesting, indeed. What has been done in the watersheds in Gorkha is also very interesting. There is a lot to share there. If you could make it prestigious thing for a PRA practitioner to say “I’ve got something new here and I’d like to share it with all of you, maybe this would encourage sharing. Recognising innovation by people who are innovating and by their organisations has been rather poor. What can be done? It is the same thing with all of us in all our organisations that we don’t recognise innovations. The fact is we improvise our lives moment to moment, so we are innovating the whole time. We are always entering the unknown. I thought that Bal Krishna Deuja’s personal story and how he is spreading things laterally, and the whole issue of training people in the VDCs, how that’s done, what the experiences are needs to be documented and shared. Although this is happening in a lot of countries, hardly anybody is writing about it, there is hardly any sharing. I was reading about pictorial PM&E with forest user groups, that is very interesting. What we need to know is to what extent does it work, what extent doesn’t it, is there selective perception on the part of outsiders and so on. The whole area of PM&E, the whole

Participation ? 1999

Interview

The livelihood analysis, which has been done by ActionAid, a lot of which is in Nepali and not translated into English is also interesting. This is fine if it is only shared within Nepal, but to share it widely would be really good. Recognising and promoting innovation has a lot to do with the mindset. It should not take an outsider to say, “Gosh isn’t this interesting!” If you have got the mindset to say, “What’s new?” all the time, “What can we learn from this experience?” and then not be worried by people saying “This is old hand, I’ve already done this,” but to say, ”For me this was new” and share it. A lot of time, it will turn out that it is new and it really is worth sharing.

other people might be interested in, would all be important to include. To develop a culture of being self-critical is more difficult for some people than for others. If we are going to make progress, we have to be sensitive and self critical about how we affect situations, mistakes which we make, and how what we perceive is partly determined by the way in which we are interacting with other people and how they perceive that interaction. This is part of the attitude and behaviour issue, and we are becoming much more aware of that and actually sharing that experience with other people. I don’t know if you could do this in NEPAN, in which you ask people to say, “The worst mistake I made this year” (laughs)! I don’t know if you would get a very good turnout! Or, maybe you would because everybody wanted to hear everybody else, but no one would speak (laughs). We are all sensitive about being criticised, and that is almost independent of culture, and try to defend ourselves. Finally, do you have any message for NEPAN? Do your own thing and share the experience. Do whatever that makes sense to you- it is not for anybody else to tell you what to do. But do share the experience because in the past the rest of us learnt a lot from you and we want to go on learning.

When writing about these experiences, a proper description of process is very important. What happened, and how one thing led to another and if possible video the process. (I was so wishing we had had a video when we were watching this REFLECT group in Sindhupalchok.) Self critical appraisal of the process, what came out of it, what other people can learn from it, what tips there are for other people, that are the practical lessons

Participation ? 1999

A Nepalese Journal of Participatory Development

area of poor people’s perceptions, their priorities and values is really under-explored because we tend always to project our own concepts and even the tyranny of English is a problem. Nepali words, which have a different connotation, get translated to English and the English meaning tends to be the meaning, which is taken. This is something we need to be careful throughout the world. The use of PRA methods by political candidates, this is the first time I have heard of it. People have said, ”Isn’t this going to happen?” and it is the first time I have heard of it here. Someone could just go and find out what has been happening and write it up. I was told seasonal mapping, mobility mapping, and Venn diagrams were some tools used by people who have worked in NGOs and have become candidates.

Photo: Rabi Chitrakar

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But when will you start doing something?

PRA process approach experience

- Gribnau, C.P.M.E. - Sanjaya Rana

People, at various stages, also expressed that they were gaining new insights in their situation. Moreover, based on all the discussions they have had, people have planned and implemented activities. These were not our activities, but activities which they themselves could do, without any outside assistance. As a result, we can conclude that from mere participants in our development process, people have gradually gained a sense of ownership towards their own development process.

A Nepalese Journal of Participatory Development

Since its introduction in Nepal about a decade ago, PRA has been taken up by various development practitioners and organisations. The basic idea of PRA - contributing to a process of participation and ownership of target communities - is still valid today. But, putting this into practice has remained a challenge. The Praja Community Development Programme (PCDP) has tried to develop an alternative to the often applied one-time PRA events where PRA is used merely as a basket of tools and which often results in a huge amount of information which cannot be analysed. This article present the process followed and the experiences and lessons learnt by PCDP. The Praja Community Development Program (PCDP) is a SNV/Nepal managed program implemented in four hilly Village Development Committees (Shaktikor, Kaule, Siddhi and Korak) in Chitwan district. Our major target group is the Praja community. Prajas - often also referred to as Chepang - are an indigenous group of people with a total population in Nepal of around 30,000. In our project area about 10,000 Prajas are living, forming fifty five percent of the total population in the four VDCs. PCDP focuses on building the capacity of Prajas and supportive organisations (governmental and non-governmental) and establishing linkages between the two. The project follows a process approach in which Prajas are encouraged to take the lead in the analysis of their problems and the choices of relevant solutions. PCDP started in July 1996. In the initial phase of our work, our main priority was to build rapport with the Praja communities and other actors in the area. Moreover, we needed to obtain a thorough understanding of the situation of Prajas so that suitable and effective interventions could be designed and benchmarks for moni-

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toring and evaluation purposes be assessed. Therefore, we decided that a baseline survey had to be executed. In line with the project’s overall approach, the survey would follow a participatory process approach starting with situation and problem analysis and gradually moving towards planning and implementation. Rapport building with communities can not take place overnight. Moreover, implementing participatory methods demands that staff have knowledge on participatory tools, have the right attitude towards the concept of participation and have sufficient understanding of certain project related issues. For these two reasons, we decided that conducting the survey as a standard, one-time participatory rural appraisal (PRA) was impractical and limited. Instead, we opted to implement the survey over a period of about six months. During this period, staff received training in phases to allow for better absorption and understanding of skills and tools. Also, communities were visited frequently and over a longer period of time, with each phase concentrating on different aspects. Box 1: objectives of PCDP’s participatory baseline survey à rapport building between staff and Praja communities and other actors in the project area; à collection of data which contribute to the development of good quality and effective project interventions; à assessment of bench marks for monitoring and evaluation later on; à initiation of a process of participatory problem analysis and planning; à increased PCDP staff capacity in participatory analysis and planning.

Participation ? 1999

All the above objectives sound nice but putting it into practice required quite a lot of preparation. Given the length of the survey period we realised we could run the risk of collecting excess information that we were not able to analyse or use. Moreover, different people could come up with different information, resulting in non-comparable information. Therefore, we had to be very clear on what information to collect and how. We also had to select wards, identify number of staff required to implement the survey and elaborate a time-schedule which allowed sufficient time for staff training and survey implementation. And last but not least, we had to introduce our project and its approach to the communities and VDCs and familiarise ourselves with the conditions in the project area. Rural drama During a two to three weeks’ introduction period PCDP staff introduced the project to villagers and VDC representatives via rural drama, songs and informal discussions. The drama and songs were designed by the field staff themselves, after having received a week’s orientation on SNV/N and PCDP related issues. After drama performance and during informal discussion, people were informed about the purpose, location and timing of the survey. Our field staff also checked whether the proposed time schedule interfered with peak labour demands and important events. The drama appeared to be a very good entry point. It attracted a lot of attention and people immediately knew our project and our staff, though initially often only by their drama names. Until today, they still recall parts of the drama and request staff to sing once again the songs used in the drama. Ward selection

within the project area, which is characterised by relatively small but steep hills (each hill more or less representing one ward) and people living in rather scattered settlements from the valleys (200 m.a.s.l.) to the top of the hills (1,800 m.a.s.l.). In ward selection we had to find a good balance between (1) adequate time in each ward versus reasonable project coverage and (2) wards with a high density of Prajas versus accessibility and proximity of wards. For each VDC, we decided that the survey would cover three wards. An exception was Siddhi VDC. Here, SNV/N had earlier implemented a two year project and we, therefore, found it necessary to have a higher coverage, involving five wards . Consequently, the survey covered in total fourteen wards. Then, we cross-checked ward selection proposed by an earlier needs assessment with the chairpersons of the respective VDCs, which resulted in the final selection of wards. During the introduction period in each of these wards two clusters were selected for survey implementation. Survey team and time schedule The survey team consisted of a survey coordinator, a field advisor, two field officers and eight field workers. Each VDC was covered by one team consisting of two field workers. Each field officer supported two teams and, thus, covered two VDCs. In addition, a PRA training consultant was employed on a part-time basis to provide for necessary training. We split up the survey into four phases. Each phase took about seven weeks and included staff training and field testing, followed by survey implementation, VDC presentation and wrap up, data analysis and report writing and review. An overview is given in the table.

Each VDC consists of nine wards which in turn are composed of various settlements. Covering all these during the survey was impossible given the topographic and demographic situation

Conducting Baseline Survey ! Participation ? 1999

A Nepalese Journal of Participatory Development

How to do participatory baseline survey

Photo: Gurun Thakur

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A Nepalese Journal of Participatory Development

Information collection: what and how

it includes issues such as the socio-economic position of Prajas versus non-Prajas, Prajas’ livelihood During a workshop we inventoried our informa- strategies, use and management of natural retion needs. It was found that two types of informa- sources, tasks and decision-making within the tion needs were required (1) specific information household and the community, and problems and needs related solutions as perceived to the goal, by Prajas. Time schedule for each survey phase programme No. of days Staff involved objectives Activity After information and related 1. Staff training needs and methods/ 3-5 all indicators for (a) staff training tools and sources of 2 all monitoring (b) field preparation/break information had been 4 all and evalua- (c) field testing outlined, the tools review field testing 1 all tion pur- (d) were distributed over (e) field preparation/break 2 all poses, and 2. Survey implementation the four phases. Care(2) general (a) 3 wards per VDC @ ful planning ensured 3 days 9 fw and fo, information part-timesc and fa that relatively simple 4 fw and fo, needs for (b) travel time tools were used inipart-time sc and fa tially, while gradually the identifi2-3 fw and fo, cation of (c) VDC presentation more complex ones part-time sc and fa s u i t a b l e (d) wrap up were introduced once 7 fw project inter- 3. Analysis & preparation better rapport had ventions. been built with the vilnext phase 4 sc, fa and fo For both, (a) draft report writing lagers. In general, in 2 sc, fa, fo and s u i t a b l e (b) preparation next phase phase one we focused PRA consultant methods and 4. Review mainly on natural resources (cer- (a) review survey phase sources and 1-2 all tain individu- 5. Break organisations (local 2-3 all als, groups and external of men and Note: sc = survey coordinator, fa = field advisor, fo = field officer and organisations), phase women to- fw = field worker two on socio-ecogether, gennomic situation, liveder desegregated groups) of information gathering lihood strategies and gender, in the third phase on were identified. Prajas’ perception of themselves and their relationship with outsiders, local institutions and informal Box 2: example of specific information need leaders and problem-cause analysis, and in the fourth and final phase on identification of local poOne of PCDP’s programme objectives is “Praja tential, solutions and micro-planning. households have increased benefits (in kind, cash and social) from natural resources”. Related indi- Experiences and lessons learnt cators to assess whether the project is achieving this objective or not are: From the beginning we realised that the time sched· increased contribution of forest products (includ- ule of the survey was tight and followed a rigid ing chiuri) to total household cash availability; planning. This was rather against the idea of hav· increased contribution of bari products to total ing a flexible process approach as propagated at household food availability. the same time by PCDP. However, given the involvement of outsiders and difficult communicaBenchmarks for both indicators were measured by tion in the field, it was necessary to have a clear means of pie chart exercises with mixed groups. and strict time schedule. Also, it forced us to foThe pie charts reflected the contribution of various cus on information we really needed and to not sources to household cash, respectively food avail- elaborate too much on project irrelevant issues. ability. We found that contribution of forest prod- Nevertheless, due to unforeseen local elections the ucts to household cash availability is currently 15%, survey was slightly delayed and covered a period while bari products contribute 48% to household of seven months. We found that necessary adjustfood availability. ments were easily made, mainly because we knew exactly where we were in the process and what General information needs relate to information re- was still remaining. quired to understand the general socio-economic, cultural and ecological context of Prajas. As such, This clarity on the information to be collected also

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Participation ? 1999

Based on the survey results we were able to gain a good understanding of Prajas in our project area and design our project accordingly. While it is too early to say whether or not we were able to come up with good quality and effective interventions, the indicators which were developed on the basis of the survey will help us in keeping track of the effects of the project. For our staff, the process has been a true learning process. With each training, field-testing and survey phase building upon the previous one, they gradually have been able to grab the idea of a participatory approach. In doing so, they have become very familiar with the tools they can apply in such an approach and the attitude and skills required. By involving all staff, including the field workers, in analysing the information their analytical skills have increased considerably. Moreover, there is clear understanding of the choices the project has made regarding its interventions. From the very start Prajas and VDC representatives have been involved in the process. While the involvement of the community in PRA is obvious and logical, we experienced that involvement of VDC and the wider community is equally important. Towards the end of each phase, the information which had been collected and the process followed was shared with VDC representatives and other community members during a VDC presentation. This provided us a good opportunity to crosscheck collected information and identify gaps which, then, could be filled in during the wrap-up part of the survey. More importantly, however, it provided VDC and community members an opportunity to gain better insight in the local situation and common concerns and to incorporate their views, which created some sense of ownership over the information. As a result, we feel that during the survey we have been able to establish a foundation

Participation ? 1999

for coordination and cooperation with VDCs and improved planning by VDCs. At the same time it should be mentioned that for both Prajas and VDCs survey implementation has been a very long process of which the outcome though communicated to them at various stages was often unclear. Development, seen from their perspectives, is nothing more than building infrastructure and this has traditionally been implemented without much talking. As a result, we were often questioned about when we would really start our project and what it was about. At times even our own staff became tired of only facilitating discussions without providing our target group, which was in dire need of support, anything tangible. Gradually, however, they have come to realise that undertaking PRA is already doing something, involving important issues as raising people’s awareness and analytical skills. Also Prajas and VDC representatives have come to realise that PCDP is different, that we are serious about working and living together with them and that we want to assist them in addressing their real problems (which are hardly ever lack of infrastructure!). People, at various stages, also expressed that they were gaining new insights in their situation. Moreover, based on all the discussions they have had, people have planned and implemented activities. These were not our activities, but activities which they themselves could do, without any outside assistance. As a result, we can conclude that from mere participants in our development process, people have gradually gained a sense of ownership towards their own development process. The participatory baseline survey has finished. But the process which has been set in motion is still ongoing. PCDP continuous to encourage Prajas and VDCs to take their development process into their own hands. In doing so, the approach used in the survey - covering situation and problem analysis, identification of local solutions and planning and implementing them - still plays a very important role. The challenge is to continue following this approach by building on previous discussions and experiences so that Prajas and VDCs are enabled to make a change in their lives.

Authors are working in Praja Community Development Programme at Chitwan Note: The results of the participatory baseline survey have been laid down in a publication “Can orange trees blossom on a barren land”. For information, contact PCDP, Tandi, Chitwan (ph: 056-60076)

A Nepalese Journal of Participatory Development

helped us in making relevant adjustments in the course of implementing the survey, again by comparing the information already collected with that what was still lacking. An example being the fact that we originally planned to do a Venn diagram exercise to gain insight in the relationship between Prajas and outsiders, but after having done the mobility map we found that we only needed some minor information. This information could easily be obtained by carrying out a simple semi-structured interview. At times it was also the other way around, where we found that the information obtained was too limited. Additional information was then obtained in a subsequent phase. In this regard, the importance of sufficient time for data analysis can not enough be underscored.

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Photo: Rabi Chitrakar

Learning of PRA Process by sharing !

A Nepalese Journal of Participatory Development

Location Map of NEPAN

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Nepal Participatory Action Network (NEPAN) Kuriya Gaun, Thapathali, P.O.Box:13791 Phone: 227471, Phone & Fax: 266330 E-mail: [email protected] Participation ? 1999