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Facilitating Community Participation Through Communication

January 2001

Authors:

Arvind Singhal

The University of Texas at El Paso

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Facilitating Community Participation Through Communication

Arvind Singhal, Ph.D.

Professor

School of Interpersonal Communication

Ohio University

Athens, OH 45701, USA

Telephone: (740) 593-4903

Fax; (740) 593-4810

Email: singhal@ohio.edu

Submitted to GPP, Programme Division, UNICEF, New York.

September, 2001

Contents

Dedication 3

Author’s Introductory Note 4

Acknowledgements 6

Chapter 1: Development and Participation 7

Chapter 2: Participation and Communication 12

Chapter 3: Facilitating Community Participation 28

Chapter 4: Participatory Approaches and Tools 37

Chapter 5: Training Resources for Participatory Facilitation 54

Chapter 6: Commandments for Participatory Research 58

Chapter 7: Bumps on the Participation Path 66

Author’s Concluding Note 70

References 71

Endnotes 76

Dedication

This volume is dedicated to the life and work of Paulo Freire, Augusto Boal,

Robert Chambers, Andreas Fuglesang, Saul Alinsky, Muhammad Yunus, and others like

them, who believe(d) in people, and their participation.

Author’s Introductory Note:

Participatory Intent and Attempt

The present volume distills some of the main influential ideas, approaches, and

tools in the realm of participatory communication and community participation. The

landscape of theory and practice in “participatory communication” and “community

participation” is so vast and complex, that most of the present author’s writing decisions

about “what path to tread on” and “what path to skip” were often a function of ignorance

and arbitrariness, than of informed guidance. That is why I especially emphasize the

notion of distilling “some” of the key ideas in the opening sentence. If anything guided

this journey, it was a desire to write an accessible volume of some use, relevance, and

practicality, primarily for an audience of practitioners.

How was this volume compiled? This volume was compiled through a review of

the pertinent academic literature, a scouring (to the extent possible) of participatory

training manuals and reports, and surfing of Web-sites. Additionally, some two dozen

individuals, organizations, groups – engaged in participatory communication and

community development activities in Asia, Africa, Latin America, Europe, and North

America, including a mix of practitioners, program officials, and scholars – were first

identified (in consultation with UNICEF officials), and then contacted electronically to

solicit ideas and inputs to this volume. Over half of them contributed generously of their

time and ideas, including providing additional follow-up leads. It was during these

electronic conversations, for instance, that Neil Ford of UNICEF pointed me to the

community development method of “appreciative inquiry”. During this process, I also

became aware of Gumucio Dagron’s (2001) newly-released review of 50 participatory

communication projects, and could secure an advanced copy. I thank each of these

individuals, groups, and organizations for their ideas and inspiration, and name them in

the acknowledgements. I also drew upon my own field-based experiences, including

some recent visits to community-based projects in India, Bangladesh, Brazil, South

Africa, and Kenya, to inform this volume.

I’ll be amiss if I did not confess that the present volume suffers from a slew of

well-meaning attempts. Notwithstanding my training and academic profession, an

attempt is made to write simply without, hopefully, being too simplistic. An attempt is

made to provide readers with food for thought, while trying to break prose sequences into

digestible chunks. An attempt is made, wherever possible, to imbue the “spirit” of the

“participation” topic into the writing process, by making the volume reflective, dialogic,

and problem-posing. An attempt is made to embrace the narrative structure of story-

telling, which undoubtedly represents the oldest form of community engagement,

participation, socialization, and mobilization. And, finally, an attempt is made to center

the discourse of this volume on ideas, not recipes.

In writing this volume, I was constantly reminded of what Robert Chambers said

in his 1983 book, Rural development: Putting the last first:

It is easier to write about what to do than to do it. Writing does not require

courage, but courage can be needed for action.

(Chambers, 1983, p.193).

Perhaps some lessons and inspirations for actions lurk – both overtly and covertly

-- in the present writing. The courage to act must necessarily, though not solely, rest with

the readers!

Arvind Singhal September, 2001

Ohio University

Acknowledgements

The idea for this volume originated in conversations with Silvia Luciani, Senior

Communication Advisor of GPP, UNICEF. I thank Silvia, and UNICEF, for providing

me an opportunity to engage in this mission of participative literacy, and for her insights,

ideas, and support throughout the writing process.

I also thank the following individuals who contributed their time, ideas, and

resources toward the present project.

Professor Geni Eng, University of North Carolina, U.S.A.

Neil Ford, Eastern and Southern Africa Region, UNICEF

Alfonso Gumucio Dagron, Nicaragua.

Professor K.S. Nair, University of Pune, India

Professor Rafael Obregon, Universidad del Norte, Colombia.

Dr. Deepa Narayan, World Bank

Anne A. Owiti, Kibera Community Self-help Programme, Kenya

Professor Jan Servaes, Catholic University, Belgium.

Professor Norman Uphoff, Cornell University.

Gabriel Urgoiti, Radio Zibonele, South Africa

Dr. Shereen Usdin, Soul City, SouthAfrica

Chin Saik Yoon, Southbound Publications, Malaysia.

Dr. Muhammad Yunus, Grameen Bank, Bangladesh

Chapter 1

Development and Participation

The Development Challenge

• One-third of the world's workforce of three billion people is either unemployed or

underemployed. Some 500 million employed workers are unable to keep their family

incomes above US$1 per day.

For more information visit:

http://www.comminit.com/BaseLineArchives/sld-421.html

• Some 1.2 billion people (20 percent of the world’s population), live on less than US$

1 per day.

For more information visit:

http://www.comminit.com/BaseLineArchives/sld-1360.html

• Some 70 percent of the above 1.2 billion people living in abject poverty are female.

For more information visit:

http://www.comminit.com/BaseLineArchives/sld-36.html

• Some 2.4 billion people (40 percent of the world’s population) lives without basic

sanitation. Over 2 million people, mostly children, die each year of diarrheal disease.

For more information visit:

http://www.comminit.com/BaseLineArchives/sld-445.html

• Some 5.3 million people were newly infected with HIV in 2000. Some 36.1 million

people now live with HIV or AIDS. Over 22 million people have died from AIDS

since the epidemic began.

For more information visit:

http://www.comminit.com/BaseLineArchives/sld-31.html

• Over 13 million children have been orphaned due to AIDS by 2000.

For more information visit:

http://www.comminit.com/BaseLineArchives/sld-32.html

• South Asia is nearly self-sufficient in food but 294 million of its people still go

hungry each day.

For more information visit:

http://www.comminit.com/BaseLineArchives/sld-1746.html

• Some four percent of the Amazon rainforest was destroyed between 1500 and the

1970's i.e. 470 years. An estimated 75 to 95 percent will be destroyed over the next

20 years.

For more information visit:

http://www.comminit.com/BaseLineArchives/sld-169.html

• Over 20 percent of primary school aged children in developing countries are not in

school.

For more information visit:

http://www.comminit.com/BaseLineArchives/sld-171.html

• In the year 2000, there were 80 million unwanted pregnancies; 20 million unsafe

abortions; and 500,000 maternal deaths (of which 99 percent were in developing

countries).

For more information visit:

http://www.comminit.com/BaseLineArchives/sld-24.html

• Over 40 percent of the people in developing countries have never made a phone call.

The city of Tokyo has more telephone lines than the entire continent of Africa.

For more information visit:

http://www.comminit.com/BaseLineArchives/sld-616.html

Source: Adapted from Drum Beat -- 100 –Global Forces. http://www.comminit.com

The world faces enormous development challenges. Equally prolific have been

policies, programs, and processes to address these development challenges. However, the

past several decades of top-down and trickle down development programs, in aggregate,

have yielded dismal results (Mckee et al., 2000; Fraser & Restrepo-Estrada, 1998).

Barring some exceptions, most development initiatives, have often increased the

vulnerability of the most vulnerable: The poor, the illiterate, the women, the children, and

the marginalized. Strident questions have been raised about development for whom, with

what purpose, through what means, and for what ends?

The discourse of “participation” gathered momentum in the 1970s, as discontent

mounted with top-down and trickle down “modernistic” approaches to development

(Uphoff, 1985). Julius Nyerere’s famous statement exemplifies the essence of

“participatory” philosophy:

People cannot be developed. They can only develop themselves.

Julius Nyerere (1973, p. 60).

But, really, the concept of participation is not so new. It is as timeless as the

history of humankind. Long before participation was purposefully advocated for

development, people had formed collectivities in order to farm, defend, and even

destroy. So human history is necessarily a story of participation.

Parts of Participation?

Flying over East Africa, I leaned over and asked the passenger by the window

seat: “Is that Lake Victoria?” “Well, that is part of it”, she said.

What are the dangers of mistaking “parts” for “wholes”?

Participation comes in all shapes and sizes. Participation has many “parts”. One

way of understanding them are to consider the participation continuum.

The Participatory Continuum

Mode of

Participation Degree of Involvement of

Local People How Action Relates to

Local People

1. Co-option Token representatives are chosen,

who have no real input or power. Working on the local

people.

2. Compliance Tasks are assigned with incentives;

outsiders decide the agenda and

direct the process.

Working for the local

people

3. Consultation Local opinions are asked for;

outsiders analyze and decide on a

course of action.

Working for and with the

local people.

4. Cooperation Local people work together with

outsiders to determine; however,

responsibility remains with outsiders

for directing the process.

Working with the local

people.

5. Co-learning Local people and outsiders share

their knowledge to create new

understanding and work together to

form action plans, with outsider

facilitation

Working with the local

people and by the local

people.

6. Collective

Action Local people set their own agenda

and mobilize to carry it out, in the

absence of outside initiators and

facilitators.

By the local people.

Source: Adapted from de Negri et al. (1998).

Participation as a Means or Ends?

For many “participation” and “participatory” makes sense as means. That is, with

participation, projects and programs become more humane, more effective, and more

sustainable (Chambers, 1999, p. 8). For others, participation is an end in itself: A set of

desired processes and relationships. Whatever the mix of reasons, a new consensus has

put participation at the center stage of local development initiatives. Donors, including

the World Bank, UNESCO, UNICEF, and other international agencies have embraced

participatory processes, while NGOs and governments have sought to spread

participatory methodologies on a formidable scale (Chambers, 1999).

Human Dignity: The Compass of Participation

While there may not be a clean way of resolving the issue of participation as

means or ends, the compass of participation rests on preserving and enhancing the

“dignity” of the individual. Nothing is more important to a participant’s dignity than

having the opportunity to influence one’s own future. As noted U.S. community

organizer, Saul Alinsky emphasized:

If you respect the dignity of the individual, you are working with his desires, not

yours; his values, not yours; his ways of working and fighting, not yours; his choice of

leadership, not yours; his programs, not yours. Always remember that “the guiding

star” is the dignity of the individual. That is the basic purpose of organizing. To give

people help, while denying them a significant part in the action, contributes nothing to

the development of the individual. In this sense, it is not giving but taking – taking

their dignity. Denial of the opportunity for participation is the denial of human dignity.

It will not work.

Saul Alinsky (1971, p. 122).

Handouts, charity, are an anathema to people’s participation. The government of

Mexico once decided to pay tribute to Mexican mothers. A proclamation was issued that

every mother whose sewing machine was being held by the Monte de Piedad (the

national pawnshop of Mexico) should have her machine returned as a gift on Mother’s

day. There was tremendous joy over the occasion. Here was a gift being made outright,

without any participation on part of the recipients. Within three weeks the exact same

number of sewing machines were back in the pawn shop (Alinsky, 1971).

The Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, an icon of microcredit-based development

organizing, holds dear this premise of preserving and enhancing the dignity of its 2.5

million poor borrowers. It attributes its success (with a loan recovery rate of over 98

percent) to its efforts in helping people unlock their own potential. The microcredit loans,

not handouts, are looked upon as a “key” with which poor people can -- with dignity and

resolve -- tap economic opportunities that eluded them before. Its founder, Professor

Muhammad Yunus views its “intervention” of microcredit, as the most fundamental of all

human rights, as it makes possible the realization of other rights like food, shelter, and

housing.

In sum, if community participation and organizing are tuned into enhancing the

“dignity” of the individual, and of the collective, their compass is pointing in the right

direction.

Never do anything for anybody that they can do for themselves.

Saul Alinsky (1971).

Chapter 2

Participation and Communication

There can be no participation without communication. The notion of

“participation”, as a desirable part and parcel of communicative approaches to

development, goes back about three decades.

But, first, what do we mean by participatory communication? Participatory

communication is defined as a dynamic, interactional, and transformative process of

dialogue between people, groups, and institutions that enables people, both individually

and collectively, to realize their full potential and be engaged in their own welfare.

Attributes of Participatory Communication Models

• The participation communication model begins with a belief in the potential of

people. Everyone has the right and duty to influence decision- making and to

understand the results.

• The participatory communication model recognizes, understands, and appreciates the

diversity and plurality of people. It believes in upholding and enhancing the dignity

and equality of people. Ordinary people are viewed as the key agents of change, and

hence their aspirations and strengths are engaged in culturally appropriate ways.

• The participatory communication model emphasizes the local community rather than

the nation state, dialogue rather than monologue, and emancipation rather than

alienation.

• The participatory communication model emphasizes the strengthening of democratic

processes and institutions at the community level, and a redistribution of power.

• The participatory communication model recognizes that authentic participation, while

widely espoused, is not in everyone’s interest, especially those vested in guarding

their privileged positions, i.e. the elite.

• The participatory communication model also recognizes that participatory programs

are not easily implemented or replicated, nor are they highly predictable, or readily

controlled.

Source: Servaes (1999); White (1999); Servaes, Jacobson, and White (1996); White,

Nair, and Ascroft (1994).

Communication: A Prerequisite for Participation

All participation is communication-driven, but all communication is not

participatory. Gumucio Dagron (2001) provides a useful typology to distinguish

participatory communication from other communication strategies for social change:

Participatory Communication

Strategies Versus Non-Participatory Communication

Strategies

Horizontal lateral communication

between participants Versus Vertical top-down communication from

senders to receivers

Process of dialogue and democratic

participation Versus Campaign to mobilize in a short-term

without building capacity

Long-term process of sustainable change Versus Short-term planning and quick fix solutions

Collective empowerment and decision-

making Versus Individual behavior change

With community’s involvement Versus For the community

Specific in content, language, and

culture Versus Massive and broad-based

People’s needs are the focus

Versus Donors’ musts are the focus

Owned by the community Versus Access determined by social political and

economic factors

Consciousness raising Versus Persuasion for short-term

Approaches to Participatory Communication

At the risk of oversimplifying, one may contend that there are two major, but

interrelated, approaches to participatory communication (Servaes, 1999):

1. The first approach centers on the dialogic pedagogy of noted Brazilian

educator, Paulo Freire.

2. The second approach, often broadly labeled as the participatory community

media approach, or the alternative communication approach, centers on the

ideas of access, participation, self-determination, and self-management, honed

during the UNESCO New World Information Order debates of the 1970s.

While both sets of participative approaches share several commonalties, their

arenas of communicative application have been somewhat distinct. For instance, the

Freirean theory of dialogic communication is based more on interpersonal and group

dialogue in a community setting, and hence, has found more application in the practice of

community development, participation, and transformation.

The participatory community media approach has focused more on issues of

public and community access to appropriate media, participation of people in message

design and media production, and self-management of communication enterprises. Its

applications are thus more in community radio and television, street theater and folk

media, participatory video, and community informatics, Internet, and tele-centers.

Paulo Freire’s Dialogic Pedagogy

Paulo Freire’s dialogic padagogy emphasized the role of “teacher as learner” and

the “learner as teacher”, with each learning from the other in a mutually transformative

process. The role of the outsider (or facilitator) is viewed as working with and not for the

oppressed to organize them in their incessant struggle to regain their humanity. In true

participation, according to Freire, there is no subject-object relationship. There is only a

subject-subject relationship.

Subjects are those who know and act. Objects, in contrast, are known and acted

upon. Man is a subject who acts upon and transforms his world, and in doing so moves

towards ever new possibilities of fuller and richer life, individually and collectively. The

world is not a given reality which man must accept and to which he must adjust, rather

it is a problem to worked on and solved.

Source: Paulo Freire (1970), paraphrased.

The Freirean process is dialogic and problem-posing with a view to raise the

critical awareness of the oppressed, goading them to action.

Every sentence I utter must be understood not as an affirmation, but as a

question.

Neils Bohr, Nobel-prize winning physicist.

In Freirean pedagogy, there is no room for teaching numeracy as “two plus two

equals four”. Such a pedagogy, according to Freire, is dehumanizing as it views the

learners as empty receptacles, which need to be “filled” by expert knowledge. Freire

criticizes this “banking” mode of education, which, he notes, characterizes the orientation

of most development initiatives. “Deposits” are made by experts and the scope of action

allowed to students (or intended beneficiaries) “extends only as far as receiving, filing,

and storing the deposits” (Freire, 1970, p. 58). Instead, numeracy, in the Freirean dialogic

problem-posing mode may be taught and learned in the following manner:

Teacher: How many cows do you have?

Poor farmer: One.

Teacher: How many cows does the rich farmer have?

Poor farmer: Twenty?

Teacher: Why does he have twenty cows and you only one?

And so goes the dialogic conversation, which over time stimulates a process of

critical reflection and awareness (or “conscientization”) on part of the poor farmer,

creating possibilities of reflective action that did not exist before.

Problem-posing means re-presenting to people what they think. But not as a

lecture. Rather as a problem.

Paulo Freire (1970, paraphrased.

Freire emphasizes that the themes underlying dialogic pedagogy should resonate

with people’s thematic universe, that is, with issues and experiences of salience to them,

as opposed to well-meaning but alienating rhetoric. Once the oppressed, both individually

and collectively, begin to critically reflect on their social situation, possibilities arise for

them to break the “culture of silence” through the articulation of discontent, and through

action.

Dismantling the Banking Education Approach to Development

Most development programs, especially the top-down and trickle-down types,

follow the “banking” education model. This model is antithetic to people’s participation

in their own welfare.

The challenge for participatory facilitators and practitioners is to assess their

development programs, and dismantle the following pillars of the “banking” model of

development:

1. The teacher teaches and the students are taught.

2. The teacher knows everything and the students know nothing.

3. The teacher thinks and the students are thought about.

4. The teacher talks and the students listen – meekly.

5. The teacher disciplines and the students are disciplined.

6. The teacher chooses and enforces his choice, and the students comply.

7. The teacher acts and the students have the illusion of acting through the action of the

teacher.

8. The teacher chooses the program content, and the students (who are not consulted)

adopt to it.

9. The teacher confuses the authority of knowledge with his own professional authority,

which he sets in opposition to the freedom of the students.

10. The teacher is the Subject of the learning process, while the pupils are mere Objects.

Source: Freire (1970, p. 59).

Freire in Practice: Augusto Boal’s Theater of the Oppressed1

Inspired by the writings and teachings of fellow countryman Paulo Freire, and his

own experiences with dramatic performances, Brazilian theater director Augusto Boal

developed Theatre of the Oppressed (TO), an international movement to use theater as a

vehicle of participatory social change. TO’s techniques – based on Freirean principles of

dialogue, interaction, problem-posing, reflection, and conscientization – are designed to

activate spectators to take control of situations, rather than passively allowing things to

happen to them. TO transforms theater from the "monologue" of traditional performance

into a "dialogue" between audience and stage. TO’s techniques have been used, through

a network of thousands of drama troupes all over the world, by community organizers

and facilitators as participatory tools for democratizing organizations, analyzing social

problems, and transforming reality through direct action (Boal, 1979; 1992; 1995).

Theater of the Oppressed utilizes, among others, the following key techniques:

#1. Cop-in-the-Head are an entire series of TO exercises to ferret out internalized

oppressions. Boal argues that most people stop themselves from taking political actions

because they had "cops in their heads", that is, fear of oppressors. Through participatory

theater, the “cops in peoples’ heads” are identified and located. Strategies for overcoming

these fears are then charted.

#2. Forum Theatre is a TO technique that begins with the enactment of a scene

(or anti-model) in which a protagonist tries, unsuccessfully, to overcome an oppression

relevant to that particular audience. The joker (master of ceremonies) then invites the

spectators to replace the protagonist at any point in the scene where they believe an

alternative action that could lead to a solution. The scene is replayed numerous times

with different interventions from different spectators. This results in a dialogue about the

oppression, an examination of alternatives, and a "rehearsal" for real solutions.

#3. Invisible Theatre is a rehearsed sequence of events that is enacted in a public,

non-theatrical space, capturing the attention of people who do not know they are

watching a planned performance. It is both theater and real life, for although rehearsed, it

happens in real time and space. Actors take responsibility for the consequences of the

"show." The goal is to bring attention to a social problem for the purpose of stimulating

public dialogue.

#4. The Joker is the director/master of ceremonies of a TO performance. For

instance, in Forum theatre, the joker sets up the rules of the event for the audience,

facilitates the spectators' replacement of the protagonist, and sums up the essence of each

solution proposed in the interventions. The term derives from the joker (or wild card) in a

deck of playing cards. Just as the wild card is not tied down to a specific suit or value,

neither is the TO joker tied down to an allegiance to performer, spectator, or any one

interpretation of events.

#5. Spect-actor refers to the activated spectator, the audience member who takes

part in the action.

How did Boal hone the spect-actor technique? Previously, in the late 1950s,

when Boal was experimenting with participatory theater, audiences were invited to

discuss a play at the end of the performance. In so doing, Boal realized they remained

viewers and "reactors". To facilitate audience participation, Boal, in the 1960s, developed

a process whereby audience members could stop a performance and suggest different

actions for the actors, who would then carry out the audience suggestions. During one

such performance, a woman in the audience was so outraged that the actor could not

understand her suggestion that she came charging on to the stage, enacting what she

meant. For Boal this was the birth of the spect-actor (not spectator). From that day on,

audience members were invited to stage. In so doing, Boal discovered that the audience

members became empowered not only to imagine change, but to actually – and

collectively -- practice it.

Boal and Freire shared much in common. Boal, like Freire, was tortured and

exiled for his cultural activism by the military that ran Brazil in the sixties. Both returned

to Brazil in 1984 with the removal of the military junta and were active in public service:

When Boal served as mayor of Rio de Janeiro in the early 1990s, Paulo Freire was

serving as the Secretary of Education in Sao Paulo. When Freire died of a heart attack in

1997, Boal said: "I am very sad. I have lost my last father. Now all I have are brothers

and sisters."

As Mayor of Rio, Boal used theatre as a participatory political tool to make new

laws (Boal, 1998). Here is how Boal described his idea of"Legislative Theatre" (source:

http://www.gn.apc.org/resurgence/issues/unwin204.htm):

When I was a legislator and Mayor of Rio, I the theater company worked

with nineteen groups of oppressed people. They would do plays about social

problems, discuss with their own communities, dialogue with other communities,

and make festivals for the population in general. Out of these activities many

proposals and suggestions came to my office. We had what we called the

metabolizing cell, which was a group of actors and also lawyers. They would

transform all the suggestions into proposals for new laws. I would present those

proposals in the chamber like any other legislator. But the proposals would come

not out of my head, but from the people.

I presented 42 different proposals for new laws, 13 of which were

approved. Thirteen laws that are now in existence in Rio are ones which were

proposed by the population…..For instance, in Rio we passed the first Brazilian

law to protect witnesses of crimes. It is a very comprehensive law that includes

physical protection, includes the transference of witnesses from the place where

they live to another place where they are more secure, to be given a new identity

during the period of danger.

For more information on the participatory dialogic pedagogy of work of Paulo

Freire, visit the following Web-sites:

http://www.paulofreire.org/

http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-freir.htm

http://wwwvms.utexas.edu/~possible/freire.html

http://nlu.nl.edu/ace/Resources/Documents/FreireIssues.html

For more information on Augusto Boal’s Theater of the Opporessed visit the

following Web-sites:

http://www.communityarts.net/readingroom/archive/boalintro.html

http://www.gn.apc.org/resurgence/issues/unwin204.htm

http://www.unomaha.edu/~pto/augusto.htm

Participatory Community Media Approach

Paulo Freire’s dialogic pedagogy has greatly influenced the participatory

community media approach, which, as noted previously has focused more on issues of

public and community access to appropriate media, participation of people in message

design and media production, and self-management of communication enterprises.

An excellent review of the participatory community media approach -- in the form

of case-studies of 50 participatory radio, theater, video, tele-centers, and telephony

projects -- is provided by Alfonso Gumucio Dagron’s 2001 book, Making Waves: Stories

of Participatory Communication for Social Change, sponsored and published by the

Rockefeller Foundation, New York.

Gumucio Dagron’s (2001) book is available on-line. Visit the Communication

Initiative Web-site at http://www.comminit.com/making-waves.html

For free hard copy request "Making Waves, Job # 3184” by emailing

webinfo@rockfound.org

write to:

Rockefeller Foundation

Making Waves, Job #3184

P.O. Box 545

Mahwah, NJ 07430

A short blurb on the book is provided below

------------------------

Making Waves - Stories of Participatory Communication for Social Change

Alfonso Gumucio Dagron

Gumucio Dagron reviews 50 participatory communication projects that are well-

established at the community level, not just one-time projects with a lifespan limited by

donor’s inputs. Most projects are ones that have been appropriated, at least to some

extent, by the community, including issues of financing, administration, training, self-

management, and ownership.

To reinforce the key ideas presented in Gumucio Dagron’s work, and to provide

additional insights, the tenets of the participatory community media approach are

highlighted here through four case studies involving (1) the use community radio, (2)

community television in India, (3) participatory video in India, and (4) telephony and

Internet technologies in Bangladesh. In addition to the above media-based community

practices, traditional, cultural expressions such as theater, puppets, dance, and music have

also played a special role in community participation and development processes.

To learn more about the use of theater, puppets, dance, and music in engendering

community participation and development activities access Gumucio Dagron’s book on-

line at http://www.comminit.com/making-waves.html

Community Radio2

Radio has clearly been the most widely used media tool for participatory

communication. Thousands of community radio stations have mushroomed all over the

world in the past five decades, including many that operate without a legal license. Some

well known community radio efforts include Radio Mineras in Bolivia, Radio Enriquillo

in Dominican Republic, Tambuli Community Radio in the Philippines, Radio Sagarmatha

in Nepal, and others (Gumucio Dagron, 2001; Fraser & Restrepo-Estrada, 1998).

Perhaps the most exemplary community radio project, embodying total ownership

and control of a radio station by its constituency, is the network of miners’ radio stations

in Bolivia (electronic communication, Gumucio Dagron, February 19, 2001). Established

in 1949 (and now virtually disappeared), this radio network of 26 independent stations (at

its peak in the 1970s) was conceived, established, managed, technically run, financed,

and maintained by the miner’s community. Further, Radio Mineras exemplified the

paradigm of a communication initiative that was part of a larger political and social

change project.

Kothmale Radio, another group of community radio stations in Sri Lanka, has

converged the technologies of radio and the Internet (Gumucio Dagron, 2001). Radio

listeners are encouraged to ask questions, answers are searched on the Web, and the

results and appropriate data (for instance, the weather report for fisherman) are broadcast

to the listeners in the local language.

Community radio offers several comparative advantages over other media

(Gumucio Dagron, 2001). It is cost-efficient in terms of investment, provides content in

the local language, can reach an illiterate population, and be respectful and relevant to

local practices, traditions and culture. Once the initial investment in equipment is

committed, sustainability is feasible, though dependent on the level of community

participation. Radio also has a vast reach, is portable, and the convergence between radio

and the Internet provides new networking and knowledge-centered opportunities.

To learn more about these community radio projects, access Gumucio Dagron’s book on-

line at http://www.comminit.com/making-waves.html

Community Television: The Kheda Communication Project3

A pioneering participatory experiment in using television for educational

purposes in India was the Kheda Communication Project (KCP). KCP was a

decentralized experiment in community-based television. While experiences of

community-based radio abound (Gumucio Dagron, 2001), such experiences have been

rare in television.

The site chosen for the experiment was Kheda District, an area near the city of

Ahmedabad. What made KCP especially effective as a participatory project(Contractor,

Singhal, & Rogers, 1988)?

1. The hardware consisted of one low-power transmitter located in Pij Village,

about 50 kilometers south of Ahmedabad, which was connected to a local studio, the

local Doordarshan station, and to a satellite earth station in Ahmedabad. Thus KCP could

broadcast either local television programs or national satellite television programs. Some

650 community television sets were provided to 400 villages and installed in public

places (frequently schools) where village audiences gathered in the evening to view the

broadcasts. Technicians periodically toured these villages to service and repair the

television sets.

2. Kheda District comprises some 1,000 villages with over 3 million inhabitants.

In recent decades, it has become a major center for milk production in India, as part of

the so-called “White Revolution”. The KCP collaborated with extension agencies

working in dairying, agriculture, and health services, and with local banks, cooperatives

and employment exchanges. Thus, the development infrastructure in Kheda District was

tapped to facilitate the use of information transmitted by the television broadcasts.

3. KCP was independent of commercial interests, as it relied mainly on

government funds for financial support. Managed by India’s Space Application Center, it

enjoyed a great deal of political autonomy from the national government, and the support

of the state government.

4. KCP relied heavily on audience research by conducting a needs assessment of

village audiences and by carrying out formative and summative evaluations of Kheda

television programs.

5. KCP promoted rural development and social change at the local level.

Audience participation was aggressively encouraged at all levels. Villagers were involved

as actors, writers, and visualizers in the production of television programs dealing with

such local problems as exploitation, caste discrimination, minimum wages, alcoholism,

cooperatives, and local and national elections. Television serials, puppet shows, folk

drama, and other popular local formats were used to address issues such as family

planning, gender equality, and village sanitation. "Chatur Mota" (Wise Elder) and "Nari

Tu Narayani" (Women You Are Powerful), for instance, were two popular entertainment-

education serials produced by KCP with the active participation of its audience members

(Singhal & Rogers, 1999). A campaign approach was followed, synchronizing television

programs with local efforts by development agencies.

The Kheda Project represented a model of community-level decentralized

television broadcasting in India. It received the prestigious UNESCO Prize in 1984 for

rural communication effectiveness. However, the Indian government failed did not

replicate the KCP community-based television model in other parts of India. Instead, in

1985, when a high-powered transmitter was commissioned in Ahmedabad with a range

that covered Kheda District, the government ordered that the Kheda transmitter be

transferred to Chennai in order to facilitate a second entertainment channel for its urban

residents. Why spend money on running a rural community-based communication

project when advertising incomes could easily be earned from metro audiences?

Nevertheless, the Kheda Communication Project stands out as one of the finest

examples of community television in India, and beyond.

Participatory Video SEWA4

The Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) in India is a remarkable story

of women’s organizing in India. A union of more than 100,000 members, SEWA

organizes the poorest and the most vulnerable segments of Indian society – women, who

are self-employed or work in the informal sector (Rose, 1992).

SEWA has a full-time participatory video unit, established in the early 1980s with

the help of Martha Stuart’s Village Video Network (VVN). Participatory videos, created

by Video SEWA, give voice to muted women’s issues, bringing them to the attention of

policy-makers and the public. Additionally, SEWA’s videos reach tens of thousands of its

members for multiple purposes of teaching, organizing, and inspiring.

What can participatory video do for poor women? Lila Datania of video SEWA

narrates in her own words:

“We go out to the villages and markets and city slum areas where we live to make

videos about women. I used to be a vegetable vendor, but I have left that work to my

family now, and I work on video full-time. I do recording, editing, and replays. I am also

the sound person when we shoot.

In the beginning, when Marthabehn (Martha Stuart) came to teach us, I thought:

‘How can I learn all this’. I have never been to school. I had never seen television then.

But something in me said, ‘Maybe it will take a little more time, but I should learn it

anyway’.

I think this video work is important because all the poor women who are working

are so exploited. We interview these women who tell us how much they are working and

for how little pay. Then we show these to women from all the trades, telling them, ‘See,

we should all be together’. We also make videos about our protest marches, like when the

vegetable vendors of Manekchowk marched to the Municipal Corporation to demand fair

treatment, vending licenses, and space. This helps other women visualize the work

SEWA does. It helps them understand that others have already done it; that these are not

just ideas. It helps them understand that they are exploited workers, because other

women like them are talking about their problems.

Once we showed the chikan (embroidery) workers in Lucknow the video of the

Ahmedabad bidi (a hand-rolled cigarette) workers’ street march. They got so excited that

they started planning the route for their own procession….

We women are living in hell. We do not know any other way of living in these

slums. No one is bothered about us. We can make complaints for years about these

conditions, but no one hears. When we make videos about these problems, though, things

happen. For years we told the municipal authorities about the filth of our open trenches,

but no one came to see. They do not like to walk in stinky places. Finally, they saw how

bad it is when we made a video and showed it to them. Then they got worried because we

had recorded it on film and said all these things about them ignoring the problem. They

are afraid the film will be seen elsewhere and they will be shown lacking, so they took

action to fix the problem.

We also use the video for court cases, to show the condition of the women who

have brought the case, like the Manekchowk vegetable vendors. We made the film from

the vendor’s point-of-view, describing our problems of police harassment. For the first

time, the Police Commissioner understood the problem from our point of view”.

Akin to Video SEWA, many innovative participatory video experiences have

developed all over the world: New Dawn in Namibia, Television Serrana in Cuba, TV for

Development in Uganda, CESPAC in Peru, the Capricorn Video Unit in Zimbabwe,

Video & Community Dreams in Egypt, and Nutzij in Guatemala, and others (Gumucio

Dagron, 2001).

To learn more about these participatory video projects, access Gumucio Dagron’s book

on-line at http://www.comminit.com/making-waves.html

Mobile Telephone Ladies in Bangladesh5

Rural residents in countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America rarely have access

to telephony services. Telephone service is difficult to provide in remote areas where

there is no dedicated electrical power, and where the cost of installing and maintaining

such services is cumbersome. The Grameen (rural) Bank in Bangladesh provides one

answer to this problem.

Founded in 1983 by Professor Muhammad Yunus, the Grameen Bank is a system

of lending small amounts of money to poor women so that they can earn a living through

self-employment. No collateral is needed, as the poor do not have any. Instead, the

women borrowers are organized in a group of five friends. Each group member must

repay their loan on time, while ensuring that other group members do the same, or else

their opportunity for a future loan is jeopardized. This delicate dynamic between “peer-

pressure” and “peer-support” among Grameen borrowers is at the heart of its widespread

success (Singhal & Rogers, 2001). The idea of micro-lending, based on the Grameen

Bank experience, has spread throughout the world, and has everywhere proven effective

in gaining a high rate of repayment of the loans. In short, interpersonal networks are

effective collateral for poor women.

In 1996, in partnership with Telenor, the Norwegian telecommunications

company, the Grameen Bank established GrameenPhone, a nationwide cellular network

throughout Bangladesh. By mid-2001, GrameenPhone had over 300,000 subscribers,

mostly in urban areas, and was turning a profit. Riding on GrameenPhone’s nationwide

cellular network is also one of the world’s most innovative experiments in rural mobile

telephony services, premised on the principle of “equal access”. By mid-2001 (when the

present author visited Bangladesh), some 5,000 Grameen bank borrowers in 5,000 of

Bangladesh’s 68,000 villages had become the mobile "telephone ladies" for their village.

She operates a mobile pay phone business, with the cheapest cellular rate in the world: 9

cents per minute during peak hours and 6.7 cents in the off-peak (Yunus, 1999). Her

“mobile” presence means that all village residents can receive and make telephone calls,

obviating the need to install expensive large-scale telephone exchanges and digital

switching systems. In 2000, a Grameen village-based mobile telephone earned three

times more revenue than an urban cellular phone (for more information visit:

http://www.telecommons.com/villagephone, 2000). By 2003, GrameenPhone anticipates

one million Grameen telephone subscribers in Bangladesh, and 50,000 mobile “telephone

ladies” owned and operated by Grameen Bank members, and a net annual profit in excess

of $25 million dollars.

Another Grameen telecommunications technology venture is the Village Internet

Program (VIP), a pilot project in which borrowers obtain loans to purchase and operate

“cyber kiosks” for profit. The purpose behind the “cyber kiosks” is for Grameen

borrowers to have increased access to agricultural and market information for business

use, to provide distance and virtual education through remote classroom facilities, and to

provide computer-based employment (such as data-entry, transcription services, etc.) in

rural areas, as an alternative to massive migration to the cities (Yunus, 1998).

The VIP is supported by established infrastructures and technologies within the

Grameen family of companies. For instance, Grameen Shakti (“Energy”) is now

experimenting with photovoltaic solar systems to provide electricity to villages that lie

beyond the national grid of central station electricity. Eventually, the plan is to have

cyber kiosks that run on solar power and connect to the Internet by wireless, microwave,

and laser connections. Each cyber kiosk will be run as an independently-owned and

operated franchise of Grameen Communications, in which the borrower will earn money

by selling Internet, telephony, and other computer-related services (Yunus, 1998).

In response to the criticism that the poor do not need the luxury of a telephone or

of Internet services, Yunus pointed to contributions made by the “telephone ladies” of

GrameenPhone in spurring village-level businesses, and in increasing their efficiency.

Further, the “telephone ladies” of Bangladesh generate enough revenues to repay their

loans, earning almost three to four times the per capita income in Bangladesh (Yunus,

1998).

The key lesson of the Grameen Bank approach to the use of mobile telephony and

Internet services is that poor people should not just be the passive consumers of

communication technology, but rather its owners. As one of the village telephone ladies

remarked to the present author: “The mobile telephone is like a cow. It helps me make

money every day. And I don’t even need to feed it, clean it, and milk it. I just need to

keep the batteries charged”.

A true development professional does not express anything. (S)he helps people

to express themselves

Andreas Fuglesang (1973).

Chapter 3

Facilitating Community Participation

What is a community? A community is a collection of people linked together by

communication within a physical environment (White, 1999, p. 29). Community

participation and community building necessarily involves the creation of effective

communication linkages. So communication creates, binds, and nurtures a community. It

is also communication (or lack of it) that fractures community.

Facilitation as an Art6

There is no one profile of a good facilitator.

Orlando Fals Borda (cited in Gomez, 1999, p. 157)

Unfortunately, for the most part, facilitation of participation has been looked upon

as something people can be told to do, not as a skill to be learned, or an art to be

practiced, and still less as part of a way of being in the world (Chambers, 1999).

Everybody talks about participation, but few can effectively facilitate.

White (1999, p. 12)

There are four key aspects of good facilitation (Chambers, 1999, pp. 9-10):

#1. Who Participates?

The first poses the question: who participates? Words such as “community” and

“community level” can obscure deep divisions of gender, age, wealth, social, and

religious groupings. Good facilitators are sensitive to these differences.

Good facilitators know that a dolphin is as unique as a cactus. But they also know

that a dolphin cannot survive in a desert, and each entity needs special nurturing. So, at

one level, they understand and appreciate the diversity of people’s gifts, talents, skills,

and perhaps even their shortcomings.

At another level, good facilitators are deeply committed to empowering those who

are weaker, more vulnerable, marginalized, oppressed, or otherwise disadvantaged.

….and the last shall be first.

The Bible, St. Matthew, Ch. 19, verse 30.

#2. Unlearning

Second, to be a good facilitator entails unlearning (Chambers, 1999). Good

facilitators should recognize and counter the disabilities of their professional training, and

the attitudes of superiority that come with it. Old attitudes and behaviors that they are

ones who “know”, and the poor people “do not know”, need to be shed, and new ones

learned. This attitudinal-behavioral shift is not easy; it is radical and very threatening.

But, if practiced, it can also be immensely rewarding, satisfying, and transformational.

Respect Indigenous Knowledge

Good facilitators should recognize, respect, and tap into rural people’s indigenous

knowledge systems. These include knowledge, wisdom, and home-grown expertise (often

spanning centuries) in linguistics, medicine, clinical psychology, botany, zoology,

ethology, ecology, climate, agriculture, animal husbandry, and craft skills.

Green revolution enthusiasts in Bali, who introduced modern fertilizer, water

management, and cropping practices to Balinese rice farmers in the 1970s, failed to

appreciate integrated centuries-old Balinese system of water temples that governed

indigenous agricultural practices, wreaking havoc on its complex ecosystem. Only, later

studies by anthropologists and agriculture experts showed how Balinese indigenous water

management practices achieved an ideal balance in rice yields, pest control, and water

conservation (Lansing, 1987).

#3. Continuos Learning.

Third, good facilitation is itself a continuos learning and development for the

facilitator (Chambers, 1999). Facilitators learn and change through the process of

facilitation. They learn by handing things over to local participants; by “letting go”; by

trying things out; by making mistakes; and by improving through experience. This

“letting go” is more than “the triumph of the broken egg when the chick breaks out. A

good facilitator, like the egg, gives up control, but unlike the egg, learns and grows

through the experience” (Chambers, 1999, p.9).

Facilitator or Expert?

A facilitator needs to stop being an expert. An expert may see the time spent by a

farmer, under a Banyan tree, in maintaining relations with other community members, as

a gross waste of productive of hours. The expert may not realize that the production

system in the village is communal, and in that particular rural agrarian context, sitting and

talking constitutes neither a waste of time nor a sign of laziness. Sitting and talking with

others cultivates and maintains social relationships. Quite possibly for the farmer,

ensuring good social relations is as important as producing food.

#4. Personal Commitment

The fourth aspect of facilitation, underpins the first three (Chambers, 1999). Good

facilitation flows from personal commitment. Whether the facilitator works with street

children in a slum, or women in a patriarchal society, the key to good facilitation lies in

the facilitator’s personal commitment to honor the realities of others.

Workers of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, honor the realities of the poor

people through a strong sense of personal commitment in alleviating poverty. As part of

their training, they spend a year in the field understanding poverty from “a worm’s eye”

view i.e. from experiential proximity. As part of the training, many workers go hungry,

walk many miles a day, and live in modest shared dwellings to personally experience,

albeit in a limited way, what it means to be poor. This strengthens their resolve and

personal commitment to make a difference.

The Facilitation Paradigm: A Conceptual Guide to Action

Facilitation of community participation is thus a skill to be learned, an art to be

practiced, and perhaps a way of “thinking” “being” and “acting” in the world. Figure 1

attempts to presents a paradigm of factors that address issues of “thinking” being” and

“acting” in the context of facilitating community participation.

Figure 1 presents a conceptual framework, drawing upon various works in the

area of community facilitation and development7, to guide action. It places the facilitator

in a matrix of six interrelated factors that influence effective community facilitation (1)

the “situatedness” of the facilitator in the development context, (2) how the facilitator

defines the problem in association with community members, (3) how the facilitator

approaches the problem in association with community members, (4) what strategies are

used in the facilitation process, (5) what are the expected outcomes of facilitation, and (6)

what attitudes, values, and behaviors, including a sense personal commitment, does the

facilitator bring to community participation and development processes.

Figure 1

A Paradigm of Factors that Determine the Effective Facilitation of Community

Participation.

Source: Adapted from Kiite and Nielsen (1999).

What is the development context?

• The facilitator is an organization, group, or individual that is committed to

people-centered development, especially of the weaker, the vulnerable, and

the most marginalized community members.

• The facilitator’s principal areas of focus include capacity building,

empowerment, training and facilitation, collaborative relationship building,

and reciprocal learning.

• The facilitator believes in process.

• The process defines the development agenda.

How is the problem defined?

• The community defines the problem.

• The facilitator assists in exploration, understanding, and definition of the

problem.

• Encourages the community to seek own information by stimulating critical

reflection and discussion through use of participatory learning and action

tools.

How is the problem approached?

• The process begins with the community people.

• The facilitator believes that the community members have the capacity to

collaborate and solve their own problems.

• The solution to the problem emerges from the local context.

What strategy is used?

• The facilitator stimulates critical reflection and dialogue for sustainable

community development.

• The facilitator encourages people to find and use their own voice and

evaluate information

What are the expected outcomes?

• Local decision-making capacity will increase.

• Local capacity to act will increase.

• Locally appropriate actions will emerge.

• Local sense of community will increase.

• Actions will be sustainable.

• Actions will be locally managed.

Effective

Facilitation

Community

Participation

What attitudes and values guide the facilitator’s behavior?

• The facilitator respects the community members’ ideas and knowledge.

• The facilitator sees himself/herself as an “un-learner” and a “co-learner” who

collaborates in the acquisition of knowledge and skills.

• The facilitator brings deep personal commitment to the facilitation process.

• The facilitator values the participation of community members.

• The facilitator does not claim to have the answers to the problems or

preconceptions about what changes are needed, but rather enables others to

realize their potential..

Nuggets on Facilitation8

Here are some “nuggets” about the facilitation process from the following

participatory stalwarts: Brazilian educator, Paulo Freire; U.S. community organizer, Saul

Alinsky; participation scholar and practitioner, Robert Chambers; development specialist,

Andreas Fuglesang; and noted corporate leader and facilitator (and ex-CEO of Herman

Miller furniture company), Max DePree.

Freirean challenge to readers: Paulo Freire would recommend that facilitators go

beyond armchair reflection on these "propositions”; rather they engage in reflective

participation, leading to action.

The following facilitator roles emerge from these “nuggets”:

#1. Facilitator as “communicator”

The facilitator’s tool is dialogue. Dialogue has to be loving, humble, and

trusting.

Paulo Freire (1970).

If the field worker feels that (s)he is not understood by others, his/her problem

is….to understand them. What language are people speaking and what language is

he/she speaking?

Andreas Fuglesang (1973).

#2. Facilitator as “truster”

Trusting the oppressed and their latent creative power is the indispensable

precondition for revolutionary change. Whoever lacks this trust will fail to initiate (or

will abandon) dialogue, reflection, and communication, and will fall into slogans,

communiques, monologues, and instructions.

Paulo Freire (1970)

#3. Facilitator as a “server”

A facilitator is a servant of the people. He removes the obstacles that prevent

people from realizing their full potential.

Max DePree (1989)

Facilitators don’t inflict pain; they bear pain.

Max DePree (1989)

Facilitator’s are responsible for effectiveness. Peter Drucker says that

“Efficiency is doing the thing right, but effectiveness is doing the right thing”.

Facilitators can delegate efficiency, but they must personally deal with effectiveness.

Max DePree (1989).

Do not become a prisoner of a “circle of certainty”. A facilitator should keep

future options open. This demands real discipline because there is always a great drive

to pin everything down if possible.

Saul Alinsky (1971).

#4. Facilitator as “enabler”

To facilitate means to enable others to express themselves. To listen. And to

enable others to realize their potential.

Robert Chambers (1999).

A facilitator understands the diversity of people’s gifts, talents, and skills. The

art of facilitation lies in polishing, liberating, and enabling these gifts.

Max DePree (1989)

#5. Facilitator as “relationship builder”

Facilitators need to be more tribal than scientific, more adept at weaving

relationships than prescribing remedies. Effective facilitation springs largely from

healthy relationships among others. Facilitators need to foster environments and group

processes within which people can develop high-quality relationships with each other,

and with the group with which they work. When facilitator’s talk about quality and

effectiveness, it should not just be about purpose; but about the quality of the

relationships, the quality of the communications, and the quality of the promises made

to each other.

Max DePree (1989).

Facilitators covet inclusivemess and intimacy. Intimacy rises from, and gives

rise to, strong relationships. And intimacy, inclusiveness, and interdependency require

lavish communications.

Max Depree (1989).

#6. Facilitator as “learner”

Facilitators who come from “another world” to the world of the people do so

not as invaders. They do not come to teach or transmit or to give anything; but rather

to learn with the people, about the people’s world.

Paulo Freire (1970).

#7. Facilitator as “adapter”

The facilitator may need to work at the farmer’s pace. It may mean a loss of

clarity, a loss of control, and a loss of perceived professionalism.

Robert Chambers (1983).

Comradeship with the Oppressed

One role that facilitators should not take on is that of saviors. That is false

generosity, a ploy to save themselves (Freire, 1970). Only through authentic comradeship

with the oppressed can the facilitators understand their way of living, behaving, and the

structures of domination that oppress them. Gandhi’s work in India is illustrative.

When Gandhi returned to India from S.Africa in 1915, at age 46, to participate in

India’s freedom struggle against the British colonialists, he realized that India’s political

leaders, mostly city-based elite lawyers and businessman, were far removed from the

country’s teeming millions – the rural poor. In his first address to the leaders of the

Indian National Congress, he chided them for making passionate, lofty speeches to each

other, which made little difference to the colonial administration, and no difference to the

85 percent of Indians, who lived its villages. India to him was not just a couple of

hundred lawyers, living in Bombay and Delhi, who were trained in England and donned

English suits, but the 350 million people, who toiled each day in its fields, under the hot

sun, worrying about where the next meal will come from.

To mobilize the masses, and to plant the seeds for a participatory movement of

unprecedented proportions, Gandhi adopted and encouraged other Indians to live, feel,

and experience life as a poor. He practiced “voluntary simplicity”, a life of no

possessions, of spinning one’s own cloth, of growing one’s own food, of fasting, of

traveling by third-class rail coach, of working shoulder-to-shoulder with the

“untouchables” to clean latrines, and so on. Millions followed him.

The biggest participatory movements in India’s freedom struggle, which

mobilized tens of millions of people, had its roots in Gandhi’s comradeship with the

oppressed. For instance, in 1930, Gandhi mobilized the nation around “salt”, the key

kitchen ingredient of poor, Indian masses, which was taxed by the British. His famous

1930 salt march of 150 kilometers, from his Ashram in Ahmedabad to the Indian ocean

(where he made salt on the beach), mobilized millions of Indians, showed the British the

“power” (in numbers) of the poor Indian masses, and created a national “participatory”

spirit in the freedom struggle, which eventually toppled the British government.

A facilitator should abandon oneself to the strengths of others.

Max DePree (1989)

Chapter 4

Participatory Approaches and Tools9

On the ground, participatory facilitation in a community occurs through a series

of processes that fall under what is commonly called the “participatory learning and

action” approach. Participatory learning and action (PLA) is a community development

approach whereby facilitators work with communities to help them analyze their needs,

identify solutions to fill those needs, and develop and implement a plan of action.

Facilitators use a variety participatory approaches, tools, and methods to gather

information about the community and its problems, and work closely with community

members to help them prioritize the problems, and their solutions. In doing so, the

facilitators work not as “experts”, but as facilitating experts.

Facilitators watch out. Expertise is useful. But there is a problem with

expertise. Those who are invaded, rarely go beyond the models that the invaders

prescribe for them.

Saul Alinsky (1970), paraphrased.

The present chapter is organized into two parts. First, some 10 key conceptual

approaches (or methods) to participatory facilitation, drawing heavily from the work of

Paulo Freire, are described. Second, 10 key participatory tools, often used in any PLA

community-based intervention, are presented. The reader may notice that the

participatory tools (discussed in the second part) represent creative ways of tapping the

conceptual wisdom codified in participatory approaches (discussed in the first part).

Conceptual Approaches to Participatory Facilitation

The process of participatory facilitation can be conceptually approached in several

ways. Here we describe ten conceptually-driven methods and approaches to participatory

facilitation, drawing heavily from the work of noted Brazilian educator, Paulo Freire10

(whose work was earlier discussed in Chapter 2): (1) codification, (2) conscientization,

(3) consensual governance, (4) cultural circle, (5) decodification, (6) dialectical method,

(7) dialogical method, (8) generating themes, (9) mystification, and (10)

problematization. Notice that these conceptual approaches to facilitation are not discrete;

in fact, to nurture facilitative participation, they must necessarily interact.

#1. Codification is a facilitation process in which the participants represent their

day-to-day situations in a symbolic manner. Codes can be in the form of a photograph, a

drawing, a map, or even a word. As a representation, the photograph or word is an

abstraction which permits dialogue between facilitators and participants, leading to an

analysis of the concrete reality represented by the code. Codifications mediate between

reality and its theoretical context, as well as between facilitators and participants who

together seek to unveil the meanings of their existence.

#2. Conscientization is an ongoing process by which both facilitators and

participants move toward critical consciousness. It differs from "consciousness raising"

in that the latter frequently involves "banking" education, that is, the transmission of pre-

selected knowledge. Conscientization means breaking through prevailing mythologies to

reach a new level of awareness, especially the awareness of oppression: That is, being an

"object" in a world where only "subjects" have power. The process of conscientization --

based on dialogue, reflection, and action -- involves identifying oppressive social

structures, investigating contradictions in human experience, and becoming a "subject"

with other oppressed subjects.

#3. Consensual governance involves decision-making by consensus. It requires

the discussion of issues until all participants are more or less in agreement. This

approach is in contrast to decision-making by voting in which rule by the majority is

imposed on those who dissent. Decision-making by consensus is time consuming and

difficult. At times, consensus represents the willingness of a minority "not to oppose" a

decision, but the ultimate benefit of this model is that no one is excluded by a decision.

Town hall meetings, where all people feel free to participate and express themselves, and

other such forums, represent one way of initiating such consensual governance.

#4. Cultural circle is an ongoing discussion group in which facilitators and

participants use codifications to engage in dialogue about the reasons for their existential

situation. The peer group provides the theoretical context for reflection and for

transforming interpretations of reality from mere opinion to a more critical

knowledge.

#5. Decodification is a process by which participants dissolve the codified

representation (a photograph, a map, or a word) into its constituent elements. By

decodifying, learners begin to perceive relationships between elements of the codification

and other experiences in their day-to-day life, and among the elements themselves. Thus,

decodification is analysis which takes place through dialogue, revealing the previously

unperceived meanings of the reality represented by that codification. Decodification is

principally undertaken in cultural circles.

#6. Dialectical method refers to the process that creates a dynamic tension within

any given system. It is premised on the belief that change occurs on the basis of that

tension and resulting conflict. Based on the writings of Hegel, every concept implies its

negation; that is, in conceiving anything (thesis), we must be able to imagine its opposite

(antithesis). Change occurs as this tension leads to a new conception of reality

(synthesis).

#7. Dialogical method is an approach to facilitative learning that is characterized

by co-operation and acceptance of interchangeability and mutuality in the roles of teacher

and learner, demanding an atmosphere of mutual acceptance and trust. In this method, all

teach and all learn.

#8. Generating themes (or words) is the process of codifying complex

experiences which are charged with political significance and are likely to generate

considerable discussion and analysis. They are derived from a study of the specific

history and circumstances of the learners. Generative themes can be codified into

generative words, which can be used to identify new realities and possibilities.

#9. Demystification is the opposite of mystification, the process by which the

alienating and oppressive features of culture are disguised and hidden. False, superficial,

and naive interpretations of culture prevent the emergence of critical consciousness. For

instance, unemployment is often "mystified" as personal failure rather than corporate

greed or governmental economic policies, thus making it difficult for the unemployed to

critically understand their situation. The task of the facilitator is to demystify, that is

expose the oppressive features of a culture.

#10. Problematization is the antithesis of "problem-solving." In problem-

solving, an expert takes distance from reality and reduces it to dimensions which are

amenable to treatment as though they were mere difficulties to be solved. To

"problematize" is to engage a group in the task of codifying reality into symbols which

can generate critical consciousness and empower them to alter their relations with nature

and oppressive social forces. Problem-posing is a logically prior task which allows all

previous conceptualizations of a problem to be treated as questionable. Problematization

recognizes that "solutions" are often difficult because the wrong problems are being

addressed.

Putting Participatory Approaches to Practice: Maria’s Dilemma

How can the above-mentioned conceptual approaches to participatory facilitation

be put in practice? The case of Maria’s real-life dilemma in a Central American country

may be illustrative.

Brightly colored political posters, even more than mismatched chairs, worn

carpeting, and unwashed windows, set this classroom apart from other schools. Eight

Hispanic adults--three women and five men--gathered with their teacher to resume their

lessons in literacy. Maria had arrived late, visibly distraught, explaining thather husband

had threatened her. He didn't want her going out to classes at night and argued that her

three children were being neglected. Maria, leaving the argument unresolved, had come

to resume her studies. Her teacher, instead of giving advice or encouragement, asked the

group to discuss (dialogical method) and help resolve Maria’s dilemma.

The members discussed and reflected on the Maria's experience and, in the

process, identified several issues (problematization): A husband's putative "rights" over

his wife, acceptance of domestic violence against women as “normal”, a presumption that

women are "asking for trouble" if they go outside at night, and that Maria had the major

responsibility for her children (codification and decodification).

The discussion was energetic, with strong sentiments expressed by some who

appealed frequently to "the way things are," and a growing solidarity among the

women (dialectical tension). While the group continued discussing these issues, the

teacher recorded words (generating themes) on an improvised blackboard: "woman,"

"violence," "mother," and "wife" -- words to which the class would return, once their

meaning had been expanded and enriched through the groups' discussion

(demystification in a cultural circle). Finally, it was Maria who interrupted and said,

"You've told me the way things are; I'll tell you how they should be, and together let's

talk about how to make them so." She effectively shifted the focus of the group from the

patronizing solicitude of some who accepted the present reality to a strategy for social

transformation (conscientization).

Source: Heaney (1999).

Participatory Tools

Facilitators of community participation have effectively operationalized the

conceptual approaches discussed above (for instance, the ideas of codification, generating

themes, dialogical method, and others) into practical tools for participatory learning and

action (PLA). Here we examine ten highly influential and innovative participatory tools

that may be employed in any PLA community-based intervention: (1) mapping, (2)

transect walks and observation, (3) time lines, (4) seasonal calendars, (5) daily schedules,

(6) body mapping, (7) pie charts, (8) card sorting, (9) story with a gap, and (10)

appreciative inquiry11. While these tools were developed in varied participatory contexts

by different individuals and organizations, they are relevant, useful, and practical in

almost all participative contexts (Cornwall 1992; de Negri et al., 1998; Narayan &

Srinivasan, 1994; Narayan, 1996; Pretty et al., 1993; and Srinivasan, 1993).

There is not set recipe for when to use these tools, although some tools are more

effective as introductory tools at the beginning of the PLA process, while others should

be used later to explore specific topics, problems, and solutions (de Negri et. al., 1998).

Tool #1: Mapping

Mapping is a spatial data gathering tool which provides a visual representation of

the community (either the whole community or part of it), including its (Narayan &

Srinivasan, 1994; de Negri et al., 1998):

• Geographical features

• Utility infrastructure (roads, telephones, power supply, etc.)

• Service infrastructure (schools, clinics, stores, shops, etc.)

• Land use patterns

• Number and types of houses

• Livestock distribution

As mapping can encourage many community members to participate, and also

build their interest in the PLA process, it might well be one of the first facilitation

activities. Mapping also generates a lot of information that can be used to plan the rest of

the PLA process. For instance, mapping can be used to identify households and topics for

subsequent in-depth interviews.

Maps can easily be drawn on the ground using sticks, stones, leaves, and seeds as

markers to represent various physical entities, and later be transferred to paper. Maps

typically generate a high level discussion among community members, as they afford an

opportunity for everyone to participate. Seeing one’s community being represented in

visual form is often highly exciting for community members. Mapping, however, does

have some constraints. Some community members, who may want the boundaries of their

property to be known, may resist mapping. Also, mapping can be difficult to implement

with large groups, and maps are of little use if everything is not clearly labeled on the

paper copy.

Maps can also be used to explore spatial data on specific topics, for example:

• Location of opinion leaders, teachers, mid-wives

• Households suffering from different diseases

• Caste, tribe, or ethnicity of households

• Users of family planning

• Location of violence against women

Maps can also be used to show changes over time, that is how things have

changed from the past to the present, or how the community members would like things

to look in the future.

Tool #2: Transect Walks

Transect walks are walks which PLA team members take around the community

in order to meet people, observe surroundings, and identify problems, opportunities, and

resources (de Negri et al., 1998). Like mapping, transect walks are spatial data-gathering

tools. Ideally, transact walks should be conducted early in the PLA process, after the

mapping exercise. Transect walks are planned by drawing a “transect line” through a map

of the community. The line goes through or “transects” all zones of the community in

order to provide a representative view. Transect walks can be used to observe:

• Housing conditions

• Sanitary conditions

• Presence and condition of health facilities

• Informal street commerce and prostitution

• Nature of interactions between men and women

• Forms of children’s labor

• Religious organizations in the community

Before conducting a transect walk, PLA facilitators should develop a flexible

observation guide to structure the issues of visual salience. Observation guides can

really sharpen people’s observation skills. In a multi-disciplinary PLA team, each

member should develop his or her own observation guide, according to their interests and

expertise.

Tool #3: Time Lines

Time lines are time-related data-gathering tools that link dates with historical

events (Narayan & Srinivasan, 1994; de Negri et al., 1998). A time line is usually divided

into many sections, with the date (or any other culturally appropriate measure of time)

written on one-side of the line, and the event written on the other side. While time lines

can cover any time period, they are mostly used to examine a sequence of events over

many years. In addition to representing significant events, time lines also can identify

changes over time.

Time lines represent good icebreakers in the PLA process, because people love to

talk about salient events in their community. PLA facilitators should conduct time line

exercises along with mapping and transect walks. Time lines are also a good way to

involve elders, as they often know the most about the community’s history.

Time lines can easily be drawn on the ground with sticks and other objects.

Another variation, especially in communities with high literacy rates, is to have each

person involved to write different events on paper, and then to have the group arrange the

papers in chronological order. As noted previously, absolute dates are not necessary.

Time lines can be used to put events in chronological order, and the distance between

events can illustrate time.

Time lines can be used to describe (1) personal histories, (2) community histories,

or (3) project histories. Some examples of the use of time lines for community’s history

may include:

• Major disease outbreaks

• Periods of community crises

• Introduction of new agriculture, health, and educational practices

• Cultural and social changes

Tool #4: Seasonal Calendars

A seasonal calendar is a time-related data-gathering tool that can diagram key

activities, problems, and opportunities during the course of a recurring time cycle (de

Negri et al., 1998). A seasonal calendar helps identify periods of greatest difficulty and

vulnerability, or other recurring phenomenon that have an impact on people’s lives.

Seasonal calendars can be conducted early in the PLA process in order to obtain

general information about a community (e.g. harvest patterns, income flows, etc.). or later

in the PLA process to explore relationships between to or more events (e.g. the

relationship between rainy season and disease outbreaks).

Seasonal calendars are often drawn with the months of one year (or another time

period chosen by the community) laid out in a horizontal row. A seasonal calendar should

reflect the indigenous concept of time, and does not have to be in monthly intervals,

starting with the month of January. For instance, communities may decide to use rainy,

dry, and winter seasons instead of months. After the time intervals are laid out

horizontally, vertically stacked rows are then created in each time interval, with each row

representing a different seasonal factor (e.g. income, disease, workload, etc.).

Like maps, seasonal calendars can be drawn on the ground, and objects such as

seed, rocks, or leaves can be used to indicate the intensity of different factors for each

time period. Sticks can be broken into different lengths and used to indicate relative

magnitudes. When seeking quantitative information during the construction of seasonal

calendars, PLA facilitators should also probe for qualitative information. For example,

when asking community members to name the busiest months of the year, one may also

ask what activities are conducted during those months, by whom, and why?

Following are some examples of different types of events that can be plotted on

seasonal calendars:

• Patterns of prevalence of diarrhea, malaria, and other diseases

• Price variations for food and other items

• Income and expenditure patterns

• Social and cultural events

• Crop sequences, pests and disease

• Migration patterns

• Climate (rainfall, temperatures, etc.)

• Workload of men, women, and children

Examples of relationships which can be explored with seasonal calendars include:

• Weather and disease outbreaks.

• Home workload and school drop outs

• Income and health center utilization

Tool #5: Daily Schedules

Daily schedules, like time lines and seasonal calendars, are also time-related data-

gathering tools that examine daily work patterns and other activities (de Negri et al.,

1998). Researchers can analyze the daily activities of a person, or a group, and compare

with those of others. Daily schedules are used for:

• Documenting daily activities

• Examining the timing of daily activities

• Noting periods when two or more daily activities are being carried out

concurrently.

• Discussing the introduction of new activities and their time implications

• Comparing differences between schedules

• Exploring a convenient time for scheduling meetings, training sessions, field

visits, and other activities

• Generating discussion about gender issues (e.g. comparing the schedules of

women with men, of girls with boys, and how these differences impact their

health and education status).

Facilitators may conduct daily schedules early in the PLA process to get useful

community information (such as women’s versus men’s workloads), or at a later time to

determine most convenient times for scheduling project activities.

While there are many ways to construct daily schedules, a simple way of doing it

is to use a daily time-line, divided by 24 hours or an appropriate time period (e.g.

morning, afternoon, evening, night). Community members may select appropriate

symbols (e.g. utensils to denote cooking time) to mark activities along the time line.

Smaller objects such as seeds or beans may be placed next to symbols to indicate the

amount of effort expended for each activity.

Daily schedules are used for mapping all of the activities in the typical day of

men, women, and children. They are also immensely revealing and useful when done

with a focus on specific issues, such as:

• Determining gender contribution to domestic chores (role of women versus men,

girl versus boy)

• A typical school day (from the student or teacher’s point of view)

• A typical day in a health center (e.g. created by a health center staff).

Tool #6: Pie Charts or Chappati Diagrams

Pie charts (also called chappati diagrams in places such as Kenya and India after

the flat circular Indian bread) are a tool for gathering social and health data, especially

those which illustrate proportions (de Negri et al., 1998). They consist of a circle that is

divided into different sized “slices”, depending on the relative importance of the elements

being discussed.

Pie charts can be conducted early during the PLA process because they are a short

exercise that is easy and fun to do. Such simple exercises boost the confidence of

community members. The preliminary information gathered through pie charts can

further be used to generate more in-depth discussions. Pie charts can also be used later in

the PLA process to examine specific topics, which may have been identified as being

salient through other participatory methods.

The pie chart can be drawn on the ground, and sticks can be place in a circle to

represent the “slice” demarcation lines. The advantage of using sticks is that they can be

moved around during the discussion. If it is not possible to use the ground, a large round

bowl can be filled with grain, beans, or seed, and participants can use small sticks to

divide the slices.

Pie charts can be used to examine a community’s demographics, explore people’s

weighted perceptions of issues, and identify constraints or problems. Following are some

examples of how pie charts have been used in PLA processes:

• Ethnic or religious composition of communities

• Major health problems in the community

• Sources of drinking water in the community

• Reasons for girls dropping out of school

• Types of family planning methods used in community

• Causes of maternal mortality in the community

• Distribution of household expenses

Tool #7: Body Maps

Another variation of community mapping, are body maps, which are a tool to

gather health data (Cornwall, 1992; de Negri et al., 1998). They can be used to describe

the location of body organs and to describe bodily functions. Body maps are especially

useful in participatory research to gain an understanding of how the local culture

perceives health issues. Often such issues are very difficult to explore verbally because

community members may be unfamiliar with anatomical vocabulary, may be

embarrassed to verbally describe certain body parts, and also because words may have

different cultural meanings. Visual body mapping helps to overcome these barriers as it

provides a shared point of reference for researchers and community members.

Body mapping can be used to explore such health issues as:

• The male and female reproductive system

• The importance of nutrition for infants, children, pregnant women, and the sick.

• The impact of alcohol, malaria, worms, or AIDS affect the body

• The impact of positive or negative health behaviors on the body

Tool #8: Sorting Health Behavior Cards

People’s perceptions of health and disease can be examined through sorting health

behavior cards (Narayan, 1996; de Negri et al., 1998)). This exercise can be done early in

the PLA process to help identify health problems, or later after specific problems have

been identified, in order to generate discussion about the causes.

The first step is to create twenty-four (or some such number) of illustrated cards –

half of them with desirable health behaviors (washing hands, breast feeding) and the

other half with undesirable health behaviors (garbage in the yard, flies on food, etc.).

Community members are given the mixed set of cards and asked to sort them into two

piles of desirable and undesirable health behaviors. When they are finished, the PLA

facilitators ask the community members their reason behind the placement of each card.

They can also use the cards to facilitate a discussion of which health practices (both

desirable and undesirable) are prevalent in the community.

Card sorting can also be used in PLA process for a variety of non-health issues.

For example:

• To examine desirable and undesirable human behaviors in the field of agriculture,

sanitation, environment, education, etc.

• To sort problems according to which community groups are most affected

• To sort possible solutions according to their feasibility and cultural

appropriateness

• To determine who will be responsible for different activities in the formulated

community action plan (e.g. the community, the government, the sponsoring

agency, etc.).

Tool #9: Story with a Gap

Once the data is gathered, and problems identified, the facilitators work with

community members to develop a community action plan (CAP). The story with a gap

exercise is designed to make participants think through the different steps involved in

implementing a CAP (Srinivasan, 1993; de Negri et al., 1998). The trainers can either

draw “before” or “after” pictures on a flip chart, hire a local artist to draw them, or make

photocopies of photographs and distribute them to participating community members.

Some examples of before and after scenes include:

BEFORE scene AFTER scene

Long line of women waiting at a well One woman getting water from a pump

A girl working in the fields A girl at school

A malnourished pregnant woman A healthy pregnant woman

A child defecating in the bush A child using a latrine

This story with a gap exercise helps community members to generate culturally

appropriate solutions to problems, and to move forward in developing a community

action plan.

Tool #10: Appreciative Inquiry12

Most of the previously discussed tools, such as mapping, time lines, seasonal

calendars, and others, while immensely useful, focus mostly on uncovering local

problems, resource constraints, deficiencies and unmet basic needs in order to generate

community-based solutions. Appreciative inquiry is a participatory technique that turns

the problem-solving approach on its head. It focuses on a community's achievements,

existing strengths, and local skills rather than its problems, and seeks to go beyond

participation to foster inspiration at the community level.

Developed by Professor David Cooperrider at Case Western Reserve University

(see Cooperrider, Sorensen, Whitney, & Yaeger, 1999; and Cooperrider & Whitney,

2000), the appreciative approach is now being applied on an experimental basis to

community development projects in India and Canada (see www.iisd.ca/ai) by the

Institute for Sustainable Development in Canada, and by UNICEF (electronic

communication, Neil Ford, February 27, 2001).

The appreciated world came into being with the development of man's

capability for self-reflection, a faculty encompassing much more than just thinking. It

holds the world—the physical, social, and spiritual aspects of man's world—as we view

it not just through the understanding that our mind composes of it but through all

forms of experience. It embraces our appreciation of what this world can do to and for

us, and what we can do to and for it... Thus, the appreciated world becomes the motor

for change induced by human action.

Erich Jantsch (cited in www.iisd.ca/ai).

Appreciative inquiry is a strategy for purposeful change that identifies the best

of "what is" to pursue dreams and possibilities of "what could be." The appreciative

approach involves collaborative inquiry, based on interviews and affirmative questioning,

to collect and celebrate the good news stories of a community—those stories that enhance

cultural identity, spirit and vision.

The appreciative approach involves four steps (see www.iisd.ca/ai).

1. Discovery Phase: The core task in the discovery phase is to appreciate the best

of "what is" by focusing on peak moments of community excellence, that is, when people

experienced the community in its most alive and effective state. Participants then seek to

understand the unique conditions that made the high points possible, such as leadership,

relationships, technologies, values, capacity building or external relationships.

2. Dream Phase: In the dream phase, people challenge the status quo by

envisioning more valued and vital futures. The images of the future emerge from

grounded examples of the positive past. The community members think great thoughts

and create great possibilities for their community, then turn those thoughts into

provocative propositions for themselves.

3. Design Phase: In the design phase community members create a strategy to

carry out their provocative propositions. They do so by building a social architecture for

their community that might, for example, re-define approaches to leadership, governance,

participation or capacity building. This design incorporates the qualities of community

life that they want to protect, and the relationships that they want to achieve.

4. Destiny Phase: In the final destiny phase involves the delivery and

implementation of new images of the future, a process sustained by nurturing a collective

sense of destiny. It is a time of continuous learning, adjustment and improvisation in the

service of shared community ideals.

Appreciative inquiry is a continual cycle, and requires skilled facilitation. The

destiny phase leads naturally to new discoveries of community strengths, beginning the

process anew.

A video on appreciative inquiry is available from www.amazon.com

Title: Conversations In Social Construction: Appreciative Inquiry-An Interview with

David Cooperrider.

Putting Participatory Tools in Practice in Uganda13

The experience of Rakai AIDS Information Network (RAIN), a Uganadan NGO,

exemplifies how several of the participatory tools (discussed above) can be put into

practice to gather information about the community, to prioritize community problems

and solutions, and to generate and implement a community action plan.

RAIN’s goal is to reduce the spread of HIV infection in the Rakai District.

Managed by health care providers, health educators, counselors and trainers from

Uganda’s Rakai district, RAIN’s strategy is to provide integrated AIDS prevention

interventions within a community-based health care framework.

Due to the high emphasis that it places on community participation, RAIN

facilitated participatory learning and action (PLA) workshops in two rural areas with high

HIV prevalence. The goal of the workshops was to help community members assess

factors that put them at risk of HIV infection. A large group of community members

representing several different villages participated.

The first PLA activity that was conducted was mapping. The participants divided

themselves by village, and each group drew a map of its village using locally available

materials (e.g. ash, beans, maize, and stones). The participants first drew physical

landmarks, such as hills, swamps, roads, and then added social markers such as homes,

church, schools, and farms. For each house, participants identified the number, age, and

sex of inhabitants, and the number of deaths that had occurred during the previous year.

The PLA facilitators asked the community members how many of the deaths were due to

AIDS, but the villagers did not want to reveal this information due to the stigma

associated with the disease.

The village maps were transferred to paper, and then presented to the group at

large. By identifying the number of deaths in the past twelve months, participants

realized that there had been at least one death in each home. Although the causes of death

were not identified, participants knew that AIDS caused many. By seeing the number of

deaths, participants realized how widespread AIDS was in their community, and could

better realize its implications for the community’s survival.

Next participants identified specific locations where they might be at risk of HIV

infection. For example, they identified bars where men took casual sex partners. They

also identified isolated areas, such as wells and wooded lots, where women were at risk

of being raped.

After mapping, a group of community members created a seasonal calendar on

the ground in order to examine the patterns of various diseases. For each of the 12

months of the year, participants identified the prevalence of malaria and diarrhea. After

they had finished and transferred the seasonal calendar to paper, some of the more

educated participants related the occurrence of the two diseases to the presence of rain or

sunshine.

Many of the participants were surprised by this relationship, because they had

previously associated malaria and diarrhea with eating certain foods (e.g. maize and

mangoes) that were present at specific times of the year. The PLA facilitator then asked

the participants whether HIV had a transmission season. Surprisingly, the villagers said

that yes, HIV transmission was highest during the harvest season (June, July, and

August), when men had more money. Because the men had more money, they could

drink more alcohol and pay for casual sex. In addition to the harvest season, the villagers

pointed out that HIV transmission was higher in March and December, when men sold

their stored crops to prepare for the Christmas and Easter holidays.

The final exercise involved the creation of twenty-four hour daily schedules to

allow the villagers to identify the differences in the amount of work performed by men

and women and to identify leisure time that might lead to risky behaviors. The men and

women conducted the exercise separately, and members of each group discussed what

they did for each hour of the day. The exercise revealed that women engaged in many

more activities than men during the day, and men had more leisure time than women. The

exercise also revealed that women were frequently asked by their husbands to have sex

(sometimes as many as three times a day), and that women were often too tired to

comply. Because of their extra leisure time and their tired wives, many men took on

additional sex partners. Both sexes realized that this behavior was putting men and their

wives at risk for contracting HIV.

After each of the above activities – mapping, seasonal calendars, and daily

schedules, participants were asked to think of solutions to the problems that were

identified.

After the mapping activity, participants realized that men were at risk of

contracting HIV at bars (where they would pick up casual sex partners) and women were

at risk of being raped in certain isolated places. As solutions, the men proposed that all

drinking be done before sunset, and that they come home early in the evening. To protect

them from attack, women decided to go in groups to collect firewood and water, and

some of the men even insisted that they will accompany their wives.

After the seasonal calendar activity, it became evident that HIV transmission was

highest at the times of year when men had the most disposable income. The RAIN staff

then decided to increase its condom distribution efforts and health education activities

during those months. The women also realized that they needed to protect themselves

more during the harvest season, and that they needed to encourage their husbands to take

extra precautions during this time.

As a result of the creation of the twenty-four hour daily schedules, the villagers

proposed that husbands and wives should together decide about how to better share the

workload. They realized that this would make the women less tired and keep the men

more occupied.

Any situation in which some men prevent others from engaging in the process

of inquiry is one of violence. To alienate men from their own decision-making is to

change them into objects.

Paulo Freire (1970, p. 73).

Chapter 5

Training Resources for Participatory Facilitation

While many talk about the importance of community participation, few can

effectively facilitate. In fact, the art of participatory facilitation is perhaps the single most

important human resource skill that needs to be cultivated in development contexts.

Needed are “catalyst communicators”, who can facilitate without fear, who can embody a

set of people-centered attitudes and beliefs, who is well-versed in participatory theories,

methods, and tools, and who has the requisite skills in language, listening, negotiation,

mediation (Nair & White, 1999).

As opposed to reinventing the wheel, one must draw upon the various

participatory facilitation videos, training materials, manuals, tool kits, and videos that

have become available in the past decade. Some of these key participatory materials are

identified below with contact and/or ordering information. Some key Web-based

resources are also identified.

Training Videos

1. Questions of difference: PRA, gender and environment. London: International

Institute for Environment and Development.

For more information, visit Web-site at http://www.iied.org/resource/

2. Putting the last first. Sussex, U.K.: Institute for Development Studies.

3. Who holds the stick? Sussex, U.K.: Institute for Development Studies.

For more information, visit the Web-page of the Institute of Development Studies

(IDS) at http://www.ids.ac.uk/ids/, or the home page of IDS’ Participation Program at

http://www.ids.ac.uk/ids/particip/home/index.html

4. Groundwork: Participatory research in girl’s education. Washington D.C.: The World

Bank, Economic Development Institute.

For more information, visit: http://www.worldbank.org/wbi/resource.html

5. SAGA: Participation in practice. Nairobi, Kenya: Kenya Rural Domestic Water

Supply and Sanitation Programme.

Training Manuals

1. Archer, D., & Cottingham, S. (1996). Reflect mother manual. Regenerated Freirean

literacy through empowering community techniques. London: ACTIONAID.

2. de Negri, B., Thomas, E., Illinigumugabo, A., Muvandi, I., & Lewis, G. (1998).

Empowering communities: Participatory techniques for community-based programme

development. Volume 1(2): Trainer’s Manual (Participant’s Handbook). Nairobi, Kenya:

The Centre for African Family Studies in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins

University Center for Communication Programs and the Academy for Educational

Development.

3. Hope, A., Timmel, S. (1984). Training for transformation: A handbook for community

workers. Gweru, Zimbabwe: Mambo Press (also distributed by IT Publications, London;

and David Philip Publishers, Claremont, S.Africa).

4. Pretty, J. et al. (1993). Participatory learning & action: A trainer’s guide. London:

International Institute for Environment and Development.

5. Srinivisan, L. (1993). Tools for community participation: A manual for training

trainers in participatory techniques. Washington D.C.: PROWESS/UNDP-World Bank

Water and Sanitation Program.

Tool Kits

1. Institute for Development Studies (1997). PRA Behavior & Attitudes Topic Pack.

Brighton, England: University of Sussex.

2. Institute for Development Studies (1996). PRA Tools and Techniques. Brighton,

England: University of Sussex.

3. Narayan, D., & Srinivasan, L. (1994). Participatory Development Toolkit: Training

Materials for Agencies and Communities. Washington D.C.: The World Bank. See more

information below.

Participatory Development Toolkit: Training Materials for Agencies and

Communities

Deepa Narayan and Lyr Srinivasan

Price: $ 40.00

English. Published September 1994 by World Bank ISBN: 0-8213-2687-2 SKU:

12687

Can be ordered online through:

https://publications.worldbank.org/ecommerce/catalog/product?item_id=195862

Provides visual materials and guidebook for trainers, practitioners, and others in the field

of development as an aid for incorporating participatory processes and methods into their

programs.

Helping the helpers: This product will help project managers, trainers, social scientists,

and other practitioners incorporate participatory processes and methods into their

programs. The activities and materials in this tool kit are applicable to many fields,

although they were developed for the water and sanitation sector. The kit, which is based

on training experience in 20 countries assists development

practitioners to adopt participatory approaches by providing field-tested materials,

provides examples of materials that can be adapted to local conditions, offers new

concepts to local artists and fieldworkers so they can create participatory materials that

respond to local needs and culture.

Contents: The kit, a handsome fold-out satchel, contains 25 activity envelopes and an

instruction booklet. A list of trainers experienced in participatory development techniques

is included in the booklet. The materials included, however, are prototypes and not are

meant for direct use in real-life situations--local adaptation is required. The description

for each prototype covers the purpose of the activity, audience, duration, materials

needed, materials contained, and usage instructions. For example, Activity 9, a

map-making exercise, is intended to gather information about a communityand its

problems by having participants create their own map. Lasting 30 minutes to 2 hours, the

exercise asks participants to map their community on various levels, including

topography and demographics. A discussion of community-related issues is then initiated

on the basis of the map.

Web-Based Resources

While there exist several hundred Web-sites that deal with participatory issues,

here are some which may be useful to tap as a resource for starters:

1. The London-based International Institute for Environment and Development has an

excellent collection called the Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) Collection,

which includes over 2500 documents on Participatory Approaches (such as:

Participatory Rural Appraisal, Rapid Rural Appraisal, Participatory Learning and

Action, etc.) from around the world with an emphasis on Africa, Asia and South

America. The documentation consists mainly of unpublished literature, case studies

and reports, and features material in more than ten languages. New items are added to

the collection every month. Bibliographies, case studies, workshop reports and

training aids on all the major aspects of PLA are also available. For more information,

visit Web-site at http://www.iied.org/resource/

2. Visit Web-site of the Centers for Participatory Learning and Action Network at

http://www.rcpla.org/

3. Visit the Web-site of the Sussex-based Institute of Development Studies’

Participation Program at http://www.ids.ac.uk/ids/particip/home/index.html

4. Visit World Bank’s Participation Web-site at

http://www.worldbank.org/participation/

5. Visit the Communication Initiative Web-site at www.comminit.com

Chapter 6

Commandments for Participatory Research

Participatory research is primarily community-based and is devoted to engaging

local people in planning their own development processes (Jacobson, 1993; 215). This

process of local self-reflection and education facilitates an action-orientation toward

social change. The main goal of participatory monitoring and evaluation (PM&E) is to

build the community’s capacity to track the progress of its own development. Many of

the tools described in the previous chapter, such as mapping, seasonal calendar, daily

schedules, sorting of cards, body maps, etc. can be used as tools of participatory

diagnostics, monitoring, and evaluation, as well as to gauge community development and

changes over time.

Participatory research is “partisan research; it is the research of involvement. It

is the research for liberation. It is not only research with the people; it is people’s

research.

Simbulan (1983, p. 10).

Participatory research places tradition, indigenous and local knowledge in

position of primary importance. It is of different types and comes with different labels:

Participatory rural appraisal (PRA), rapid rural appraisal (RRA), participatory action

research (PAR), action research, and so on. The general notion is that participatory

research involves interactive social learning instead of expert-dominated positivist social

research (Jacobson, 1993).

Ten Commandments of Community-Based Research

1. Thou shalt not define, design, or commit community research without

consulting the community!

2. As ye value outcomes, so shall ye value processes!

3. When faced with a choice between community objectives and the satisfaction

of intellectual curiosity, thou shalt hold community objectives to be the higher good!

4. Thou shalt not covet the community’s data!

5. Thou shalt not commit analysis of community data without community input!

6. Thou shalt not bear false witness to, or concerning members of the community!

7. Thou shalt not release community research findings before the community

research functions!

8. Thou shalt train and hire community people to perform community research

functions.

9. Thou shalt not violate confidentiality!

10. Thou shalt freely confess thyself to be biased and thine hypotheses and

methodologies to be likewise!

Source: Brown (1997).

Donor-Driven Versus People-Driven

Unfortunately, evaluation of programs, whether participatory in nature or not, are

still a donor driven exercise, in which participants are mainly seen as “objects” of study,

and not subjects that can contribute to the evaluation process (Gumucio Dagron, 2001;

Jacobsen, 1993; Servaes, 1999). The objectives of the evaluations, almost always, serve

institutional agendas, not the people’s agenda.

Honest and useful evaluations will only be possible when donors and

implementers surrender their institutional agendas (Gumucio Dagron, 2001). Will they?

Community Participation in Evaluation14

de Ortecho (1991) narrates an example of community participation in evaluation

from Cordoba, Argentina.

Having worked in housing for the Argentine poor in the last 20 years, we'd done

many evaluations in the conventional (agency-driven) way and decided to undertake a

participatory approach. A poor group that had set up a housing cooperative in Argentina

wanted to evaluate their project’s progress over time and asked us for technical advice.

Since they couldn't work easily with a written history of their long community

experience, we thought of providing them with a visual synthesis of their process, which

would mean they could look at their history, think about it, and draw lessons from it. The

work involved several steps.

First, cooperative members, with our help, represented the remarkable moments

and scenes from their community history by drawings, phrases, and pictures. We

arranged these on a wall. We worked with simple, child-like images that were easy to

draw, so anybody could incorporate ideas or situations and participate in building the

panel. Pictures and phrases were also included. Next, we expected participants to

identify the turning points of their history and reflect on them. Looking over their

history, they gradually reached consensus on eight critical events. They called these

"rudder strokes" and signaled them with colored circles.

This first participatory evaluation with community groups showed us, among

other things, that images and manual work enrich dialogues and lead to holistic thinking.

For this reason, we went on experimenting with images applied to rather abstract topics,

like the relationship among different actors involved in a social and housing development

process. Several groups were pleased to participate in this kind of analysis.

Years before we'd approached this topic with conventional procedures. We took

from those experiences a traditional way of representing the group structure (that is, small

circles linked by lines). With that idea in mind, we gave each group a blank sheet of

paper and small colored circles representing various stakeholders: Cooperative associates,

community representatives, volunteers, etc. The task was to play with circles on the sheet

of paper until they represented the relationships among participants, and closeness or

distance of stakeholders. Members of the groups said: "It was fascinating to see and

realize how we've changed, altogether, over the years."

Our next challenge was how we could train these community groups in different

types of conventional research procedures so they could work not only with opinions,

perceptions, and ideas, but also verify and measure items of importance. We tried this

with a group that had asked us for technical help in planning their housing process

collectively. Once again we worked it out, little by little.

As a first step, we helped the group identify possible resources for a community

housing process. They talked about it, wrote a list, and drew cards representing the many

diverse possibilities. As a second step, we had them classify identified resources in a

matrix by putting each card in a proper shelf. Shelves had been drawn on a paper panel

glued to the wall. The idea of using one shelf for each type of resource worked so well in

showing the abstract conception of a matrix that they had no problem later handling

different types of matrixes. As a third step, they verified and quantified community

resources by designing, with our help, a close-ended quantitative interview. Community

representatives filled out the forms with the families they visited at their homes. Later,

we prepared a huge table where they tabulated the data obtained in the interviews. It was

an enjoyable task, and an enabling one as well. Using the collected data, they identified

the need for, and carried out several other surveys, which backed up a housing proposal

used to obtain funding soon afterwards.

The results of participatory community development and evaluation effort not

only appeared at the end of a working process when a final report was elaborated; on the

contrary, we often found useful outcomes during the processes: For instance, participants

shared feelings, expectations, and ideas not typically exchanged day after day;

participants collectively acquiring knowledge; participants became aware of the

relationship between particular issues (for example, large family size) and long-range

social problems (for example, poor maternal health, shortage of educational facilities,

etc.).

In the past several decades, Latin American people have seen that as one

economic crisis is followed by another, and massive social groups are increasingly being

impoverished. Traditional means of dealing with those problems have become useless. At

the same time, social projects turned into collective learning processes are little by little

being recognized as a way to mobilize human resources. We're facing methodological

questions we didn't think of a couple of years ago. The frontier to be pushed is enabling

community groups to handle useful evaluation processes. The time has come to face a

challenge of a different nature-to turn these group learning processes into larger

community learning processes to match the magnitude of the changes needed and

expected with the ability to produce them.

Guides for Participatory Research

• Participatory monitoring and evaluation should be conducted before, during, and after

the launch of programs.

• Skills in conducting various types of participatory evaluation – both quantitative and

qualitative -- need to be strengthened so that the evaluation processes are useful,

timely, relevant, practical, and cost-effective.

• Change indicators must assess changes in individual, community, and the social

environment.

Measures of Community Participation

Scholars have proposed and honed various concepts to measure aspects of

community participation and development, for instance: (1) community capacity (see

Labonte, 1989; Parker, Eng, Schulz, & Israel, 1999), ((2) sense of community (Eng,

Briscoe, & Cunningham, 1990; Eng & Parker, 1994 ), (3) social cohesion (Lochner,

Kawachi, & Kennedy, 1999, Kawachi & Berkman, 2000), and (4) social capital

(Kawachi & Berkman, 2000). While it is beyond the scope of this volume to go into an

in-depth analysis of these sampled concepts and their measurement, some of their

definitional attributes are discussed, which may be useful for some practitioners, in case

they wished to whet their appetite15.

Community capacity is defined as one in which the various parts of the

community are able to collaborate effectively in identifying the problems and needs of

the community, can achieve a working consensus on goals and priorities, can agree on

ways and means to implement agreed-on goals, and can collaborate effectively in the

required actions (Parker et al., 1999). Sense of community is defined as opportunities in a

community for membership, influence, mutual needs to be met, and shared emotional ties

and support (Parker et. al., 1999). Social cohesion refers to the extent of connectedness

and solidarity among groups in a community. A cohesive society is one that is richly

endowed with stocks of social capital, defined as those features of social structures – such

as levels of interpersonal trust and norms of reciprocity and mutual aid – which act as

resources for individuals and facilitate collective action (Kawachi & Berkman, 2000).

Social capital thus forms a subset of the notion of social cohesion, which refers to two

broad intertwined features of a society: (1) the absence of latent social conflict – whether

in the form of income/wealth inequality, racial/ethnic tensions; disparities in political

participation; and (2) the presence of strong social bonds – measured by levels of trust

and norms of reciprocity (i.e. social capital); the abundance of associations that bridge

social divisions (“civil society”); the presence of institutions of conflict management (a

responsive democracy, an independent judiciary, and so on).

As is clear from the above discussion, community participation is not merely

concerned with numerical outputs and quantitative results; but also with long-term

change in such measures as organizational capabilities, institutional growth, and people's

relationships with their peers and those in power (qualitative results).

A general set of quantitative indicators16 for community participation may

include:

• Numbers of project level meetings and attendance levels

• Percentages of different groups attending meetings (e.g. women, landless)

• Numbers of direct project beneficiaries

• Project input take-up rates

• Numbers of local leaders assuming positions of responsibility

• Numbers of local people who acquire positions in formal organizations

• Numbers of local people who are involved in different stages of project

• Improved and higher levels of service delivery

A general set of qualitative indicators for community participation may include:

• Organizational growth at the community level

• Growing solidarity and mutual support

• Concern to be involved in decision-making at different stages

• Increasing ability of project group to propose and undertake actions

• Representation in government or political bodies related to the project

• Emergence of people willing to take on leadership

• Interaction and the building of contacts with other groups and institutions.

Community and Social Indicators

To illustrate the notion of quantitative and qualitative indicators, a preliminary list

of community and social change indicators for HIV prevention, care, and support

programs are provided below. Notice that these are very different from the typical KAP

(knowledge, attitude, and practice) measures that are typically used to assess individual-

level changes of behavior change communications.

The purpose is to assess changes in the degree (in terms of frequency, reach,

intensity, and quality) to which

1. The workplaces in the community have implemented HIV/AIDS programs.

2. The community has initiated home-based care programs.

3. The local health services offer HIV/AIDS testing and counseling.

4. The local health services ensure and provide access to safe blood supply.

5. The local brothels and commercial sex houses have adopted a condom adoption and

HIV testing policy.

6. The local prisons and military establishments have instituted HIV/AIDS programs.

7. The local schools have adopted an HIV/AIDS education curriculum.

8. The dropout rate for AIDS orphans at local schools has decreased.

9. Those who are living with HIV/AIDS are part of the “mainstream” in society

(employed in regular jobs, working as counselors, etc.).

10. Those who are living with HIV/AIDS are protected by laws (that are designed to

uphold their rights).

11. The quality of life of those living with AIDS, and those taking care of them, has been

enhanced.

12. The community members openly discuss and debate HIV/AIDS issues in public

meetings.

13. New community-based programs and initiatives have been launched to address

HIV/AIDS prevention, care, and support.

14. New coalitions and alliances have emerged among community organizations to

address HIV/AIDS issues.

15. The community members have collectively taken decisions or passed resolutions

about combating HIV/AIDS.

16. Grassroots leadership has emerged from within the community to tackle HIV/AIDS

issues.

17. Religious organizations and spiritual leaders are involved in HIV prevention, care,

and support programs.

18. The community has engaged in acts of mobilization and activism for HIV/AIDS

related issues.

19. The community has engaged with the local administration, service delivery

organizations, non-governmental organizations, and others on HIV/AIDS issues.

20. The community’s cultural activities (sports, folk media, festivals, celebrations, songs,

etc.) engage with HIV/AIDS issues.

21. The most vulnerable groups for HIV/AIDS in a community have been empowered to

take more control of their external environment.

22. The media coverage and media advocacy for HIV/AIDS has increased.

23. The overall rate of STDs, HIV infections have decreased.

24. The community has become AIDS-competent in terms of prevention, care, and

support.

25. There exists multi-sectoral involvement at the national level for HIV/AIDS

prevention, care, and support.

Source: Singhal (2000).

Chapter 7

Bumps on the Participation Path

Much is done in the name of participation that is participation only in name.

Thomas Jacobson (1993, p. 225).

Rhetoric Versus Reality

The reality of participation differs from the rhetoric. Participation has been

promoted by donors, NGOs, and governments without changes in bureaucratic

imperatives, or personal orientations (Chambers, 1999). For some reason, participation is

seen as something that “others” do. In other words, participation has been commanded.

Targets have been set, methods routinized, and then appearances of achievement

contrived.

There has been a growing trend to accept participation as a fashionable

concept, but without much conviction on the part of the international and non-

governmental organizations.

Orlando Fals Borda (cited in Gomez, 1999, p. 152).

Participation is far from being a smooth, unhindered, and clear-cut process of

social change. Facilitators and their implementing agencies must be mindful of the

caveats, barriers, and ethical dilemmas of participation.

Caveats

Many caveats underlie participatory communication activities (White:1994;

Yoon, 1995).

1. Not a panacea: Participatory processes are not suitable for solving all

problems in all contexts or time frames. The mother whose child is dying of diarrhea does

not want to "participate". Immediate, technically-appropriate, interventions must

necessarily complement participatory processes.

2. Price for participation: People pay a price for taking part in participatory

processes. An opportunity cost exists for every hour spent "participating". The villager

may be foregoing more productive activity if the participatory processes do not lead to

long or short term benefits.

Barriers

The key barriers to participation include:

1. Reluctance to create conflict : Participatory processes of empowerment often

squarely upset prevailing power relationships, creating conflict between those lacking

power and those holding power. Unless the oppressed have the agency to wage and bear

the consequences of conflict, participation may do more harm than good. The inherency

of conflict, and the propensity to avoid it, is often an important barrier to participation

(Servaes, 1999, p. 196).

2. Inconsistent organizational structures: Participation is inconsistent with the

organizational realities of development as NGOs and implementing agencies usually have

narrow time frames to get projects off the ground (McKee, 1994). Funding agencies are

concerned with budgets and progress reports. They are rewarded “according to the size of

their portfolios and often look for a blueprint to follow, not a complicated community

process that may take years to be realized” (McKee, 1994, p. 40).

Can they Walk the Talk?

Can NGOs and their funding agencies adopt flexible management approaches in

the implementation of participatory programs? Can they structure their work plans and

budgets in a way that changes which evolve out of participatory processes can be

addressed in a timely and efficacious manner?

3. Slow decision-making: Participation can both facilitate and impair decision-

making processes. Participation means that facilitators consciously sacrifice their ability

to make fast and stable decisions (Servaes, 1999, p. 198). Practitioners reluctance to

relinquish swift decision-making powers represents a barrier to participation.

Ethical Dilemmas

Participatory processes, given their social change orientation, necessarily face

certain ethical dilemmas. The overarching dilemma centers on the ethical question: Who

is to determine what is right for whom? In addition, at least two other dilemmas

accompany participatory processes (Yoon, 1995).

1. Ethical dilemma of “letting go”: Participatory practitioners must be especially

mindful of their ethical responsibility to let go, abandon, or relinquish cherished, pre-

conceived notions. For instance, even a well-meaning participatory facilitator can enter a

community with a set of values and program agenda, hoping the community members

will perceive their problems and solutions the way he or she sees it. In such cases,

“manipulation” of the participatory processes is bound to happen.

2. Ethical dilemma of completion: Participatory programs can profoundly alter

relationships and existing social structures in a community. Facilitators and their

organizations must ethically commit themselves to working with the community

members to “complete” the participatory processes, in order that the activities are

routinized and sustainable. Facilitators must not abandon the communities in the mid-

course of change when the challenges are especially severe. Communities should not be

left fractured.

3. Ethical dilemma of whom do I work for? Facilitators of community

participation often wrestle with the dilemma: Whom do I really work for? For my

agency? Or for and with the people?

Challenging the given methods of a sponsoring agency can have its perils.

Bridging the Distance: Wandering of the Beaten Path

Compounding the above ethical dilemmas are the day-to-day job-related realities

of development officials. For instance, even well meaning NGO and international aid

agency officials are often urban-based and urban-biased (Chambers, 1983). Once

established in their urban offices, they are tied down by committees, sub-committees,

memoranda, reports, urgent papers, personnel problems, financial management,

justifications, evaluations, visits by missions, meeting with ministers and government

officials. All this means less time in the field.

Field experience of most agency officials is, at best, as a “rural development

tourist” (Chambers, 1983). Lack of contact with community members permits them to

form views without any real exposure to people’s problems. Poor people are rarely met;

when they are met, they often do not speak; when they do speak, they are often too

cautious and deferential; and what they say is often either not listened to, or brushed

aside, or interpreted condescendingly (Chambers, 1983).

What the eye does not see, the heart does not grieve.

Urban-based and urban-biased officials of NGOs and international development

agencies, who often facilitate, support, monitor, and evaluate the ground-based

facilitators of community development, may benefit greatly by regularly, as Robert

Chambers (1983) says: “wandering off the beaten path”. Instead of hurriedly rocketing

around in a Land Rover, they should allow plenty of time in one place, perhaps spend the

night in a community, sitting and listening in the dark (as opposed to standing and

talking). They need to “be” (not “act”) unimportant, perhaps coming by bicycle or foot,

and coming unscheduled. Better still, they should try to experience the world as a poor

and weak person, even if it be for a day.

My friend, Dr. Satsangi, a male veterinary doctor turned cooperative facilitator,

who works with women dairy farmers in the Jaipur District of Rajasthan State, India,

recounts the transformative experience of leading the life of a woman for one day, as part

of a gender sensitization lived-experience. His day included waking up before sun rise,

preparing fodder for the animals, milking the cows, walking to the forest to pick up

firewood, walking to the village pond to wash clothes, cooking three meals, cleaning

utensils, working on the farm, picking animal droppings for fuel, sweeping the yard and

animal shed, and being the last person to go to bed (he noted that he was “spared” the

task of attending to the four children and from obeying the wishes of the husband, in-

laws, and elders). At the end of the day, he recounts his intense desire to get into his jeep

and drive away to the city, only to be informed by the trainer: “Oh no, you can only leave

the village about once a year; that too on a bullock cart, and with your four children”.

“Talking” is the first step of walking the walk. It is probably easier for

individuals to narrow the talking and walking gap than it is for institutions.

White (1999).

Author’s Concluding Note

Facilitating people’s participation is no cake walk. It requires time. It requires

resources – human and material. It requires abandoning oneself to the strength of others.

It requires cultural sensitivity. It requires a respect for others. It requires surrendering

certainty. It requires selflessness. It requires tools, skills, and training. It requires

creativity. It requires collaboration. It requires having a bird’s eye view. It requires

having a worm’s eye view. It requires passion. It requires emotion. It requires personal

commitment. It requires persistence. It requires a willingness to take risks.

Participative facilitation is an art, science, and belief, whose visible signs, as

White (1999) said, are expressed, ultimately, in its practice.

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Endnotes

1 This section on Augusto Boal’s Theater of the Oppressed draws upon the following

web-sites: http://www.communityarts.net/readingroom/archive/boalintro.html

http://www.gn.apc.org/resurgence/issues/unwin204.htm

http://www.unomaha.edu/~pto/augusto.htm

2 This draws upon Gumucio Dagron (2001).

3 This draws upon Singhal and Rogers (2001).

4 This draws upon Rose (1992).

5 This draws upon Singhal and Rogers (2001).

6 This section draws upon Chambers (1999).

7 Mainly drawing upon Kiiti and Nielsen (1999).

8 In some cases, these “nuggets” have been paraphrased for brevity and relevance. For

instance, most of DePree’s (1989) comments were made in the context of facilitative

“leaders”, which the present author feels holds direct relevance for “facilitators”.

9 This chapter draws heavily upon Cornwall (1992); de Negri et al. (1998); Narayan

(1996); Pretty (1993); and Srinivasan (1993).

10 This section draws heavily upon Heaney (1986, 1989).

11 These represent a sample of the most commonly used participatory tools and methods

but are not exhaustive.

12 This section on appreciative inquiry draws upon www.iisd.ca/ai. I thank Neil Ford for

pointing this approach to me.

13 This draws upon Ssembatya et al. (1995; cited in de Negri et al. 1998).

14 This example draws upon http://www.joe.org/joe/1991summer/a7.html

15 Interested readers should read the listed articles as they provide both a conceptual

understanding of the given “community effectiveness” variable, including its

measurement, and limitations.

16This discussion of quantitative and qualitative indicators draws upon:

http://www.fao.org/docrep/x5307e/x5307e05.htm#chapter five: participatory evaluation

STUDYING THE FACTORS AFFECTING SOCIAL PARTICIPATION IN OLDER WOMEN

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2017

The issue of social participation has an important role in social health promotion consisting a variety of individual and collective actions in order to determine the destiny of society and themselves and also effecting on decision-making processes regarding public affairs. Accordingly, this study aimed to study the factors related to the rate of social participation in older women. This is a cross-sectional study which after taking informed consent is conducted on 50 women retired from Fatemieh Hospital of Hamadan in census manner in 2015. Data collection tool included a questionnaire of demographic characteristics and factors related to social participation. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 21, descriptive statistics, chi-square test, pair t-test and one way analysis of variance. In this study, the significant level was considered less than 0.05. Experience and duration of social participation had significant relation with each other by overall assessment of factors related to participation. 54% had participated in health promotion programs in their living areas. There was a significant relation between the rate of social participation in health promotion and variable of time (p=0.013) and participation experience (p=0.005). Women retired from Fatemieh Hospital of Hamadan had an appropriate attitude in social participation for health promotion. However, for further increase of social participation, there should be training and facilitating through providing suitable facilities such as confidence-building, awareness of ways to communicate with administrators and welcoming of administrators from suggestions of people.

Guidelines to enhance community participation in Community Learning Centres in the Kingdom of Cambodia

Article

Full-text available

Nov 2022

This research aims to (1) study the current state and needs of the community to enhance participation in community learning centers (CLCs) in Cambodia, and (2) consider the required coverage of guidelines to enhance community participation in CLCs. The research utilized a mixed-method design which conducted a survey with a sample of 28 CLC committee members and 197 community people using stratified random sampling. The quantitative data were analyzed through means [Formula: see text], standard deviation (SD), and Priority Need Index Modified (PNI modified ). The in-depth interviews and Likert-scale questionnaires have been conducted with the experts to clarify and confirm the guidelines’ item validity and feasibility. The research found there were few practices and activities of CLC committee members and community people in CLCs as current states are at moderate levels ([Formula: see text] = 2.64, SD = 0.67). Whereas, there was a great demand from CLC committee members and community people to enhance their participation in CLCs as their desirable needs were at a high level ([Formula: see text] = 4.41, SD = 0.66). This study suggests requirements for guidelines which will enhance community participation in CLCs in Cambodia comprising of vision, goals, and guidelines that aim to transform CLCs to become lifelong learning centers by 2030.

GUIDELINES TO ENHANCE COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN COMMUNITY LEARNING CENTERS IN THE KINGDOM OF CAMBODIA

Thesis

Full-text available

Aug 2021

Neak Piseth

The study aims to 1) analyze components of community participation in the CLCs in Cambodia; 2) study current states and desirable needs of community participation in enhancing community participation in the CLCs in Cambodia; 3) propose guidelines to enhance community participation in the CLCs in Cambodia. A semi-structured interview with 5 Cambodian experts has been employed, and all the keywords have been coded to analyze community participation components in the CLCs. Moreover, this research utilized a survey with the selected samples of 28 CLC committee members and 197 people using stratified random sampling by analyzing data through Means (x̅), Standard Deviation (S.D.), and Modified Priority Needs (PNImodified) to study current states and desirable need of community people in the CLCs in Cambodia. Lastly, the in-depth interview and Likert-scale questionnaire have been conducted with the experts to clarify and confirm the proposed guidelines' validity and feasibility. The research findings are as follows. 1. The components of community participation in the CLCs in Cambodia consist of utilizing services, resource mobilization, attending programs, diagnosing needs, planning programs, monitoring, and evaluation, and decision making in the CLCs in Cambodia. 2. The current states in enhancing community participation in the CLCs are at the moderate level (x̅=2.64, S.D.=0.67) meaning that there are a few the CLC committee and members participating in the activities of the CLCs while the desirable needs in enhancing community participation in the CLCs are at the high levels (x̅=4.41, S.D.=0.66) meaning that there is a high need of the CLC committee and members a taking part in activities of the CLCs. 3. Guidelines to enhance community participation in the CLCs in Cambodia comprise of vision, goals, and guidelines. The vision is to transform the CLCs to become lifelong learning centers in promoting informal, non-formal, and lifelong learning by 2030. The goals are to enrich human resources, physical infrastructure, finances, and enhance community participation in the CLCs to achieve future sustainability and become lifelong learning centers. The guidelines enhance community participation in diagnosing needs, planning programs, implementing programs, monitoring and evaluation, and decision making in the CLCs in Cambodia. Key terms: Community Participation, Participation, sustainable community learning centers, Community, Guidelines

Dance movement therapy (DMT) for adolescent girls: a communication intervention for mental health

Article

Jul 2023

The study is an attempt to examine the role of Dance Movement Therapy (DMT) in promoting the mental wellbeing of adolescent girls by making them self-aware. Dance is a non-verbal mode of communication, and the goal of the study is to learn how it may be used as a communication intervention for the mental health of teenagers. The implications of the study explore Dance Movement Therapy as a community intervention for development communication facilitators and social workers to use this strategy as an icebreaker session. The study employed action research, and the data was collected using qualitative methods like focus group discussions, field observation, and key informant interviews. The study also used intimate and in-depth DMT approaches in a field workshop conducted by the researcher as a facilitator with 11 adolescent girls from Nithari village. The DMT interventions aid in the integration of abilities such as self awareness, body awareness, and confidence in venting their inner feelings. Major findings of the study reveal that DMT interventions proved to be an efficient component of participatory media as they have the ability to give instantaneous feedback. The study also revealed that Dance Movement Therapy can act as an effective instrument for fostering community engagement.

Participatory Communication of Thai Youth in Strengthening Pride in Their Local Southern Identity

Article

Dec 2024

Tanaporn Charoenthansakul

The southern people in Thailand are often questioned and given negative connotations by society and the government. The media also portrays stereotypical images of southerners and characterizes them as having a stagnant identity. Most of it is constructed through the eyes of an "outsider," who would present the southern community in a more negative light than a positive one. This study aims to create a participatory communication process among the target youth by establishing a prototype media kit and enhancing pride in the southern identity through participatory action research among junior high school students as active audiences and students in the change agent communicator group. The study revealed that the participatory communication process has created a communication story arising from the exchange of experiences of the target groups with regards to their pride in their southern identity. The process of collecting information on the use of words that oppress Southern localities eventually led to the setting up of an entry point as the starting point to communicate the narrative for "transforming pain points into proud points", to change negative experiences that are painful points and transform them into feelings of positive identification reinforcement and shift their mindsets from forbidding others to mock them into an immunity against mockery. It has also revealed empirical results with regards to building pride in the southern region's local identity of the target group and the ability to reprocess the application of participative communication processes to building acceptance of diversity and cultural pride.

Educating the Local Population About the Need of Environmental Protection Through Participatory Educational Theatre (PET) With a Focus on Sundarbans: Participatory Educational Theatre and Environmental Protection

Chapter

May 2024

Participatory and community theatre are applied from radical theatre traditions. Participatory education theatre (PET) has been aiding natural resource conservation projects around the globe. This book chapter elaborates on the role of PET as an effective tool in implementing socio-environmental projects. The genesis and evolution of PET from traditional theatrical forms are showcased in this chapter. The benefit of PET is turning the passive audiences into active participants, which helps in project implementation. As dramatic pretend play games (DPPG) help enlist behavioural changes in audience, PET also caters to more acceptability of any project's critical take-home message to a broader audience. This concept was tested in a socio-environmental project in the disaster-vulnerable Indian Sundarbans, with positive outcomes and has been instrumental in project compliance with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 10 (reduce inequalities) targets by challenging the existing class, creed, and religion-based social dogmas.

References

Chapter

May 2013

Bridging Health: Exploring Participatory Communication among Health Communication Planners and Implementers in the Philippines

Article

Feb 2012

Randy Jay Solis

This study explores a framework for theorizing the participatory media approach by examining local experiences on communication and development through the perspectives of health communication technicians, their relationships with senders and receivers in health programs and projects, and how they conduct the process of communication planning, implementation, and evaluation. The study addresses the following three main questions: (1) Who are the health communicators and what are their roles in participatory communication? (2) What is the level of participatory communication in health programs and projects? and (3) What are the approaches and characteristics of participatory communication in health programs and projects in the Philippines? The study reveals that communication technicians perceive their communication strategies as long-term processes that address the felt needs of communities with the participation of beneficiaries in planning communication that is sensitive to the culture of, beneficial to the majority of, and owned by the community.

The Relevance of Rabindranath Tagore and Paulo Freire for Participatory Communication

Chapter

Jul 2022

Jan Servaes

Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941), Asia’s first Nobel Laureate, and the Brazilian educator and philosopher Paulo Freire (1921–1997) are part of a global network of pioneering educators who have striven to create non-authoritarian learning and dialogical communication systems, which are appropriate to their respective contexts. This chapter attempts to assess the relevance of Tagore’s ideas on education and Freire’s conscientization method in the field of development communication, especially participatory communication.

Hansel, Gretel, and the Chinchorro : A Live Performance Entertainment Education Approach to Chagas Disease in Rural Ecuador

Article

Jul 2022

Impoverished rural communities are disproportionately affected by a neglected tropical disease called Chagas disease. Because it is a disease that affects the poor, governments inconsistently respond and, when they respond, governments use insecticides that are expensive for the affected communities and unhealthy for their inhabitants. Primary prevention of Chagas disease is essential. The present study reports on an entertainment education approach that sought to raise awareness of Chagas and its insect vector, the triatomine bug. As part of our ongoing efforts in rural Ecuador, we worked with the children of Chaquizhca to create plays that would promote awareness of triatomine bugs and associate the bugs with Chagas disease. Through an analysis of the plays the children wrote, we demonstrate opportunities and challenges that local scale entertainment education approaches face in when adopting community-centered participatory approaches in rural communities.

Community Based Research

Method

Full-text available

Dec 2015

The ppt gives an overview of the project goals, the research rationale, and the methods used.

Communication for Behavior and Social Change: HIV/AIDS Programme Experiences, Examples, and the Way Forward

Technical Report

Full-text available

Jan 2001

Arvind Singhal

Participatory Action and Learning: a Trainer's Guide

Article

Full-text available

Jan 1995

Entertainment-Education: A Communication Strategy for Social Change

Book

Full-text available

Jan 1999

A needless dichotomy exists in almost all mass media content: That mass media programs must either be entertaining or educational. In this book, we detail how the entertainment-education strategy abrogates this arbitrary dichotomy. Entertainment-education is the process of purposely designing and implementing a media message to both entertain and educate, in order to increase audience members’ knowledge about an educational issue, create favorable attitudes, and change overt behavior. Entertainment-education seeks to capitalize on the popular appeal of entertainment media in order to show individuals how they can live safer, healthier, and happier lives.

Introduction - The Concept of Participation: Transforming Rhetoric to Reality

Article

Jan 1994

S.A. White

Rural Development: Putting the Last First.

Article

Oct 1985

Social cohesion, social capital, and health

Article

Jan 2000

Participatory Communication for Social Change: The Relevance of the Theory of Communicative Action

Article

Jan 2003

Thomas L. Jacobson

Communication for social change refers to an approach to development communication disassociated from the tradition of modernization theory and focuses on participatory communication. However, the literature on participatory communication for social change contains a variety of definitions specifying exactly what participatory communication is. Various definitions focus on project planning, implementation, evaluation, interpersonal communication, radio, participatory communication as a means to an end, participatory communication as an end in itself, and more. There is also debate over whether social marketing and entertainment-education can be employed in a participatory manner. This chapter reviews past and current approaches, arguing that Habermas’s theory of communicative action provides a useful approach to the definitional problem. It presents a scheme for differentiating among kinds of communication for social change using this theory’s classification of action types, differentiating communicative from strategic action, as well as subtypes within these. Rather than a school of thought or program type, the theory of communicative action argues that communication behavior—in terms of action types— should be fundamental in determining participation.

India's Communication Revolution: From Bullock Carts to Cyber Marts

Book

Jan 2000

Participatory communication for development

Article

Jan 1996

C.S. Yoon

Facilitating Community Participation Through Communication

Recommended publications

[Health programs and community participation]

Positive Deviance Approach

Mahatma is the Message: Gandhi's Life as Consummate Communicator

Increasing Community Participation through communication for behavioral impact

Communication for Behavior and Social Change: HIV/AIDS Programme Experiences, Examples, and the Way...