PLA - PARTICIPATORY

LEARNING AND ACTION

PLA/PRA/RRA
WHAT IS IT?

• Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) is an approach for learning about and
engaging with communities.
• It combines an ever-growing toolkit of participatory and visual methods with natural
interviewing techniques and is intended to facilitate a process of collective analysis
and learning.
• The approach can be used in identifying needs, planning, monitoring or evaluating
projects and programmes.
• Whilst a powerful consultation tool, it offers the opportunity to go beyond mere
consultation and promote the active participation of communities in the issues and
interventions that shape their lives.
CAN BE USED FOR?

• General analysis of a specific topic, question, or problem;

• Needs assessment
• Feasibility studies
• Identification and establishment of priorities for development or research activities
• Monitoring and evaluation of development or research activities and
• Identification of conflicting interests between groups.
HOW DID PRA/RRA/PLA BEGIN?

Conventional approaches to natural resources management

(Top-down transfer-of-technology)

Farming systems research (FSR)

(Development of alternative, improved and more participatory approaches)
Developed in the second half of the 1970s
 Farmer participatory research (FSR)
(Direct involving the ultimate beneficiaries in on-farm research; socioeconomic methods developed to
consider the interactions between on-farm and off-farm resource management. Recognize the
value of ITK)
Developed in the 1980s

Rapid Rural Appraisal(RRA)

• (Rapid collection of data by outsiders to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of

the complexity of rural societies)
• Began in the late 1970s
 Participatory rural appraisal (PRA)
(Development of tools that helped farmers to collect, analyze, and present their own data and
information)
developed out of RRA in the early 1980s

• Participatory learning and action (PLA)

(Participation should not only be limited to rural appraisals and the approach has
learning for action as its basic essence)
STEPS FOR PRA/PLA

• Initial selection of PRA team members;

• Making use of secondary data/information;
• Formulation of topics, subtopics, hypotheses or major questions, guidelines for
investigation
• Identification of methods, tools and techniques likely to be most appropriate for the
study
• Set the work plan to conduct a preliminary or exploratory survey
KEY FEATURES OF THE PRA/PLA

Different disciplines

Team
Insiders/ Men and
outsiders women
 Events/processes

Source of
information

People Place
 Interviews/discussions

Tools &
techniques

Observation Diagrams
DETAILED FEATURES

• Interdisciplinary Team
• Qualitative data, diversity of information
• Mix of appropriate techniques
• Rapid progressive learning, group interaction, and local knowledge
• Flexibility and context specificity
• New roles of experts
• Community participation
• On-the-spot analysis/on-site presentation
• Multiple perspectives
• Actions for change
HOW IS IT CONDUCTED?

• The repertoire of PLA tools is large and ever-growing and practitioners of the approach are
constantly adapting and adding to the toolkit to meet their needs. What follows therefore are
merely descriptions and examples of some of the more commonly used tools intended to
give a flavour of the approach.
 Maps
 Transect walks
 Problem trees
 Ranking activities
 Venn diagrams
BENEFITS

• Empowerment of the local people

• Securing active involvement of the community
• Diversification and appreciation of local knowledge, encouraging/enabling the expression and
utilization of local diversity while building on ITK
• Creating a culture of open learning with each other and with community members
• Setting research priorities
• Setting participatory extension program
• Policy review
LIMITATIONS

• Difficulty in getting exact information

• Difficulty in finding the right questions to ask
• Not enough time to spend in the village
• Danger of ‘rural development tourism’
• Difficulty in finding the right interdisciplinary team
• Lack of experience of team members, particularly lack of skills in the field of communication,
facilitation, and conflict negotiation
• Team members do not show the right attitude, fail to listen, and lack respect
 CONCLUSION

• We are surrounded by examples of community-led positive social change. From

federations of the urban poor designing their own toilets in slums in Mumbai and Nairobi,
to residents in London deciding how to transform public places into green spaces where
they can grow their own food, hold community events, or just be creative.
• Participatory learning and action special issue: Community-based adaptation to climate change
REFERENCES

• http://idp-key-resources.org/documents/0000/d04267/000.pdf
• https://www.slideshare.net/akmgulzarhussain/presentation-on-pra-pla-process
• https://www.gichd.org/fileadmin/pdf/publications/Socio-eco-Survey-2012/Socio-eco-
Survey-2012-Bottomley-PRA-PLA-Approaches.pdf