Participatory Rural Approaches

Understanding the community views and aspirations

Department of Fisheries Studies

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Content
• Introduction
• Key aspects of PRA
• Brainstorming
• Sketch map
• Transect walk
• Historical timeline
• Seasonal Calendars
• Priority matrices/pairwise ranking
• Wealth ranking
• Venn diagrams
• SWOT analysis
• Observations

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After completing this session, you
should be able to:
• To define and understand the context of PRA.
• To appreciate the importance of PRA techniques in
rural fisheries decision making.
• To develop some basic skills in using PRA tools and
techniques.

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INTRODUCTION
• Throughout the pacific, coastal communities are
experiencing dwindling supplies of marine
resources.
• Top-down coastal protection and management
approaches do not meet the needs of the Pacific
communities.
• Many commercial fish stocks continues to decline
along with those of subsistence fisheries.

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• It is also generally recognized that in many
developing countries –where a substantial share of
the Earth’s marine biodiversity is found-conventional,
top-down coastal protection and management
efforts are too costly both financially and in terms of
scarce human resources to be of much practical
value for broad-scale national application.
• A move from top-down to a more locally managed
approach is more suitable. A joint or co-management
will lead to informed decision making, as traditional
knowledge and local sources of information are
integrated into the process.

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What is Participatory
Approaches?
• Participatory Rural Appraisal/Approach (PRA) is a
term used for a growing participatory approaches
and methods that emphasize local knowledge and
enable local people to make their own appraisal
(evaluation) plans.
• Through a participatory process, the people involve
will participate at varying levels at different stages
in the process.
• Higher levels of participation generate greater
levels of empowerment and ownership by the
community and groups involved, thus enhance
greater success in management.
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• The purpose of PRA is to enable development
practitioners, government officers and local people
to work together:
• Building a rapport/understanding with communities
Starting work with a particular community, helps to
clarify the critical issues and identify their priorities.
Understanding the structure of a community is
important since priorities of different groups such as
the rich and the poor maybe different.

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Community Participatory
approaches
• Participatory approaches are research methods
that utilize field-based visualization techniques,
interviews and group work to generate information
to ensure relevance and ownership of decision by
people to address community development needs.

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• The participatory approaches facilitate dialogue/
discussion among the rural people themselves and
between them and development workers in order
for all parties to reach mutual understanding and
plan for action.
• It is used to promote the involvement of rural
people in decision making that affects their
livelihood.

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Keys aspects of PRA
• Participation –Local people’s input is essential to its
values as research and planning and as a means of
diffusing the participatory approach to
development.
• Teamwork –A well balanced team will represent
the diversity of socioeconomic, cultural, gender and
generational perspectives.
• Flexibility –PRA is not a blueprint/design but
requires a combination of techniques that is
appropriate in a particular development context.

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• Optimal ignorance –to efficient in terms of time
and money. Gather just enough information to
make the necessary recommendations and
decisions.
• Triangulation –Crosschecking information.

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Tools
1. Root Cause Analysis: Problem Tree
• This is a visual problem analysis tool that can be
used to investigate the root causes and effects of a
problem and identify the possible relationships
between.
• Aim
To identify and the underlying causes of problems
and examine the links between these root causes
and their effects. Provides the basis for discussion
on solutions for an action plan, management plan
or policy.

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Uses
• Identification of the community perceptions of the
causes and effects of the main problem.
• Definition of who is affected by the causes of the
problems and identification of who should
participate in activities aimed at solving them.
• Identification of the focal problem or causes of the
problem that communication can help to solve.

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Problem tree

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2. Brainstorming
• Brainstorming is a 2-tier/level process of generating
and critically analyzing a host of ideas around a
common theme.
Uses
• Quickly generates creative ideas about issues and
problems of concern to the community for further
analysis and investigation.

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3. Sketch Maps
• Sketch maps are geographical and environmental
models of the community done by the people by
themselves to show various aspects of their village
such as residential areas, infrastructure, shops,
water sources, institutions, resources etc.
Aim
• To generate discussion and create a visual display of
where the communities, households, institutions,
and infrastructure are located against the natural
setting.

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3-D modelling

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Uses
• Maps identify community boundaries, local
resources and environmental features.
• It puts the village in a perspective that people
probably have never visualized before and ensures
that community arrive at a common understanding
of the local reality.
• Maps are good communication tools.

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4. Transect walk
• A walk or series of walk which takes the PRA
members with community members through the
village and allows them to show a range of
features, resources and conditions across the area.

Uses
• It is motivating and rewarding for villagers to show
people around their village and their homes.
• Outsiders get a chance to familiarize themselves
with the village.

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• Photo courtesy: Cheon, 2019

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5. Historical Timelines
• A time line is a list of key events in the history of
the community that helps identify past trends,
events, problems and achievements in the people’s
life.
Aim
• To identify, discuss, and understand how events
and decisions that have occurred at the local,
national and international levels relate to or have
influence the community’s use of the coastal
resources.

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Uses
• Understanding the past of a particular community
is often necessary to analyze present conditions,
and try to forecast how present conditions may
evolve in the future.
• Examples of factors/events to focus on include:
• Infrastructure
• Population growth, settlements, immigrants
• Political events
• Natural disasters
• Waste management
• Resource depletion
• Other developments
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6. Seasonal Calendar
• The seasonal calendar is useful for charting major
events and village activities on an annual timetable.
E.g. community events, labour mobility etc.

Uses
• It is a useful tool to understand and discuss with
community how seasons affect village life and how
daily routines are organized.

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7. Seasonal Harvest Calendar
• Helps examine changes that happen to the marine
resources over the year. For instance, certain
resources may fluctuate seasonally, and other
activities may dominate the community’s time and
attention; these will impact potential management
activities.
Aim
• To record the variations in factors affecting the
community and its resources over an average year.

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Uses
• It is useful to identify the main activities carried out
in the community and how they vary throughout
the year.
• Identify the main seafood items people depend on
for food and income for their families over the
years.
• The methods of fishing used and the seasons
people fish for specific species of fish or other
seafood.

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8a. Priority Matrices/Pair-wise ranking
• This process allows community members to rate which
coastal resource issues (problems, threats, and root
causes) are the most important ones that their
community is facing.

Aim
• To help the community prioritize their most important
problems, threats, and root causes.

Uses
• It helps identify why they should focus their efforts and
time.
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 Threat Threat Threat Threat Threat Threat Threat Threat Threat
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Threat
1
Threat
2
Threat
3
Threat
4
Threat
5
Threat
6
Threat
7
Threat
8
Threat
9
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Activity 1
• Identify the number of problems affecting marine
resources in a coastal community you are familiar with
and do pair-wise ranking on the problems to identify
which problems are important that must be addressed
first.

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8b. Wealth ranking (Socio economic)
Uses
• To understand how a community defines wealth
and well-being.
• To understand the socioeconomic situation of
different households.
• To get indicators for assessing the influence of
fisheries on wealth and well-being of various
groups in the community.

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 Rich Average Poor

Catch level About 20kg/week Above 10kg/week Less than

10kg/week
Commercial Fishing Yes, No- requisite No
license inshore/outside permit
Fishing equipment, Motorized fishing Punt no engine, No boat, hand
vessels launch, nets, lines net, single hook collection, hand
with multiple hook line net
Area of land 8 acres 3 acres 1 acre
Other income sources Wage employment Occasional and Rarely
seasonal
employment
Type of dwelling Concrete, Corrugated iron, Shack, etc.
corrugated iron timber and
and timber separate kitchen
Children’s education Up to university High school Primary school

Household assets Car Travel by bus Horse back

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9. Venn Diagrams
• Identifies the major stakeholders that use or have
interest in the target site and related resources, how
important they are in terms of use and potential
management of the marine resources, and how they
relate to each other.
Aim
• To identify the important stakeholders and how they
relate to each other and to the marine resource at the
site in order to provide the basis for discussion on who
can and should be involved in putting plans into action
and where relations can be improved.

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Uses
• To find out which institution exist.
• To establish how the institutions are perceived.
• To understand which institution could play what roles
in development activities.
• To analyze the social and power relations of the
different institutions.

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10. SWOT Analysis
• SWOT Analysis is a technique for assessing strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities and threats of your
business/organization/community.
• SWOT analysis helps you to find out what's working
well, and what's not so good. SWOT help you to ask
yourself where you want to go, how you might get
there – and what might get in your way.

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Uses
• You can use SWOT analysis to make the most of what
you've got, to your organization's/ community’s best
advantage.
• Also you can reduce the chances of failure, by
understanding what you're lacking, and eliminating
hazards that would otherwise catch you
unexpectedly.

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Practical Tools for determining the
general socio-economic and
environmental situation
Information Suggested tools and techniques

The geography of the community Sketch maps:

(spatial data) Marine resource use sketch maps,
Environment, settlement patterns land-use maps, social maps, village
and households (characteristics and resource maps, transect walk.
size), boundaries, infrastructure,
resources, marine resources use
and land use patterns

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History of the community: Timelines
Significant occurrences and changes Trend-lines
in the people’s live and their Historical transects
environment, migration patterns, Historical maps/models
etc. How people have coped with
changes and circumstances in their
lives over time.

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Seasonal trends, e.g., Fishing
activities, food availability
Seasonal Harvest calendar
Seasonal calendar
Seasonal activity (by gender)
Livelihood diagram
Trend-lines
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Social composition of the community Venn diagrams
Significant individual, groups and Linking diagramming/scoring
institutions in the community and Observation
their relationships. The relevance of Focus group discussion
their roles and status to the In-depth interviews
development theme under Wealth ranking
discussion.
Community leadership and power
structure:
Who has the authority in the
community to make or influence what
decisions? Who is respected in the
community? Who are the formal
leaders and informal leaders of the
community?

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Economy of the community Livelihood mapping
Wealth ranking

Group relationship patterns in the Seasonal activity calendar

community Daily activity calendar
The different roles of various groups Focus group discussion
in the community, Role playing
How various groups view each other Observation
and their roles.

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Culture of the community Participant observation
Religion, beliefs, customs, value, Audio-visual recording
labels, vocabulary and categories Photographs
used by potential interaction groups Village map
for discussing various issues; Transect walk
meanings people have about their Story telling
lives; ways in which people express
their emotions and needs such as
songs, dances, drama, art, cultural
sites; mode of dressing; other non-
verbal expressions; knowledge that
people use to interpret their
experience and social behaviour

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Patterns of the community access Assess and control profile
and control of resources Focus group discussion
Determine the different levels of
access and control various groups
have to the resources in the
community necessary to sustain
their livelihood. Access and control
profile.

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Past experience of community with Focus group discussion
resource management and In-depth interviews
conservation projects Timelines
How did community relate to such
initiatives?
What the people liked and disliked
about such efforts?

Current people- initiated resource Focus group discussion

management efforts and outside
development agencies/ projects in
the community

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Observation
• Are qualitative descriptions of what the team
member sees and are obtained by attentively
watching and recording the surroundings.
• Purpose –provide first hand information, provide
descriptive information relevant to activities.
Uses:
• Provide a highly reliable source of information.

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Semi-structured Interviews
• Interviews are based on a set of open-ended
questions or discussion points, to generate
qualitative information.
• Purpose –generate in-depth and explanatory,
qualitative information on specific issues.
Uses
• Encourages involvement of the informants by
allowing them to discuss issues of importance and
at length.

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Summary
• The rural participatory approaches emphasize on
the integration of local knowledge and local sources
of information which enable co-management that
is much effective than the traditional top-down
approach.

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References
• Bidesi V. R., 2007, Participatory Rural Approaches,
Understanding the community views and
Aspirations, Faculty of Islands and Oceans, USP,
Suva, Fiji.
• Govan H., et al., 2008, Locally-Managed Marine
Areas: A guide to supporting Community-Based
Adaptive Management, LMMA Network, Suva, Fiji.

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