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AI Written Works: Stories from the Field - Detail |
Issues in Participatory Development: From Participatory Rural Appraisal to Appreciative Planning and Action
A Former Volunteer’s Personal Journey of Discovery
Malcolm J Odell
Habitat for Humanity International
Kathmandu, Nepal
Date 03/01/2002
Annotation: For the past 6 years I have been actively involved in the development, testing, and adaptation of participatory research techniques in Nepal, and in particular, in seeking means of enhancing the capacity of Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA)-based approaches to promote mobilization and empowerment among rural people, and of promoting positive action through positive inquiry. These draw on work that I began in the Peace Corps in Nepal from 1962-1967 and in collaboration with Robert Chambers in Botswana in the late 1970s. Since then I have tested, with promising results, the blending of concepts from several schools of organizational development theory to help rural people and development practitioners reverse negative self-images commonly held by villagers and to generate, instead, the pride and self-reliance upon which successful rural development must be built. These PRA-based techniques, drawing in particular on Appreciative Inquiry, with input from Asset Based Assessment, Open Space Technology, and Future Search models, have shown positive results in replacing the fatalism and resignation of villagers with pride in their achievements, self-confidence in their ability to set attainable goals, and success in achieving them.
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