On the frontline: community based adaptation to climate change

The people at IIED who are responsible for Participatory Learning and Action have just brought out a timely issue on Community-based adaptation to climate change and there are a number of excellent articles related to agriculture and climate change. I haven't had time to read it all but the article by Stepen Sherwood and Jeffrey Bentley descibing a process through katalysis (an extension of the farmer field school approach) to assist farmers learn about and adapt to climate change is particularly interesting. There is much more. I wonder how many of these stories got told at COP15. Excellent publication with lots of ideas.

The Thiagi Group

The Thiagi Group website is a useful source of ideas and resources for those interested in using games and similar activities for enhanced learning and participation.

Power to the People

The Commission for Rural Communities new report 'Participation Inquiry: Strengthening the role of local councillors' highlights that nearly half of rural residents feel unable to influence local decisions directly affecting their lives. The Commission hopes the report's recommendations will help citizens to more fully engage in local decision-making, enhance the democratic role for rural communities and create a stronger, more effective voice for local councillors. The report's recommendations include:local government should be supported and encouraged to create neighbourhood budgets and involve local people in spending decisions; central government should meet the costs of local elections in all tiers; strong push toward more elections in parish councils rather than co-options; the creation of powerful new unitary authorities; Local Strategic Partnerships and Local Area Agreements, supported by central and local government, should clearly commit to supporting parish and market town plans.

Partnership! - huh - what is it good for?

Anyone who has been involved in planning for effective partnership will know what a difficult job it is. While there are many benefits, there are an equal number of challenges and pitfalls. And it is managing these challenges and pitfalls that ultimately contribute to a successful partnership, one that is built on trust, honesty and openness. Further, anyone who has tried to assess and evaluate the impact or success of a partnership will equally know what a difficult task this is too. And all too often, those involved in partnership brokering don't even bother to find out. So while the language and rhetoric of partnership abounds and several such partnerships have been set up in Ireland to address issues of inequality, the effort put into assessing and evaluating the impact and success of such partnerships does not match this.

What is the evidence that such collaborations and partnerships contribute to improved implementation of programmes, to fairer and more equitable outcomes? There is not much I am afraid but that is hardly surprising. Measuring and assessing the impact and success of partnership working is difficult to evaluate. The outcomes are not necessarily tangible or easily measured in terms of number of outputs of physical entities. More often than not, the success or impact of a partnership can be gauged in terms of social capital that is built. And such intangibles may only have physical impact much further down the track.

Recently, the Institute of Public Health in Ireland has come up with a series of useful publications in relation to partnerships. Anyone involved in brokering a partnership or assessing a partnership will surely find the contents of these publications useful. How often have I heard local umbrella community organisations highlight the need for more skills and capacity in these areas of partnership working. Well, there are some useful tools and guidance here.

There are 3 publications:

1. Partnerships: A Literature Review

2. Partnerships: The Benefits

3. Partnerships: Community Involvement and Perceptions of Health Inequalities

I want to focus particularly on assessment of partnerships because the publication Partnerships: The Benefits describes an elegant and useful evaluation tool. This is called the Partnership Evaluation Tool (PET). Although developed in a health context it is practical in any partnership setting. PET involves participatory working with partnership members to identify particular benefits important in the partnership such as connections, learning, actions and impacts. Partnership members then identify a range of indicators that might contribute to realising these particular benefits. Indicators are scored on a scale of 0-5, the data can then be analysed and presented on a typical spidergram (as shown top right) or polygon.

If you are serious about your partnership and wish to avoid perpetuating arm's length partnerships or unequal power relations you might want to consider what is said in these publications and avail yourself of the useful PET tool.

8th CIVICUS World Assembly in Glasgow

The 8th World Assembly in 2008 will be the last of the Glasgow series, which has seen a growth each year in the number of delegates and the number of countries represented. The overall theme will be ‘Acting Together for a Just World’, with a focus theme of ‘People, Participation and Power’. Deadline for early bird registration is 1 February 2008. For more information

How does learning happen?

Following my recent bout of teaching on participation and partnerships, which was all too brief and was always going to be a shallow treatment, and some extended reflection it dawned on me that I had neglected one important area. While we discussed and debated many of the reasons for participation and partnerships and why it is important to strengthen such processes for effective rural development, I had failed to mention why participatory approaches are relevant to the ways that people learn, especially adult learners.

There is a massive amount of information available online about adult learning, theories of learning and learning styles. I won't go into this in detail but it is important to have a good understanding and how participatory approaches facilitate learning. Firstly there are a variety of theories of learning which include the behaviourist, cognitive and constructivist approach. There is no universal theory of learning so it is useful to have a grasp of these. Rural development is largely in the business of teaching adults and there are special characteristics of adult learners that need to be considered. These include: wealth of personal experience; a desire to obtain knowledge they can use in the context of their real lives; enjoy interaction and sharing experiences and learning from this usually in a safe environment. Adults too learn in a variety of ways. Much educational research supports the idea of four main steps in the way adults learn. This is now known as the Experiential Learning Cycle and involving Experience: Reflection: Thinking: and Action which leads to gradual transformation in the learner. But adults are individuals and we all have our own learning preferences or Learning Styles. Basically learners can be divided into four categories; Pragmatists: Reflectors: Theorists: and Activists but it is more likely that we fall into more than one category or style and that a number of contexts and factors influence this.

What is my point? The most important point is to appreciate that there are a variety of ways in which people learn and that this must be taken into account when you are training or running workshops. And that running such trainings and workshops in a participatory and flexible way is the most appropriate approach to achieve effective learning.

If you are interested in this area of teaching and learning I would recommend Peter Taylor's book 'How to Design a Training Course; A Guide to Participatory Curriculum Development. Extracts of this book are available online.

Factsheets for community development practitioners now available online

The Rural Community Network has redeigned and now made available online their series of factsheets for rural community development workers. Here are two relevant examples, Partnership Working and Undertaking Community Consultation. Many others are available here.

Lack of participatory spaces for reflection on rural development practice

The lack of non-threatening and participatory forums for serious reflection on the values, attitudes and behaviours necessary for rural development was, for me anyway, one of the most important gaps identified during my interaction with postgraduate students on the QUB Rural Development masters degree recently. Such spaces appear to be largely absent in the university environment but it also appears that the opportunity for reflective practice in the field is minimal as well. At least from the feedback I was able to get from my small group. This left me wondering how rural development practitioners and community development workers are equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge that will be necessary to 'take forward the practice of rural community development over the next 10 years'. Is it assumed that practitioners will just learn on-the-job? Are these skills and attitudes not important enough to 'teach and learn' in a university or organisational context? Can they be taught? Can they be taught in an academic setting? These are all questions that we discussed during the session and largely agreed that they could and should be taught in universities and were essential to creating rural development organisations and workers who value reflective practice. Local rural development organisations certainly see this as a priority. The Rural Community Network (RCN) have undertaken consultations that have identified the skills and knowledge that are necessary for effective rural development practice. We covered much of this in our sessions on participation and partnership. In its latest Policy Link (Issue 1, November 2007), the RCN asks,

'will the Rural Development Programme lead to greater equality and good relations'

While political will, leadership and an appropriate policy framework are essential in realising this, it will be the everyday reflective practice and appropriate skills and knowledge of rural development practitioners at grassroots level that are certainly going to be essential if such equality is to be realised. What I would like to know is where such values, skills and knowledge and capacity building is taking place? Who is going to undertake 'real' monitoring and evaluation of such intangibles? And How?

Coercion or collaboration? The ethics of participation

During my recent teaching sessions on the Masters in Rural Development we had a useful discussion on ethics and participation. This discussion covered issues related to local rural development and the global context and obviously there is considerable similarities and overlap wherever one is dealing with marginalised groups. Topics included the need for transparency at the outset on the goal of the participatory process, what are the expected benefits and who will benefit, what are the implications and responsibilities that will fall on those who participate. A great deal of the discussion focused on data collection and local knowledge, ownership and communication of such information and knowledge. The dangers of 'plagiarism' and using local knowledge and passing it off as your own. The widespread use of photographs and publication without consent was another interesting topic as were other forms of exploitation or deception. At the end of the session we had covered a lot of ground on issues to be addressed if a participatory process is to avoid coercion, cooption and deception.

My earlier posting on the PEER participatory approach has a useful publication on the ethics of participatory approaches, click here for more information.

If anyone is aware of local organisations that have produced ethical guidelines for participatory approaches please do let us know.

Participation Nation

'Participation Nation is the latest publication from Involve and brings together 17 leading thinkers and practitioners from government, local authorities, think tanks and NGOs to discuss the role of the citizen in the public realm. Bringing their individual perspectives to the debate, each writer explores just what the government’s ambitions to harness “people power” will mean in practice to the future policies and politics of Britain.'

PEERing into communities and beyond

Mary Manandhar, who I met recently at the Development's Futures conference, has brought the PEER participatory research approach to my attention.

'PEER is an innovative approach to participatory research and evaluation. It is
a rapid and effective way of gaining an in-depth understanding of the social
world of specific communities and groups. PEER is carried out by ordinary
community members who conduct detailed interviews with others in their social
network. PEER enables programmes to access the insider view of social
relationships and behaviour within the specific social context.'

As Mary also points out from her own experience,

'the method works particularly well with the more secret and sensitive aspects
of beliefs and behaviours, such as transactional and intergenerational sex, and
sexual violence among the most marginalised groups whose voices are seldom
heard. It has advantages over the more conventional qualitative research
methods.'

Thanks to Mary for the heads up.

Power, Process and Participation

This publication dates back to 1995 and strangely I didn't come across it until a few weeks ago when I was preparing for some postgraduate classes in rural development at Queens and the Rural College. I still found it very useful as an introductory text for students of participation and participatory processes. Before describing a good range of participatory tools that might be considered for facilitating environmental and social change there is an interesting section of 'issues' related to participation. This section covers a range of topics that any participatory practitioner needs to consider at the outset of a participatory process such as the ends and means of participation and the uneven relations of power among participants. There is also a useful six step checklist for those considering using a participatory process.

Reinventing higher education: toward participatory and sustainable development

There is growing debate within higher education circles about the relevance of capacity building and enhancement with in universities and colleges in the face of globalisation. Among topics at the top of the agenda are the needs for new forms of learning, new institutional forms that support the attainment of sustainable development. Much of what is relevant to this debate will be discussed at this forthcoming UNESCO conference in Bangkok.

By the way, we are currently in the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development.

Thus Spoke Michael Edwards

Being at the back of a packed O' hEocha lecture theatre it was at times hard to keep up with Michael Edwards as he talked passionately and with conviction on Global social transformation and the co-creation of Development's Futures. It was certainly worth the effort though as he actively engaged the audience on his vision(s) of multiple pathways and multiple conclusions for development. Commencing with the post-September 11 'throwback attitude' of the 'Can Do school' (including our very own Bono and Geldof and their colleague Jeffrey Sachs) and their counterparts at the opposite end of the spectrum, the 'Can't Do school' (lead by none other than William Easterly), Michael finally settled down to address 'what should we do?', or as he called it, the Should Do school. An acceptance of there being no blueprint or magic bullet for 'development' being the basis of this school of thought (multiple pathways, multiple visions, all valid in an a contested context). One that is not in sync with many of the technocratic and elitist approaches somewhat still prevalent in some international development circles. In calling for the need to nurture new 'institutional forms of learning' to support the Should Do school, Michael cited the examples of new democratic spaces being opened up in Brazil and the International Community of Women Living with Aids coalition. I would also like to add to this the new participatory spaces being opened up within higher learning institutes (HLIs) by initiatives such as the Learning and Teaching for Transformation (LTT) group, housed at IDS, which are attempting to create new forms of collaborative and social learning that challenge institutional resistance and technocratic and elitist approaches to learning and development practice.

A full transcript of Michael Edwards keynote address can be found here.

Development Education Resources and Methodologies - Centres

This session commenced with a presentation by Deidre O'Rourke with the promise 'to practice what we preach, in a workshop type activity, we will show how PLM works!'. Sadly no such workshop type activity eventuated maybe a result of the layout of the lecture hall or limitations of time. However, Deidre did elaborate on an interesting approach to participatory learning approaches in her presentation, Development education and participative learning methodologies (PLM) at Third Level. Deidre and her colleague's biggest challenge seems to be how to integrate PLM into large student group settings. By large group settings here we are talking about 200 students! Certainly a challenge indeed. Deidre highlighted something that I have come across many times when I talk to teachers or lecturers and that is the 'resistance of students to participatory methods and approaches'. But is it really 'student resistance'? Very often I have found that such student resistance can be easily and quickly overcome but then again I am often dealing with much smaller groups. Having said that I am more inclined to think that it is more the resistance of Third Level Institutes (TLIs) to participatory and collaborative forms of learning that is the problem (see Why is the university a bad place for learning?). Coupled with this is an educational system which from day one militates against any substantial forms of collaborative and critical learning. So until TLIs stop placing emphasis on knowledge banking and regurgitation, with appraisal and assessment based around this, then of course students are not going to see much value in the types of learning that PLM try to encourage. Deidre also highlighted another interesting issue in the general student body. That of using the terminology that is expected by the lecturer. Kind of mirrors the behaviour of many development practitioners who are equally guilty of using the terminology expected by the donor!

It was great to listen to Deidre and the efforts she and her colleagues are making. The challenge is considerable and one that is being taken up elsewhere. As I have posted on many times before the Learning and Teaching for Transformation (LTT) initiative is trying to address similar challenges and constraints that Deidre is facing at Third Level. They have collated a number of experiences and case studies, from the global north and south, that demonstrate how these challenges can be overcome but more importantly how innovative and novel collaborative and participatory approaches can improve student and TLI learning (emphasis on the latter). It would be great to hear from other lecturers at Third level in Ireland trying to grapple with similar issues regarding PLM.

Research Partnerships

Tom Crowley's presentation, Degrees of freedom: applied development research in Ethiopa through a south-north partnership programme, highlighted the impact of a joint MSc Rural Development programme offered by UCC and Mekelle University. Apparently this is the first programme of its kind in Ireland which I found surprising. It is certainly an interesting partnership, built on a strong history of collaboration. The programme certainly appears to be responding to an identified need and one which seems to be diversifying as there is a growing trend in students coming from NGO sectors. The programme combines a mixture of distance education methods and face-to-face sessions. The partnership hopes to develop this further into web-based learning.

It is great to see such partnerships developing. I often wonder why there are not more such partnerships developed between Irish universities and counterparts overseas (maybe with Minister Kitt's recent announcement there will be). I also believe that distance education modes of delivery for courses such as rural development are areas where Irish universities can compete with their counterparts in the UK (such as Wye, now Imperial College), Europe and Australia.

From the research perspective such partnerships can be very productive and add significantly to the capacity building and enhancement component. In fact both go hand-in-hand as Tom pointed out, although his presentation focused on the capacity building component. I have been involved in such research partnerships myself and have seen the incredible synergies that can be obtained by bringing national, regional and international resources and staff to bear on important problems. The TaroGen Project I believe is an excellent example of such a research partnership which explored and found sustainable solutions to a critical agriculture problem facing the Pacific region. While addressing this problem it also made important strides in building capacity in respective countries and contributed to the development of relevant postgraduate courses at the regional University of the South Pacific.

Mary Manandhar described an interesting participatory PEER research approach that was used in her work with partners to research and strengthen advocacy and action for maternal survival in Zambia. I imagine such an approach would be of interest to many other practitioners.

Why is the university such a bad place for learning?

Given my interest in alternative learning and learning for transformation I was very much drawn to Denis O'Hearn's inaugural address as the new Professor of Social and Economic Change at Queen's University Belfast. In fact, when I came across an email notice highlighting the lecture I was excited to learn that there was someone within Queen's willing to challenge the role and effectiveness of higher learning institutes (HLIs) as places of learning. And so I set off on the bus from Cookstown for what was an interesting, stimulating an all too short presentation. After briefly covering many of the institutional constraints (elitism, hierarchical structures, social control) that contribute to poor learning within universities Professor O'Hearn moved on to describe a couple of alternative education models. Models that had as their main goal the nurturing and empowering of citizens capable of effecting change and transformation for a better society as opposed to the goals of most HLIs of producing citizens simply for the market and jobs. Some of the examples provided were very interesting and included the Highlander Folk Schools initially established by Myles Horton (for more information check-out the Highlander Research and Education Centre website) and a schooling system in Chiapas based on the Zapatista education system. Finally, Professor O'Hearn described an education programme that was evolved by prisoners in Long Kesh during the troubles. This programme went on to equip many prisoners with the necessary and relevant skills to become leaders and mobilisers for development in their own communities upon release. All case studies described effective bottom-up and participative approaches as useful models for achieving effective education for transformation and which overcome many of the pitfalls in conventional approaches.

Unfortunately the lecture finished all too early and there was no time for discussion (or is it a case of tradition in 'inaugural addresses' not allowing for this?) and I was left with may thoughts and unanswered questions but it was good to know that there is at least one person at QUB embracing alternative approaches to learning.

Having worked at HLIs and encountered many of the limitations and constraints highlighted by Professor O'Hearn I have been involved in programmes that include university students in collaborative and participatory learning with academics, researchers but most importantly the communities where they will work. I have seen first hand the dramatic changes that such collaborative learning can make to those students who eventually become rural development workers and agents of social change. So I suppose the question I wanted to ask most was whether there are any initiatives that involve QUB students (not just from the sociology discipline) as collaborative learners in such programmes.

I also wanted to take the opportunity to highlight the work that the Learning and Teaching for Transformation (LTT) initiative, which I have posted on many times before, is involved in. The programmes Professor O'Hearn described appear to have much in common with the LTT. The LTT has documented many examples, from the global south and north, that demonstrate the impact on social change that alternative, more collaborative and participatory educational approaches can have. The LTT has many useful models that HLIs like QUB could use to improve student learning. And then there is the Community Knowledge Initiative (CKI) at NUI Galway which on paper would appear to be involved in exploring more collaborative and community-based approaches education and learning but unfortunately I do not know much about that programme. If there is anyone reading this and involved in the CKI, maybe they can shed some light on their work.

At the end of the night, I was left with much to think about. I was delighted to know more about Professor OHearn's work. If there are others involved in similar programmes maybe they can share their experiences.

Readers of this post might be interested in my other posting 'Why is the conference such a bad place for learning?

Effective facilitation, have you got what it takes?

A good facilitator is essential for the development of successful participatory process. A massive industry of trainers, consultants and information providers has grown up around facilitation and those who can guide community and stakeholder engagement. Here are some online resources that you might find useful if you find yourself in the role of facilitating groups or meetings or trying to initiate and plan partnerships.

The University College Dublin (UCD) Adult Education Centre has excellent online resources and tips for those working with adult learners. The resources include tips for The Role of the Facilitator and Effective Facilitation. The site also includes additional useful material on other aspects of adult learning.

The Harvard Negotiation Project has an online Facilitation Handbook which has tools and tips for facilitators. Although working in conflict resolution the principles are basically the same. The handbook can also be downloaded as a pdf file.

Student Life at the University of Guelph has some clear and simple tips for Effective Facilitation, as does the University of Michigan.

The Human Rights Education Handbook has excellent sections on The Practice of Facilitation and Strategies for Effective Facilitation.

The Thiagi Group has alot of useful resources that might be valuable to facilitators. It has many freebies including Tips for Facilitators. There is also a section on the Secrets of Successful Facilitators.

The Mental Health Promotion Unit of Canada has a Train-the-Trainer manual that lays down the law in terms of what is required for Effective Facilitation.

Finally, this Training Workshop might be useful for those preparing people to undertake facilitation.

Here are some useful Icebreakers and Energizers that you might use as part of your facilitation.

Of course there is no substitute for getting stuck in and learning from practice and experience.

Here is a quick checklist and 'to do' guide from the FAO that you might want to read before taking the plunge!

People and Participation - the website

Involve run a very useful online participation tool that will answer many of your queries regarding participation as well as provide some useful resources. There is much information here on participatory methods, case studies, news and events, as well as a participatory library that gives you access to many of the resources available online. Definitely a useful resource for those using participatory approaches in community or rural development in the Irish context.

People and Participation - the handbook

The organisation Involve has produced this excellent handbook, People and Participation. Its aim is to help people work through the various issues that surround participation and decision making and would be relevant to those facilitating or working with participatory processes in Irleand or the UK. The handbook discusses what is meant by participation, how to go about it, issues and concerns and planning for participation. The handbook concludes with an excellent introduction to the various methods of participation that you might consider using. Some of the methods are similar to those covered in the Community Planning Handbook. Examples of methods include Appreciative Inquiry, Citizen Panels and so forth.

Definitely worth checking out.