International Women's Day

Tomorrow is International Women's Day

Fact Sheets and Training Guides for the implementation of Gender Equality in Agriculture and Rural Development are available for download from the Gender Equality Unit of the Irish National Development Plan.

The Change Agency

The Change Agency have a tremendous website, full of useful, state-of-the-art tools for community and social activists. The training resources are among the best I have seen.

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.

Irish links, an online directory

Irish Links is the first and only online directory exclusively listing Irish non-profit organisations that use the Internet and which share the common goal of bringing about positive change in society. There are many categories including Community Development/Renewal and Rural Development. Very useful.

People's Learning and Action

The Institute for People's Education and Action seeks to identify, support, and facilitate community-based, learner-led education as a strategic tool for community organizing and democratic social change. It has some useful links to Grundtvig Folk Schools, Latin American Popular Education, Study Circle learning and much more. They also have a useful set of resources including links to other People's and Communal based learning networks, an extensive bibliography and educational resources and toolkits. Very useful indeed.

DARD announce publication of Farm Planning Handbook

'The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) have announced the publication of the ‘Farm Business Data 2008’ farm planning handbook. "Farm Business Data 2008" will be a valuable source of information for farmers, their professional advisors, those undertaking formal training in agriculture or anyone who requires planning and budgetary data relating to farming in Northern Ireland. The role of ‘Farm Business Data’ is to provide a comprehensive and authoritative source of physical and financial information that is tailored to farm planning needs in Northern Ireland.'

Download handbook here.

The Smart Toolkit; evaluating information products and services

Communication is vital for rural development. But what makes communication effective? Who bothers to find out? Seemingly few, after all evaluation of communication tools and products is involved and complex. Thankfully some organisations involved in information documentation and dissemination have placed emphasis on evaluating the effectiveness of their products and services such as newsletters, websites, training events and databases and dossiers. The Smart Toolkit, which is a collaboration between CTA, KIT and IICD, is one example of such an evaluation toolkit. Follow the links on the left hand side of the website and it will take you to the original toolkit (which is currently being updated).

Mind the gap!

'Gapminder is a non-profit venture
promoting sustainable global development and achievement of the United Nations
Millennium Development Goals by increased use and understanding of statistics
and other information about social, economic and environmental development at
local, national and global levels.'

There are a range of powerful tools and resources on the website. You can select various indicators and watch how they have changed over time.

Excellent resource, try it out!

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.

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.

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.

Partnership Evaluation Toolkit

The Institute of Public Health in Ireland are about to launch a Partnership Evaluation Toolkit.

'A Partnership Evaluation Tool (PET) has been developed to help multisectoral
partnerships to monitor their development, to assess emerging benefits and to
identify areas for further development. Developed as a web-based resource, the
PET will be available on www.partnershiptool.ie for any partnership to use to
support its own assessment and development, and will be showcased at the event.'

Participatory workshops, 21 sets of ideas

Anyone involved in running participatory workshops and consultations can only benefit from reading Robert Chamber's book, Participatory Workshops; A Sourcebook of 21 Sets of Ideas and Activities. Some sections of the book have been placed on Google and can be accessed here. It will give you a flavour for the book, I hope.

The Community Planning website

This is an excellent resource which I have delved into before for ideas and tips. With the growing numbers of residents and communities becoming involved with professionals and planning agencies in shaping their local environment, the Community Planning website is as good a starting point as any for everyone concerned. The site includes information on general principles, methods (including the future search conferencing which I posted on earlier), scenarios, case studies and other sources of information. All this information is easily accessible and in a very practical 'how-to-do-it' approach and is of international scope and relevance.

Participation on the internet

There is a seemingly endless source of participation-related information on the internet. Obviously no posting of this sort can ever be exhaustive, the web grows like a vine, like mile-a-minute! But the links below are a good place to start. Some of it good, some of it more relevant to rural development than others. Here is a selection of some of the sites I have found useful. Please contact me if you know of additional sites especially those relevant to the local rural development context.

The Participation Group at IDS, University of Sussex supports participatory approaches to development. Their major focus is in supporting South-South sharing workshops, exchange visits and information exchange between practitioners, local people, government workers, NGO and donor staff. The Participation Group also convenes action research projects, disseminates writing, provides training and catalyses and supports participation networks around the world.

The Learning for Sustainability website is a useful resource for rural development practitioners, NGOs and other community leaders working to support multi-stakeholder learning processes to guide sustainable rural development activities.

The University of Wageningen portal on Participatory Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation is a useful source of information and tools on most areas relevant to participation.

The Methods and Tools section of the World Bank Participation Sourcebook is a good introduction to the strengths and weaknesses of various participatory approaches, including PRA.

The Participatory Toolkit is a growing group of civil society (NGO) and local government organisations from all over the world, working together to promote participatory local governance.

The FAO Sourcebook on Participatory Processes is a good starting point for anyone interested in participation, why it is important and how to go about it. It has useful modules on: Preparing for Training and Facilitation; Introducing Participatory Approaches - Methods and Tools; Introducing Skills and Techniques to Promote Group Formation; and Introducing Skills and Techniques for Alternative Conflict Management.

For those looking more information on specific tools or approaches click on the links below:

Participant observation; Rapid rural appraisal; Participatory rural appraisal; Participatory Learning and Action;

Happy reading!

Sustainable Measures, developing community indicators

Sustainable Measures

'develops indicators that measure progress toward a sustainable economy, society
and environment. Sustainable Measures works with communities, companies,
regional organizations and government agencies at all levels.'

You can search their extensive database on indicators for various sectors and also download training materials.

Help your community tell it's story

ILEIA, the Centre for Information on Low External Input Sustainable Agriculture is in the business of collecting and disseminating information on ecological agriculture. While the focus is on the global south there is much of relevance on their website for those interested in organic agriculture and other aspects of sustainable agriculture and food production. They also have good resources on documentation especially participatory approaches to documentation and information production, check out their downloadable manual Learning from Experience. This manual would be useful for community practitioners or groups requiring a structured framework to follow when documenting community based processes. All stakeholders involved have an opportunity to contribute to the documentation steps involved in this process.