RRA Notes CD-ROM 1988-2001 Editorial

Document begins: RRA Notes CD-ROM 1988­2001 Editorial What's in a name though depends on receiving contributions Rapid Rural Appraisal as it is currently from practitioners. PLEASE WRITE TO US. practised covers such a great variety of methods and techniques that the name is · Gordon Conway, IIED, 3 Endsleigh Street, sometimes misleading. Some RRA methods London, WC1B ODD, UK. are not particularly rapid - they may take weeks or months to complete rather than days. Others are applied in urban rather than rural situations, and yet others are more concerned with the development process - farmer participation, project implementation or monitoring - rather than its appraisal. But this problem of definition does not matter very much in practice, because most of us recognise an RRA approach when we see it or hear of it. What RRA methods tend to have in common are: · greater speed compared with conventional methods of analysis; · working in the `field', whether it be a farm, a refugee camp or an urban slum; · an emphasis on learning directly from the local inhabitants; · a semi-structured, multidisciplinary approach with room for flexibility and innovation; and, · an emphasis on producing timely insights, hypotheses or ...