PLA 32: Participation, Literacy and Empowerment

Most of the articles in this bumper 10th anniversary issue of Participatory Learning and Action explore the theme of participation, literacy and empowerment.

Article, 31 May 1998
Collection
Participatory Learning and Action
A journal for newcomers and experienced practitioners alike.

June 1998

Guest Editors: Bimal Phnuyal, David Archer and Sara Cottingham

Based on experiences with REFLECT, this issue demonstrates how participation must become a community-led dynamic that links analysis to action. This mirrors the move away from RRA and towards (and beyond) PRA to promote a sustained process of participation. The issue emphasises the diversity within and between communities and stresses that literacy, in its broadest sense, impacts upon the ability of different groups to communicate and participate. 

The articles also explore some concerns common to practitioners of PRA, such as the role of manuals and training in promoting standardisation and/or diversity, how to develop strengthened local-level (horizontal) networks of practitioners, and how to scale up a participatory process from the local to regional, national and international levels.

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Follow the links below to download the whole issue or individual articles in pdf format.

Download the complete issue.

Contents

Editorial

Helping health workers to plan with communities in Ethiopia and Zambia
Karabi Bhattacharyya and John Murray

Participatory basic needs assessment with the internally displaced using well being ranking
Clare Hamilton, Alice Kaudia and David Gibbon

Lessons from community empowerment programme formulation: Mission-2 of UNDP, Bangladesh
Neela Mukherjee

'The Wayq'os (gullies) are eating everything!' indigenous knowledge and soil conservation
Graham Thiele and Franz Terrazas

How to get reliable yield estimates from terraces
William J. Fielding

Participation, literacy and empowerment

Reflections on REFLECT
Bimal Phnuyal, David Archer and Sara Cottingham

The REFLECT process at an international level
David Archer

The organic process of participation and empowerment in REFLECT
Bimal Phnuyal

An encounter with a 17th century manual
Keshav Gautam

How can REFLECT be used widely without diluting the participatory nature of the process?
Sara Cottingham

REFLECT in practice: literacy and change in India
N. Madhusudan

REFLECT and empowerment: our field experiences
James Kanyesigye

REFLECT, savings and credit in Bangladesh
Fazilatum Nessa, Begum Rokeya and Achintan Mazumder

SEACOW and Chisa Kruskaisa
Teeka R. Bhattarai, Debendra Adhikari and Ishwari Nepal

REFLECT in Oxford, England
Alison Norris

Challenges in facilitator recruitment and training
Maria Nandago

Facilitator training and innovation in REFLECT: experience from Nepal
Jillian Popkins

Empowering trainers: An experience from Bangladesh. The REFLECT trainers' forum
Habibur Rahman and Serajud Dahar Khan

REFLECT and institutional change: the experience of CIAZO in El Salvador
Luis Orrellana, Nicola Foroni and Marden Nochez

Beyond the bounded community: REFLECT in urban settings
Anne Jellema and Marc Fiedrich

REFLECT with children
Sara Cottingham

REFLECT on a large scale: challenges and prospects
Salifu Mogre and Julie Adu Gyamfi

Gender and REFLECT
Kate Metcalf and Geni Gomez

The evolving conception of literacy in REFLECT
David Archer

Numeracy in REFLECT
Nicola Foroni and KateNewman

Talking out of turn: notes on participation, learning and action in REFLECT
Anne  Jellema

Commemoration of Paulo Freire
Bimal Phnuyal

REFLECT contacts

Feedback: Using participative techniques with people with disabilities
David Thomforde with a response from Sulemana Abudulai

A brief guide to the principles of PLA (II)

Tips for Trainers: Marching soldiers
Paul Mincher