ABT Associates, Inc. - 1987 "Operational Guidelines for the Rapid Appraisal of Parastally Dominated Agriculture Marketing Systems." ABT Associates, Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts. Address: ABT Associates, Inc., 4250 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Suite 500, Washington, D.C. 20008.
This is one of the two papers by John Holtzman which applies a very useful method for determining what kinds of information are of central importance for the survey exercise.
Topic: Minimum Data Sets, Analytical Framework
The African Development Foundation - 1988 Grassroots Development. Assessment of Projects, (OTA-F-378). Congress of the U.S., Office of Technology Assessment, June. Address: Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402.
This contains the minimum data sets developed for the evaluation of rural development projects funded by the African Development Foundation. These provide a good model in combination with Parker, et al (1988) and Garrett, et al (1987) of checklist to assess the local situation and progress of activities.
Topic: Minimum Data Sets
Ashby, Jacqueline - 1984 "Participation of Small Farmers in Technology Assessment: Experimentation With Beans and Rock Phosphates." Paper presented at CIAT Seminarios Internos, November 30, 1984. Address: Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical, A.A. 6713, Cali, Colombia.
Ashby has won recognition for her work on farmer-designed and farmer-managed farming systems research trials. In this article, she compares the results of agronomic field trials when farmers both design and administer the trials to trials in which farmers are active participants and planners of trials designed by researchers. Not only do farmer-designed experiments tend to yield results more appropriate to the farmer's level of resources, but they also yield recommendations which are more likely to be adopted by a large number of farmers.
Topic: Interactive Tools
Banerjee, A. K. - 1987 "Microplanning: A Tool for Social Forestry Implementation," National Wasteland Development Board, Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, New Delhi. Address: A.K. Banerjee, ASTAG, World Bank, 1818 H Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20433.
This is an interactive planning model developed for forestry staff in India to develop village action plans with local people. It includes a minimum data set for evaluating the state of the resource, for identifying perceived needs and interventions, and helping the community devise sensible targets for their involvement in government social forestry programs. Includes a section on shrub planting as a conservation and productive forest.
Topic: Interactive Planning
Beebe, James - 1985 Rapid Rural Appraisal: The Critical First Step in a Farming Systems Approach to Research, Networking Paper No. 5, Farming Systems Support Project, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32601.
This is a classic article on the use of RRA for farming systems research, and includes an annotated bibliography of resources.
Topic: General Methods, Annotated Bibliography
Bhattarai, T.N., and Gabriel Campbell - 1985 Monitoring and Evaluation of the Community Forestry Project in Nepal. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
Includes useful information on the use of socio-economic and impact indicators in monitoring surveys, and the varied methodologies used to collect different types of data in a cost-effective, but sound manner.
Topic: Indicators, Analytical Framework
Bochet, Jean-Jacques - 1983 Management of Upland Watersheds: Participation of the Mountain Communities. FAQ Conservation Guide No. 8. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
A guide to the kinds of questions that must be asked of local communities regarding land use management and the scope for individual and community participation in improved watershed management.
Topic: Minimum Data Sets
Brokensha, David, and Bernard Riley - 1989 "Managing Natural Resources: The Local Level," in Man's Role in Changing the Global Environment, New York: Academic Press.
Brokensha, David - 1986 "Local Management Systems and Sustainability," paper prepared for the Annual Meeting of the Society for Economic Anthropology, Riverside, California, April. Address: David Brokensha, IDA, P.O. Box 2207, Binghamton, New York 13902, U.S.A.
Brokensha has long been a proponent of local knowledge systems and places considerable stress in his own use of RRA methods on eliciting indigenous technical knowledge systems (ITK) regarding optimal ways to manage natural resources. These articles provide a framework for understanding the system from a local perspective.
Topic: Indigenous Technical Knowledge
Bruce, John W. - 1989 "Rapid Appraisal of Tree and Land Tenure for the Design of Community Forestry Initiatives Draft for FAO revised, Land Tenure Center, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706.
This excellent manual provides the information needed for carrying out an ERA of land tenure for forestry and land-based natural resource management projects.
Topic: Minimum Data Sets
Burch, William - 1987 "Learning about Local Communities," in Gregerson, Hans, Sydney Draper and Dieter Elz, eds., People and Trees: The Role of Social Forestry in Sustainable Development, Economic Development Institute, Washington, D.C.: World Bank, May 1987, pp. 175-195.
Burch summarizes a number of general references on rapid appraisal techniques, outlining the need to find out about local practices and the local knowledge base people have about forests, land utilization, and tree species.
Topic: General, Group Interviews
Campbell, Gabriel, Ramesh Shrestha and Linda Stone - 1979 Use and Misuse of Social Science Research in Nepal. Center for Nepal and Asian Studies. Kathmandu, Nepal: His Majesty's Government Press.
This is the best study available to demonstrate the dangers of relying too indiscriminately on formal surveys in development planning. The authors re-interviewed respondents for a number of development-oriented questionnaires and found a number of discrepancies in the information originally collected. Economic data, particularly on land holdings, was way off and attitude surveys, particularly those used for the Nepal Fertility Survey, were extremely misleading. Part of this study has been published as "The Use and Mis-Use of Surveys in International Development: An Experiment from Nepal," Human Organization 43(l):27-37, 1984.
Topic: Sampling Techniques, Pitfalls
Campbell, Gabriel, and Anis Dani - 1985 "People's Motivations for Sustaining Upland Resources," paper presented at the International Workshop on Watershed Management in the Hindu-Kush Himalaya Region, Chengdu, China, October 1985.
Includes a set of guidelines for evaluating people's participation in watershed management projects. Pays particular attention to the kinds of incentives which are used to encourage different kinds of participation and their effectiveness.
Topic: Minimum Data Sets
Carruthers, Ian and Robert Chambers - 1981 "Rapid Appraisal for Rural Development," in Agricultural Administration, 8(6):407-422.
An introduction to rapid appraisal techniques. The main reference on methods of rapid rural appraisal for development planning.
Topic: General Guidelines
Carson, Brian - 1989 Soil Conservation Strategies for Upland Areas of Indonesia, Paper No. 9, Occasional Papers of the East-West Environment and Policy Institute, East-West Center, 1777 East-West Road, Honolulu, Hawaii 96848.
Brian Carson is a soil scientist and a pioneer in the use of maps and aerial photographs in RRA of watershed issues. This book summarizes the work he has carried out with KEPAS (Agroecosystems Research Group within the Ministry of Agriculture, Indonesia) between 1986 and 1988. Key for watershed planners.
Topic: General Methods
Casley, Dennis, and Dennis Lury - 1982 Monitoring and Evaluation of Agriculture and Rural Development Projects, Washington, D.C.: The John Hopkins Press.
A general guide to monitoring and evaluation that includes a section on rapid reconnaissance approaches to gathering information. Serves as a general set of guidelines.
Topic: General Guidelines
Center for International Development and Environment and Clark University - 1987 "From the Ground Up: A Program to Improve Project Design, Management, Training and Resource Allocation through Documenting Local Experiences in Sustainable Development." Mimeo. December.
A summary of a collaborative program between the Center of International Development and Environment and Clark University to develop village resource management plans with villagers, planners, and extension agents and to document indigenous, effective systems of natural resource management. This program includes training in RRA and agroecosystems analysis tools and approach.
Topic: Interactive Planning
Chambers, Robert - 1985 "Shortcut Methods of Gathering Social Information for Rural Development Projects," in M. Cernea, ed., Putting People First, Oxford University Press: New York.
An updated version of a paper prepared for the World Bank on rapid appraisal techniques. This includes the information originally published in the classic Agricultural Administration article cited above.
Topic: General Guidelines
1983 Rural Development: Putting the Last First, Harlow, England: Longman Press.
In this book, the author describes the situation of the rural poor in the developing countries and points out major gaps in the kinds of information collected about this group, as well as the usual biases in formal and informal surveys that prevent this group from being properly considered in project design and implementation.
Topic: Least Visible Target Groups
Collinson, Michael - 1981 "A Low-Cost Approach to Understanding Small Farmers," Agricultural Administration, 8(6):433-50.
This is a general approach to the use of rapid appraisal methods in farming systems research.
Topic: General Methods
Conway, Gordon - 1986 Agroecosystem Analysis for Research and Development, Winrock International Institute for Agricultural Development. Address: Winrock International, Petit Jean Mountain, Morrilton, Arkansas 72110, U.S.A.
This is an earlier paper by Gordon Conway outlining this approach to resource management planning and problems analysis.
Topic: Agroecosystems Analysis
Dewalt, Billie, and Kathryn Dewalt - 1980 "Stratification and Decision-Making in the Use of New Agricultural Technology," in Peggy Barlett, ed., Agricultural Decision-Making: Anthropological Contributions to Rural Development, New York: Academic Press.
This is an excellent article illustrating the fact that a combination of theoretical models is needed to understand a range of farm decisions taken by a single sample of farmers. In some cropping decisions, farmers conformed to the wealthy/poor adoption rate predictor, while in others, the upper middle strata were the most conservative. For RRA, this points out the danger of choosing a sample based on a prior prediction regarding the adoption of new cropping strategies for farmers of different classes/strata.
Topic: Pitfalls
Dove, Michael, Nasrullah Khan Aziz and Jamil A. Qureshi - 1988 "Farmer Preferences for the Timing of Tree Planting; The Punjab, NWFP, Baluchistan," Report No.7, Forestry Planning and Development Project, Government of Pakistan - USAID.
This paper is the result of one of a series of short-term surveys carried out to understand the local farmers' agroforestry system and needs for assistance in the above forestry project. Like the Khon Kaen studies, it provides a good model for the kind of information that can be collected through such direct field exercises.
Topic: Minimum Data Sets
Folch-Lyon, E., and John F. Trost - 1981 "Conducting Focus Group Sessions," Studies in Family Planning. 12(12):443-449.
Topic: Focus Groups
Useful guidelines on focus group sessions.
Fox, Jeff - 1986 "Social Forestry Network - Aerial Photographs and Thematic Maps for Social Forestry", Network Paper 2C, ODI, Agricultural Administration Unit, London .
Topic: Forestry
This article describes the methodology used in an Indonesian forestry project to evaluate land use and design interventions. This methodology is very similar to that developed by Brian Carson, included in this bibliography.
Franzel, Steven, and Eric Crawford - 1987 "Comparing Formal and Informal Survey Techniques for Farming Systems Research: A Case Study from Kenya," Agricultural Administration, 27(1987):13-33.
The authors compared the validity of data acquired from formal and informal survey techniques and concluded that there was not an appreciable difference in the recommendations. Errors in the informal survey were greatest in quantitative estimates, such as crop production. Also interesting were errors due to interviewer overcompensation for expected errors in estimates of number of rich versus poor farmers. Informal interviews actually produced closer estimates of numbers of larger farms and farm size than interviewers expected, so when they adjusted the figures to compensate for supposed error, they skewed the data.
Topic: Sampling Techniques
Freedom from Hunger Foundation, Aaron Zazueta - 1988 Rapid Rural Appraisal for Project Analysis Planning. Foundation address: 1644 Da Vinci Court, P.O. Box.2000, Davis, California 95617.
This document is the training manual used by the Freedom from Hunger Foundation for its training courses in rapid rural appraisal for host-country planners, researchers, and extension agents. It is particularly strong in the choice of training exercises to put participants at ease, to help participants evaluate projects and activities in terms of sustainability, and to generate role playing in interview situations.
Topic: Training Materials
Fujuisaka, Sam - 1986 "Upland and Rainfed Development in the Philippines," in Edward Green, ed., Practicing Development Anthropology, Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, pp. 160-184.The author reviews informal methods taught in a series of training sessions on rapid appraisal, discussing some of the ways to analyze identified problems through informal lines of questioning. He also compares longer-term and short-term work, finding that rapid appraisal prevents accurate assessment of complex local social dynamics and prevents the observation of processes unfolding over time, such as changes in economic strategies due to response to raw material availability and market prices. Topic: Pitfalls
Garrett, Patricia, Jorge Uquillas and Carolyn Campbell - 1987 Interview Guide for the Regional Analysis of Farming Systems, Cornell International Agriculture Mimeograph 113. Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853.
This approach to FSR takes a regional perspective of factoring in ecological and economic factors as well as socio-cultural factors of class, caste, household composition, labor pools and relationships, nutritional factors, and marketing factors.
Topic: Minimum Data Sets, Indicators
Gow, David - 1987 "Rapid Rural Appraisal: Social Science as Investigative Journalism," in Finsterbusch, Kurt, Jay Ingersoll and Lynn Llewellyn, gds., Fitting Projects: Methods for Social Analysis for Projects in Developing
Countries. Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Rienner Publishers.
Drawing extensively upon his own experience, the author reviews the methods outlined in general guidelines, particularly Honadle (1982) and Chambers (1985) and discusses particular problems and considerations for the use of various techniques.
Topic: General Methods
Gregerson, Hans - 1987 People and Trees: The Role of Social Forestry in Sustainable Development. Washington, D.C.: Economic Development Institute, the World Bank.
This book has been developed for use in training courses on forestry projects. It covers the entire planning and implementation process. In addition to Burch's article cited above on rapid appraisal, Chapters 6 - 8 have relevant material on the socio-economic issues for which information is needed at different project stages. Also extremely relevant are discussions and references on use of incentives for local participation (Chapter 9).
Topic: General Methods
Harrington, L.W., and Robert Tripp - 1984 "Recommendation Domains: A Framework for On-Farm Research," International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, CIMMYT, Economics Program Working Paper No. 2/84, Mexico.
CIMMYT has developed a framework for on-farm research that helps to identify the appropriate target clientele for specific agricultural improvements -- the recommendation domain. Farmers with similar agricultural potentials and constraints are grouped into domains in the design implementation and analysis of on-farm experiments.
Topic: General Methods
Hendricks, Michael - 1987 Training Materials from a Workshop on Qualitative Methods for Family Planning, Dhaka, Bangladesh, mimeo. (M. Hendricks Associates, 3419 30th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20008.)
Hendricks has assembled a variety of materials on ways to use qualitative methods in the evaluation of family planning field programs. He has useful sections on different group interview techniques, including the informal delphi and focus-group interview methods. Much is applicable to the evaluation of field staff performance and constraints for land-based development programs.
Topic: Training Materials
Hildebrand, Peter - 1981 "Combining Disciplines in Rapid Appraisal: The Sondeo Approach," Agricultural Administration, 8(6):423-32.
A description of the useful and classic technique of conducting short field surveys using rotating pairs of experts from technical and social science disciplines.
Topic: Team Interaction
Hill, Polly - 1986 Development Economics on Trial. London: Tavistock Publishers.
This was written to provide anthropological counter arguments to many assumptions made by economic development theorists regarding the reliability of statistics and formal surveys on food and agriculture, regarding misconceptions of the role of rural debt in the village economy, and regarding assumptions about village stratification and farmer decision-making. A number of these issues have relevance for the design of interviews in rapid appraisal. Her main point is that misconceptions about the rural reality subtly shape lines of questioning and lead to faulty data collection.
Topic: Pitfalls
Holtzman, John F. - 1986 "Rapid Reconnaissance Guidelines for Agricultural Marketing and Food System Research in Developing Countries," Working Paper 30., ABT Associates, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Address: ABT Associates, Inc., 4250 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20008.
This is the second paper by this author which applies a systematic framework to identifying the pertinent issues for which information needs to be collected, in this case for agricultural marketing and food system research. Holtzman's approach is very useful for RRA survey teams because it provides a cross-check for deciding which information is really of importance to the data gathering exercise so that the team does not waste valuable time on questions of peripheral importance to the research effort.
Topic: Minimum Data Sets
Honadle, George - 1982 "Rapid Reconnaissance for Development Administration: Mapping and Moulding Organizational Landscapes," World Development, 10(8):623-649.
Includes an extremely useful section, quoted in Gregerson, Draper, and Elz, eds., People and Trees: The Role of Social Forestry in Sustainable Development, Washington, D.C.: EDI, World Bank, on the situations in which informal and formal surveys are warranted and how the results from each method might differ.
Topic: Interview Technique
Hoskins, Marilyn - 1979 Women for Local Community Development: A Programming Guide. AID-supported study. Washington, D.C.: U.S.A.I.D.
Points out the need to question women and children separately from men about their knowledge, interests, and use of different forest and fodder products and species, to properly understand the local agroforestry system and its problems.
Topic: Least Visible Target Groups
ICRAF (International Council for Research in Agroforestry) - 1983 Resources for Agroforestry Diagnosis and Design, Diagnostic and Design Methodology Manual Series No. 2, Working Paper No. 7, Nairobi, Kenya: International Council for Research in Agroforestry.
Series of collected articles on Diagnosis and Design (D&D) methodology developed at ICRAF for the study of agroforestry systems. Places an emphasis on finding interventions that are sustainable, productive, and culturally appropriate. Includes a spacial mapping technique that identifies which landscape niches within the general environment and on farms are used by different users (men, women, herders, landless, etc.).
Topic: General Methods
International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) - 1988-Present RRA Notes. Address: IIED, 3 Endsleigh Street, London WClH ODD, United Kingdom.
This is a networking newsletter for exchanging information on new methods from the field. The RRA Notes publish a wide range of experiences with trying out different approaches in field situations. The editors (Gordon Conway, Robert Chambers, Jennifer McCracken, and Jules Pretty) are encouraging more contributions from local users in the developing countries as well as from international specialists.
Topic: General Methods
Jamieson, Niel - 1987 "The Paradigmatic Significance of Rapid Rural Appraisal," in Proceedings of the 1985 International Conference on Rapid Rural Appraisal, Rural Systems Research and Farming Systems Research Projects, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen 40002, Thailand, pp. 89-102.
The author points out the importance of rapid appraisal as a new paradigm for incorporating the local beneficiary into the process of information-gathering and decision-making. Because the fact-finding team engages in a dialogue with the project beneficiaries in rapid appraisal, there is much more feedback between project planners and implementers and beneficiaries, an issue of equal importance to questions of survey validity, etc.
Topic: Team Interaction, General
Jones, Jeffrey, and Ben Wallace, eds. - 1985 Social Sciences and Farming Systems Research: Methodological Perspectives on Agricultural Development, Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press.
A collection of articles which review the range of social science input into farming systems research and analyze the role of the anthropologist in developing a framework for informal survey research, working in a multi-disciplinary approach, and ensuring that the farmer's emerges in both diagnostic perception of problems and evaluative stages when introducing an intervention.
Topic: General
Khon Kaen University, - 1987 Proceedings of the 1985 International Conference on Rapid Rural Appraisal, Rural Systems Research and Farming Systems Research Projects, Khon Kaen, Thailand.
This is the best single reference to RRA techniques and the range of applications. It has a range of articles from a 1985 workshop that cover general methods, interview techniques and survey pointers and case applications. There is now a companion case study volume to this one, also available from the University by writing to: Dr. Terd Charoenwatana, Faculty of Agriculture, Khon Kaen University.
Topic: General Methods
Koenig, Dolores - 1986 "Alternative Views of the Energy Problem: Why Malian Have Villagers Other Priorities," Human Organization, 45(2):170-176.
An article describing a very different viewpoint on the fuel crisis from that imputed to village women by planners.
Topic: Least Visible Target Groups
Kumar, Krishna - 1987 Rapid. Low-Cost Data Collection Methods for A.I.D. - U.S.A.I.D Program Design and Evaluation Methodology Report, No. 10, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Agency for International Development, December.
This is a manual on RRA methods geared to the needs of U.S.A.I.D staff. It covers a number of key methodological issues and provides an overview of a number of methods currently in use.
Topic: General Methods
1987 Conducting Group Interviews in Developing Countries. A.I.D. Program Design and Evaluation Methodology Report, No. 8. Washington, D.C.: Agency for International Development (Office of CDIE).
This is a concise and up-to-date guide on techniques of conducting community and focus group interviews designed for use by non-social scientists, particularly project managers and design and evaluation team leaders. Included at the end is a short list of good, traditional references on social science methodology on conducting interviews.
Topic: Group Interviews
Maxwell, Simon - 1986 "Farming Systems Research: Hitting a Moving Target," World Development 14(1):65-77.
Maxwell argues that FSR has failed to include the fact that the rural situation changes over the time of the FSR recommendation to often make it inappropriate or obsolete. This is particularly relevant advice to social foresters who are making recommendations for planting trees that will not be harvestable for a long period of time, and must continue to prove adaptive to a farmer's overall strategy.
Topic: Pitfalls
McCracken, Jennifer A., Jules N. Pretty and Gordon R. Conway - 1988 An Introduction to Rapid Rural Appraisal for Agriculture Development, International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), London.
This is the latest overview to RRA as developed by IIED, London, which uses agroecosystems analysis as a core approach for organizing the RRA tool kit. This manual describes training programs and includes an annotated bibliography and list of network experts.
Topic: General Methods, Interactive Tools, Agroecosystems Analysis
Messerschmidt, Donald - 1987 "Conservation and Society in Nepal: Traditional Forest Management and Innovative Development," in Peter Little, ed., Lands at Risk in the Third World, Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, pp. 373-398.
Describes the village dialogue approach used for watershed management in local communities.
Topic: Interactive Planning
Ministere de l'Environment et du Tourisme, Burkina Faso. - 1974-76
Retenir l'Eau et la Terre
Vie de la Terre
Pour Une Pedagogie de l'Autouromotion
These are a series of village-level extension materials which provide a framework for problem analysis by local communities regarding the state of the environment and natural resource management issues and potential solutions. Topic: Interactive Tools
Murray, Gerald - 1986 "Seeing the Forest while Planting the Trees: An Anthropological Approach to Agro-forestry in Rural Haiti," in D.W. Brinkerhoff and J.C. Garcia Zamor, eds., Politics. Projects, and Peasants: Institutional Development in Haiti, New York: Praeger, pp. 193-266.
Deals with issues relevant to local negotiations with local communities and the types of local information needed for planning in community forestry.
Topic: Interactive Planning
Naronha, Raymond - 1980 Sociological Aspects of Forestry Project Design. Washington, D.C.: World Bank. Agricultural Technical Note #3.
Parts of this report are included in Naronha and Spears, "Sociological Variables in Forestry Project Design," in Michael Cernea, ed., Putting People First, Washington, D.C.: John Hopkins Press, 1985. This is a very useful report detailing the sociological factors of importance in community forestry project design and outlining the range of information that must be collected to evaluate the role of these factors in any particular region or culture area. Strong on factors related to land tenure and legal rights to land use.
Topic: Minimum Data Sets
Ngasomsuke, Kamol, Prasat Saenchai, Panomsak Promburom and Bunthom Suraporn - 1987 Farmers' Attitudes Towards Forest. Plantation and Conservation Farming in Selected Villages of the Phu Wiang Valley. Khon Kaen. Integrated Development of the Phu Wiang Watershed, Field Document 3, UNDP/Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN. Khon Khaen, Thailand.
This document compares the results of an RRA-style investigation and a formal survey regarding use of forest products and concludes that most of the information acquired through the RRA exercise is substantiated in the more detailed, formal survey.
Topic: Sampling Techniques
Odell, Malcolm, Marcia Odell and Steve Franzel - 1986 Diagnosis in Farming Systems Research and Extension, Volumes I and II, for Farming Systems Support Program, University of Florida, Gainesville. (Consulting editor, Lisette Walecka), (Farming Systems Research and Extension Training Units).
A training manual of which Volume I concentrates on diagnostic surveys and the various techniques and methodologies for carrying these out. Includes training units on sampling methodologies, informal survey and interviewing techniques, use of existing and secondary data as background information, and rapid appraisal approaches. Much of this work is based on work done in community forestry as well as farming systems.
Topic: Training Materials
Odell, Malcolm - 1987 Course Manual Communications and Market Research for Agriculture. The Graduate School, USDA, Washington, D.C.
Includes excellent summary of one-card system for local information sorting from rapid appraisal surveys and summary of focus group interview techniques.
Topic: Training Materials
Parker, Kathleen, Shiva Achet, Richard Calnan, Wm. Fleming and M. Joshi, - 1988 Final Evaluation Report: Resource Conservation and Utilization Project No. 367-0132, Report submitted to USAID, by Tropical Research and Development, Inc., 4010 Newberry Road, Suite D, Gainesville, Florida 32607.
This contains a minimum data set for project evaluation at the village site level on the basis of technical efficiency, sustainability, economic cost-effectiveness, institutional soundness, and level of participation.
Topic: Minimum Data Set
Patton, Michael Quinn - 1986 Utilization Focused Evaluation. Beverly Hills: Sage Publishers.
This is the most recent of Patton's books on practical evaluation. It contains a wealth of useful insights on why and how to collect information of importance to program implementation. An excellent background source for deciding what kinds of indicators are needed for various rapid appraisal purposes.
Topic: Interviewing, Analytical Framework
1980 Qualitative Interview Methods. Beverly Hills: Sage Publishers.
This is another extremely useful general source on evaluative interviewing. The sections on techniques of conducting interviews and ways to plan questions are based on years of open-ended and structured interviewing in a variety of evaluation areas, especially educational programs. Much is directly relevant to interviewing farmers and other rural beneficiaries.
Topic: Interviewing
Potten, David - 1986 "RRA of Small Irrigation Schemes in Zimbabwe," paper for Seminar at the International Irrigation Management Institute, March 1986.
Reviews Robert Chambers' list of RRA Techniques in relation to their use on an evaluation team's visit to Zimbabwe. One interesting conclusion was the team's consensus that rather than spending an additional day in each irrigation scheme (they spent one day in each), it would have been more costeffective to make a follow-up trip for the same length of time in a different agricultural season.
Topic: Team Interaction, General Methods
Raintree, John, ed. - 1986 An Introduction to Agroforestry Diagnosis and Design, Nairobi, Kenya: International Center for Research in Agroforestry. Address: ICRAF House, off Limuru Road, Gigiri, P.O. Box 30677, Nairobi, Kenya.
Overview of the Diagnosis and Design methodology, intended for use by expatriate experts, developing-country planners, and field extension staff. Topic: Interactive Tools, Indicators, Data Sets
1987 "The State of the Art of Agroforestry Diagnosis and Design," in Agroforestry Systems, 1987 special issue on ICRAF's 10th Anniversary.
Summarizes the ICRAF D&D strategy in detail and reviews and references the wide range of working papers and studies carried out by the research team at ICRAF to date. Table 5 is a very relevant chart of the decision-making process and the corresponding field survey questions that must be asked to provide the needed information to make those decisions.
Topic: Interactive Planning, Minimum Data Sets
Regional Wood Energy Development Programme in Asia - 1988 Planning Forestry Extension Programmes. Report of a Regional Expert Consultation in collaboration with Forest Trees and People Programme and Winrock International F/FRED Project, Food and Agriculture Organization
of the United Nations, Bangkok, Thailand.
Includes a host of examples of local negotiations/village-level planning approaches using interactive tools for involving local people in the planning process. See article by Raintree and Hoskins on Appropriate R&D Support for Forestry Extension and other methodology chapters.
Topic: Interactive Planning
Rhoades, Robert - 1986 "Using Anthropology in Improving Food Production: Problems and Prospects," Agricultural Administration (22)1986:57-78.
In addition to outlining the special contribution of anthropology to multidisciplinary efforts, Rhoades presents a case describing the quickness and innovativeness with which one anthropologist studied one valley (two months in Montaro valley) and produced a report based on informal surveys and use of secondary sources (aerial photographs, government documents) that has proved invaluable to FSR planning in that region at very low cost. Document produced by the anthropologist is unfortunately not readily available in the U.S.A. (Mayer, E., "Land Use in the Andes: Ecology and Agriculture in the Montaro Valley of Peru with Special Reference to Potatoes," Lima, Peru: International Potato Center, 115 pp., 1979).
Topic: General
1985 "Informal Survey Methods for Farming Systems Research," Human Organization, 44(3):215-218.
A more accessible summary of the methodology detailed in the earlier pamphlet. One or the other is must reading for practitioners. Both include such topics as when and how to interview the respondent, how to establish a good rapport, when to introduce sensitive issues, how to record the answers, and how to analyze the findings.
Topic: Interview Techniques
1982 The Art of the Informal Agricultural Survey, Lima, Peru: International Potato Center. Address: CIP, P.O. Box 5969, Lima, Peru.
Rhoades classic article on how to conduct an informal survey with farmers.
1982 "Farmer Back to Farmer: A Model for Generating Acceptable Agricultural Technology," Agricultural Administration 11(1982):127-137.
Outlines the farmer-back-to-farmer strategy mentioned under FSR approaches in this report. Of importance to community forestry is the use of farmers as the 'evaluators' of the effectiveness of any intervention and the use of open-ended dialogues with farmers to identify problems and good points of intervention.
Topic: Farming Systems Research
Rocheleau, Dianne - 1985 Land-Use Planning with Rural Farm Households and Communities: Participatory Agroforestry Research. Working Paper No. 36. Nairobi, Kenya: International Center for Research on Agro-forestry. Address: ICRAF House, off Limuru Road, Gigiri, P.O. Box 30677, Nairobi, Kenya.
This study identifies the importance of collecting information on household composition and inter-household groupings for designing and carrying out group-based activities. Also reinforces Hoskins (1979) finding that women, men and children in the same household have different knowledge, interest, and responsibilities with respect to specific land units, plants and animals, and particular activities (pp. 9-10).
Topic: Least Visible Groups
Sajise, Perry E. and Terry Rasho - 1985 Agroecosystem Research in Rural Resource Management and Development, Selected papers presented at the second SUAN-EAPI Regional Symposium on Agroecosystem Research, Baguio City, Philippines, March 1985, Southeast Asian Universities Agroecosystem Network (SUAN), and Program on Environmental Science and Management, University of the Philippines, at Los Banos, Philippines.
This is a good example of agroecosystem analysis (AEA) as applied to problems of upland development and coastal development in the Philippines. As AEA is adapted by local researchers in different countries, each country develops its own version of this methodology.
Topic: Agroecosystems Analysis
Salmen, Lawrence - 1987 Listen to the People Participant-Observer Evaluation of Development Projects, for World Bank, New York: Oxford University Press.
Salmen has tailored the traditional techniques of participant-observation to in-country evaluation by host-country personnel of large projects. Using a combination of residence in several communities and cross-checking of information through structured interviews, he has obtained more reliable information about community participation than through traditional monitoring surveys.
Topic: General Methods
Schwartz, Norman - 1988 "Rapid Assessment and Development Projects," presented to American Anthropological Association Meetings, Session on "Meeting the Challenge of New Age Research: Methodological Adaptation in Applied Anthropology,"
November, 1988. Address: Prof. Norman Schwartz, Dep't. of Anthropology, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware 19711.
This paper compares the use of indicators of community service assessment as proxies to measure whether or not a group fishery cooperative was likely to succeed in Panama and its application to Ecuador. He finds that proxies are geographically specific, but very useful shorthand if properly applied. Topic: Pitfalls, Indicators
Scrimshaw, Susan, and Elena Hurtado - 1987 Rapid Assessment Procedures for Nutrition and Primary Health Care Anthropological Approaches to Improving Programme Effectiveness.
Los Angeles: University of California Press.
This manual contains detailed checklists for the evaluation of nutrition and primary health care services for use by host-country medical and para-medical personnel. These are in effect minimum data sets for the health field with particular attention to group interview techniques and informal interview content.
Topic: General Methods
Shaner, W.W., P.F. Philipp, and W.R. Schmehl - 1982 Farming Systems Research and Development: Guidelines for Developing Countries, Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press.
This is a detailed and practical compendium of RRA techniques for informal surveys and interviews and other FSR techniques. It compiles techniques used by a wide variety of FSR practitioners, with ample discussion of the social scientist's input. Useful are discussions of sampling options, a case study of interviewing women in Bangladesh, and the section on ways to interview farmers on decision-making. The limitation on this work is that the relative values of different methods proposed are not systematically evaluated in this handbook.
Topic: General Methods
Slade, Roger, and Gabriel Campbell - 1987 An Operational Guide to the Monitoring and Evaluation of Social Forestry in India. Forestry Paper No. 75. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
Based on the experience with implementing community forestry projects in India and Nepal, this handbook outlines a simple, yet effective set of methods for conducting monitoring and evaluation for broad community forestry programs. Includes phasing of the collection of different types of information from the start-up of the M&E unit throughout the life of the project and discusses ways to effectively design and carry out special studies and case studies.
Topic: Indicators
Suelzer, R., and K. Sharma - 1986 Working with the People: Some Experiences with the People-Centered Approach (PDPP) in the Tinau Watershed Project 1983 - 1986. Tansen, Nepal: HMG/SATA Tinau Watershed Project paper. Mimeo.
Describes the seven-day workshop approach to community planning, with group interviews/discussions on local conditions and development parameters. Topic: Interactive Planning
UN ACC Task Force on Rural Development - 1985 Guiding Principles for the Design and Use of Monitoring and Evaluation in Rural Development Projects, Rome: UN.
In a section on short-term information gathering, this pamphlet succinctly summarizes the interview and survey techniques that are needed for rapid reconnaissance. These are similar to those discussed by Robert Chambers, with specific attention to both village-based and external forces affecting farmers' decision-making.
Topic: General Methods
Vergara, Napoleon, et al - 1986 "Social Forestry Research Issues: Preliminary Problem Identification in Sisaket Province, Northeast Thailand," ODI Social Forestry Network Paper 2b, London: Overseas Development Institute. Address: Overseas Development Institute, Regent's College, Inner Circle, Regent's Park, London NW1 4NS.
Reports on the preliminary issues identified by research engaged in participatory action research being carried out in India and Thailand. The approach used is research through use of dialogue with farmers and action programmes while in residence in a village.
Topic: Interactive Tools
Warwick, Donald - 1976 The Sample Survey: Theory and Practice, New York: McGraw Hill Company.
There is a wealth of information in this handbook on ways to design questionnaires and important factors in question phrasing and sequencing of questions to reduce bias. Suggestions such as "don't wait till the very end of the survey to introduce controversial questions, or the informant will be too tired to respond, although you must wait until enough rapport has been established to ask such questions" are directly relevant to rapid information gathering interviews, even when interviews are unstructured.
Topic: Interview Techniques
