Articles authored by Leurs, Robert

The paper addresses the question of the purpose of Rapid Rural Appraisal and Participatory Rural Appraisal (RRA/PRA). It outlines three broad contexts in which these are undertaken in practice. It then considers some of the challenges facing PRA. These include introducing and spreading PRA within communities; institutionalizing PRA into development organizations and their projects or programmes; assuring and maintaining quality, both of the PRA process and its facilitation; and, finally, the lack of a methodological critique of PRA.

This article presents the findings of a study of selected religious and secular non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working on HIV/AIDS in Nigeria. The study sought to identify whether, and in what circumstances, so-called faith-based organisations (FBOs) have distinctive characteristics with respect to their goals, values, organisational characteristics, and activities, compared to secular NGOs. It found that the FBOs studied are perceived by their staff, beneficiaries, and local observers as possessing some distinctive features and comparative advantages relative to secular NGOs.