Critical reflections on rapid and participatory rural appraisal

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. Abstract supplied by kind permission of CABI. This article is freely available as a chapter in Development Methods and Approaches: Critical Reflections