Course: Issues in Development, Code (4694)

Semester: Autumn, 2021

ASSIGNMENT No.2

Q. No 1: Why do understand countries need foreign aid? How foreign aid has contributed
to the development of our country so far?
Answer:
 Governments of developed countries often engage in investment and assistance to less
developed countries, to the tune of several billions of dollars each year.
 This assistance is intended to promote global economic and political stability, to
encourage growth and development, and to protect allies around the world.
 This aid typically takes the form of foreign direct investment (FDI), humanitarian aid,
and foreign trade incentives.
There are three primary forms of international aid, as well as various sub-types. The first
primary type is private foreign direct investment (FDI) from multinational or transnational
corporations. These are typically equity holdings of foreign assets by non-residents of the
recipient country. For example, American companies may engage in FDI by buying a
controlling interest in a Nigerian company. FDI reached a peak of approximately $3 trillion
globally in 2007 and has since declined for several geopolitical and macroeconomic reasons.
Global FDI was approximately $2 trillion in 2015 and $1 trillion in 2018.3
The second primary type is what people normally think of when they hear the term "foreign
aid." These are official development tools designed and funded by government agencies or
international nonprofits to combat the problems associated with poverty. Humanitarian efforts
spearheaded by governments are almost exclusively done by wealthier nations that are also
members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Each
year, OECD countries spend between $100 billion and $150 billion in foreign aid. In the 50
years between 1962 and 2012, wealthy countries contributed a cumulative $3.98 trillion with
mixed results.4
The third primary type, foreign trade, is much larger and much less intentional. By all accounts,
openness to foreign trade is the single leading indicator for developmental progress among poor
countries, perhaps because free-trade policies tend to go hand-in-hand with economic freedom
and political stability. An excellent breakdown of this relationship can be seen in the Index of
Economic Freedom provided by The Heritage Foundation.

Disbursements vs. Aid Received

One of the most critical issues in the foreign-aid conversation is disbursement. Most
disbursements are measured in terms of money given, such as how many dollars were donated
or how many low-interest loans were extended. Many foreign-aid bureaucracies define success
on the basis of nominal monetary disbursements. Critics counter that dollars of funding do not
always translate to effective assistance, so measuring simply in money terms is insufficient.
Foreign-aid disbursements face many hurdles, including local corruption and alternative
domestic agendas. In 2012, Ugandan Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi famously apologized to
the United Nations when his aides embezzled more than $13 million of aid money. A 2015

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report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute found that more than $100
billion in aid to Afghanistan had been wasted or stolen by "kleptocrats," who used the
money to suppress entrepreneurs and even to purchase expensive villas.6
There are also concerns about using aid to help businesses with connections to Washington,
D.C. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) openly states that "80 percent
of USAID's grants and contracts go directly to American firms and nongovernmental
organizations."

Bilateral Aid
Bilateral aid is the dominant type of state-run aid. Bilateral aid occurs when one government
directly transfers money or other assets to a recipient country. On the surface, American
bilateral aid programs are designed to spread economic growth, development and democracy. In
reality, many are given strategically as diplomatic tools or handsome contracts to well-
connected businesses.
Most problematic bilateral aid disbursements are simple, direct cash transfers. Such foreign aid
to Africa has been "an unmitigated economic, political, and humanitarian disaster," as written
by Zambian-born economist and World Bank consultant Dambisa Moyo in her book "Dead
Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way to Help Africa." Foreign
governments are often corrupt and use foreign aid money to bolster their military control or to
create propaganda-style education programs.

Military Aid
Military aid can be considered a type of bilateral aid, with one twist. It normally requires one
nation to either purchase arms or sign defense contracts directly with the United States. In some
cases, the federal government purchases the arms and uses the military to transport them to the
recipient country. The country that receives the most military aid from the United States, and
the most aid in general, is Israel. The American government effectively bankrolls the Israeli
military to the tune of $3 billion per year.

Multilateral Aid
Multilateral aid is like bilateral aid, except it is provided by many governments instead of one.
A single international organization, such as the World Bank, often pools funds from various
contributing nations and executes the delivery of the aid. Multilateral assistance is a small part
of the U.S. Agency for International Development's foreign aid programs. Governments might
shy away from multilateral aid because it is more challenging to make strategic decisions when
several other donors are involved.

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Humanitarian Assistance
Humanitarian assistance can be thought of as a targeted and shorter-term version of bilateral
aid. For example, humanitarian aid from wealthy nations poured into the coastal regions in
South Asia after a 9.1 magnitude earthquake triggered a tsunami in the Indian Ocean, killing
more than 200,000 people. Because it tends to be higher-profile than other types of aid,
humanitarian efforts receive more private funding than most other types of aid.

Q. No 2: What is resource mobilization? What are some of the resources that need to be
mobilization for development? Which one of them is the most important in your opinion
and why?
Answer: Resource mobilization:
Resource mobilization refers to all activities involved in securing new and additional resources
for your organization. It also involves making better use of, and maximizing, existing resources.
Resource mobilization is often referred to as ‘New Business Development’. The figure below
shows how New Business Opportunities – which are intended to mobilize resources – form part
of an organization’s overall functioning.
Resource mobilization is critical to any organization for the following reasons:
1. Ensures the continuation of your organization’s service provision to clients
2. Supports organizational sustainability
3. Allows for improvement and scale-up of products and services the organization currently
provides
4. Organizations, both in the public and private sector, must be in the business of generating
new business to stay in business
5. Although sustainability is often identified with having sufficient funds to cover an
organization’s activities, it is actually a broader concept. There are three fundamental
Streams of sustainability: institutional, financial and programmatic. Each is vital to the
survival of an organization. Below are the definitions of these three areas of sustainability:
Institutional sustainability. The organization has a strong, yet flexible structure and accountable,
transparent governance practices. Its structure and good governance allows it to respond to the
shifting priorities of its supporters and to new responsibilities toward its clients, while creating a
positive work climate for its staff.
Financial sustainability. The organization draws on various sources of revenue, allowing it to
support its ongoing efforts and to undertake new initiatives.
Figure 2 below shows how all of these streams of sustainability are exercised in an
organization. The strategic plan is the anchor, in which an organization’s programs, structure
and systems, as well as financials are reviewed and new business opportunities are identified.
These new directions or new business opportunities are then pursued using a distinct resource
mobilization strategy, such as writing proposals, submitting grant applications, or drafting
business cases or business plans. All of these instruments are designed to showcase an

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organization’s programs, institutional structure, and financial health.

In signing off, I would like to share with you 10 truths about resource mobilization:
1.Organizations are not entitled to support; they must earn it.
2.Successful resource mobilization requires a lot of work and takes a lot of time.
3.If your organization needs additional revenue one year from now, start today!
4.Be ready, willing and able to sell your organization and the programs for which you are
raising money.
5. Resource mobilization efforts should align with your organizational mission, objectives
and strategic plan.
6. Resource mobilization is also about the needs of the (prospective) funder.
7. Understand the needs of your clients (target population/funders).
8. Be prepared to provide evidence-based results.
9. Your organizational performance today impacts your ability to generate resources
tomorrow.
10. You must establish and maintain organizational credibility and reputation.
Resource mobilization is actually a process of raising different types of support for your
organization. As said above, it can include both cash and in-kind support. To further understand
what this process is, we will break up these different types of support below:
1. Submitting proposals to a typical donor agency is the most conventional way of getting
support
2. Organizing fundraising events where you invite guests and request donations for your
organization

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3. Donation boxes where you request small amounts of money from public
4. Collecting in-kind contribution such as used clothes, furniture, books, vehicles or even
buildings
5. Volunteer support where volunteers provide their time and resources to support the work
of your organization
6. Income from business-oriented projects of your organization like selling of publications,
offering consultancies, microfinance, micro insurance or micro-enterprise-based activities
All the above listed types of support are essential for NGOs though all of them do not
contribute equally to the funding needs of the organization. Yet, a good fundraising strategy
will consider all these.

Q. No 3: How can teachers’ employment, school pricing, syllabus, compensation and

incentives be strategically planned for optional educational resources mobilization?
There is a growing recognition of the importance of equity to development, and many
development agencies recognise equity as a central goal for their programming. However, while
equity is used intuitively in development debates and programming, it seems that its meaning is
not clearly understood. This is reflected in often shallow analysis about what equity is and what
should be done to achieve it. Its importance is recognised, but the policy priorities for achieving
it are not consistently or coherently explored. Recent decades have seen rising inequality and
inequities, which are in turn partly responsible for the world ‘lagging behind’ on headline goals
such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). While this rise may be driven largely by
worldwide processes such as globalization and economic integration, more than by government
or donor policies, rising inequity is a problem that can and should be tackled by the
development community, and should be more firmly on the agenda. This paper draws together
the current understanding on why it is important, and how to tackle it.
Equity comes from the idea of moral equality, that people should be treated as equals. Thinking
about equity can help us decide how to distribute goods and services across society, holding the
state responsible for its influence over how goods and services are distributed in a society, and
using this influence to ensure fair treatment for all citizens. Applying these ideas in a specific
country context involves hard choices, and embedding discussions of distributive justice into
domestic political and policy debates is central to national development, but three areas of
considerable consensus can be identified. In order of priority, these are:
1. Equal life chances: There should be no differences in outcomes based on factors for which
people cannot be held responsible.
2. Equal concern for people’s needs: Some goods and services are necessities, and should be
distributed according solely to the level of need.
3. Meritocracy: Positions in society and rewards should reflect differences in effort and ability,
based on fair competition.

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Unfortunately, there is considerable inequity in developing countries. People’s access to and

interaction with key institutions are shaped by power balances in the political, economic and
social spheres, often leading to adverse incorporation and social exclusion. Also, patterns of
inequality reinforce each other through intergenerational transmission and various formal and
informal institutions, resulting in inequality between groups and geographical regions and
chronic poverty passed between generations. The available evidence on the scale of the
challenge confirms a worrying picture of life chances dependent on inherited circumstances and
inequitable access to services, as well as rising income inequality which may further entrench
disadvantage. As well as being a bad thing in itself, this inequity has a negative effect on
growth, poverty reduction, social cohesion and voice.
Taking equity as a guiding principle brings into focus particular areas of policy. These are
existing and emerging areas of policy, but they gain a new importance from an equity
perspective. The five core priorities for addressing equity at the national level are:
1. Providing universal public services for fair treatment. This means prioritizing universal
access to public services, such as health and education, and improving their quality by
improving their delivery and strengthening underlying institutions. Infrastructure and law and
order are also crucial. Services should be free at the point of delivery wherever possible, and
where this is not possible, arrangements should be made to ensure that poor people are not
excluded.
2. Targeted action for disadvantaged groups. Government expenditure should favour
disadvantaged regions or groups. Quotas can support access to employment for specific
excluded groups. Services targeted towards these groups are crucial (e.g. girls’ education), as is
providing assistance at key stages of development, such as early childhood. Empowering these
groups is also vital, as well as strengthening organisations such as producer organisations,
social movements and trade unions.
3. Social protection. Social protection should be provided to ensure that nobody drops below a
minimum level of wellbeing, beyond which unmet need will create cycles of disadvantage.
Options include: payments such as social insurance or basic income grants; conditional transfers
to promote human development; minimum wage policies; guaranteed government employment
programmes; and labour market regulations to those in employment.
4. Redistribution. ‘Downstream’ action is required to improve equity by reducing inequality.
Progressive taxation can help, if the additional fiscal space created is used to fund interventions
that will support equity. Other priorities include lowering taxes on staple goods and applying
taxes on property – inheritance taxes are key. Land reform is also crucial and redistribution may
be required to provide the poor with productive assets.
5. Challenging embedded power imbalances. Power relations can cause and sustain inequity.
Tackling harmful power relations takes time, and the empowerment of disadvantaged people
must be combined with improving accountability mechanisms and reforming democratic
institutions. It is important to build a vibrant civil society and an independent media.

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Addressing unhelpful attitudes and beliefs can also help foster social cohesion and build a pro-
equity social contract.
There are a number of challenges and obstacles to implementing pro-equity policies, many of
which themselves stem from inequities. In light of this, development agencies have a special
role: by virtue of being external actors they may have more room for man oeuvre to help
equalize life chances. To deliver on equity, agencies should incorporate a more systematic
understanding of equity and inequity into their policy decisions, implement pro-equity policies
and influence developing country governments to address inequity. More than this, equity
should be embedded in decision-making tools and procedures.
The interventions listed above have had a proven impact on poverty, inequity and human
development indicators. More than this, some developing countries (e.g. Vietnam) have
employed wide-ranging and coherent strategies to tackle inequity, which have promoted long-
term and sustainable change in terms of growth as well as reducing poverty and inequality.
Tackling inequity is crucial for developing country governments and development agencies: as
well as being a valuable goal in itself, improving equity constitutes a central place in our
understanding of beneficial change and development, driving poverty reduction in combination
with growth. Moreover, the empirical evidence indicates that equity is instrumentally central to
long-term change, through its causal ties to efficiency, growth, poverty reduction and social
cohesion.
Putting equity at the heart of development programming could potentially have further benefits.
As well as adding practical value, the symbolic, normative and political dimensions of the
concept promote the recognition of key challenges, resonate with stakeholders North and South,
foster empowerment and engagement and promote deeper, more sustainable change.
Equity is central to development. There is a broad and deep understanding of inequity and its
causes, and on what works and what does not. Yet, equity remains low on the policy agenda in
many countries. This must be down to a lack of political will. We can only conclude that the
limited focus on equity is a matter of domestic and international power imbalances. Tackling
inequities often requires working against the interests of national elites, challenging vested
interests or dominant ideologies, or speaking for people who are excluded and ignored
systematically by those making policy.
As a result, the biggest challenge for promoting equity in developing countries is to address the
political economy of change. It is crucial to strengthen political movements and coalitions, to
challenge prevailing beliefs and misconceptions around equity, and to encourage a
representative public debate on practical issues of distributive justice.
While many developing countries do not need to wait for the development community to get its
act together on equity issues, donors can play a crucial role in influencing development debates
and in promoting equity through programme design and policy influence. Because donors are
separate from national power structures that may reinforce social, political and economic
inequalities they can also have a disproportionate influence. While some agencies (mostly

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INGOs such as ActionAid and Oxfam, but also SIDA) do give equity considerable attention in
their analysis, policy and practice, others portray equity related issues as overly ‘political’.
Where policy discourses draw on neo-liberal visions of development, principles such as
equality of opportunity may be seen as important, but there may be ideological barriers to
putting this agenda into operational. Donor agencies need to focus more strongly on
transforming an equity-focused agenda into tangible action for the poor, backed by political will
at the top levels.

Q. No 4: Describe briefly the development approach of Pakistan at the time of its

independence. Also evaluate this approach both for its effectiveness and obstruction in the
way of development.
Answer: Rural areas are home to most of the poor. According to ILO calculations, 88 per cent
of the extreme poor live in rural areas, where poverty rates are four times higher than in urban
areas and decent work deficits are typically severe. The rural/urban divide becomes even more
apparent when considering poverty rates for people in employment. Nearly 20 per cent of
people employed in rural areas live in extreme poverty, compared with just over 4 per cent in
urban areas. Rural areas are characterized by governance gaps and informality. Gender
inequalities in rural areas are pervasive. If women in rural areas had the same access to
agriculture assets, education and markets as men, agricultural production could be increased and
the number of hungry people reduced by 100-150 million39 . Rural labour markets are often
dysfunctional. Labour market institutions are weak, as are their organization and representation.
Underemployment is widespread and incomes are generally low. Access to social protection is
extremely limited. Rural workers are often vulnerable, and in numerous circumstances, are not
fully covered by national labour law, while more broadly, their rights are often not realized or
enforced. Indigenous and tribal peoples are particularly vulnerable to discrimination. Because of
this vulnerability and lack of organization, the voice of rural workers is often not heard in
relation to both rural development and broader economic and social development. Common
challenges to unleashing the potential of rural areas include low productivity; underinvestment
in agriculture and non-farm rural employment; lack of adequate infrastructure; poor
occupational safety and health and working conditions; and limited or no access to services,
including financial services. Additional pressures in rural economies result from conflict,
natural resource depletion and climate change. The rural economy holds considerable potential
for economic growth, employment creation and promotion of decent work if the right policies
are in place. The ILO’s Decent Work Agenda, as an integrated rights-based development
strategy, supports tripartite constituents in their efforts to promote sustainable rural livelihoods.
However, rural areas are also characterized by great diversity and should not be considered as
being exclusively agricultural. There is a mixture of on-and off-farm activities ranging from
smallholder agriculture or pastoralism to highly sophisticated commercial agribusiness
supplying global markets through intense regional and national linkages with industrial and

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services sectors (56 ). Rural development has been on ILO’s agenda since it was established in
1919. Since then, the ILO has adopted over 30 international labour standards that directly target
agriculture and rural development, covering rights at work, employment opportunities, social
protection and social dialogue. In 2008, the ILC discussion on rural employment, which
culminated in the adoption of a Resolution and Conclusions on promoting rural employment
for poverty reduction, set a mandate for renewed ILO involvement in rural development issues.
In March 2011, the Governing Body adopted a strategy on promoting decent work for rural
development, which called for particular attention to areas such as rural entrepreneurship,
enterprises and cooperatives; employment-intensive employment strategies; appropriate skills
development; extended social security coverage; occupational safety and health; and the
systematic inclusion of rural dimensions and actors when developing and implementing
employment and social protection policies. Informed by these developments, decent work in the
Rural Economy became one of eight “areas of critical importance (ACI)” for the biennium
2014–15, and since then constitutes one of the Office’s ten policy outcomes. The ILO’s
approach to rural poverty aims at increasing the overall resilience of rural communities and
their capacity to address such challenges through the Decent Work Agenda. This approach is
based on three main goals: increasing the voice of rural people through organization of
communities and promotion of rights, standards and social dialogue; promoting an employment
based rural development model through diversified livelihoods, sustainable enterprises and
better integration in value chains; and providing social protection floors which guarantee
minimum income and access to basic services in rural economies which are often very
vulnerable to external shocks.
Rural workers (including plantation workers) and rural producers have been the subject of
numerous specific ILO Conventions and Recommendations, and are referenced in many
additional ILO instruments of a more general nature. The weakness of the collective voice of
rural workers and employers has deep-rooted causes such as the fragmentation and low levels of
membership of trade unions and employers’ organizations in rural areas. Strengthening the
organization and representation of rural stakeholders – for example, through cooperatives and
other social and social solidarity economy organizations – as well as improving the institutional
framework for social dialogue is key for promoting decent work in the rural economy. Gender
inequalities and discrimination of groups in vulnerable situations are major challenges in the
rural economy. Ending all forms of discrimination against women and girls, whose
empowerment is key to reducing poverty and hunger, and safeguarding the rights of indigenous
and tribal peoples and of other groups vulnerable to discrimination, is an integral part of ILO’s
work on the rural economy; The agro-food, fishing and aquaculture sectors have tremendous
potential to unlock inclusive, green and climate-resilient growth. On the other hand, rural
communities in the developing world are suffering most from climate change and
environmental degradation. Promoting environmental sustainability, climate resilient
development and green jobs creation in these sectors is at the core of the ILO strategy on the

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rural economy.

Q. No 5: Discuss the similarities and differences Participatory Rural Appraisal and Rapid
Rural Appraisal techniques for development. What are these techniques criticized for?

Answer: Rural rapid appraisal (RRA) is a social science approach that emerged in the early
1980s. A multidisciplinary team employs simple, nonstandard methods and the knowledge of
local people to elicit, analyze, and evaluate information and hypotheses on rural life and rural
resources relevant for planning action. RRA techniques are an attractive alternative to
conventional survey methods because they allow relatively rapid assessment of local
knowledge, needs, and community potential with the aim of devising strategies to solve the
problems identified. Participatory rural appraisal (PRA) can be described as a family of
approaches, methods, and behaviors enabling people to express and analyze the realities of their
lives and conditions, plan for themselves which actions to take, and monitor and evaluate the
results. Its methods have mainly evolved from RRA. The major difference is that PRA
emphasizes processes that empower local people, whereas RRA is mainly seen as a means for
outsiders to gather information. The outsiders act mainly as supporting facilitators, while the
local people own and use the results of the study. This enables local communities to assume
responsibility for implementing the activities based on such results. PRA methods are
successful within the scope of programs that support participatory development cooperation.
In the mid-1970s, many assessments of development came to the conclusion that a significant
change in approach was required if conditions among the poor, largely rural, population of
many less-developed countries were to improve Development efforts to date had tended to
concentrate on creating infrastructure, introducing new technology (mostly developed in the
industrialized nations) and creating the institutions which planners and experts generally felt
represented “development” However, while much had been achieved in terms of raising
production and diffusing technology, there was general dissatisfaction with the way in which
the benefits of these changes seemed to be distributed and the failure of improvements to have
any real impact on the living conditions of large sections of the rural poor.
In the agricultural sector on which many of the rural poor depended, “green revolution”
technology certainly revolutionized levels of production in some areas, and for some people.
The transfer of industrial technologies had set off the process of rapid urbanization and the
social and economic changes which go with it. But many workers in both international, national
and non-governmental development agencies were becoming increasingly aware that the
fundamental problems of poverty, marginalization and distributional imbalances which caused
“under-development” in rural areas could not be addressed by simply proposing technical
improvements to agricultural production or by introducing “modern” institutional structures
which were alien to local cultures and social structures.

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Practically all the models of development widely applied by agencies in the field, such as
technology transfer, community development, extension and training and co-operatives, were
seen to end up generally helping those who least required help and excluding from the
development process those who most needed assistance. Some benefits inevitably “trickled
down” to the poorest sections of society but the majority of the beneficial impacts of
development activities continued to be monopolized by urban and rural elites.
Criticisms of development during this period generally focused on three key issues.

1. Inappropriate development

The technical solutions in which development agencies had placed so much faith during
the post-war period were seen to be inappropriate to the needs and capabilities of many
rural communities. Often they were poorly adapted to the local environment and required
levels of technological understanding and sophistication which were unrealistic in the
context of traditional rural cultures. Frequently, proposed solutions completely “missed”
key target groups who were most in need of the benefits they provided. These groups
often included women and the poorest and most marginalized groups in society.
The same was true of institutional forms such as co-operatives which, while successful in
the context of industrialized societies with higher levels of education, were often found to be
unmanageable for people in rural societies in developing countries.
The need to seek more appropriate technical and institutional solutions, which were
manageable and sustainable by their intended beneficiaries was increasingly recognized.

2. Poor understanding of the social and cultural context of development

The debate over the appropriateness of the development models being proposed led to an
increasing realization of the need to understand social and cultural issues better if
development planning was to improve. The common perception that problems of “under-
development” were due to poor technology and inefficiencies in production was seen to be
over-simplified. The importance of social, economic and political structures in many rural
societies in determining the distribution and intensity of poverty was increasingly
understood.
This encouraged development workers to spend more time and resources on understanding
the social and cultural context of development and on planning interventions which were
better adapted to local conditions.
This created a need for appropriate means of research which would allow development
planners to understand the social and cultural setting of development and to address the
issues which it raises. Planners required methods that were relatively rapid and would help

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them open up channels of communication with the supposed “beneficiaries” of their

development plans.

3. Lack of participation

The lack of effective communication, inappropriate development interventions and poor

understanding of the social and cultural factors affecting development processes all
stemmed, at least in part, from the failure of planners to involve those affected by proposed
developments in the planning process. Development plans were developed by “experts”,
usually from very different cultural and social backgrounds, to address problems
which they perceived to be important. The priorities and needs of the supposed
“beneficiaries”, who were rarely consulted during planning, were often completely different
from the urban-oriented, bureaucratic concerns of development professionals. A large
proportion of planners and researchers were, and often continue to be, male and this
frequently meant that the concerns and priorities of women in target communities were
practically excluded from consideration.
Participation in planning and implementation by “target groups” therefore became a new
concern during the 1970s and 80s, creating a demand for adaptable and appropriate
methodologies for implementing “participatory development” in the field.

Problems with traditional research tools

In attempting to address these issues, development workers and critics frequently identified the
limited usefulness of existing tools for learning about rural conditions as a key problem. Many
projects and programmes were planned using information which was extremely limited in its
scope, concentrating purely on technical issues which were thought to be of particular
importance by experts.
Alternatively, attempts to obtain more in-depth knowledge of local conditions tended to rely on
formal, questionnaire-type surveys, which were expensive, labor-intensive, intrusive and
extremely slow to implement and process. Such surveys frequently generated large amounts of
potentially valuable information but much of this would remain under-utilized. In some cases,
the results of large formal surveys were seen to reflect the biases and priorities of those
formulating the questionnaires rather than the priorities of the rural communities being
investigated.
Traditional forms of social and anthropological research, involving long-term participant
observation, would generally provide a far better understanding of the social context of
development the value of which was being increasingly understood. But the time-frames

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involved in carrying out such research and the need to concentrate on relatively limited areas
made this approach similarly inappropriate to the needs of development planners.
At the other end of the scale, the formulation of development programmes by outside “experts”
based on quick visits and an often superficial knowledge of the features of a particular locality
was seen to be equally unsatisfactory. No matter how experienced or skilled the individual, their
views and conclusions would tend to be biased by their personal priorities and disciplinary
background and by the limitations of time, movement and contact imposed on them during such
rapid project appraisals.

Practical participation

During the 1980s development programmes began placing increased emphasis on participation
by target groups and beneficiaries, however, the desire to incorporate participation into
development planning was often frustrated by a lack of practical tools for doing so.
“Participatory” development activities were often found to be difficult both to plan and to fit
into organised development programmes. Too many different interest-groups had to be
accommodated and the time-scale for activities was frequently long and unpredictable.
Many of these problems were the result of a lack of effective mechanisms for incorporating
participatory approaches into existing planning and operational structures of development
agencies. The approach of rural communities to planning in terms of time and resources was
often very different from that of the agencies and government services which were supposed to
be supporting them. The development priorities proposed by rural communities themselves
would frequently cut across the disciplinary and administrative boundaries into which
development organisations are normally divided.
A demand therefore arose among development workers for tools for participatory development
which could be more easily incorporated into the planning procedures of development
organizations and agencies.

Alternative tools

Although the appropriateness of development work in the less-developed countries as a whole

was being widely questioned in the 1970s and early 1980s, many practitioners in the field had
already developed a variety of approaches and techniques to development work, particularly at
community level, which seemed to offer valid alternatives to the traditional methodologies.
Experience in farming systems research had led to the development of a wide variety of
techniques for collecting information at village-level in ways which both satisfied the needs of
planners and allowed rural people scope to express their needs and priorities. The need to
understand rural systems encouraged researchers to develop tools which linked together
features of the resource, technology and farming practices with local social and economic

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Course: Issues in Development, Code (4694)
Semester: Autumn, 2021
ASSIGNMENT No.2

structures and the beliefs, knowledge and customs of local people. The most effective of these
methods tended to involve rural people themselves in the collection and analysis of information,
to be relatively quick to produce results so that findings and recommendations could be rapidly
acted upon, and to provide an in-depth picture of conditions in an easily digestible format.
In addition, the many NGOs working in development had an enormous store of experience in
working closely with communities, paying close attention to their needs and priorities and the
ways in which they are communicated. Generally, each NGO would develop their “tools”
according to their own needs and by a long process of trial and error.
What was lacking was a systematic approach to the use of the various tools available and their
combination into a methodology which would be readily accessible to a wider range of
development workers.

Rapid Rural Appraisal

During the 1970s and early 1980s, efforts were being carried out in numerous parts of the
world, with the encouragement of a variety of organisations, to create such a methodology.
Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA) represents one particular combination of techniques for
information collection and approaches to learning about rural conditions which was collected
during this period. It needs to be emphasized that, at least initially, what came to be called RRA
was a collection of techniques, most of which were already being used by development workers
and NGOs in many parts of the world. The development of RRA consisted in putting these
techniques together into a more systematic framework which was then tested, added to and
refined in order to make it usable and accessible to a wider range of operators.
Mainly due to the institutional support which it has received in a few key locations, particularly
the International Institute of Environment and Development (IIED) in London, and the
Universities of Khon Kaen in Thailand and Sussex in the UK, and at several of international
agricultural research institutes around the world, Rapid Rural Appraisal came to be the most
widely accepted title for these alternative methodologies during the 1980s.

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