Environmental Management: Principles and practice

Participatory assessment: rapid rural appraisal, participatory rural appraisal
and rapid urban appraisal
There is considerable overlap between agroecosystem assessment, FSR and
participatory assessment approaches. The latter place more stress on participation
(by the local people or target group). Participatory assessment can be defined as
qualitative research or survey work which seeks to get an in-depth understanding of
a community or situation. Some impact assessment experts are promoting forms of
participatory impact assessment and monitoring (Yar, 1990).
Rapid rural appraisal (RRA) is a family of approaches mainly focused on
land capability assessment, which seek to incorporate (or involve) local people in
the process and to reduce the time and costs of preparation. It is a systematic,
semi-structured activity carried out in the field by a multidisciplinary team and
designed to quickly acquire new information on, and new hypotheses about, rural
life. RRA has rapidly evolved since the late 1970s and there is no single standardized
methodology — for an introduction see Agricultural Administration vol. 8(6),
special issue (1981); IDS Bulletin vol. 12(4), special issue (1991); Conway and
McCracken, 1990; Chambers, 1992). A central thesis of RRA is ‘optimal ignorance’,
the idea that the amount of information required should be kept to the necessary
minimum (something some EIA practitioners should also bear in mind). Another
central thesis is ‘diversity of analysis’—the use of different sources of data or
means of data gathering, and a range of experts, if possible, familiar with every
aspect of rural life.
RRA, according to Conway and Barbier (1990:177–178) is: iterative (i.e.
processes and goals are not fixed and can be modified as an exercise progresses);
innovative (it is adapted to suit needs); interactive (team members work to get
interdisciplinary insight); informal (it often relies on informal interviews); and in
contact with the community. RRA can be of variable character: exploratory—like
agroecosystem analysis it seeks information on a new rural topic or agroecosystem;
topical—with a specific output expected, often a hypothesis that can be a basis for
research or development.