Integrating participatory research methods in a public agricultural research organisation: a partially successful experience in Morocco

Reports on a project of institutional capacity development for participatory research, undertaken by the INRA in Morocco. The field work comprised a first stage of participatory rapid appraisal (PRA) training and a second stage of developing and testing a locally adjusted methodology for participatory research programme planning.

Research findings: The institutionalisation of participatory research is mainly influenced by:

• the causal innovation theory to which researchers and decision makers adhere
• the institute’s strategy and the extent to which this strategy fits in with rural development policies
• the management of the change process by which staff relinquish old ideas and assimilate new ones
• the sequence of action and reflection and the balance between them
• the simultaneous presence of both external pressures and internal support

Policy implications:

• the findings imply that successful efforts to institutionalise participatory research need to engineer a triple shift in organisational focus:
  • shift in focus from science and academic research to a broader view of innovation, which in all likelihood will include a great deal of adaptive research and innovation support services
  • shift in focus is from a technically sophisticated but politically naïve concept of participation to concepts that are more appropriate in dealing with plurality and the exercise of power in research and institutional development
  • The third requirement is the need to give ample consideration to the overall strategy and policy environment of the research organisation

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