Participatory methodology
Participatory risk assessment: a new approach for safer food in vulnerable African communities
Authors:
Delia Grace; Tom Randolph; Janice Olawoye; Erastus Kang'ethe
Publisher:
Development in Practice, 2008
Women play the major role in food supply in developing countries, but too often their ability to feed their families properly is compromised; the result is high levels of food-borne disease and consequent limited access to higher-value markets.
This article argues that risk-based approaches (current best practice for managing food safety in developed countries) require adaptation to the difficult context of informal markets. It suggests participatory research and gender analysis as boundary-spanning mechanisms, bringing communities and food-safety implementers together to analyse food-safety problems and develop workable solutions.
Examples show how these methodologies can contribute to operationalising risk-based approaches in urban settings and to the development of a new approach to assessing and managing food safety in poor countries, which the authors call 'participatory risk analysis'.
