Whose reality counts? Putting the first last

Why do so many development interventions fail? Chambers describes and analyses major past errors. These range from structural adjustment policies to integrated rural development projects, from estimates of community-level grain losses and wood fuel forecasts to beliefs about famines and nutrition, and blaming the poor for much environmental degradation. Why have development professionals so often been so wildly wrong yet so confident they were right?

Explanations, Chambers argues, include the education and training of professionals, the way "all power deceives", and the social and physical distance between professionals and local people. Professionals, as superior "uppers", transfer and impose their realities; poor people, as inferior "lowers", prudently reflect back the professionals' beliefs.

To construct their realities, many professionals seek precise measurements, and rely on questionnaire surveys, mathematical models and single indicators. Creating and working in stable, standardised, simplified and controlled conditions they generate blueprint development packages. When transferred these often misfit the local, complex, diverse, dynamic and uncontrollable realities of the poor and marginalised women, men and children whom they seek to assist.

A methodological revolution has begun with participatory rural appraisal (PRA). This is a growing family of values, approaches, behaviours and methods. The professional role is to enable local people to present and analyse their complex and diverse realities, and to plan, act, monitor and evaluate. Often local people work in groups to record their knowledge in maps and diagrams. They direct the exercise, while the professional, as facilitator, stands back, listens and learns.

Chambers reviews much practical experience to support his argument. Some highlights:

• many examples where professionals' beliefs have been wrong about poor people's realities
• a extensive list of sectors, urban and rural, in which PRA has been applied, including natural resource management, health, and poverty programmes
• a presentation of PRA findings about the complexity and diversity of poor people's livelihoods

The policy implications of Chambers' argument are radical. He calls for a fundamentally new approach to development which emphasises people over things, and is guided by principles which include:

• fostering decentralisation, democracy, diversity and dynamism
• managing for diversity and complexity
• self-critical awareness and admitting and learning from errors
• making reversals in existing behaviours, professionalism, bureaucracy, careers and modes of learning

Accumulating experience from PRA has generated powerful findings:

• capabilities: local people are capable of many tasks formerly controlled by professionals
• social synergy: through interactions, sharing and fun, the sum of group discussions and visualisations is more than its parts
• the primacy of the personal: the major challenge in development is now to enable professionals to change their behaviour and attitudes, taking responsibility for their own learning and actions.

Source(s):
Whose Reality Counts? Putting the First Last, paperback, (1997) Intermediate Technology Publications, 103 Southampton Row, London WC1B 4HH. Available by mail order for £7.95 from the IDS bookshop Full document.

Funded by: Aga Khan Foundation, Ford Foundation, ODA (UK), Paul Hamlyn Foundation, SIDA, Swiss Development Co-operation (1989-1996), NOVIB and SAREC

id21 Research Highlight: 09 February 1998

Further Information:
Jane Stevens
Participation Team
IDS
University of Sussex
Brighton
BN1 9RE
UK

Tel: +44 (0) 1273 606261
Fax: +44 (0) 1273 621202
Contact the contributor: J.Stevens@ids.ac.uk

Institute of Development Studies (IDS), UK