Participatory Diagnosis Research Articles

Migración y discriminación en la Argentina: Un diagnostico participativo

This communication presents a participatory diagnosis on discrimination carried out between 2007 and 2009 for an Argentine non-governmental organization (Association for Civil Rights – ADC). The diagnosis dealt with various national, ethnic and religious collectives from Greater Buenos Aires in whose construction migration is or has been a “marking” factor (Bolivian and Korean immigration, refugees, Rom people, Arab and Jewish communities). The study aimed to explore situations and patterns of discrimination, discrimination perceptions and collective actions against it. In order for the diagnosis to grasp different and divergent “community” voices, research and case- compilation activities were undertaken jointly with referents of the selected groups. The participatory approach adopted poses questions and challenges that deserve to be reflected upon. Therefore, the presentation of the diagnosis is conveyed in a double key: the exhibition of some of its outputs, and the narrative account of its methodological design and development.

Mapeamento de vulnerabilidades socioambientais e de contextos de promoção da saúde ambiental na comunidade rural do Lamarão, Distrito Federal, 2011

OBJETIVO: realizar atividade de ensino e extensão com alunos de graduação para construção de diagnóstico participativo sobre as condições de vida, ambiente e trabalho em núcleo populacional rural, visando subsidiar ações de promoção da saúde pela equipe de agentes comunitários da Estratégia Saúde da Família. MÉTODOS: trabalho realizado no Núcleo Rural do Lamarão, no Distrito Federal, de outubro/2010 a janeiro/2011. Alunos, conjuntamente com agentes comunitários de saúde, por meio de entrevistas, visitas e oficinas, aplicaram instrumentos de Estimativa Participativa Rápida e de construção de mapa de vulnerabilidade socioambiental e de contextos de promoção da saúde ambiental. RESULTADOS: identificaram-se como promotores da vida na comunidade: diversidade de produção de alimentos, liberdade e segurança, união e organização da comunidade, geração de empregos e natureza. Foram considerados ameaçadores à vida: cultura alimentar, uso inadequado de agrotóxicos, uso incorreto de equipamentos de proteção individual, pulverização aérea, falta de lazer, falta de transporte, uso de drogas lícitas e ilícitas. CONCLUSÃO: a partir do diagnóstico, será construído um projeto de intervenção participativo que incorporará características de ensino, pesquisa e extensão na relação Saúde, Trabalho, Ambiente e Nutrição.

PRÁTICAS DE ETNOCONHECIMENTO NA GESTÃO PARTICIPATIVA DO TURISMO SUSTENTÁVEL NA AMAZÔNIA: QUILOMBO DE TAPANAGEM (ORIXIMINÁ, PA, BRASIL)

Este trabalho busca analisar a utilização de práticas de etnomapeamento como auxílio à gestão participativa sustentável do turismo em áreas habitadas por populações tradicionais que possuem seus territórios em áreas próximas, justapostas ou sobrepostas a diferentes áreas protegidas na Amazônia. Com foco em uma microrregião do Alto Rio Trombetas (Oriximiná, PA, Brasil), estuda o Quilombo Tapagem a partir de trabalhos de campo, pesquisa bibliográfica, análise documental, observação participante e técnicas de diagnóstico rural participativo (DRP). Discorre sobre as abordagens e mapas participativos no âmbito da gestão da biodiversidade, e apresenta os resultados da pesquisa. A análise dos diferentes usos dos recursos naturais do território estudado por meio do mapeamento participativo na micro-região estudada se coloca enquanto uma ferramenta útil à formulação de políticas públicas para o desenvolvimento do turismo sustentável.

Overcoming poor youth stigmatization and invisibility through art: A participatory action research experience in Greater Buenos Aires

Participatory Action Research (PAR) involves collaborative construction of knowledge among researchers and local actors. Collaboration is particularly challenging for researchers when working with subaltern populations, as we experienced in a PAR project shared with young people living in extreme poverty in the Greater Buenos Aires area. The objective was to promote educational rights, based on a participatory diagnosis of factors associated with school abandonment. The main challenge was young people’s reluctance to address their school experience, due to stigmatization processes associated with school failure. Video production and dramatization helped us to overcome this blockage and to make youth perspectives visible to other social actors in the educational field. The article discusses how this happened during the PAR process.

Road love: a community project

IntroductionChos Malal is a town of about 17 000 inhabitants situated in Northern Patagonia. Recent fatal vehicle collisions and membership to the Healthy Municipalities, Cities and Communities Network set in...

Participatory diagnosis in urban planning: Proposal for a learning process based on geographical information

Urban planning involves compromise between the diverse and often contradictory issues supported by the different stakeholders. The literature generally agrees on the need to broaden the participation base to overcome this difficulty. However, participation should not be limited to problem solving, but should also take place in the problem setting phase. This paper proposes a participatory diagnosis process for structuring the problem setting phase. We describe an experiment in a participatory diagnosis conducted with the residents of a Geneva neighborhood. The experiment began by identifying the residents' concerns, which were then reformulated under broader issues. Some 20 spatial indicators were built using GIS tools, and were then applied in a second phase of resident consultations to assess the relative importance of each issue. The ensuing priority issues formed the core of the diagnosis. The approach emphasized comparison between the daily experiences of residents and so-called official information (i.e. census tract, traffic measurement, and so on). The residents were therefore involved in a learning process that allowed them to consolidate or modify their opinions. The process led to the emergence of a clearly defined collective awareness that supplanted individual aspirations.

Exploring options for integrated nutrient management in semi-arid tropics using farmer field schools: a case study in Mbeere District, eastern Kenya

The farmer field school (FFS) approach was used in semi-arid eastern Kenya in the period 2002–2003 to explore technology options for addressing declining soil fertility and to institute learning processes on integrated nutrient management (INM). Participatory diagnosis of soil fertility constraints and experimental design workshops led to the formulation of the INM-FFS learning curriculum and choice of INM technologies for testing in the central learning plot. INM technologies jointly chosen for testing included farmyard manure (FYM = T1), diammonium phosphate (DAP = T2), combined application of FYM and DAP (T3); and T3 combined with Tithonia diversifolia applied as green manure (T4). Maize was used as a test crop. The treatments were replicated twice using a pair-wise design and data collected, bi-weekly, using the agroecosystem analysis (AESA) framework to aid learning and data analysis with farmers. Farmers' evaluation of the trials was conducted at the end of the study period using matrix scoring and ranking. Treatments with combined application of organic and inorganic materials had better agro-economic performance than sole application of either FYM or DAP (T4 > T3 > T2 and T1) and they had a high value cost ratio (VCR > 2). The technologies of T1 to T3 did not have a positive impact on either nitrogen or phosphorus balances. However, T4 resulted in a positive partial N balance. Farmers' evaluation corresponded well with the majority of the quantitative agro-economic analysis. The study showed that there is a potential to use FFS for INM technology development and testing by stimulating interactions, farmer learning and closer working relationships between farmers, research scientists, extension and the institutions that they represent.

Food security of shifting cultivation systems: Case studies from Luang Prabang and Oudomxay provinces, Lao PDR

The Government of the Lao PDR’s policy is to eliminate the cultivation of upland rice by means of ‘slash-and-burn’ cultivation and to replace it with more ecologically stable systems based on sustainable land use at the village and household level. The objectives of this policy are to alleviate poverty and to introduce more sustainable management of agricultural resources. In order to achieve these objectives, the government has initiated a program of relocation to upland ‘focal areas’ from which marketing, distribution and other services can be supplied, these being essential preconditions for effective agricultural development in these regions. This diagnostic study has examined communal and household strategies for addressing food security issues, and has highlighted the main problems encountered in the pursuit of food security on the local level. The specific objective was to conduct a broadly focused participatory problem diagnosis of the study areas in two districts Phonsay and Namo, in order to understand farmers’ problems, livelihood goals and how their perspectives on food security have changed, and to investigate food security in shifting cultivation systems in Luang Prabang and Oudomxay provinces. Within these two provinces Phonsay and Namo districts were selected as the research areas. The two districts are the poorest districts in the Luang Prabang and Oudomxay provinces and two of ten priority poorest districts in the whole country. Semi-structured interviews were conducted for the study. The results of this study were reviewed against the sustainable land use systems strategy formulated from the Lao PDR policy. The study highlights both the benefits and stresses on household welfare, food insecurity conditions in the study areas, and interrelated problems of insufficient rice for household consumption. Finally based on these results the authors propose recommendations and future research indications.

Farmers' participatory diagnosis of the flood-prone deepwater rice-cropping system in eastern India

Farmers' participatory diagnosis of the flood-prone deepwater rice-cropping system in eastern India

Participatory diagnosis of a heat-intolerance syndrome in cattle in Tanzania and association with foot-and-mouth disease

A heat-intolerance (HI) syndrome in cattle in Tanzania was suspected to be associated with previous, clinical foot-and-mouth disease (FMD). A participatory appraisal (PA) method called ‘matrix scoring’ was used to explore livestock-keeper perceptions of association between HI and cattle diseases. A PA method called ‘proportional piling’ was used to estimate herd incidence of FMD and other diseases, herd incidence of HI, and association between HI and other cattle diseases. Use of matrix scoring and proportional piling with pastoral Maasai informants demonstrated association between FMD and HI. With agropastoral Sukuma informants, the matrix-scoring method did not indicate an association between FMD and HI, whereas the proportional piling method indicated a weak association. Results were supported by calculation of positive predictive values for herder diagnosis of HI and FMD. Clinical examination of cattle by veterinarians was used to confirm HI cases and detection of antibody to non-structural proteins of FMD virus was used to confirm previous clinical FMD.

Development of socio-economic and ecological alternatives for sustainable management of mountain secondary forest in tropical China

SUMMARY By means of socioeconomic and ecological alternatives, a pilot project was conducted in Shanxin village, Cangwu County, Guangxi Province of Southern China. First, a participatory diagnosis of the degree and causes of mountain forest degradation and the current forest management state was carried out. Second, a participatory planning scheme was undertaken, based on the principle of protecting water and soil and alleviating poverty. A guarantee system to reclaim a patch of typical degraded secondary forest was established, planned to be a demonstration sample for promoting local forest sustainable management. Finally, the implementation of the planning scheme was monitored and evaluated. It was found that 80% of the seedlings replanted were dead, meaning the pilot trial had failed. Through further diagnosis and analysis the problem was isolated, and some gaps in the administration process and formulation of the guidelines were identified. In this paper, the lessons learned are documented, and targeted participatory management strategies are suggested for future sustainable development projects in poor mountain areas.

Production et transformation du lait en région agropastorale au Sénégal : cas de la zone périurbaine de Kolda

Au Sénégal, l’installation d’étables laitières privées autour des grands centres urbains a été encouragée depuis 1982. Ceci fut également le cas dans la région de Kolda. Dans le but d’analyser la filière, une étude a été réalisée de mai à septembre 2000, combinant la méthode de budget partiel au niveau de la production et un diagnostic participatif impliquant 114 intervenants pour analyser les différentes composantes de la filière. En dépit de plusieurs années de vulgarisation, seulement 3 p. 100 des vaches laitières ont été concernées par la stabulation partielle de saison sèche. L’analyse du budget partiel a pourtant montré que l’opération était rentable, laissant, après soustraction de la valeur de l’autoconsommation, un disponible de 17 532 Fcfa ou de 8 907 Fcfa par vache, selon que le producteur commercialisait le lait lui-même ou non. La majorité de la production est passée par le système traditionnel de transformation (lait caillé et huile de beurre). Les unités de transformation artisanales de la région, dont une fromagerie, n’auraient ainsi drainé que 13 p. 100 de la production de la saison sèche et 8 p. 100, de celle de la saison des pluies. La fraîcheur des produits pasteurisés de ces unités ne pouvait être garantie au-delà d’une semaine ce qui a limité l’accès aux grands marchés. A chaque échelon, les contraintes et les opportunités ont été analysées afin d’améliorer la dynamique de la filière lait.

Participatory diagnosis of a chronic wasting disease in cattle in southern Sudan

In southern Sudan, livestock keepers identified a chronic wasting disease in adult cattle as one of their most-serious animal-health problems. Participatory-appraisal (PA) methods and conventional veterinary-investigation methods were used to characterise the chronic wasting disease and identify linkages between indigenous knowledge and modern veterinary knowledge. The local characterisation of chronic wasting encompassed trypanosomosis, fasciolosis, parasitic gastroenteritis and schistosomosis (as both single and mixed infections). A standardised PA method called matrix scoring had good reproducibility when investigating local perceptions of disease-signs and disease causes. Comparison of matrix-scoring results showed much overlap with modern veterinary descriptions of cattle diseases and the results of conventional veterinary investigation. Applications of PA methods in remote areas with very limited veterinary infrastructure are discussed. The validation of data derived from PA is discussed by reference to the low sensitivity of ‘field-friendly’ diagnostic tests for important cattle diseases.