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GrassrootsActionLearning Page 1 02/09/2003 

GRASSROOTS ACTION LEARNING: IMPACT 

ASSESSMENT FOR DOWNWARD ACCOUNTABILITY 

AND CIVIL SOCIETY DEVELOPMENT 

CONTENTS 

Linda Mayoux, consultant for WISE Development Ltd. 

September 2003 

SECTION 1: GRASSROOTS ACTION LEARNING: WHY, WHAT AND KEY 

CHALLENGES ................................................................................................3 

1.1 Why grassroots action learning? Impact assessment and participation......3 

1.2: What is grassroots action learning? Overview of approaches .....................6 

SECTION 2 GRASSROOTS INFORMATION NEEDS: WHAT DO PEOPLE 

NEED TO KNOW AND HOW CAN THEY FIND OUT?...................................9 

2.1 What do people need to know? Grassroots information needs for 

enterprise development..............................................................................................9 

2.2 How can they find out? Accessible and time-effective methodologies ......12 

SECTION 3: WHO ARE THE ‘GRASSROOTS’? ENSURING REAL 

DOWNWARD ACCOUNTABILITy ........................................................................16 

3.1 Who are the ‘grassroots’?: Issues for stakeholder analysis ........................17 

3.2 How should people participate? Ensuring downward accountability..........19 

SECTION 4: LINKING LEARNING WITH ACTION: INFORMATION NEEDS 

FOR INFLUENCING DECISION-MAKING...........................................................21 

4.1 From individual diaries to change process .....................................................21 

4.2 Networking for empowerment: structures for lateral learning......................23 

SECTION 5: SUPPORTING GRASSROOTS ACTION LEARNING: ROLES, 

BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES FOR EXTERNAL AGENCIES .....................26 

5.1 Supporting grassroots action learning: Roles for external agencies..........26 

5.2 Building on grassroots action learning: Meeting external information needs 

......................................................................................................................................28 

Appendix: Possible sequencing of diagram tools to assess the impact of 

microfinance on women’s empowerment..................................................30 

References................................................................................................................33


PAPER OVERVIEW 

This paper discusses how a critical ‘missing dimension’ of current participatory 

assessment processes can be addressed - how people, including the very 

poor, can be facilitated to collect the information which they themselves need, 

in ways useful to them as the basis for truly participatory development and 

strengthening of civil society. 

• 

• 

• 

Part 1 of the paper gives an overview of existing innovative approaches 

to grassroots action learning which can be built on. 

Parts 2, 3 and 4 then look at methods and tools which can be used for 

setting up grassroots information systems, ensuring greater inclusion of 

the very poor in the ‘participatory’ process, and feeding the information 

into collective action, lobbying and advocacy. 

The final Part 5 then looks at the issues which will need to be 

addressed by external agencies in supporting and building on such a 

system for their own information needs. 

The paper complements a number of other papers by the author on this 

website, in particular the papers on ‘Using Diagrams’, ‘Empowering Enquiry’, 

‘Participatory Value Chains Analysis’ and ‘Participatory Methods’. It is also 

supplemented by Case Studies of the Participatory Action Learning System 

(PALS), Internal Learning System and Anandi’s ‘lateral learning for 

empowerment’ which will be presented as papers at the forthcoming EDIAIS 

conference on ‘New Directions in Impact Assessment’ November, 2003 1 . 

1 A draft PALS Manual has just been completed. For an electronic copy please contact 

Kabarole Research and Resource Centre krc@infocom.co.ug or the author at 

l.mayoux@ntlworld.com. For details of ILS see Noponen 2001, 2002 and 2003 forthcoming. 

For details of Anandi see Dand 2002 and Dand and Mayoux 2003 forthcoming.


SECTION 1: GRASSROOTS ACTION LEARNING: WHY, 

WHAT AND KEY CHALLENGES 

1.1 WHY GRASSROOTS ACTION LEARNING? IMPACT 

ASSESSMENT AND PARTICIPATION 

Since the late 1990s, donors, NGOs and researchers have become 

increasingly interested in participatory impact assessment and participatory 

monitoring and evaluation 2 . The World Bank’s Participatory Poverty 

Assessments in 60 countries, constituted a methodological innovation in 

bringing together subjective experiences from 60 countries into an overall 

analysis of poverty 3 . Multilateral and bilateral donors have produced Manuals 

on tools and methods for participatory research and impact assessment 4 . 

Northern and Southern NGOs have been developing ongoing systems for 

participatory monitoring and evaluation 5 . Methods have varied from informal 

focus groups to participatory diagram tools (PLA). These latter have seen 

rapid innovation in ways of using diagrams to collect quantitative as well as 

qualitative information 6 . 

This interest in participatory methods for impact assessment has been part of 

a wider change in perspectives on development. Since the early 1990s 

participatory approaches have been a required component for funding in 

development programmes. By the end of the 1990s the interest in projectlevel 

participation had widened to a concern with civil society development 

and good governance. Partly inspired by the findings of the Participatory 

Poverty Assessments, voicelessness and powerlessness are now explicitly 

recognised as integral parts of a multi-dimensional definition of poverty. 

Empowerment, civil society development and building social and government 

institutions responsive to needs of the poor were explicit themes in World 

Bank World Development Report 2000/1. This emphasis is echoed in DAC 

Guidelines on Poverty Reduction and in policies of bilateral aid agencies. 

There is now increasing interest in developing ongoing structures and 

systems for dialogue between very poor people, NGOs, governments and 

international aid agencies as an integral part of civil society development and 

good governance. For example a DFID review of the Participatory Poverty 

Assessments concluded that: 

2 Links to overview papers and resources can be found on the following websites: for 

participatory evaluation: http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/alr26/parEval.html; for 

Participatory Action Research: http://www.goshen.edu/soan/soan96p.htm; for communitybased 

research: http://www.loka.org/crn/ 

3 Narayan, D., R. Chambers, et al. (2000); Narayan, D. and P. Petesch (2002) 

4 For example FAO’s Participatory Monitoring, Assessment and Evaluation (PAME) of the 

early 1990s (Case 1990) and GTZ’s Participatory Impact Monitoring (PIM) www.GTZ.org. 

5 For example Action Aid’s ALPS system, see www.actionaid.org. 

6 See Burns 2002; Barahona and Levy 2002 and for specific tools, see the paper ‘Using 

Diagrams’ by the author on this website (!!Insert link).


Cumulative evidence from this review shows that the poor can provide 

analyses of the complex states of poverty and furthermore analyse policy 

solutions…In all the PPAs reviewed the poor showed an impressive ability to 

identify differences and suggest specific and realistic reforms tailored to their 

situation. These types of specificities highlight the need for policymakers and 

sector planners to listen carefully to the voices of the poor. The complexities 

and multifaceted nature of their lives are difficult to understand without 

engaging in continuous dialogue. If policymakers wish their services to be 

accessible and relevant it is clear the demands of messages of the poor are 

paramount. (Brocklesby and Holland 1998 pp25-26). 

This is echoed in a number of innovative participatory consultative processes 

and grassroots-based lobbying and advocacy organizations 7 . 

Specifically in relation to enterprise development participatory impact 

assessments/consultations have taken a number of forms: 

• 

• 

• 

In micro-finance: In addition to rapid innovation in systems for 

participatory monitoring and evaluation there has been an increasing 

recognition that developing effective and profitable products for the 

poor requires an in-depth process of market research. 8 

In Ethical Trade and Fair Trade there has been an emphasis on 

‘voluntary reporting’ requiring entrepreneurs and Fair Trade 

Organizations to provide details of the social impact of their businesses 

in a form of self-monitoring. 

Women’s informal sector organizations for groups like homeworkers 

and street traders have come together as part of the WIEGO initiative 

SEWA. These have been involved in participatory action research on 

the effects of macro-level policy changes on their members (!!See refs 

in Mayoux 2003 paper on advocacy forthcoming). 

As discussed in more detail below, these point to both some of the 

methodologies and organizational structures which could be built on for the 

type of grassroots action learning proposed here. 

However, although participatory impact assessments have gone some way 

towards increasing awareness of the problems of poverty, ‘participation ‘ is 

often extremely limited in practice. Participation frequently consists mainly of 

requiring people to spend time attending one-off PRA exercises and focus 

group discussions to meet the information needs of donors and NGOs. 

7 See for example PLA Notes volumes October 1996; February and June 2002 and February 

2003 which discuss use of PLA tools for influencing policy, lobbying and advocacy and 

overview in the forthcoming paper on the EDIAIS website on advocacy impact assessment by 

the author 

8 For details of the ImpAct project see http://www.imp-act.org. For Microsave Africa’s market 

research tools see http://www.microsave-africa.com/toolkits.asp?ID=14 .


Participatory tools are applied in a very loose way, with most of the analysis 

and dissemination in the hands of external facilitators. People are often 

inadequately prepared with information to contribute to such exercises. They 

have very little control over how the information is used and how it is fed into 

decision-making. The reliability of information is often very suspect and the 

findings are quietly ignored. Even in participatory action research, contacts 

between organizations and those interviewed are often short-term with 

analysis and dissemination controlled by organizations rather than people 

themselves. 

At its worst participatory impact assessment amounts to little more than using 

people as unpaid data collectors to reduce costs and give the appearance of 

‘empowerment’. Time input is particularly heavy in more ongoing processes of 

participatory monitoring and evaluation where people are asked to keep 

regular records of their activities. However they are not consulted about what 

information is to be collected or how it should be collected in order to be 

useful or convenient to them. Record-keeping is often very detailed and timeconsuming 

with little apparent relevance to peoples’ own information needs. 

As a result, understandably in view of the many pressing demands on poor 

peoples’ time, records are often not kept systematically. Participatory 

monitoring systems, like all M and E systems, also consume a lot of time and 

energy from programme staff and the data is often not systematically 

analysed and remains unused 9 . 

PARTICIPATORY MONITORING AND EVALUATION: A CRITICAL VIEW 

[Participatory monitoring and evaluation] is an added burden that the poor can 

ill afford to have to mine for information as well as for food, for shelter, for an 

income. 

(Zimbabwean interviewee at a workshop on participatory monitoring and 

evaluation Lloyd Laney, ITDG 2003) 

The shortcomings of current participatory practice are not because of 

inadequacies on the part of participants, but the short-term and superficial 

way in which participation is often implemented. If policy makers are really 

serious about pro-poor development then (following Brocklesby and Holland 

above) there needs to be a continuous process of dialogue and negotiation 

with poor, and very poor, women and men. Current monitoring, evaluation and 

impact assessment processes can make a very valuable contribution to 

strengthening the voices of the poor, not through one-off consultative 

participatory exercises, but through developing their skills, networks and 

representative structures for ongoing action learning. This will increase the 

9 For critiques of the ways in which participatory monitoring and evaluation are often 

implemented in practice see papers in: Nelson and Wright 1995; Holland and Blackburn 1998; 

Estrella et al 2000 and from a gender perspective Guijt and Shah 1998.


likelihood that their voices are not only heard, but respected, listened to and 

acted on, by development agencies and governments. 

1.2: WHAT IS GRASSROOTS ACTION LEARNING? OVERVIEW 

OF APPROACHES 

Grassroots Action Learning is here defined as: 

“ongoing collection by people, including very poor people, of 

information which is useful to them, in ways which are convenient to 

them and in ways which can be used by them. 

It is generally a group- or community-based participatory process, but it may 

also consist of individual recording for peoples’ own use. Documentation is in 

easily accessible form even for illiterate people, often using diagrams and 

symbols. Learning is linked to action through representation in decisionmaking 

processes or lobbying and advocacy. The definition and some recent 

approaches are summarised in Box 1. 

The idea of grassroots action learning however is not new, but builds on a 

long-established tradition of grassroots participatory action research for: 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Community conscientisation with organizations following Paolo Freire. 

User-led technology development starting in the late 1970s and early 

1980s and forming the basis for diagram techniques used in Rapid 

Rural Appraisal (Chambers 1994a; Biggs and Matsaert 1999). 

Raising awareness about issues and problems within communities. 

Participatory diagram exercises and focus group discussions are 

commonly used for gender awareness, in training programmes for 

enterprise and agriculture. 

Community-level planning e.g. in housing, resettlement and 

environmental management programmes 10 . 

REFLECT methodology for literacy and community empowerment. 

Developed by Action Aid, where illiterate people start by using 

participatory diagram techniques to explore problems and their 

solutions through drawing and then gradually progress to documenting 

these in writing. These individual and community drawings and writings 

10 See for example the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights who use community-based 

enumerations, mapping exercises, and horizontal exchange programmes in and between 

grassroots community networks for advocacy on housing righs and also environmental 

improvements. Details can be found on their website: www.achr.net.


are kept in the form of diaries which are then used for local level 

lobbying and advocacy as well as awareness-raising. 11 

Advocacy and lobbying with local or national government e.g. SEWA and 

WIEGO initiatives discussed above. 

More recently these tools and approaches have begun to be applied to the 

processes of impact assessment and monitoring and evaluation discussed 

above. So far in the majority of cases grassroots information needs have not 

been systematically integrated into the programme/donor-oriented information 

systems. 

A number of organizations have however recently begun to take grassroots 

learning processes seriously and to make these the key focus in terms of 

funding and resources. Box 1 gives summary details of three examples on 

which the following discussion is based: PALS in Kabarole Research and 

Resource Centre Uganda, Anandi’s lateral learning for empowerment and 

Helzi Noponen’s Internal Learning System in India. Following on from the 

roots in participatory action research and PLA, these learning processes aim 

not only to: 

• 

• 

• 

obtain reliable ongoing information relevant to the practical issues 

being addressed through rigorous qualitative and quantitative analysis 

of participatory information. 

but also particularly to: 

increase the understanding of participants about their situation and how 

to change through building the skills and capacities of people 

themselves to use diagram and symbol tools to analyse their situation 

and identify ways forward. 

build structures and networks for lateral learning and collective action 

as part of the learning process itself. 

BOX 1: GRASS-ROOTS ACTION LEARNING: DEFINITION, 

CHARACTERISTICS AND APPROACHES 

DEFINITION 

“ongoing collection by people, including very poor people, of information which 

is useful to them, in ways which are convenient to them and in ways which 

can be used by them. 

KEY CHARACTERISTICS 

11 Details of REFLECT (Regenerated Freirean Literacy Through Empowering Community 

Techniques) can be found at www.reflect.org.


• It is generally a group- or community-based participatory process, but it 

may also consist of individual recording for peoples’ own use. 

• Documentation is in easily accessible form even for illiterate people, often 

using diagrams and symbols. 

• Learning is linked to action through representation in decision-making 

processes or lobbying and advocacy. 

APPROACHES 

PARTICIPATORY ACTION LEARNING SYSTEM (PALS) currently being 

developed by Kabarole Research and Resource Centre in Uganda, together 

with the author. Here grassroots groups involved in economic micro projects, 

microfinance, women’s rights and civil peace programmes are facilitated to 

identify their information needs, trained in use of simple diagram techniques 

and brought together to exchange information in different networks. The 

dynamism of the system is maintained through annual fairs which provide a 

focus for bringing group level information and ideas together to formulate 

strategies and policies (See Kakyo, Bahamuka and Mayoux 2003 

forthcoming). 

ANNUAL FAIRS facilitated by Anandi in Gujarat, India. The fairs have been 

an extremely powerful means of stimulating discussion, mutual learning and 

collective action between women. Anandi is now developing tools to build on 

this empowerment process for more systematic participatory learning around 

issues of natural resources management and other issues important to the 

women involved. (Dand and Mayoux 2003 forthcoming) 

INTERNAL LEARNING SYSTEM (ILS) methodology developed by Helzi 

Noponen with a number of microfinance programmes in India including Dhan 

Foundation, SEWA, Handloom Weavers’ Development Society, ASA and 

PRADAN. Here individuals and groups keep diaries based on simple 

questionnaires with symbols designed through a participatory process. These 

have been successfully used for local level lobbying and advocacy and 

aggregated into a system for ongoing monitoring and evaluation of 

programme impacts (Noponen 2001, 2002 and 2003 forthcoming).


SECTION 2 GRASSROOTS INFORMATION NEEDS: WHAT 

DO PEOPLE NEED TO KNOW AND HOW CAN THEY FIND 

OUT? 

A major conclusion of the PPA process was that poor women and men can provide 

analyses of the complex states of poverty and propose realisable policy solutions. 

However if poor and very poor people are to be involved in more ongoing policy 

dialogue with NGOs, government, donors and private sector service providers then 

more attention needs to be paid to: 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

What types of information is most useful in order to justify people spending 

time and energy collecting it? 

How can collection of reliable information be made manageable and 

accessible to those with low or no literacy and within their time and resource 

constraints? 

As discussed below, although these requirements require adjustments in existing 

practice and will inevitably present ongoing challenges, there are ways in which they 

can be addressed. 

2.1 WHAT DO PEOPLE NEED TO KNOW? GRASSROOTS 

INFORMATION NEEDS FOR ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT 

People are continually being asked to produce information for development 

agencies. Specifically in relation to enterprise development: 

Loan applicants are asked to fill in forms, or supply information on incomes 

and assets to credit officers. 

Micro-finance groups are asked to keep financial records and minutes of 

meetings. 

Entrepreneurs are asked to supply similar information on registration forms to 

comply with regulatory frameworks. 

Trainees in BDS and enterprise training are asked to analyse and reflect on 

their enterprises and input and product markets. 

Entrepreneurs are asked to supply information on the social and economic 

dimensions of their enterprises in Memoranda of Understanding for support by 

Fair Trade organizations, or to indicate compliance with ethical Codes of 

Conduct. 

Farmer groups in sustainable agriculture are asked to keep records of 

production and implementation of environmental management techniques.


In some programmes people are themselves required to keep regular records in 

order to fulfil these information requirements. 

However these processes are often both very time-consuming and fail to give very 

useful information for the people charged with collecting the information. They do not 

reflect the achievements, much less analyse the challenges, which groups and 

individuals face: 

• 

• 

• 

Group minute keeping is very time-consuming and often reduced to ‘the 

words of the chairman’ and do not represent the richness of discussions in the 

groups. The format for group minutes may have been decided by 

programmes, or the chairperson rather than group members. 

Monitoring systems may record details of transactions and outputs, but are 

not designed or used to analyse successful strategies or track problems. 

Savings and credit records cannot enable assessment of poverty targeting, 

which types of loans lead to increases in incomes or which activities or people 

have most problems. Sustainable agriculture monitoring tracks 

implementation of methods, but not whether implementation has increased 

production or incomes. 

Photograph albums kept by groups in some programmes do not fully reflect 

the activities of groups, often consisting only of a collection of very similar 

looking photographs of notables who have visited their programme. 

EXAMPLE OF GROUP MINUTES IN A GROUP IN WESTERN UGANDA 

In one group visited by the author a preliminary look at the minutes gave the 

impression of a very top-down group. In the minute book a whole paragraph was 

devoted to the prayer. Then two paragraphs to the chairman’s speech. Then a 

handwritten list of attendance duplicating the separate attendance register. Rarely 

was any reference at all to the group discussions. 

One further probing this proved to be a very erroneous impression. The group had 

been extremely active in countering alcoholism and was involved in a number of 

networks. Members had also been active in promoting gender equality and women 

members were extremely vocal and articulate on gender issues. 

The problem was that nobody thought these were important things to a document 

and put in the minute book. 

In many cases the grassroots action learning proposed here is not therefore adding 

an information burden, but redesigning existing processes of information collection to 

improve both the reliability of the information collected, and its usefulness to those 

required to collect it. People themselves are involved in deciding what sorts of 

information to collect, how it should be collected and how it should be used. This 

requires a shift from simply measuring project outputs to looking very carefully at


impacts on livelihoods, households and communities, learning why things are 

happening and what can be done about it. It also requires greater acknowledgement 

of potential problems which might be caused by particular interventions and greater 

empathy with programme participants, rather than simply a concern with policing 

peoples’ implementation or project or policy prescriptions. 

Both individuals and groups have an interest in monitoring how useful services and 

support are and how they can be improved. Exactly how this should be done in any 

one intervention or context needs to be decided through a participatory process. 

Some examples of ways in which the types of information outlined above could be 

adapted to be more useful to people are outlined in Box 2. But it is crucial that 

people are supported in setting their own learning agenda rather than merely being 

used as unpaid data collectors for a programme-or donor-determined agenda. 

BOX 2: SOME EXAMPLES OF WAYS IN WHICH EXISTING EXTERNAL 

INFORMATION DEMANDS COULD BETTER ADDRESS GRASSROOTS 

INFORMATION NEEDS 

MICROFINANCE PROGRAMMES: 

Context: What are the different sources of informal credit? What are the different 

sources of formal credit? What are their advantages and disadvantages? What 

markets exist for products? What problems do women face in the household? 

Individual level impact: why did I take a loan, what benefits did I expect? how did I 

use the loan? did it benefit me and/or my family in the ways expected? What are the 

challenges? 

Group level impact: What activities have members undertaken? What types of 

investment have been most useful or problematic? What was the group vision? What 

activities has the group undertaken? How far has it achieved these goals? 

Practical implications: Could individuals have used the loan better? Could group 

support/services be improved? Could the product design or delivery mechanism 

have assisted me better? 

CODES OF CONDUCT: 

For employers: which aspects of the Code of Conduct have led to increase profits 

e.g. through improving employee commitment and decreasing absenteeism? Which 

aspects have created problems? 

For workers: which aspects of the Code of Conduct have increased incomes? 

Which have decreased employment? Which have not been implemented by the 

employer? 

SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE:


Context: What are the environmental opportunities and challenges for agricultural 

production? What is the incidence of crop diseases? What markets exist for organic 

products? 

Programme impacts on individuals or groups: Which of the environmental 

management practices have led to increased productivity and incomes? Which have 

been too labour-intensive? Which have decreased disease resistance? Which 

products sell well on the market? Which become too expensive? 

Policy implications: What should be the focus of sustainable agriculture training? 

How can organizations assist access to markets for organic products? 

2.2 HOW CAN THEY FIND OUT? ACCESSIBLE AND TIME- 

EFFECTIVE METHODOLOGIES 

The information needs of both people themselves and of programmes are difficult to 

reduce to simple questions with simple answers. Even on an individual level they 

cannot be quickly answered in an interview or even in a one-off focus group 

discussion. Rather they require reflection and thought over time and ongoing 

discussion. This is particularly the case if realisable practical recommendations are 

to be produced. 

At the same time, grassroots action learning processes must also be manageable 

and accessible for people with low or no literacy. In recent years there have been 

considerable developments in: 

• Diagram methods which can be adapted not only for consciousness-raising 

and planning, but also rigorous qualitative and quantitative collection of 

information (see Using Diagrams on this site). They are also used in 

participatory market research by Micro-save Africa. 

• Use of symbols in both diagram methods (as in PALS) and simple surveys (as 

in ILS) to facilitate participation of those who cannot read and write as well as 

communication between people from different language groups (including 

Northern ‘experts’ who cannot speak the local language). 

In ILS the focus is on diaries/planning workbooks which integrate questionnaires and 

checklists decided with the women involved. These have developed in different ways 

in different organizations (Noponen 2002, forthcoming). Details of the most recently 

developed workbooks with PRADAN are given below. 

ILS DIARY EXAMPLE FROM PRADAN, INDIA 

PRADAN's "Boat of Life—the Family's Oar” moves away from the idea of an impact 

notebook to a "Life and Livelihood Workbook" integrating two themes common to 

Indian culture, "boat of life" and "seven rivers to cross" to reach a good life. The


"seven rivers to cross" concept is used as a seven point self assessment rating scale 

in which members rate their overall social and economic progress. The "boat of life" 

concept is used in a series of bad scene/good scene pictures to introduce and teach 

the values in each of the major workbook sections. At the member level, the scenes 

illustrate positive and negative aspects of living conditions, diversified livelihoods, 

crises and coping strategies, burden of debt versus savings, household dependency 

ratios and good or bad gender relations. At the group level, the scenes include 

group efforts to solve the problems of individual households in distress, the efficacy 

of group versus individual approaches to securing credit from banks, and individual 

versus group efforts to solve community problems. 

The diary is divided into a number of ‘modules: 

The finances module guides participants through a process of thinking about the 

health of their current financial situation by reflecting on the pattern of normal 

household income and expenditure patterns by gender. Next, participants track the 

incidents of crises that add stress to the normal household expenditure and earning 

pattern. They reflect on their current coping strategies and options for future deficit 

reduction. The finance module ends with a recording of yearly debt and savings 

levels by source. This sets the stage for improving household financial situation 

through improvement in livelihood activities. 

The livelihood module asks participants to describe in simple pictorial formats their 

total livelihood "availabilities" (in land, livestock and labor) and how they are currently 

being utilized. They take note of and reflect on their stock of land (including 

cultivated land, forest and water resources), livestock and labor assets, the 

improvements to these assets or accompanying work inputs and conditions. They 

track the utilization of the asset over the year, and problems experienced and make 

decisions regarding a change in their use strategy. In a synthesis section they 

complete a livelihood production plan that prompts them to consider their total set of 

livelihood resources and options and the competing use of resources and production 

inputs for their chosen mix. This is followed by a credit investment plan that ties the 

infusion of credit to the livelihood production plan. The goal is to help participants 

learn and plan their way out of debt and vulnerability by strengthening their livelihood 

base in yearly set of linked exercises over a multi-year period. 

The remaining modules address practical needs of living conditions and material 

welfare and strategic interests of women's empowerment issues in the home and 

community in a similar manner that stresses analysis and planning options. 

The workbook concludes with a synthesis section that guide participants through 

reflection of their individual role in the SHG including satisfaction with their 

attendance, participation, knowledge of group loan details, repayment behaviour and 

problems, satisfaction with treatment by the group, bank official and PRADAN 

organizer. 

This linked set of modules, analysis and planning exercises each building upon the 

lessons from the previous one is akin to a pictorial rural livelihoods curriculum for 

very poor illiterate women and their households. Each of the sections of the 

workbook are carefully sequenced and linked to each other to produce a logical


whole. A woman first reflects on her living conditions and material welfare and ranks 

her position on the seven rivers scale. She then investigates why she is at this level 

by examining her financial situation. The participant is prompted to see the role of 

debt reduction, savings, and livelihood improvements in coping strategies and 

welfare progress over time. The livelihood module that follows systematically guides 

her through analysis of her total "availabilities" and prompts her to make strategic 

use of credit and other scarce resources in improving them. The next module 

focuses on the enhancing effects of better gender relations and women's fuller 

participation in decision-making in the home and mobility in the public on livelihood 

and welfare improvement. The impact of the role of the woman and her 

participation in her SHG and PRADAN activities in her progress over time is explored 

in the concluding synthesis module. 

Source: Noponen 2002 

PALS is based more on diagram tools which group members are taught as part of 

existing training programmes and routine staff appraisal and monitoring processes. 

Groups then use these for their own information gathering to guide their own 

activities, the policy of KRC and other NGOs, and also lobbying and advocacy 

campaigns. Full details of these tools and methods and how they can be made 

rigorous for qualitative and quantitative analysis are presented elsewhere and are 

not repeated here. An example of ways in which basic diagram tools can be 

integrated and sequenced to enable women themselves and/or groups to assess the 

contribution of microfinance to women’s empowerment is given in Appendix 1. 

DIAGRAMS USED IN PALS 

PALS is based on the use of a number of very basic diagram types which are 

adapted to different types of issue and are used for both qualitative and quantitative 

analysis. The degree of rigour with which this is done will depend on the precise 

purpose ie for consciousness-raising it is not necessary to spend a lot of peoples’ 

time in rigorous quantification. However for advocacy and lobbying campaigns or 

collecting data needed to improve government and NGO services then more detailed 

investigation will be done. 

Road journeys which chart a journey from point a to point b, generally over time. 

This may be a forward-looking journey to the future, or a backward looking one to the 

past.These are the starting point for individuals and groups to examine their 

situation, their vision for the future and how they plan to get there. 

Trees which start from a trunk representing an issue or an institution like a 

household or community. Inputs are then shown as roots and outputs as branches. 

Groups were already familiar with problem and solution trees and cause and effect, 

but are now being shown how these can be adapted for many different purposes.


Poverty Diamonds which were discovered as an innovation at a recent KRC 

workshop to overcome the problem of identifying the poorest. These start by 

identifying where the majority of a population are as the middle of the diamond. 

Then the numbers of people or examples at the extremes of the diagram are 

identified and the reasons and criteria used. 

Community maps which show the geographical locations of things like households, 

resources, markets and also add qualitative and quantitative information. 

Venn diagrams which show the relationships between different elements 

represented as overlapping circles. 

Matrices which show the relationship between two variables as a table and have 

been use in gender training for access and control profiles, in groups for voting and 

prioritising strategies and are being adapted for other purposes. 

Calendars which show the seasonal changes in livelihoods, health problems and 

other issues. 

Source: Mayoux 2003 

All the diagrams produced in PALS enable people themselves to do follow up 

analysis at a later date. They can also be integrated into existing forms of recordkeeping 

to make them both more informative and easier to keep on a regular basis: 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Diagram sheets can be kept by groups and with just the key points and 

conclusions referred to in group minutes to save long writing up. These 

diagrams are revisited and redrawn at intervals to track changes over time or 

following changes in programme interventions or economic policies. Where 

quantification is needed e.g. for lobbying, this is included on diagrams or put 

on easy-fill formats, again mainly using symbols. 

Group minute-keeping focuses on making notes relevant to understanding the 

diagrams: differences of opinion, participation or particular problems of poorer 

members and so on. 

Photo albums kept by most groups aim to provide a progressive history of the 

development of groups and programmes and a graphic indication of 

programme impact group strategies and campaigns. 

Video will be developed to provide an entertaining and immediate means of 

communicating information between groups either for training or simply as ‘ 

visual letters ‘ to exchange specific information. In Uganda most government 

offices have video equipment for use of community organizations and over 

time video will be built up for editing into more polished productions for 

advocacy and lobbying which would be accessible to group members, KRC 

and NGOs and local government.


Although these methodologies are only very recent, experience to date in Uganda 

and India indicates that people enjoy the focus which this sort of learning gives to 

group discussion and reflection on their lives. In Uganda, groups involved in PALS 

were (somewhat to the author’s surprise) extremely enthusiastic about the increased 

participation, respect for illiterate members and focus which use of diagram methods 

had brought to their meetings. They conducted the methods themselves and when 

questioned illiterate members could repeat easily the conclusions of tree diagram 

analysis from more than a month before. In ILS women are very keen to use and 

show their group and individual diaries and these have been used in advocacy and 

lobbying. Evidence from Microsave Africa also shows groups using the market 

research diagram tools effectively themselves (communication to devfinance 

listserve). 

ILS DIARY AS A COMPANION 

Women, especially those who were illiterate, repeatedly expressed how important it 

was to them to have the many aspects of their life reflected back to them in the diary. 

A HLWDS member said that every night after her work was finished and as she lay 

down on her sleeping mat, she would take out her ILS diary and think about her day 

and her life in general. She said, “You know, just like you (educated) women have 

your Femina (an Indian woman’s fashion magazine), we have this book.” .. 

The women have begun to call the diary their "sacred book." It has become a 

recruiting tool for women to join or start SHGs in HLWDS. The demand for ILS 

diaries is so high that when there was a delay in printing new diaries, members 

accused the NGO staff of selling the diaries to outsiders instead of giving to the NGO 

members. The local rural development officials are investigating using the ILS in 

their own government-run development projects. 


SECTION 3: WHO ARE THE ‘GRASSROOTS’? ENSURING REAL 

DOWNWARD ACCOUNTABILITY 

One of the underlying aims of grassroots action learning is to give voice to those who 

are often ignored in conventional impact assessment. However it cannot be 

assumed that merely calling a process ‘grassroots ‘ learning or using diagrams and 

symbols will automatically lead to greater inclusion of disadvantaged individuals or 

groups. It may be difficult for those directly involved in the process to be consistently 

aware of those whom their enthusiasm may inadvertently be excluding. In other 

cases there may be implicit or even explicit strategies to exclude certain people and 

groups because of inherent conflicts of interest and power relations. 

Groups are not necessarily either socially inclusive or participatory. On the contrary 

they can be highly exclusive and hierarchical. As discussed in the literature on microfinance 

groups, groups may often exclude very poor people either through overt 

discrimination or providing an atmosphere which makes the very poor feel


uncomfortable. Membership requirements for cooperatives and business 

associations may discriminate against women as well as the very poor. Disabled 

people or the chronically sick, even where they have enterprises or are otherwise 

eligible, rarely receive the support they need to participate. 

The grassroots learning process must therefore be based on: 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

clear analysis of different interests and power relations which affects who 

participates and how. 

participatory principles and tools which guide the learning process to ensure 

equal participation of those currently disadvantaged and excluded. 

Otherwise, not only will the information collected be biased, it may further reinforce 

existing power relations. 

3.1 WHO ARE THE ‘GRASSROOTS’?: ISSUES FOR STAKEHOLDER 

ANALYSIS 

Participation in grass-roots action learning more will involve people at a number of 

different levels which may or may not overlap: 

As learners/ investigators/ facilitators 

As informants 

As beneficiaries/recipients of the information collected 

Clearly identifying which stakeholders participate at which levels is of more than 

academic importance because this will influence the ways in which different 

stakeholders are supported in the participatory process: where capacity building 

resources are to be targeted, where innovation in terms of tools is to be prioritised 

and the location and timing of any participatory discussions and exercises. Who gets 

support at that level will also influence for example the numbers and power which 

particular interest groups may have in any resulting consultative and decisionmaking 

processes. 

BOX 3: WHO ARE THE STAKEHOLDERS? QUESTIONS TO BE ASKED IN 

SUPPORTING GRASS-ROOTS ACTION LEARNING 

LEARNERS/INVESTIGATORS/FACILITATORS 

• Who are the main participants who will be involved in the learning process, 

collecting information and facilitating others? 

• What are the different common or conflicting interest groups among them? 

• Are the poorest and most disadvantaged included? Who is excluded? 

• What do the different stakeholders need to know? 

• What information are they already collecting? 

• What are the gaps? What else is needed? 

• What specific skills/ external support might be needed for the different 

stakeholders or issues?


• How are these skills most cost-effectively built? Who might be able to build skills 

on a sustainable basis? 

INFORMANTS 

• Who are the best people to approach for the information? 

• How reliable is the information likely to be? 

• What are the different common or conflicting interest groups among the various 

informants? 

• Have the perspectives of the poorest and most disadvantaged been included? 

• What are the gaps? How can these be filled? 

BENEFICIARIES/RECIPIENTS 

• Who is going to use the information? 

• How is the information to be communicated to them? 

• Will it be accessible and comprehensible to the poorest and most disadvantaged 

stakeholders? 

Stakeholder analysis will therefore need to go beyond listing primary, secondary and 

key stakeholders to identifying: 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

the relative numerical importance of the different groups 

their relative importance in terms of power 

their relative importance in terms of the goals of pro-poor development. 

These different criteria of stakeholder classification are unlikely to coincide. Value 

and moral judgments will inevitably underlie the relative categorisation of different 

stakeholders and which particular groups are prioritised. For example, questions 

need to be asked about: 

whether ‘women’ should be treated as one separate category, or whether 

certain better off women have more in common with men and whether very 

poor women, young unmarried women and so on should be treated as 

categories in their own right. 

whether powerful vested interests should be treated separately as different 

stakeholders each of which is to be included as part of a purposive sample or 

separately represented in consultative bodies, or as one stakeholder category 

of ‘vested interests’ with a smaller sample or one or two representatives. 

It is common for in current ‘multistakeholder processes’ for stakeholders at the top to 

be separately represented (eg heads of different enterprise sectors) while 

‘community’ or ‘producer’ interests to be represented by a few organization leaders. 

Where stakeholder analysis does not specifically address questions of poverty 

targeting and gender sensitivity and differentiation of ‘grassroots interests’, 

participatory processes are likely to under-represent the vast majority of people 

affected, and exclude the very poor and women.


Importantly also, there will be a need to identify: 

• 

• 

• 

• 

‘excluded stakeholders’ who are affected by programmes and policies that 

are not direct beneficiaries or participants or directly represented by an 

organisation: labourers, poor people in markets, household members of 

entrepreneurs and labourers and so on. 

There is therefore a need to have explicit strategies for including poverty and gender 

analysis into tools for stakeholder analysis. As discussed elsewhere, this can 

usefully be done through use of: 

Gender disaggregated poverty diamonds 

Venn diagrams (!!Insert direct link) 

Social or wealth mapping 

(see Using Diagrams on this site). 

These provide a good means of both alerting people to issues of social and 

economic differentiation, and obtaining qualitative and quantitative information on 

extent and nature of differentiation and discrimination within particular groups or 

communities. They have potential to improve social inclusion and sampling through 

rapidly obtaining overview profiles of communities which are sufficiently reliable to 

enable rapid targeting. Over time it is generally possible to build awareness of 

problems of social exclusion and for people themselves and also external assessors 

to build up a cumulative understanding of context and contacts in order to make the 

participatory process progressively more inclusive, effective and empowering. 

3.2 HOW SHOULD PEOPLE PARTICIPATE? ENSURING 

DOWNWARD ACCOUNTABILITY 

It is not, however sufficient to identify which stakeholders should participate at which 

levels. It is also necessary to ensure that those currently most disadvantaged and 

excluded can be supported to participate equally in the learning process, and ensure 

their equal representation in decision-making and policy formation. 

Firstly it is important for groups or communities to think through the ways in which 

participatory processes are promoted, located and timed to make them more 

accessible to more disadvantaged groups (and if necessary also less accessible to 

powerful vested interests if necessary). For example are meeting located in places 

and at times where both women and men can go if gender balance is required? Is 

the venue likely to be intimidating for very poor people? If it is not possible to 

establish timing and locations suitable for all, then how can this be done with more 

than one meeting and how can these be linked with each other? 

Secondly there is a need to develop participatory skills for discussion and decisionmaking. 

The use of diagram techniques by groups themselves generally facilitates 

greater participation by poorer and illiterate people who might not have participated 

in group discussions earlier. However there is also need to pay attention to the


participatory process underlying production of diagrams. Some simple tools which 

can be easily used by groups themselves are given in Box 4. 

BOX 4: SOME TOOLS FOR INCREASING PARTICIPATION 

• Participatory energiser: Begin with some sort of energiser which encourages 

people who might not otherwise speak to come forward. For example people 

should talk in pairs for five minutes about the topic in hand and then report back 

on what the other person has said. 

• Everyone is respected and equal: Make it clear to everyone that everyone’s 

word is to be valued and respected, particularly the views of those who may be 

more disadvantaged than others in the group. This includes women, illiterate 

people and also men if they are in a minority and not in leadership positions. 

• Passing the stick: Introduce some sort of tool like a stick, or some groups prefer 

a banana or other object to represent a microphone. It is only the person holding 

this tool who is allowed to talk. It is then possible to ensure that everyone has a 

turn to hold the stick and limits on the numbers of time or length of time anyone 

can hold it can also be introduced. 

• Make sure everyone has contributed: at the end anyone who has not spoken 

must be given the stick and also asked to comment on the diagram. 

For some issues it may not be possible to obtain all the information necessary from 

those immediately participating in the group-level action learning. In some cases it 

may be necessary to do simple quantitative surveys of the whole community or of 

people who are not members of the groups but who are affected by programmes and 

policies. Here simple symbol-based questionnaires can be reliably and rapidly 

conducted by group members, dividing the sample between them. For many issues, 

provided the aims of the investigation are clear, this may be more cost-effective than 

employing external investigators. 

Particularly for really sensitive issues it may be necessary to conduct individual 

qualitative interviews because certain things cannot be discussed in public. Here 

again either symbol-based questionnaires or diagrams for individuals can be used 

even by people who are illiterate to record information on themselves or to interview 

others. In some cases though this may be the main task for external investigators 

skilled in qualitative research and analysis to preserve the anonymity of respondents 

and collect unbiased information without increasing peoples’ vulnerability to 

repercussions.


SECTION 4: LINKING LEARNING WITH ACTION: INFORMATION 

NEEDS FOR INFLUENCING DECISION-MAKING 

The grassroots learning process will have to have direct and tangible benefits for 

people if they are to spend time and energy on collecting the information. The 

process could be expected to have a direct and immediate contribution to increasing 

people’s understanding of their own situation and sharing information about ways 

forward. It may however also require translating this understanding into: 

• 

• 

Collective action at the local level to change attitudes and behaviours within 

households and communities 

Lobbying and advocacy to change policies of local and national governments 

and the international development agencies and private-sector interests 

The methodological issues involved in aggregating diagram information for lobbying 

and advocacy are discussed by the author elsewhere (see Using Diagrams on this 

site) and this is not repeated here. What follows looks at the ways in which the 

organizations discussed here have built on the grassroots learning process to bring 

about change at the local level. 

4.1 FROM INDIVIDUAL DIARIES TO CHANGE PROCESS 

There have been immediate impacts of the grassroots learning process on activities 

and behaviour of other people in the same households and communities. The very 

keeping of diaries in ILS for example has made previously private issues like 

domestic violence and child labour a public and visible problem, shaming individuals 

into changing their behaviour. 

IMMEDIATE LOCAL-LEVEL IMPACTS OF DIARIES IN HANDLOOM WEAVERS’ 

DEVELOPMENT SOCIETY (HWLDS) 

In HLWDS there has been a marked decrease in the incidence of domestic violence 

and male addictions and non-support among the 23 groups and 635 members using 

ILS. After seeing the picture scenes related to these issues, women began to 

discuss these widespread problems in their meetings. The male family members 

realized that not only were women tracking these problems in their diaries, and that 

the diaries were being shown to outside officials, but they were also discussing 

specific family problems in meetings. Men began a slow process of change and the 

incidence of addictions, violence and non-support steadily declined. 

In one dramatic case, a young woman who was not a member of the SHG, having 

suffered domestic abuse made the extreme decision to commit murder-suicide by 

jumping onto train tracks with her two small children. The SHG members noticed her 

desperation and caught hold of her in time. They brought her to their local ILS 

meeting and showed her their diaries and shared their own experiences with


domestic problems. After two ILS meetings, the young women made a pledge never 

to attempt suicide and she became a SHG member. 

In another less dramatic case, a woman had suffered her husband's violent drinking 

and non-support for years. After participating in ILS she began to challenge him on 

these issues, but to no avail. He seemed not to care that she was tracking his 

behaviour in the diary or talking openly about the problems. Finally the woman 

threatened him, "In the next ILS diary, we have made the decision to put a real photo 

of you in the picture of the drunkard and wife beater and your face will become 

famous throughout the country!" He gradually began to improve his behaviour and is 

now known as a supportive husband. The woman had become a local leader. 

In another case, a woman reported that through the support of the ILS group 

meetings, she was able to resist her husband in his efforts to withdraw his children 

from school in order to work. Her group members were able to convince the 

husband of the children's potential to go on for higher studies if allowed to continue 

their secondary school education. 


The ILS diaries have also been used directly for local-level lobbying for 

improvements in services. The information from both the ILS diaries and PALS 

diagrams can be aggregated for lobbying in the same way as other information. 

USE OF DIARIES FOR LOCAL LOBBYING IN HANDLOOM WEAVER’S 

DEVELOPMENT SOCIETY (HLWDS) 

HLWDS has been a leading partner in the struggles to protect weavers’ their 

livelihoods in the face of corruption, discrimination and adverse government policies. 

Woman HLWDS members began to carry ILS diaries not only to credit program 

meetings, but to other community meetings and meeting with officials: 

• They showed their diaries to panchayat officials (local council) and visiting rural 

development officials verify their low-income economic situation. . The ILS diary 

is serving as a sort of parallel ration card itself that verifies low-income status in 

general. 

• The diaries have been used to lobby for electricity connection and verify eligibility 

for livestock grant program and issuance of ration cards. 

• Over 20 women received looms and 10 women got a large housing grant as a 

result of using their ILS diary in interactions with panchayat and government 

development officials 

• The responses to the health scenes in the diary, especially chronic respiratory 

problems (from breathing thread fibres in poorly ventilated weaving sheds), has 

been successfully used by HLWDS to lobby for the establishment of clinics in 

certain panchayat districts with large number of weavers suffering these ailments. 

Source: Noponen 2002


Use of photographs and video can be particularly powerful. For example in Vietnam 

participants in an Oxfam project used video to collect information about teachers’ 

failure to fulfil their contracts, leading to an improvement in the local education 

system (Braden 1998). 

4.2 NETWORKING FOR EMPOWERMENT: STRUCTURES FOR 

LATERAL LEARNING 12 

The experience of ANANDI points also to the possibility of more collective 

organization for change, building on action learning at the local level. Anandi each 

year facilitates an annual mela (fair). Involving Self-help groups organized by Anandi 

and other partner NGOs, these melas provide a forum for: 

• 

• 

• 

Sharing experience on women’s of self development and community 

development and the role of SHGs in this 

Highlighting emerging models and positive trends in strategies for securing 

women’s basic human rights 

Initiating a process of horizontal networking for collective action between rural 

women’s groups 

The first mela in 1999 brought together over 600 women leaders from 211 Self Help 

Groups and NGO organizers. The main tools used in this first mela and the findings 

are described below. 

FROM PROBLEMS TO VISION FOR THE FUTURE: KEY ACTIVITIES AND 

TOOLS USED IN ANANDI’S FIRST ANNUAL FAIR 

ACTIVITY 1: PROBLEM MATRIX 

Step 1 A list of problems facing poor women was drawn up after consultation with 

field workers and from secondary sources 

Step 2: Women in the Mela represented the problems they face through developing 

a two dimensional graph. Each SHG came up to the wall and put pictured icon 

stickers against the problems they were facing in their villages. 

ACTIVITY 2: RECORDING ACHIEVEMENTS AND STRATEGIES 

Step 1: Ten stalls were set up where each participant was to go and get their 

mandal details registered. Each issue was assigned a symbol. For example a large 

12 This section draws heavily on Dand 2002. Further recent developments of the annual fair and how 

they can be used for more systematic grassroots action learning will be discussed in Dand and 

Mayoux 2003 forthcoming.


tray of mud along with paper trees were used at the afforestation stall. Cutouts of 

cups and saucers were pinned on a soft board by mandals which had overcome 

caste discrimination. 

Step 2: As women leaders were registered each was given a badge with icon 

buttons representing activities/action taken by their mandal. A volunteer noted down 

details, using a highlighter pen to colour the symbol on the badge of the participant. 

Step 3: Women then split into ten groups of 60 each, based on the colour of their 

badges. Over the next two days as they went to each stall women constructed the 

road map of their work and achievements as they shared their experiences. They 

exchanged experiences of their struggles in taking on new roles as community 

leaders. 

Step 4: Scoreboards were kept for savings and credit which aggregated the 

amounts reported by the mandals. The cumulative figures were reported in the 

plenary. 

ACTIVITY 3: ‘WE SHALL LET OUR FEARS GO’ 

Apart from looking at the tangible achievements of the Mahila Mandals the women 

shared their journey of struggle, negotiation and triumphs as they stepped out of 

their homes into the groups and then to government offices at taluka and district 

level. 

Step 1: In the same group discussions facilitators used charts to document the fears 

shared by the women. 

Step 2: At the end of group discussions, women identified the fears they had to 

overcome and each woman wrote one fear on a gas balloon and gathered in the 

open ground. 

Step 3: At the sound of drums and the slogan `beek udadishu … himmat lavishu… 

ae.. ae.. gai’ (we shall let our fears go and bring in strength), women collectively let 

go of 700 balloons symbolizing their fears. It was moment of rejoicing and great 

enthusiasm for everyone. The entire sky was filled with colour and the energy of the 

group high. 

ACTIVITY 4: TREE OF DREAMS 

By the end of the mela women had drawn up their vision for the next century. The 

vision was that of working together, meeting each other and ending the isolation we 

face. 

Step 1: Towards the end of the Mela, the women were asked to write a dream – 

personal or for the village or the community on to a leaf. 

Step 2: Each leaf was then stuck on a panel to create a beautiful tree of women’s 

dreams for the future.


Step 3: The huge tree of women’s dreams was exhibited at the end of the meale for 

everyone to see. 

Step 4: The mela ended with women exchanging plant saplings between mandals of 

different regions with the promise that they would nurture the plant saplings just as 

they would nurture their dreams. One day they would all grow into the kind of tree 

they had collectively created. 

Source: edited from Dand 2002 

As part of the fair stalls encourage interaction on various issues: gender, savings 

and credit, income generation and enterprise activities, water, group formation and 

development, health and so on. As women walk through the different stalls 

facilitators ask them about their experience of addressing specific issues and 

problems. This facilitates discussion between the women and the key experiences 

and positive strategies are recorded. At the end a newsletter is produced bringing 

together all the achievements of the different groups and listing all the resources 

they had accessed. 

The main aim of this first mela was not impact assessment as such, but 

empowerment of the women’s participants and to contribute the longer term group 

collective action. Nevertheless, the first and subsequent melas have provided a very 

good means of bringing together and critically analysing impact of group activities, 

including credit and savings and quantifying the types of activities and levels of 

success in which groups have been involved. 

In subsequent melas one of the key methodological improvements was to collate 

data from the mandals beforehand in order to increase participation of members that 

could not attend the event. PLA tools were used at village level before the events to 

depict different achievements of the SHG. Information from these activities was then 

collated by the facilitators and made into a large collage. With concrete data, the 

SHGs were able to clearly see the issues that required focus in different areas, 

raising awareness and generating a sense of pride in achievements. This 

presentation was also used as an advocacy tool with government officials, bank 

officials and elected representatives. 

The melas have been an extremely powerful means of stimulating discussion, 

mutual learning and collective action between women. The event has had a 

significant impact itself: 

• 

• 

At the SHG level, intra-mandal coordination and action has improved. At 

subsequent melas it was found that SHGs themselves have taken the 

initiative to act locally on issues other than credit. Their interaction with 

government agencies has increased. 

NGOs in the region have become more active in forums/ networks addressing 

violence against women, women’s political participation in local bodies,


• 

• 

• 

health. Smaller events of such nature have regularly been held by NGOs for 

SHG’s in their areas. 

Press coverage of the event and participation of various state level agencies 

in the event as resource person’s led to women’s issues getting a wider 

audience and increased awareness of the contribution of rural women’s 

groups to development. 

SECTION 5: SUPPORTING GRASSROOTS ACTION LEARNING: 

ROLES, BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES FOR EXTERNAL AGENCIES 

The information which people can collect for their own purposes, in addition to being 

useful for them, can form an invaluable basis for ensuring more cost-effective 

targeting of expensive external expertise to those issues and areas where it is really 

needed. However in order to move beyond tokenism towards a real grassroots-led 

process there is a need to consider: 

Whether and how the grassroots learning process can be supported by 

external agencies in order to strengthen it 

How the grassroots learning process can best feed into the information 

systems of development agencies 

In particular can these objectives be achieved without undermining the participatory 

process. 

5.1 SUPPORTING GRASSROOTS ACTION LEARNING: ROLES FOR 

EXTERNAL AGENCIES 

Funding will be needed to build the skills and networks necessary for a reliable and 

truly participatory grassroots action learning process. If the process is to be 

sustainable and empowering it cannot be seen as a cost-free option. However if it is 

prioritised as part of existing levels of expenditure on impact assessment and 

enterprise development it can be a very cost-effective as well as developmentallyeffective 

option. 

The focus on grassroots learning may not avoid the need for external expertise, at 

least in the initial stages: 

Firstly grassroots information or analysis may not always be reliable, any more 

than that of ‘external experts ‘. ‘Misinformation’ is as much a danger with grassroots 

action learning as with other types of investigation and impact assessment. In the 

use of diagram methods in particular it is important to go beyond production of 

diagram products, to real analysis. The dangers of grassroots learning are shown in 

the example of HIV/AIDS below. Similar problems could arise in relation to enterprise 

assessment. In many cases these problems can be overcome through the sort of 

lateral learning and networking described above. In other cases there may be an


ongoing need for external agencies to provide necessary information not easily 

accessible to participants. 

ARE THE PEOPLE ALWAYS RIGHT? SOME PITFALLS IN GRASSROOTS 

LEARNING 

One very active REFLECT group involved in the extension of PALS in Kabarole 

Research and Resource Centre had done a thorough community mapping. They 

had also done body mapping as part of their identification of health problems. Linking 

the two processes of investigation they had identified two major community 

problems: 

• AIDS/HIV and male sexuality in particular. 

• population pressure within the village leading to families, including young people, 

living very closely together. 

This led them to conclude that close proximity of young people was somehow related 

to spread of AIDS/HIV. The solution they identified was to persuade young men to 

build their houses outside the village or to move to urban areas. Questions of 

women’s control over their own bodies and gender inequality were not raised. This 

may have been partly because of participation of some older men in the group, some 

of whom were related to some of the young women. 

Source: Dand 2002 

Secondly it may be necessary for independent external advisors to facilitate the 

participatory process, at least in the initial stages. As discussed above, groups are 

not necessarily empowering or socially inclusive. There may need to be an initial 

process of awareness-raising and training in participatory techniques to overcome 

barriers posed by existing power relations. It is also likely that where groups are 

mainly from very disadvantaged groups and communities that they will need both 

funding and training in order to participate on an equal footing with less 

disadvantaged groups. 

Thirdly it may be difficult for groups themselves to initiate discussion of sensitive 

issues. This is not necessarily because they are not seen as important. It may be 

either because many issues concerning underlying inequalities and vulnerability may 

not be seen as up for discussion. Or to be seen discussing such issues publicly and 

openly in a participatory process may make groups and individuals vulnerable to 

various forms of discrimination and even violence. It may therefore be necessary for 

outside agencies to initiate discussions and negotiate where possible with vested 

interests. 

EXTERNAL RAISING OF SENSITIVE ISSUES IN ANANDI 

In the preparatory phase for the first mela there was a lot of disagreement among the 

NGOs as to whether untouchability, alcoholism and violence against women should


be listed as topics for discussion. They had not come up in the list of topics 

submitted by the groups. After much discussion, it was felt that only if the issues 

were explicitly raised would the extent of these problems amongst the groups be 

clear. Although women hardly ever articulated these social problems in the group 

meetings, in the large gathering of the mela a large number of groups identified 

violence against women, alcoholism and untouchability as priority concerns. 

Source: Dand 2002 

Finally external support is likely to be necessary in order to translate learning into 

action and lobbying and advocacy. It is unrealistic to expect very poor people to 

bear all the costs of the action learning process – any more than one expects other 

researchers to bear the costs of their investigation. Networking and advocacy 

campaigns also entail costs. External information and advice may be necessary in 

order to supply necessary information on the macro-level opportunities and 

constraints. Lobbying and advocacy will need professional expertise at certain levels 

and to present the findings of grassroots learning in ways which will be persuasive 

for national level administrators and policy-makers. 

The most cost-effective way of developing grassroots capacity for action learning is 

to integrate skills training in participatory action learning into all training programmes. 

This would also improve the quality of the training itself. Rather than artificial 

exercises, trainees can be facilitated to produce reliable diagram or symbolic 

documentation of context, analysis of aims and plans and so on. These can then 

feed directly into programme information systems as well as grassroots learning. 

Training programmes would then become more participatory with trainers also 

becoming learners from participants and establishing more egalitarian relationships. 

As discussed below, some of the capacity-building can also be integrated into 

existing programme data collection and appraisal systems. 

The levels of explicit support and funding needed will depend on context. The initial 

costs of setting up such processes may be higher until methodologies have been 

adapted and systems and networks established. Nevertheless, costs are unlikely to 

be high compared to existing costs of existing external assessments or training. The 

costs of an event like Anandi’s annual fair are similar to the average cost for any 

training event in the area, per person per day. Costs like travel and production of 

tools are shared partially by the organisations and the participating groups. The 

largest cost is in terms of time from various NGOs in the area and volunteers from 

other civil society institutions (students groups, teachers, self help group leaders/ 

family members). 

5.2 BUILDING ON GRASSROOTS ACTION LEARNING: MEETING 

EXTERNAL INFORMATION NEEDS 

The main aim of supporting a grassroots learning process should be the 

empowerment of those involved through developing their skills, knowledge and 

networks and hence their voice in decision-making. Nevertheless such a process 

can make a significant and cost-effective contribution to meeting the information


needs of development agencies themselves. The reliability of external assessments 

would be increased through the wealth of existing information on which to base 

decisions about indicators and sampling. The grassroots led process proposed here, 

in bringing together and comparing different subjective views, is potentially far less 

arbitrary and more objective than conventional approaches to selecting indicators 

and sampling. 

Increasing the ability of programme participants to collect and analyse their own 

information would also improve relations between programme staff and participants. 

Where programme participants are simply seen as respondents to external 

questioning, without the opportunity to really think about or investigate the questions 

themselves, grassroots information is likely to be less reliable and less respected. As 

a result people’s experience is often dismissed as ‘superstition’ or ‘ignorance’ where 

in fact it may be very valuable traditional knowledge which has simply not been very 

well presented. 

Despite the potential advantages of such a process, there are however questions 

about how external agencies can build on grassroots learning without dominating the 

process for their own needs. As discussed in the paper on diagram methods on this 

web site, it is possible to use diagrams for both qualitative and quantitative analysis. 

Individual diagrams can be given quantitative values which can be aggregated. 

Symbol questionnaires of the types used in ILS can be aggregated and quantified. 

The issue is therefore not so much one of feasibility of adapting the tools, but rather 

of preserving the empowering potential of grass-roots action learning rather than 

subordinating it to external interests. 

That said, it is possible to integrate grass-roots learning tools into existing training 

and program information systems in ways which make these existing mechanisms 

for information collection more streamlined, cost-effective and empowering for 

respondents. Program staff can integrate symbol or diagram tools into existing forms 

and appraisal processes to make them both more reliable and also accessible to 

respondents. Costs could also be shared between development agencies working in 

the same area or on the same issues. In the longer term collaboration between 

organizations to build local skills and capacity would be a very cost-effective way of 

gaining sustainable access to reliable information. 

There is however a need for a change in attitude towards what constitutes credibility 

and priorities for impact assessment. Is the priority to be able to identify precisely 

what percentage of a (generally small) random sample has enjoyed precisely what 

increase in income (based often on unreliable respondent data and raising issues of 

attribution)? Or is the priority to have an in-depth qualitative understanding of why 

things are happening and a participatory consultative process about realistic ways 

forward? If the main focus of external assessments truly moves towards ‘improving 

practice’ rather than ‘proving impacts’, then programme participants would have an 

inherent interest in participating in the types of grassroots learning processes 

discussed here. Moreover building the skills, information networks and knowledge 

base of poor and very poor people as well as others in the ‘information chain’ is in 

itself a contribution to empowerment and civil society development.


APPENDIX 1: POSSIBLE SEQUENCING OF DIAGRAM 

TOOLS TO ASSESS THE IMPACT OF MICROFINANCE ON 

WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT 

The stages below do not necessarily represent a time sequence, although they could 

logically do so. How the tools should be sequenced in any particular context will 

depend on the priorities of the women involved. 

Most of these tools are available elsewhere on this web site through following the 

links indicated. Others are available in the many manuals on Participatory Learning 

and Action methodologies. An excellent source is the website and publications of 

PLA Notes: http://www.iied.org/sarl/pla_notes/ . A CD-Rom with detailed and critical 

discussion of different tools is available free for Southern organisations. 

STAGE 1: AIMS, OBJECTIVES AND ACHIEVEMENTS 

Individual or group ‘road journeys’ (see Using Diagrams on this site) which 

examine how women perceive their starting point before receiving a loan, where they 

think the loan will lead them and the opportunities and obstacles which they 

envisage along the way. This can be done at the initial stage of a credit programme, 

or retrospectively in the middle or at the end. For groups or programmes as a whole 

the types of initial situation and end situation can be categorised and quantified, as 

can the opportunities and obstacles. This would be useful to help people analyse 

their differing aims, the different types of impacts and the different types of 

opportunities and challenges they face. 

STAGE 2: MORE DETAILED EXAMINATION OF INCOMES AND 

EXPENDITURE 

It is likely that increased income will be one of the key aims identified, although it 

may not be the only one. The tree tool can be adapted to any of the aims identified. 

Trees (see Using Diagrams on this site) Individual income and expenditure trees 

can be used to examine both direct and indirect impacts on different dimensions of 

the household livelihood system. The different sources of household income are 

quantified and marked as the roots of the tree, marking those to which the loan was 

applied. The corresponding branches represent expenditures or benefits, again 

marking either those which were met directly through the loan or those to which loan 

investment contributed. This then leads to examination of why the loan was used in 

particular ways and what would have happened if the loan had been used in different 

ways. A gender analysis of both household incomes and expenditure and how this 

relates to the loan would also identify how much the woman herself had actually 

benefited.


The use of trees can be supplemented by more in-depth examination, for example 

through use of calendars which show the seasonal balance between incomes and 

expenditure and the times when loans might be needed. 

The generalised household income and expenditure trees could be supplemented by 

detailed analysis of inputs and incomes from particular activities e.g. comparing the 

trees of different women for different activities in order to identify those which are 

more profitable, or different women for the same activities to discuss how incomes 

from the same activity could be increased. 

STAGE 3: HOUSEHOLD DECISION MAKING 

It is also likely that issues of women’s role in decision-making in the household and 

their control over different aspects of household income and expenditure will be 

raised, either in the road journeys or the incomes and expenditure analysis. The 

ways in which women perceive or attempt to achieve a more equal role in decisionmaking 

varies between cultures and also between women. In many contexts 

analysis of differences between women in a group in household decision-making 

arrangements can be extremely empowering and lead to significant changes within 

those households where women feel arrangements are less equal. 

Trees or Venn diagrams (see Using Diagrams on this site) 

Either of these tools can be used to examine patterns of household decision-making. 

In the case of trees this could usefully follow on from the income and expenditure 

analysis. 

STAGE 4: MARKET AND VALUE CHAIN ANALYSIS 

It is likely that lack of market, lack of access to markets or problems in market 

registration will be identified as constraints for many activities. Some of these 

problems may be general for both men and women, others may be gender specific. 

Market maps (see Using Diagrams on this site) can be used to identify the different 

markets which women might approach locally, or the different local, national and 

international markets for particular products. Gender analysis of these markets can 

be done in terms of which markets women normally access, which are dominated by 

women, which women find it difficult to access, why this is the case and ways in 

which access could be improved. 

Participatory value chain analysis (see Value Chains Analysis on this site) can be 

used to help them identify why incomes are low for particular activities and how they 

can be increased. 

Pooling women’s own knowledge, and also encouraging them to gather information 

from markets themselves, from relatives and friends in other places in order to 

complete a market map or value chain analysis is likely to be extremely useful in 

identifying ways in which their incomes can be increased.


STAGE 5: ‘TROUBLE-SHOOTING’ AND WAYS FORWARD 

Any problems arising can be investigated in further detailed through using: 

• 

• 

cause and effect trees 

problem and solution trees 

Prioritisation of ways forward can be done through using voting techniques to 

quantify the different solutions proposed, or in more depth through using matrix 

ranking methods.


REFERENCES 

Barahona, C, and S Levy (2002) How to generate statistics and influence policy 

using participatory methods in research: University of Reading. 

www.personal.rdg.ac.uk/~snsbarah/partiandstats/ 

Biggs, S., and H. Matsaert (1999) An Actor Oriented Approach to Strengthening 

Research and Development Capabilities in Natural Resource Systems. Public 

Administration and Development 19 

Braden, Sue, and Than Thi Thien Huong (1998) Video for Development: A 

Casebook from Vietnam. Oxford: Oxfam. 

Burns, R.W. (2002) Quantifying and combining causal diagrams: University of 

Reading and NRI. www.rdg.ac.uk/ssc/dfid/booklets/tp6_caus.pdf 

Case, D. A. D. (1990). The community's toolbox: The idea, methods and tools for 

participatory assessment, monitoring and evaluation in community forestry. Rome, 

FAO. http://www.fao.org/docrep/x5307e/x5307e03.htm#2.%20what%20is%20pame 

Chambers, R. (1994a). “The Origins and Practice of Participatory Rural Appraisal.” 

World Development 22(7): 953-969. 

Dand, S (2002) We shall let our fears go and bring in strength: women’s networking 

in Gujarat in Sustainable Learning for Women's Empowerment: Ways Forward in 

Micro-Finance. L.Mayoux. New Delhi, Samskriti: 157-170. 

Estrella, M., J. Blauert, et al., Eds. (2000). Learning from Change: Issues and 

experiences in participatory monitoring and evaluation. London, IT Publications. 

Guijt, Irene, and Meera Kaul Shah, eds. (1998) The Myth of Community: Gender 

Issues in Participatory Development. London: Intermediate Technology Publications. 

Holland, J. and J. Blackburn, Eds. (1998). Whose Voice? Participatory Research and 

Policy Change. London, IT publications. 

Lloyd-Laney, Megan (2003) Making Knowledge Networks Work for the Poor: Final 

Report: ITDG. 

Mayoux, L ed (2002) ‘Sustainable Learning for Women’s Empowerment: Ways 

Forward for Micro-finance’ Samskriti Publishers, New Delhi. 

Mayoux, Linda (2003) PALS Manual: Draft August: Kabarole Research and 

Resource Centre, Western Uganda. 

Narayan, D., R. Chambers, et al. (2000). Voices of the Poor: Crying Out for Change. 

New York, Oxford University Press.


Narayan, D. and P. Petesch (2002). Voices of the poor: from many lands. New York, 

Oxford University Press. 

Nelson, Niki, and Susan Wright, eds. (1995) Power and Participatory Development: 

Theory and Practice. London: IT 

Noponen, H. (2001). "The Internal Learning System - A participatory Impact and 

Planning System." Small Enterprise Development(December). 

Noponen, H. (2003). The Internal Learning System in Sustainable Learning for 

Women's Empowerment: Ways Forward in Micro-Finance. L.Mayoux. New Delhi, 

Samskriti: 89-126. 

Useful websites: 

Web page on participatory evaluation with links: 

http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/alr26/parEval.html 

Web links to resources on Participatory Action Research 

http://www.goshen.edu/soan/soan96p.htm 

Community Research Network 

http://www.loka.org/crn/

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