[PDF] Community Development Toolkit - CommDev

GlossarycontinuedParticipatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) A rangeof participatory approaches and methodsthat emphasize local knowledge and enablelocal people to conduct their own appraisal,analysis and planning. PRA uses groupanimation and exercises to facilitateinformation sharing, analysis and actionamong stakeholders. Although originallydeveloped for use in rural areas, it can beemployed successfully in a variety ofsettings, enabling development facilitators,government officials and local people towork together to identify and address localdevelopment needs.Partner The individual and/or organizationwith which one collaborates to achievemutually agreed-upon objectives.Partnership Negotiated relationships thatexist between two or more entities that havevoluntarily entered into a legal or moralcontract.Primary data Qualitative or quantitativedata that are newly collected to address aspecific research objective. Primary datamay include original information gatheredfrom surveys, focus groups, independentobservations and test results.QQualitative surveys Research that is moresubjective than quantitative research anduses very different methods of collectinginformation, mainly a relatively smallnumber of individual, in-depth interviewsand focus groups. Qualitative surveys areexploratory and open-ended, and allowrespondents greater freedom to influencethe research scope and design. Participantsare asked to respond to general questions,and the interviewer or group moderatorprobes and explores their responses toidentify and define their perceptions,opinions and feelings about the topic oridea being discussed. The quality of thefindings from qualitative research is directlydependent upon the skill, experience andsensitivity of the interviewer or groupmoderator. Qualitative research is oftenless costly than quantitative surveys and isextremely effective in understanding whypeople hold particular views, and howthey make judgements. While qualitativeresearch does not produce results that arestatistically reliable, its findings can,if participants are broadly representative,be strongly indicative of the population asa whole.GLOSSARY AND REFERENCESProgram management Managementconcerned directly with the production anddelivery of services. Program managementskills and procedures include project cyclemanagement, program formulation,communications, financial and humanresource management, and technicalreviews and evaluation.Quality of life People’s overall well-being.Quality of life is inherently subjective anddifficult to measure (whether for anindividual, group or nation) because itincludes both material well-being and suchintangible components as the amenity andquality of the environment, national security,personal safety and political and economicfreedoms.Community Development Toolkit207