Local people can generate their own numbers - and the statistics that result are powerful for themselves and can influence policy. Since the early 1990s there has been a quiet tide of innovation in generating statistics using participatory methods. Development practitioners are supporting and facilitating participatory statistics from community-level planning right up to sector and national-level policy processes. Statistics are being generated in the design, monitoring and evaluation, and impact assessment of development interventions.Through chapters describing policy, programme and project research, Who Counts? provides impetus for a step change in the adoption and mainstreaming of participatory statistics within international development practice. The challenge laid down is to foster institutional change on the back of the methodological breakthroughs and philosophical commitment described in this book. The prize is a win-win outcome in which statistics are a part of an empowering process for local people and part of a real-time information flow for those aid agencies and government departments willing to generate statistics in new ways. Essential reading for researchers and students of international development as well as policy-makers, managers and practitioners in development agencies.

Over the past decade there has been an increasingly receptive audience for participatory and qualitative research methods by policy makers, development practitioners and academics working in applied research. At the same time there is an increasing awareness that the value of research can be enhanced through a more systematic combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. While this recent interest has begun to provide useful pointers as to how development research might be improved, it has also given rise to certain problems.This book will draw together lessons about emerging best practice with regard to combining qualitative and quantitative methods and approaches to generate numbers from qualitative/participatory methods and to monitor and evaluation development processes. It will build and expand upon innovation and reflection from practice in developing and developed societies, from within development agencies and academia, government departments and civil society organizations.By drawing on current research in many sectors and countries, the book will situate current development research issues squarely within debates about development policy and social research and it will help begin the process of defining best practice in the use of participatory/ qualitative and quantitative methods, and issues of methodological triangulation which are of considerable interest to academics, practitioners and policy-makers."

PRA and related participatory approaches have opened up new ways in which policy can be influenced by the realities of those who are poor, weak, marginalized and excluded. Based on the premise that sustainable policies require local voices to be heard, this book demonstrates the far-reaching implications of such approaches for the development sector.;Comprising both chapters which were presented as papers at a workshop on participatory research and policy held at the IDS on 13-14 May 1996, and contributions to discussion groups held during the course of those two days, the book is divided into three sections. Part 1 explores case studies in which participatory methods and approaches have been used to influence policy. Part 2 concentrates on PPA (participatory poverty analysis), an innovative approach designed to bring local poverty and policy analysis into the policy process through the cross-sectoral lens of poverty. Part 3 discusses key issues arising during the IDS workshop, and includes chapters by several participants.;With careful and essential research and evaluation into PRA methods and practices, this work provides clear, detailed case studies from around the world, and analysis on key development agencies, NGOs and organizations across the sector since the mid-1980s. With the increasing use of PRA methods and practices by NGOs, governments and multinational agencies, the potential impact for poor people is phenomenal. This work is aimed at professionals and policy-makers either directly involved or with a special interest in PRA approaches and methods and its impact upon policy and development.

Dubbed, "The Great Enchantress", by art critic Robert Hughes, Barcelona was seducing visitors long before the city's rise to a tourist hotspot following the Olympic Games in 1992. Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway and George Orwell all once called the Catalan capital "home," while countless others have been charmed by the city's character and splendor. From Barcelona is a collection of twelve short stories inspired by this cryptic Mediterranean metropolis, where haunted flats overlook leafy squares and feline temptresses lurk in smoky bars. Experience Antoni Gaudi's frustrations as he sought to revolutionize architecture, and discover the legend behind the man who squats with his belt around his ankles hidden in nativity scenes. These are just a few of the characters and tales you can expect, all set in a literary world of churches, dragons and roses. About the author: Jeremy Holland was born in California, but spent his formative years in the Philippines, Saudi Arabia and England before returning to the US as a teenager. Dropping out of university he began a succession of jobs in technology. Working in a cubicle intensified his desire to seek out new adventures in exotic lands. In 2002, Jeremy returned to Barcelona with a blanket and a laptop and began the first edition of From Barcelona. He now lives in the Netherlands, with his wife, their young daughter and cat who flees from the sunlight. To read more about his life in the Dutch cheese country visit his blog www.hollandfromholland.com. For more about Barcelona, visit www.frombarcelona.com.

The recent trend of participatory approaches presents challenges to those working in the development sector. This work draws together lessons and experiences from key development agencies around the globe on the institutional change needed to make participation a reality.;The book explores the main issues and concerns of development professionals involved in PRA practices: adapting PRA methods from micro to macro organizations and the type of changes required by an organization to implement PRA effectively. In addition, the reader is provided with a checklist of practical considerations to guide them through this complex field: training programmes and training needs for all those involved in the participation programme; implementing projects from piloting stages to gradual scaling up; institutional change and the changing cultures and procedures of hierarchical organizations; and participatory monitoring and evaluation.;Containing accounts and clear summaries by development workers from a variety of development settings across the globe, this work is intended for development professionals concerned with PRA approaches from field workers to practitioners and policy makers.