What is a Participatory Rapid Assessment and Diagnosis (DERP):
Methodology that provides the planner with a means of creating or establishing a bridge for community participation within the framework of formulation, management and implementation of projects for the management, conservation and sustainable development of natural resources.
The DERP itself is a document that presents the results obtained from the process of collecting information in a participatory manner with the communities. Information, data and products, obtained through a series of participatory tools, developed within a systematic process that serves to recognize a certain situation and she because of its existence.
Participatory tools for obtaining DERP
1. Participatory Rural Assessment Workshop (TERP)
The TERP is a scenario created within a community to produce and exchange, at defined times, points of view, experiences and information on local needs, problems and the situation that save the natural resources of the area; about the process of environmental transformation (climatic, productive, in terms of health) that is taking place in your community and about the alternatives that, together, communities, government organizations, administrators of protected areas, can find, to help satisfy improvement, or to restore, in general terms, the environmental situation and contribute to improving productive development itself.
The TERP use a series of dynamic methodologies that allow, on an average of six hours (one day), the collection of the greatest number of information, among the methodologies used are:
to. Brainstorming map;
b. Semi-structured dialogue;
c. Life strategy;
d. Annual calendar of activities disaggregated by gender;
and. Daily life clock;
F. Resource path;
g. Venn Diagram; etc.
There are a number of dynamic participation methodologies for collecting information, generally it is recommended not to use more than four methodologies for a one-day workshop (6 hours of work). It is important that the dynamic participation methodologies used generate a SELF-DIAGNOSTIC process.
2. Schematic community maps
Schematic maps (regional and community) can be included within the TERP, but in general the time used to generate them does not allow the application of other methodologies for collecting information. The thematic maps show where the resources, activities, "limits" of the protected natural area, land tenure problems and specific problems are located. It is critical to understand the boundaries and characteristics of the community, both for the DERP team and for the community itself.
They give us an immediate view (special location) of the problems and opportunities, they are didactic and they attract attention, they are useful in identifying conditions and in planning, operating or executing, they provide the possibility of superimposing maps.
3. Socio-productive transects
The transects are “straight cuts” or crossings throughout the community to capture and represent the greatest diversity of ecosystems, land use, proximity of protected natural areas, etc. They help the team organize refine spatial data obtained through direct observation, summarize local conditions, problems and opportunities in the community.
They serve to organize and detail spatial data, capture in greater detail the current and potential use of land, systematize from a different perspective, enable a complementary vision that broadens the understanding of the environment, gives a basin vision in three dimensions.
4. Plot schemes (typical productive farm scheme)
It is a drawing of the parcel (s) of the interviewee where it is indicated how the land is used: crop rotation, fertilizers, pesticides, animals, etc. It is known that in the peasant community most management decisions are made and implemented within the family unit. Therefore, those decisions that are made at the family level affect the decisions and options of the community. The objectives of the parcel schemes are to show how the individual family units manage the soil, and with what rationality. Various parcel schemes (farms) can show different conditions of size, type of crop, combinations of species and other variables of the use of resources at the household level.
5. Collection of secondary information
Accompanied by the field process, the formulation of the PRSP requires the collection of secondary information from governmental and non-governmental agents who work locally. On many occasions during the collection of information it is possible to find other evaluations, diagnoses and consultations, carried out in the same communities that one intends to work with, and should be considered as a means of consultation and comparative analysis, since in general each evaluation, diagnosis and consultation, carry different objectives, collect and target the results according to the area in which the institution that formulates them is developed (social, education, health, agriculture, livestock, etc.)
Gender equity approach
In essence, gender equality should be taken within the PRSP operating framework, as an approach, rather than a tool. Gender is a term used to emphasize that inequalities between the sexes are not explained by the morphological-physiological differences that characterize them, but by the unequal and inequitable assessment and treatment that women and men are socially given. In this sense, gender helps the cultural, social, economic and political conditions, on which certain norms, values and patterns of behavior are based regarding the sexes and their personal interrelation.
The tools and methodologies of dynamic participation must clearly reflect a gender equity approach, considering the pro-active participation of women and men in the community regardless of age. Coinciding that he finished Gender is not synonymous with woman.
Gender refers to the way in which society defines different roles, rights and responsibilities for men and women. Gender roles, rights and responsibilities are flexible and can change. The important thing about the gender approach is that when it is used, the social relations between the sexes are designated.
Therefore, our purpose is not to evaluate the inequality of women in communities, but rather the role that women and men play in the different productive, organizational, family, educational, conservation and health processes in the community..
Under the operational framework in which the project is developed, it is appropriate to guide the gender approach within the context of the role of men and women (regardless of age) in the conservation of natural resources and specifically protected natural areas.
The facilitator
On many occasions, the failure of the PRSP (and its different tools and methodologies) is due to not having an efficient facilitator. The facilitator is the person who is in charge of directing, coordinating and implementing the different tools and methodologies of the PRSP. It is generally characterized by:
- Knowing the different tools and methodologies of dynamic participation; Capacity for communication and group management; Of verbal and body expressions, that facilitate the understanding of ideas and concepts, with the communities; Knowledgeable of group dynamics; Flexibility and ability to reorient the tools and methodologies if necessary, without canceling community activities; Ease of dominating the group, respecting the opinions of others and not imposing theirs; Being able to integrate the different tools and methodologies to generate the PRSP.
In short, a person who can dynamically and participatively obtain the necessary information for the generation of the PRSP. In general, in jobs where time is the borderline, there may be no more than two facilitators, since the problem of integration of information for the generation of PRSPs can be disaggregated when there are more than two facilitators, making the participation tools and methodologies dynamic. But we must emphasize that the facilitator "IS NOT BORN IS MADE", being an evolutionary process that will lead to generating facilitators within the project team.
