Involving Communities in Planning and Assessing the Impacts of Development Programmes

Abstract

During 2001/02 six New Zealand NGOs and eight of their partners in South Asia or the Pacific were involved in a Participatory Impact Assessment (PIA) pilot programme initiated and supported by the Voluntary Agency Support Scheme (VASS) of the New Zealand Agency for International Development (NZAID). The PIA pilot programme aimed to build understanding of the philosophical and methodological approaches to PIA for all involved through workshops and practical experience (ie undertaking a participatory impact assessment of a project). At a workshop at the end of the Pacific phase of the pilot programme in Nadi in August 2002, the need for capacity building in the area of participatory approaches to development in a Pacific context was raised. It was suggested that it would be useful to share the lessons learnt from the PIA pilot programme with other Pacific NGOs. The VASS PSC and NZAID agreed to provide the funds to bring a number of Pacific NGOs that were supported by New Zealand NGOs or NZAID to such a workshop.