Sarar- An Overview

Abstract

SARAR is a recognized education/training methodology for working with stakeholders at different levels to engage their creative capacities in problem solving and planning. The acronym SARAR stands for the five attributes and capacities, listed above in the box, that are considered the minimum essentials for participation to be a dynamic and self-sustaining process. Human growth approaches in psychology and education provided the foundations for the methodology's development by Lyra Srinivasan in Asia in the mid-1970s. SARAR can be used in (i) a broad-based community development context to help generate awareness of particular problems and a commitment to try to address these problems: and (ii) an agency context to facilitate a joint analysis by staff at all levels, and to help reorient and train staff in the adoption of more participatory approaches in their interactions with other stakeholders. SARAR methods have also been used to help communities develop their own action plans as part of project planning, and to help them organize to implement these plans. In addition, the techniques have been used to evaluate existing activities at the local level.