Impact of Participatory Integrated Community Development (PICD) tools in pastoral research and development.

Abstract

Though it has long been acknowledged that the eventual consumption of research outputs and realization of sustainable development is rooted in the active involvement of beneficiaries along all phases of research and development processes. Making choices on the best approach to ensure participation of all stakeholders, including the community members has been a formidable challenge to researchers and development workers in pastoral production system. This is confounded by low literacy levels that are a common characteristic of such populous. The ASAL Based Livestock and Rural Livelihoods 41 Support Project (ALLPRO) funded by the Government of Kenya and the African Development Bank (ADB), through the Ministry of Livestock Development adopted PICD techniques and tools as its guiding pillar in all its development endeavors in 22 ASALs Counties/districts in Kenya. The level of participation attained by using selected PICD tools like Venn diagram I and Venn Diagram II, Takea- step, Daily gender activity calendar, Visioning matrix and Current and Future community maps has been implausible. PICD tools afford the community members, including the illiterate to take lead in the discussions, while the researchers and development workers take a facilitating role. Due to their inherent ability to make the community members, the kin pin of the research and development process, the PICD tools enhances the esteem and the self help capacity of the targeted beneficiaries. This kind empowerment leads to not only ownership of the research findings and development initiatives but also enthusiastic adoption of research recommendations and sustenance of development initiatives embedded with PICD tools. Community Action Plans (CAPs) generated through a PICD process gives communities’ shared vision as far as their prioritized development is concerned. As a result the target beneficiaries have been able to use the CAPs to raise development funds within their rank. In addition, CAPs has been used as a bargaining tool for development assistance as well as a Monitoring and Evaluation tool by the community.