PME under the spotlight: a challengingapproach in St. Vincentby Katja Jobes

A fully participative approach to improvingsanitation looked doomed when the communitywas 'angry, sceptical, and apathetic'. Could thesituation be turned round?

At an initial meeting organized byCOD to address this situation, localpeople were angry, sceptical, and apa-thetic. They wanted to see quick, visi-ble results - especially in terms ofnew toilets and dealing with garbagedisposal - but they were reluctant tovolunteer for the self-help initiative.There was a feeling that the facilitieswould be quickly vandalized by theghetto youths who were not present at

Community involvement in problem-identification in Rose Place.

THE COMMUNITY DEVELOP-MENT Division (COD) in St. Vincenthas recently moved away from one-offprojects towards a multi-dimensionalapproach, which focuses on pockets ofdeprivation, through three-year partici-patory programmes.

Participatory monitoring and evaluation(PME) has recently been incorporatedto complement other participatoryapproaches. One of the main reasons wasto obtain qualitative information on projectimpact. But PME is much more than a tool,it is an ethos that encompasses notions ofbehaviour and attitude change on the partof the 'intervenors/developers', and enablescommunity members to define and assessdevelopment according to their own crite-ria. PME seeks to build the capacity of, andempower, local communities.

COD developed and implemented asimple five-step approach to PME:• Set long-term goals based on thecommunity's own indicators of success;• create short action-checklistsdescribing what needs to be done toreach the long-term goals;• conduct participatory monitoring ofprogress to obtain community feedbackon what has been done and what stillneeds to be done (using the checklists);• conduct participatory evaluation toobtain feedback on the changes peoplehave noticed; and• produce a people-friendly record ofthe community's self-assessments, forexample, a photo album, a video, role-play, songs, poems, or stories.

This approach grew into a very com-plex participatory process character-ized by bursts of enthusiasm, followedby bouts of inactivity; by popularactivities with broad participation,where people clearly enjoyed rising tothe occasion, to the more prosaic activ-ities that inspired little interest; by co-operation - but also conflict and dis-appointment. This process was astop/start, backward/forward process; aprocess of projects within projects; a

programme that became, throughnecessity, flexible and responsive to thecommunity.

Rose PlaceRose Place is on the outskirts of theisland capital, Kingstown. Tradition-ally a fishing village, Rose Place menalso found employment at theKingstown wharf but, with the declinein the banana and fishing industries,unemployment is now high, literacyrates are low, and there is an alarm-ingly high school drop-out rate.

About 300 people live in Rose Place.Some of the families have lived there forgenerations; others are fairly recentmigrants, attracted by squatting opportu-nities, drugs, and the rum shops in the'no-go' ghetto area known as 'the Gulf,'which is in the heart of the community.There are no proper public water andsanitation facilities, only one stand-pipe,and four run-down public baths. Withno toilets or proper garbage disposal,conditions have been unsanitary.

the meeting; people were more inter-ested to hear what COO was going todo to prevent vandalism, rather thanwhat the community could do itself.Whilst the women had previouslyhelped to identify particular problems,they tended to remain silent in themeeting discussions about maintenanceand building which were dominated bya few vocal, better-educated and better-off men. The desire of the fieldworkersto take the time to create local owner-ship and to build community capacityto maintain facilities through participa-tion, conflicted directly with thepriorities of community members whowanted to see quick results.

Getting startedThe principal task of the COO field-workers was to break down barriersand continue dialogue with a broadersection of the community. Thisinvolved spending time in the commu-nity, in the rum shops, on thestreets, and in the ghetto, just chatting

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Constructing Rose Place's toilets - withfull community involvement!

Preparing for the fundraising event organized by the committee to helpmaintain the new toiletfacilities. _

The challenges ofparticipationIn Rose Place there seem to be twodistinct forms of participation events:performance participation and 'prosaic'participation. Performance participa-tion is a high-profile, popular type of

this meeting, it seemed appropriate toformalize these specifically for the toi-let facilities. The agreed goals weretyped up, laminated, and stuck up inthe facilities themselves:• 'Clean teams and an overseer tomake sure the toilets are cleaned on adaily basis.'• 'Meetings are held regularly to talkabout maintenance of the facilities andto see how things are going.'• 'Community members protect thefacilities - people get "lick" [toldofflhit) or are "locked up" for misuseand abuse.'• 'Children practise good personalhygiene.'• 'People take more interest in theirsurroundings and the facilities.'• 'There is a sense of pride in thecommunity. '• 'Plants are planted in the surround-ings in old tyres painted white to makeRose Place look nice.'

These goals were then used indi-rectly to guide further activities. Foreach one, a simple,short checklist wascreated. Several more clean-ups wereheld and oil-drums were made intogarbage-bins. An event was held toraise funds to pay someone a tokenamount for overseeing the daily clean-ing of the toilets and to buy the rele-vant cleaning materials. Local-radioreporters invited into the area to talk topeople about their fundraising prepara-tions, while kids and parents sold raffletickets, asked for donations from localshops, and sold their own cakes, fish,breadfruit, and ginger beer.

Some of the most unlikely peoplestarted - spontaneously - to keeptheir surroundings clean. Rose Placehad had various arguments with thesanitation workers for not coming totheir area. The matter was resolved bycommunity members - in particular,ghetto-dwellers - helping the sanita-tion workers.

When each activity had finished, thefieldworkers and the community hadinformal discussions, often on a one-to-one basis, about what had been done andwhat still needed to be done. After severalmonths, the author spent a week askingpeople what changes they had perceivedin the area, referring back to the originalsuccess criteria - some of the most inter-esting comments are listed in the boxopposite (on page 25).

borrowed from the Public-HealthDepartment, the ghetto became fullyinvolved, including the women and chil-dren who, previously, had been on theperiphery of the project; this initiativeset in motion a whole series of events.

Defining goalsThere was a general call for anothermeeting, this time with the publichealth officer for the area. Held outsideon some steps, it attracted a broadercross-section of the community. Infor-mal discussions about the community-had already been held on people'slong-term goals and success criteria. At

to people informally, eliciting theiropinions and grievances; observing,listening, gaining trust, and encourag-ing people to participate.

After an initial burst of enthusiasmfrom the community in taking part inlatrine-building, numbers soon dwin-dled until only four men were doingall the construction work. The Christ-mas holidays came, and then therewas a problem with the release offunds so that the physical work stoppedaltogether.

A break came when one ofthe ghetto-women suggested a commu-nity clean-up campaign to celebrateInternational Women's Day. Using tools

24 WATERLINES VOL. 16 NO.4 APRIL 1998

Old and young look at the community photo album covering thehistory of the Rose Place project.

event that inspires interest and allowsshort-term commitment, making it easyfor community members to want toparticipate. The event momentarilybecomes the main focus, for examplethe fundraiser. This contrasts with pro-saic participation, which is the mun-dane, everyday reality of constantlybeing involved. This is the messy bit,organizing and mobilizing behind thescenes; it inspires little interest,requires commitment and takingresponsibility, and tends to be very lowon people's list of priorities. Meetingsare cancelled, people talk instead ofdoing, other things take precedence -things move very slowly, according tothe community's pace and mood.

This has implications for both field-workers and the community. Itbecomes clear how interventionist anyproject is, even a participatory one.However much a community says itwants a project, events in people's livesoften take precedence, slowing downthe whole project process. Also, mostparticipatory activities over the longterm will be 'prosaic'. It often meansbeing present at meetings even whennothing is happening directly with theproject so that opportunities can beseized as they arise. It means con-stantly having to maintain momentumand participation when it would oftenbe easier to do the job oneself or makethe decisions for others. This requires a

huge amount of time, energy, motiva-tion, and flexibility on the part of thefieldworkers, who may not always beprepared to give such commitment,particularly where their status is low,and wages are poor.

What is more, participation raisesexpectations, and a community such asRose Place is in a vulnerable position.There is a danger that, without thenecessary continued support from field

staff and donors, the momentum coulddie. Continued work is essential ifthe benefits of participation are to besustainable.

Katja Jobes is currently completing a PhD insocial anthropology, based on the fieldworkundertaken in St. Vincent. She is at Afrels.University of Sltsux. Falmer. Brixhton. BN I9QN. UK. E-mail: k.a.jobes@su.l.sex.ac.uk.

Pride of place

M n of th Ro e Pia e people' comments iIIu tratedpeopl • in rea ed en e f prid in their commnnit ,no th t great r care wa being taken of tbe sur-roundin , h . u of maintenane w also high onth enda. n 16· car old male aid:

h t:hang~ plenty ma'l! Yeah the project make adifference to me. Ah used to play card amI gambledown in the Gulf but then instead, ah helped withthe clean.up and then ai, decided to stop all this tll-pidness and 'tart cI~aning up. Dill ide all told plentypeopl~ when they try taUci"g to my face [puaing medown} because we 're from Boltom Tow" [RosePlace} air pUI them in their place. Ah tell them ai,help cQ"trihute to my community and all clean formy commutlity while the don't, so dQ" t come to me)f.'ithall thi .. They can't reacl they gotla dig it! Thismake me feel confident in ",y communii)' and itaffi cted me ;" other way too. It nuuJe my ame u e-f"L ow ah don't gamble. It's how)'ou choo e toLille ou live. 'omeone eJ commented:

'/ '.'e seen a number of po itive clumges because ofthe projectj for example the interest of the oungerones. When il started they did,,'t think it was any-

WATERLINES VOL. 16 NO.4 APRIL 1998

thing to do with them. lId 110M' they are really el-ting im'olved. Btll il is tIL women who are Ih 1110 tellthusia lie; they have reall' damiooted Ihe meet.ings. And in the Gulf, ba ed Oil the vibe I'm gel-ting, this thing is too big to stifle with their negative-ne s. It i out of their hands and there is nothingthey can do about it. It.\' taken off. nd th' isbecau e of the compi/atio" of people from differentbackgrounds. Let' take yab ,,'ho ha ju t come outof prisOtI, and then there is udi tile "urse alldAnn MaTi who is afami/ persOll. and Gi/hert whois one of our older community memben.' - and thistrickle down to the youth. Tile posia., force or 0strong, a/I these ne alive people are leaning toward'it but they don f know 'ww 10 join in - but they aretarting to get ucked in anyway."

Another local pointed out one of the dilemm ofommnnity-based pn)C' that epectatio . w re

raiSed fa t r than the proj f abilit· to m t th m:

}QII have to make them ee to beU v . With Ih mlodie • you got them to do what in 50 yea theyhaven'l done. You moavaJed tho e /adie. Blit youwill not e that security and prot (lion of the facili-ties until they ee them in place. You . et before itwasll'l a problem to them not hailing toilets. "OM'itcomt like a problem to them. [ want tho etoilebefore CarnivaL

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