"Experience gained in many countries shows that the acceptance and use of participatory processes is essential to achieve sustainable development. However, without tools and materials to support participatory approaches, wishes do not translate into reality. This tool kit of visual materials was pre ... pared in response to the repeated demands from people working in the field for materials that can help decision makers, project staff, training institutes, trainers and artists initiate the process of developing their own local materials to address their specific concerns. While the need for greater access to this material is clear, we hesitated for some time in putting out a global tool kit for three main reasons. First, because development is rooted in the social, cultural, economic, and political context of societies and its institutions, visual materials should be a reflection of these realities and hence, of necessity, are location-specific. Can a global tool kit, then, serve a useful purpose? After much field experience, we have concluded that the answer is "yes." Over the last ten years, we have found that participatory training is more likely to take root and spread if local trainers and artists have some visual materials to spark their imaginations and, in some sense, to use as models. Just reading about a "pocket chart" is not sufficient; seeing and handling one makes all the difference in understanding the material, its applications, and possible uses. Second, despite the importance of visual materials, readers should not conclude that community development work requires prepared visuals. Many of the activities described can be conducted without the materials included in this kit. For example, maps can be drawn on the ground, and voting can be done by putting stones in squares scratched in the dirt. Issues surrounding gender analysis can be discussed effectively in a group without any visual aids at all. It is up to practitioners to change, simplify, and adapt the materials to their own needs. At the same time, we have found that visual materials are extremely effective in breaking class, gender, education, literacy, professional training, and status barriers. This is true at both the community and agency levels. At the community level they empower those who are not used to speaking up-such as women and the poor-to express themselves and their ideas through drawing, role plays, songs, stories, puppetry and through manipulating materials that are simple to use." (Preface) more

"Divided into two parts, this manual focuses on the SARAR (Self Esteem, Associative Strengths, Resourcefulness, Action Planning, Responsibility) approach which the Promotion of the Role of Women in Water and Environmental Sanitation Services (PROWESS) has applied in numerous projects and workshops. ... It discusses community participation in development and the process of planning a participatory training programme using SARAR. It provides a background on the resources and, logistics necessary in organising a workshop. It gives pointers in designing a participatory workshop as well as simple daily evaluation techniques and activities. It provides notes to the trainer on selecting and sequencing activities and presents the categories and descriptions of training activities." (https://www.ircwash.org) more