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Appreciative Participatory Planning and Action

By: NHEM Sochea

Royal University of Phnom Penh Faculty of Social Science and Humanities

Department of Tourism

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Introduction

• APPA > Appreciative Inquiry + Participatory Learning and Action (TMI)

• APPA’s objective is to find and emphasize the positive, successes, and strengths as a means to empower communities, groups, and organizations, to plan and manage development and conservation.

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Overview of Traditional Planning

Development Planning has traditionally focuses on problems solving and/or a need driven approach. It envisages on “problems to be solved” practitioners become great problems solvers but lose the capacity to envision and create better worlds.Practitioners likely to be more pessimistic the situation become overwhelmed by problems and start to think things will never get better.

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Overview of AI (1)• AI is asset-building approach that focus on:

– Valuing the skill we have – Organizational resources – the factors that motivate individuals and groups to success – identifying and releasing individual and group capacities– Seek to mobilize resources

• The aim of Appreciative Inquiry is to generate new knowledge that expands the “the realm of the possible” and helps people to envision a collectively desired future and to design improved systems and processes that successfully translate their intentions into reality and their beliefs into practice (CRWRC, 1997).

• The focus of Appreciative Inquiry is “doing more of what works”• The focus of problem-solving is “doing less of something that we

do not do well”

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Overview of AI (2)

A common framework for using Appreciative Inquiry to plan for action is the “4-D” model, of Discovery, Dream, Design and Delivery.

The cycle of Discovery, Dream,

Design and Delivery

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Overview of AI (3)

The cycle of Discovery, Dream, Design and Delivery 1. Discovery, the act of appreciating – The best of what is,

what gives life to this community, group, organization2. Dream, envisioning an impact – What might be, creating

a positive image of a preferred future3. Design, co-constructing the desired future – What should

the ideal be, a process of dialogue, consensus and further inquiry

4. Delivery, sustaining – How to empower, learn, adjust and sustain

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Problem solving tree in AI

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Possibility tree in AI

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Overview of PLAPLA focuses on:- active involvement of local people in the choice - Devolving political power from centralized system to smaller units- Relocate decision making - Empower members of local people - Giving community an ultimate control over the development process- PLA tools such as:

- Informant interviews - group discussion - Problem ranking exercise - sample surveys- Social mapping are used increasingly to generate information for

design and planning of the project.

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Key and guiding principle in APPA APPA combines the Appreciative Inquiry framework with traditional participatory learning methods and a planning and management process based around “Discovery, Dream, Design and Delivery.”APPA starting point is that the glass is half full and not half empty.

Client have deficiencies

and need

Citizens have capacities and

gift

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Principle of APPA

- Principle 1 – Success Factors - Focus on finding and building upon the root causes of success and motivation among participants as individuals and groups.

- Principle 2 – Participatory Learning - As a process, APPA builds upon the practice of PRA, PLA and group dynamic disciplines that have influenced rural development

- Principle 3 – Sustainability – The combination of principles that build upon and mobilize participants’ skills, resources and active participation help ensure sustainability of the approach and the resources and communities for which actions are planned.

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Discovery

Discovery emphasizes the “good things” or successes at hand that can be strengthened, managed, and marketed as Community-based Tourism by the community to generate local benefits and support conservation.

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Components of Discovery

1. Discovering and Valuing Community-based Tourism Assets

2. Learning about Tourism Issues, Impacts, and Market Characteristics

3. Initial Identification of Success Factors of Community-based Tourism

4. Developing skills and empowering communities through the participatory learning approach

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Dream

In the “Dream” phase of the 4D process, participants collectively visualize how they would like to see their community develop and benefit from conservation-based tourism in the future, and how they as a community can achieve that Dream by building upon the tourism assets and strengths identified in Discovery to create the very best Community-Based Tourism possible.

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Components and Outputs of Dream

The main steps to Dream are:1. Practice Dreaming2. Visualizing Community-Based Tourism in the Future3. Turning Dreams into Community-Based Tourism

Products

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Design

An important aspect of Design is to prioritize, and work together to develop plans and activities that help turn Community-based Tourism Dreams into reality.

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The components of Design

1. Assess the products of the Dream phase against the objectives of Community-based Tourism, and eliminate those that do not meet these objectives

2. Selection of the most viable products or sets of products3. Strategy development for Community-based Tourism

through an assessment of factors that contribute to success

4. Formulation of action plan/s for Community-based Tourism

5. Monitoring and Evaluation design

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Delivery and Re-Discovery

Delivery is ongoing implementation of the plans developed in Design. Key functions of delivery and re-discovery: - Personal Commitments- Immediate Group Action- Ongoing Implementation, Reflection, Evaluation, and

Re-Assessment

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GOOD LUCK