Rapid Assessment Methodologies for Planning and Evaluation of Health Related Programmes

New Book on Qualitative Research
Available Now!

The first comprehensive volume on the use of qualitative methodologies in international health research is now available. The book, Rapid Assessment Methodologies for Planning and Evaluation of Health Related Programmes, and has been published by the International Nutrition Foundation for Developing Countries (INFDC) for the United Nations University's Food and Nutrition Programme for Human and Social Development.

Aimed both at development practitioners and students of public health, anthropology, and sociology, the volume's international array of contributors provide insight into the core concepts on which RAP and RRA rest as well as a practical sketch of many of the tools these methodologies use. Edited by Nevin Scrimshaw and Gary Gleason, the book draws most of its 43 chapters from presentations, many updated, made at the International Conference on Rapid Assessment Methodologies for Planning and Evaluation of Health Related Programmes held at the Pan American Health Organization headquarters in Washington, D.C. in November 1990.

Chapters on Rapid Assessment Procedures (RAP), Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA) and related approaches outline the growing acceptance and use of these methods in national and international public health programmes.

These approaches investigate household and individual health-related behaviors within complex, rational matrixes of personal, organizational, and social realities. They search for opinions and attitudes, behavior, and motivations of both the clients of development programmes and also of those who deliver services.

The major themes covered in the book are:

· The Expanding Role of Qualitative Research in International Development

· Development and Applications of Rapid Assessment Procedures in Africa, Asia, and the Americas

· Community Participation and Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA)

· Institutionalization of RAP

· Training in Qualitative Methodologies

· Decision Making, Communication, and Use of Results