Rapid Assessment Process

g0005 bogus empowerment Letting people think they have control over outcomes and the power to act on their own judgments when they actually do not have this control or power; can be the unintended consequence of hyperbole about the democratic nature of a situation. g0010 ethnography A descriptive study of an intact cultural or social group or an individual or individuals within the group, based primarily on participant observation and open-ended interviews; based on learning from people as opposed to studying people. g0015 iterative process A process in which replications of a cycle produce results that approximate the desired result more and more closely. For rapid assessment, the process describes the cycle of data analysis and data collection, designed to produce a preliminary understanding of a situation from an insider’s perspective. g0020 participants Persons interviewed as part of the rapid assessment process. The term can be used interchangeably with ‘‘informants’’ or ‘‘respondents’’ when these terms are not modified with the words ‘‘individual’’ or ‘‘key.’’ The term ‘‘subjects’’ is generally avoided. g0025 rapid appraisal, rapid rural assessment, rapid rural appraisal (RRA), participatory rural appraisal (PRA) Different types of rapid qualitative research based on small multidisciplinary teams using semistructured interviews and direct observations to collect information in processes that can be completed in less than 6 weeks. As usually implemented, these approaches lack the methodological rigor of rapid assessment. g0030 rapid assessment process (RAP), rapid assessment Intensive, team-based qualitative inquiry using triangulation, iterative data analysis, and additional data collection to quickly develop a preliminary understanding of a situation from the insider’s perspective. g0035 triangulation A term from navigation and physical surveying that describes an operation for determining a position by use of bearings from two known fixed points. Triangulation is used as a metaphor by social scientists for the use of data from different sources, the use of several different researchers, the use of multiple perspectives to interpret a single set of data, and the use of multiple methods to study a single problem.