Abbreviation PRIA Location New Delhi, India | Founded 1982 | |
Focus Democracy, Governance, Poverty, Gender Justice Product Community-based and Participatory Action Research, Organizational Development, Capacity Building | ||
Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA) is a transnational alternative policy group and learning centre that produces and disseminates analyses, proposals and information tools oriented towards the promotion of participatory democratic governance and the enhancement of social justice and ecological sustainability. Since its establishment in 1982, PRIA’s focus has been on knowledge co-creation and participatory action research, as well as citizen-centric development and capacity building at the grassroots level. Its headquarters are based in New Delhi.
Goals and activities
PRIA’s contribution to alternative knowledge production and mobilization is informed by its commitment to a critical-liberal vision of a deep, inclusive and participatory democracy with a focus on social and gender justice. Its work centres on five key areas:
- Violence Against Women;
- Urban Poverty and Governance;
- Decentralized Governance, Planning and Deliver of Basic Services,
- Changing Roles, New Challenges and Capacities of Civil Society.
- Development Management
By seeing the empowerment of civil society and the amplification of marginalized voices as an indispensable condition for deep, participatory democracy, PRIA has been a world leader in developing practices that unify knowledge production with empowerment and social change. To this end, its knowledge-producing practices focus on participatory action research methodologies and knowledge co-creation and it has developed a series of initiatives in participatory development, education, community based research, gender empowerment, organizational development, self-governance and inclusion, which are available to practitioners worldwide.
While its strategy for change focuses on mobilizing and empowering groups at the grassroots level, it also seeks to connect and create dialogues between the grassroots and civil society with state and intergovernmental bodies. In assembling and enabling such conversations, PRIA helps to foster new initiatives, program redesigns and greater accountability on the part of the state and private sector.
Although PRIA’s offices and activities have maintained a strong focus on the Indian subcontinent, its initiatives span many sites throughout Asia and through its online presence its constituency includes a host of advocates of democratic governance, grassroots activists and policy-makers in India, Asia, and other places throughout the world.