Many different labels have been attached to participatory approaches, some with a long lineage in the context of third world development work. They include participatory learning and action, participatory rural assessment, rapid urban environmental assessment, rapid rural appraisal, participatory action research and evaluation. The technique rapid assessment or rapid appraisal was developed in the 1970s and 1980s as an antidote or alternative to large scale survey studies which were perceived to give insufficient attention to people’s local knowledge. The method encouraged the active involvement of local people with perspective and knowledge of the area’s conditions, traditions and social structure in data gathering activities, using a variety of informal techniques that could be employed within a short timescale. Various forms of rapid appraisal are still being used in rural and urban settings. Rapid assessment process, for example, is an intensive, team-based ethnographic inquiry using triangulation and iterative data collection and analysis to quickly develop a preliminary understanding a situation from the insider’s perspective. In contemporary evaluation practice, rapid appraisal techniques have evolved into newer forms such as participatory learning and action. Instead of outsiders trying to understand the knowledge of the local people, PLA tries to facilitate local people to develop their capabilities. The emphasis is on participation as a systemic learning process linked to action and change. A key purpose of participatory evaluation is to enhance community and organisational capacity-building through fostering interactive participation and self-initiated mobilisation and collective action.