ABSTRACT
In this case study, the author explores a project implemented in three African countries. The project design promised a great deal, identifying marginalisation as multi-faceted and proposing a participatory, grassroots-led response to rights abuses in communities in Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe. Some good results were achieved, and the project design was an attempt to break out of the standard way of working. But the design also proposed achieving a scale and reach that was not compatible with working in depth: a common occurrence in a development system that is obsessed by quantitative outputs. Something had to give; so participatory exploration of the realities of daily life as a way to identify the most marginalised people in project sites, followed by community-led action to protect and promote their rights using practical wisdom, gave way to a focus on selected categories of people and implementation of a pre-defined menu of activities.
