The speaker presented a NRC shelter programme in Sri Lanka as a model programme in which the participatory method had been used to good effect. He sought to dispel myths about the participatory approach, such as that it is too slow and that funds are often misused. He offered a comparison that suggested houses in the NRC programme were 50% cheaper and 30% faster than other planned interventions.
Through training, the programme developed the capacity of beneficiaries to procure, plan and build their own houses, as well as to negotiate with the authorities over issues like land tenure.