Participatory
Approach in Rural Development: Methods and Principles
Introduction
Participatory
development takes a different approach. It suggests a shift in focus from
informing people with a view to changing their behaviors or attitudes to
facilitating exchanges between various stakeholders. These exchanges help the
stakeholders to address a common problem or implement a joint development
initiative in order to experiment with various solutions and identify the
required partnerships, knowledge and material conditions. The focus is not on
information to be disseminated by experts to end-users. Rather, it is on
horizontal communication processes that enable local communities to identify
their development needs and the specific actions that could help to fulfil
those needs, while establishing an ongoing dialogue with the other stakeholders
involved (e.g. extension workers, researchers and decision-makers). The main
objective is to ensure that the end-users gather enough information and
knowledge to carry out their own development initiatives, evaluate their
actions and recognize the resulting benefits. Village
communities, regional and local government, and service delivery and rural
development agencies, each have different objectives with regard to community
participation.
For rural communities, participation is
a way to identify and implement priority rural development activities through
better use of existing resources. To do this, communities analyze the existing
situation (constraints as well as resources available), identify and agree upon
priority problems, develop action plans to address the priority problems, take
charge of implementing the action plans, and pressure the service providers and
development organizations to provide the necessary assistance. Communities also
identify what incremental resources are needed and organize themselves to try
to mobilize these resources.
For regional and local government, the
use of participatory methods in a large number of villages provides information
to establish development programs (including the use of regional and local
development funds) that respond to local demands and needs.
For rural development organizations and
service providers, participation means becoming more accountable to
communities. The village action plans provide the terms of reference that guide
future assistance to the community. Moreover, villagers influence how the
development organizations and service providers organize their work with the
village. Through their strengthened organizations, villages can more strongly
voice their satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the services received, and
indicate how service delivery can be improved.
Methods and Tools
The methods and tools described here are not new. They are a
synthesis of a large number of experiences with community participation. The
process consists of the following steps:
Diagnosis.
Through village mapping exercises, semi-structured interviews,
transects, daily and seasonal schedules, and social structure diagrams,
villagers analyze their situation and become aware of problems, challenges and
their potential for dealing with them. To ensure the active participation of all
members, the villagers are asked to divide themselves into self-defined groups
based on age, gender, ethnic group or other affiliation. It is up to the
villagers themselves to decide which groups to establish. The use of different
tools for the diagnostic exercises makes it possible for the villagers to
complement and cross-check the information obtained through one tool with
information from another.
Identifying
priority problems.
The diagnostic exercises can result in a long list of village
problems. Each group is asked to select four to five problems that they
consider to be the most pressing and that should be addressed immediately. The
compilation of the list of group priorities becomes the list of village
priority problems.
Problem and solution
analysis.
The
priority problems are analyzed in mixed groups, using a method of problem and
cause analysis called the problem tree. For each problem, the group analyzes
the underlying causes, and goes as far as possible in this analysis. They also
identify the effects of the problems. The elaboration of the problem tree
raises awareness among villagers that they can actually influence many of the
causes of the big problems, and that many causes are due to their own actions
(for example, cutting of trees leading to erosion and soil degradation).
Finally, villagers name possible solutions. Here again, villagers become aware
of their capacity to influence and deal with the priority problems using their existing
resources.
Action plans.
Village
groups together with the team of facilitators identify the actions most likely
to produce the desired results. The villagers with the assistance of the team
then develop detailed action plans specifying responsibilities, labor and
resource needs, implementation timetable, and monitoring indicators
Village organizations.
Once
the villagers adopt their action plans, they decide whether their existing
organizations are adequate to oversee their implementation or whether they need
to create a new organization to handle this responsibility. In addition,
villagers also identify committees that will be in charge of implementing
specific activities.
Principles for the Participatory Approach
Although there is no singular and uniform participatory approach,
all conform to general principles. Participatory approaches:
Encourage
participants to take responsibility
Participatory approaches encourage the community to take
responsibility for its own development agenda. Rather than wait for outside
assistance, the community can undertake activities that they themselves regard
as the highest priorities.
Respect
village diversity
Although the village is a discrete geographic and administrative
unit, it is not necessarily homogenous. People or groups sometimes have
conflicting interests or perceptions. Development practitioners should be
careful to give all socioeconomic groups equal weight in decision-making.
Promote
participation for all
For socio-cultural reasons, it may be a challenge for women,
youth, the poor and others to speak out in village meetings. Facilitators
should make sure that people from disadvantaged groups (for example, women and
female headed households, minority ethnic groups, people living with HIV/AIDS or
families affected by the AIDS epidemic, landless people, the handicapped, youth
and others) are able to express their opinions and participate actively in
decision-making.
Reconcile
different interests
Many problems require group decisions. Actions which solve the
problems of some groups can harm other groups. Different groups should be
encouraged to find solutions which are acceptable to all. The participatory
approach recognizes that different groups within villages have different
interests, and that the decision-making process must take all into account.
Listen to the community
Service
agency staff arrive in villages with expertise but not with ready-made
solutions. Rather they listen to the villagers. They also encourage villagers
to think through their own problems. Each person has knowledge and ideas which
can contribute to finding solutions to village problems.
Involve
multidisciplinary teams
There
is a proverb, “two know better than one.” Involving people from different
service agencies, with different training and backgrounds allows the group to
benefit from different knowledge and perspectives. Collaboration among service
agencies is essential to integrate the activities of all those working in the
village.
Examine the situation
from different points of view
Approaching
a problem with only one point of view, based on one tool or technique can lead
to wrong solutions. It is better to use a triangular approach, looking at a
problem from at least three different perspectives. When many perspectives are
taken into account, information collected will be more thorough and reliable.
Adapt to local
situations
Although
the participatory methods and tools are described in detail, it is up to the
team of facilitators to decide which tools to use and then adapt them to local
conditions. The team should also experiment with new tools. The choice of tools
depends on the local situation, and time available to the villagers to
experiment with them. The choice of tools of course influences the final results
of the exercises.
Actors and their Roles
Each actor involved in village participation – community members,
service and development agency staff, political and administrative authorities
– has a unique role to play and task to perform. Villagers must actively participate
in both the analysis of their problems and the search for solutions. They must
identify their priorities and name the development actions that can address
them. As facilitators, service and development agency staff must encourage
villagers to collectively reflect on their situation, analyze their problems
and identify possible solutions. As specialists with expertise, they are
responsible for informing the villagers of technical solutions to the problems.
They can also facilitate contact between the village and service
and development agencies. The challenge for administrative authorities at
regional and national levels is to take the concerns of local people into
consideration when allocating resources for development activities. Good
quality village-level planning can serve as the basis for regional development
planning and programming of service agencies’ activities. The participatory
approach thus implies that the attitudes and behavior of each actor in local development
must change. Participation leads away from a relationship based on dependence
and hierarchical position to one based on partnership and collaboration.
Conclusion
With participatory development approach, researchers and
practitioners become facilitators in a process that involves local communities
and other stakeholders in the resolution of a problem or the achievement of a
common goal. This, of course, requires a change in attitude. Learning to act as
a facilitator does not happen overnight. One must learn to listen to people, to
help them express their views and to assist them in building consensus for
action. The question of reaching the poor and the most disadvantaged groups in
the community is a major preoccupation because these people have few
opportunities to participate in research or development programmes. Emphasis
was put on the participation of excluded groups. Improving the capacity of the
commune’s leaders and organizations also helped them to apply such
participatory approaches with community members so that they could contribute
to community plans and activities.
References:
Bessette, Guy (Ed.) 2006 People,
Land and Water: Participatory
Development Communication for Natural Resource Management. EARTHSCAN, London.
Wendy S. Ayres (Ed.) 2000 Village
Participation in Rural Development. Royal Tropical Institute, World Bank.
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