Ideals in practice: enquiring into participation in Sida

Participation is never simply about what development agencies do out there. It is also about the play of power inside such organisations, and about the values, attitudes and behaviour of those who work within them.The Swedish official development cooperation agency, Sida, has long had policies that advocate participation in development. Yet putting these policies, and the ideals they represent, into practice has proven to be very challenging. This paper explores some of the ways in which participation has been interpreted and applied in Sida's work. It looks at changing meanings of participation across time and place, from different eras of Sida's work to different field projects supported by a country Embassy. From this enquiry into meanings and practices of participation, the authors draw out some broader lessons about the challenges of institutionalising a multi-faceted ideal like participation in a complex aid bureaucracy.|Adapted from authors summary