Participatory development: recent reorientations and challenges for our organization [GTZ]

This paper reviews GTZÆs experience with participatory approaches since 1991, focusing on the organisational challenges implied by participatory development, both within GTZ and within in-country institutions at all levels. It outlines some concrete recommendations to re-orient GTZÆs approach to management, and ensure better quality control as a result of insitutionalising participatory approaches. Emphasis is made on the need for regional learning groups to reflect on GTZÆs experience with participation and suggest new ways forward. The paper also spells out GTZÆs present understanding of the dangers and challenges implicit in the institutionalisation of participatory approaches, with particular attention paid to the challenge of taking on vested interests that interfere with participation, and the challenge of assisting governments embarking on decentralization, which is recognised to be a fundamental enabling condition for participatory development.