Participatory methodologies: double edged swords

Despite the increase in the number of NGOs and in participatory methodologies and after many years of poverty alleviation, poverty continues to be rife and communities continue to languish in it. There is no doubt, then, that something is wrong. It must either be that NGOs and or participatory methodologies - the tools of their trade - are ineffective, or that NGOs use participatory methodologies wrongly.