Participatory planning and monitoring: taking stock for the future

This paper provides a history of participatory planning, beginning in the 1970s, when there was growing disillusionment to existing approaches to development. Participatory development then went through a number of phases resulting in massive global interest and a huge range of participatory processes taking place. Following growing criticism, the author considers that participation today is moving towards quality and continual learning. The second part of the paper concentrates on the challenges of participation, including the continuing difficulties in empowering women, the tendency towards superficiality, the danger of raising expectations which might result in stakeholder cynicism and the need for continuity. The final part of the paper details two case studies from Uganda and Brazil respectively, of slow but successful participatory processes.