Resources

The concept and practice of participatory planning is not new in Ghana, however the link to the national planning system is either weak or non-existent. This article highlights the experiences of two projects which aim to deepen community participation in planning and link it to the existing planning system of the country. It also discusses GhanaÆs experience in planning at the sub-district level, reviewing approaches by the communities, NGOs, project interventions, etc.; and outlines GhanaÆs local government system, CBP (community based planning), and the way forward. It describes the application of CBP in Ghana with experiences from a project which was part of DFID funded action research project covering Uganda, Zimbabwe, Ghana, and South Africa, where GhanaÆs experiences of participatory planning processes were reviewed and a steering committee established. The councils, New Edubiase and Morso/Kuofa, were chosen to host a CBM pilot project which proved successful. The second project was the Village Infrastructure Project (VIP) which aimed to empower local communities to manage infrastructure investments; increase local access to development resources; strengthen institutional capacity at community level; and support government strategies for decentralisation. The article goes on to look at some of the innovations in the use of participatory methodologies used in the projects, and lessons learned. It concludes with some recommendations for future CBP in Uganda such as reactivating the council as an appropriate level for managing community driven development (CDD); harmonisation of CBP and CDD approaches; the need for promotion of CBP within the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development; and the institutionalisation of an experienced CBP steering committee.

This paper shares experiences of a participatory land management approach Gestion de Terroirs developed from 1986 by the Burkinabe government. The approach is based on rural community based management, and is multisectoral, multidisciplinary, village based, and flexible. Although the National Programme for Gestion Terroirs (PNGT) was implemented in 1992-1996, Burkina is only now developing a system for local government, which should come into place in 2005. Meanwhile it has a well developed system of legally recognised community structures called Village Committees for Area Management (CVGT). These can receive funds and manage development in their area. The article describes the approach of the PNGT including establishment of and support of the CVGTs, coordination of actors at different levels, promoting decentralisation, and participatory assessment of community issues using MARP (the Accelerated Method for Participatory Research). It presents the results of PNGT which covered 8 provinces and ca. 150000 people with the main investments including: social and economic infrastructure; land management strategies; agricultural support; and forest management. MARP was used to study the impact of the project, including wealth ranking, giving positive response with 73% of beneficiaries estimating improved production and 80% improved food security. There was also improved soil fertility, increased vegetation cover, increased biodiversity, increased yields, better and more community organisation, improved community capacity, and a strengthened community role in development.

This article conveys experiences from a project in Himachal Pradesh (HP), a rural mountainous state in India, aimed at finding an effective, local methodology for identifying and funding community priorities and reducing wastage. The article document the approaches used and their impact. It begins by explaining the Panchayati Raj Act established in 1994 to strengthen devolution, leading to the formation of Panchayats; administrative units for community development. It looks at the history and background to Panchayat Micro Planning (PMP) that was introduced in HP in 1996, and how this led up to a trials of a Panchayat level PMP in Chamba district in 2003. The PMP methodology applied in this project is described with initiation and organisation formation; ward-level participatory data collection; ward-level data interpretation and planning by communities and support agencies; and Panchayat-level plan formulation. Positive aspects and limitations of the PMP process are evaluated. Finally the article goes through the lessons learned from the project and it is concluded that the experiences of designing and introducing PMP in HP show that it is possible for semi-literate communities in the mountains to work in a participatory mode and deliver community-based plans into the hands of Panchayati Raj institutions.

This article gives account for experiences from the Centre for Alternative Technologies (CTA), an NGO working on alternative futures for and with rural small-scale farmers in Zona da Mata of Minas Gerais, in Brazil. CTA staff work with a Local Development Plan (LDP) focussing on developing participatory Municipal Rural Development Plans (MRDP) in three municipalities: Araponga, Tombos, and Acaiaca. This article compares the three municipal planning processes, offering them as an exiting alternative methodology for local development in the Brazilian context. The article starts by describing the study area, CTA's evolution to municipal planning, and CTA's vision for pro-poor municipal planning. It goes on to explain the main building blocks of the CTA-supported MDRP, including participation as a learning process; planning process and methodology; working with new partners giving and giving farmer groups a more prominent role in the process; building accountability structures; non-neutral pro-poor facilitation; and finally learning from diversity, where the importance of differences between the participating communities are and how that forms the process are discussed. The key impacts and challenges are examined, with the problems of standardisation of methodologies in scaling-up of these types of processes. However despite many differences, several elements were found to be effective in all the three cases: the value of PRA (participatory visioning, problems appraisal and solution identification); the importance of some kind of supervision and decision making body; the needed for patience in conflict solving in the group (internally and in interaction with external parties); capacity-building of leadership, facilitation, and negotiation skills; and the need for clear facilitation at the onset of the process with a gradual transformation of the role of external bodies to advisory bodies.

In this book, the author seeks to portray the process of community organising as a collective endeavour where the people are the principal actors and the community organisers serve only as facilitators. He proposes that community organising is only meaningful if it promotes the continuing capability building, self reliance and empowerment of the people. The book uses down-to-earth language and begins by presenting the context and significance of planning and management from the people, for the people. The basic concepts and processes of this view are discussed and specific guidelines for implementation are given. Case studies from the Philippines on participatory planning and management are presented and analysed, and finally synthesised in a comic strip.

This review looks at ActionAid's (AA) Accountability Learning and Planning System (ALPS), which was introduced in 2000 in line with the strategy Fighting Poverty Together (FPT). The aims of the review are to assess how and in what way ALPS has supported AA in putting FPT in operation through its core requirements and seven key principles; to identify key achievements, lessons and gaps in the system; and to provide a set of practicable recommendations for changes and improvements. Three core and standard elements formed the basis for the review: short focused visits to five country programmes (Kenya, India, Brazil, Italy and United Kingdom) with targeted interviews with key staff, some partners and local people working with AA; extensive documentation review of both core literature and country-specific material; and a written survey sent to all country programmes, international functions and Northern counterparts. It is concluded that ALPS is not yet being applied systematically within each country or across countries, themes and functions. Some of the critical gaps in ALPS logic and its implementation are identified, and in response recommendations are given on how to clarify ALPS in AA; support the ongoing uptake of ALPS; improve the quality of ALPS; and setting clear ALPS agendas. (See record no. 4706 for full report)

This manual was prepared to facilitate access to participatory planning tools in Tanzania, to make them more accessible to planners and other development workers in order to facilitate sustainable development in the country. Its main purpose is to provide a source of reference for the Tanzania government and other staff whilst engaging in development activities with communities. The manual is structured to explain the background to the underlying planning and local government reforms, and the monitoring and evaluation of development interventions at community and other levels. The background describes how the current local government reforms are designed, how they are implemented, and the measures to be put in place. It also provides an overview on why the new planning approach necessitates a shift in emphasis on participation of communities in creation of their own development interventions, and how other actors are to be involved in supporting and facilitating the successful implementation of development interventions. The manual is structured into four parts which hare based on a build up of knowledge and skills development: preliminaries, concepts, participatory methodology, and opportunities and obstacles to development.