Resources

The Habitat and Health Project was implemented in 1992 by IIED-Latin America in Barrio San Jorge, a poor squatter settlement in Buenos Aires. The article describes how three preliminary focus groups were piloted to test participatory methodologies on a small scale. The aim of the focus groups was to get to know local people's perspectives on the main health and habitat problems of the barrio, and to identify local facilitators with whom the project could work. Joint progress could then be made in the design and implementation of initiatives. The results of the pilot suggested that problems of low levels of community organisation and participation were not fully overcome. An evaluation of the experience has been used to revise the strategy for the second phase of the project.

This article describes 'Development Planning for Real', a new approach for integrating participation into the uban planning process. It has grown out of 'Planning for Real', which is discussed in the article by Tony Gibson in the same issue of RRA Notes. Pilot trials of the approach are being held in a number of countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Early pilot results from Cambodia, Tanzania and Zambia suggest that the approach can be successfully used to generate a community-controlled planning process in both rural and urban contexts, and in a variety of societies and cultures.

This article describes the participatory method æBarangay Development Planning through Participatory Situational Analysis, Planning, Implementation, Monitoring, and Evaluation (BDP-Participatory SAPIME) used by ECPG (Empowering Civic Participation in Governance), an NGO working on village-level with local governance in the Philippines. The article gives a brief background to legislation and structures related to peopleÆs participation in governance, and goes on to explain the methodology the work of ECPG in Quezon City to improve urban participatory local development planning. In the BDP-Participatory SAPIME community members themselves identify and analyse their problems, the situation within which these problems are embedded, and the possible solutions. The key elements of the methodology are presented (social preparation and capacity-building interventions; multi-sector assemblies; preparation and mobilisation) together with the planning methodology. The article gives account of reactions from the community regarding the situation analysis, the process of participatory planning and implementation of the plan; it also looks at reactions from the local government. Some of the main issues and challenges encountered, and the possibilities of replication are discussed. It is concluded that the experience shows that the system is workable and practical and could be replicated in other villages (barangays). However, all the villages participating in this pilot were poor urban communities and the authors consider that another set of pilots may have to be conducted in dissimilar communities so that a more comprehensive set of guidelines and performance indicators can be developed.

This article, as part of the special 50th edition of PLA Notes, looks at specific tools and methods used by an alliance of three organisations in India that are engaged in initiatives to reduce urban poverty. The organisations are the National Slum Dwellers Federation (NSDF), Mahila Milan (savings cooperatives formed by women slum and pavement dwellers) and the Indian NGO SPARC. The article provides a background of the development of the tools and methods used by these organisations over the last 20 years, which are then linked to empowerment, learning and transformation: Poor people know what their problems are and generally have good ideas regarding what solutions they want. But they lack the resources or capacities to demonstrate that they can produce a solution. So the federations support their members to try out solutions in what can be termed a learning cycle. Some of the tools and methods covered in the article include savings and credit, mapping, surveys, community exchanges and house modelling. The author also describes how the Alliance (the grouping of the 3 organisations) works differently from other NGOs whose strategies tend to be about lobbying and advocating directly for change. Instead, the Alliance focuses on setting precedents and using these precedents to negotiate for changes in policies and practices. As a case study of this approach, the article describes the use of community toilet initiatives. Some of the outcomes include bringing communities together, expanding livelihood options for the participants (who gain useful skills and experiences from building the toilets), strengthening relations with municipal authorities, changing national policies, and enabling spaces for communities to learn. The article concludes with three overarching implication for change processes initiated in the community by the toilet projects, arguing that the poor make ideal partners in the projects and that the projects themselves need to be community managed and controlled. These are: organisation for empowerment; community-based problem solving; and learning to negotiate with city and state governments and other groups.

This brief reviews initiatives focusing on youth and children in city governance, with focus on mainstreaming attention to children's needs into the routine practices of local governments; giving greater attention to children's own perceptions; and drawing on the proven energy and creativity of children and young people to contribute to making their cities better places. It details projects that include: evaluations by children of their own urban neighbourhoods and how they could be improved; these also show how urban neighbourhoods can provide a richer and more supportive environment for children in low- and middle-income nations (with examples from Buenos Aires, Argentina and Bangalore, India) than in high-income nations (with an example from Melbourne, Australia); an initiative in Johannesburg, South Africa, where children evaluated their environment and reported on their needs and priorities to city authorities, and a municipal authority in Brazil (Barra Mansa) that fully involved children in city government and in participatory budgeting; programmes in the Philippines and in Brazil that successfully encouraged local governments to better address the needs and priorities of children; and child-friendly city programmes in many nations and the legal, institutional, budgetary and planning measures that underpinned them. Assessments of these experiences by children were generally positive, although they find that city administrators can be unreliable in implementing their promises and adults often retain control of processes where children had expected more autonomy. These precedents also show how children's participation becomes not only an objective in its own right but also a practical instrument for creating better cities.