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Learning to share : experiences and reflections on PRA and community participation. Vol.1
Abstract
This book includes a wide ranging collection of papers which have been divided into sections dealing with communicating with children, gender empowerment, community interactive processes, approaches and insights, ethics and values of community participation and organizational capacity building.
Publisher
Concept
Stories of renewal : community building and the future of urban America
Abstract
This paper from the Rockefeller Foundation uses case studies from four states in the United States (Atlanta, New York, California, and Maryland) to discuss the challenges and benefits of community building initiatives. It seeks to demonstrate how community building in poor urban communities can help to strengthen the social fabric of the communities and address the issue of urban poverty. Furthermore, it offers various institutional approaches to community development and describes five pillars of community building: leadership, patience, realistic but high expectations, community-wide capacity building, and courage and candor about race.
Publisher
Rockefeller Foundation
Report on proceedings : Community Development and Regeneration Workshop, Hull, 29 April 1999
Abstract
This document describes the proceedings of a community development and regeneration workshop conducted by the HULL Community Development Company. The workshop aimed to review and explore the connections between community development and sustainable community regeneration. It includes topics such as sustainable regeneration, community development and participation, where the gaps are, who needs to be involved, and action planning.
Publisher
Hull DOC
Sharing experiences and changing lives
Abstract
This paper discusses community exchange programmes as a powerful mechanism for increasing the capacity of community organisations to participate in urban development. By enabling communities to share and explore local knowledge created through livelihood struggles, a powerful process is triggered, whereby community exchanges transform development. Through a cumulative process of learning, sharing and collective action, strong sustained and mobilised networks of communities emerge. Central to this has been the sharing of experiences between communities, first at very local levels, then in the city, then nationally and internationally. The development of this methodology by the National Slum Dwellers Association, SPARC (an NGO) and Mahila Milan (a federation of women's cooperatives) in India is described. Exchanges are located within a broader approach to community learning and people's empowerment. Benefits of the exchange process are examined, and the paper reflects on why exchanges are an effective methodology for supporting a process of people-centred development. The necessary conditions for the exchange process to be fully effective are reviewed, which consequently point to the distinct characteristics of the exchange process vis-Ó-vis other participation methodology. It concludes by drawing together some of the wider implications of this approach.
A learning process: community exchanges
Abstract
This edition of 'Dialogue', the magazine of Homeless International, focuses on community exchanges as a learning process. These have been transformed into practices that have begun to change the way that development in informal settlements takes place. South-South exchanges have been important in this respect, and knowledge is now being shared in the UK through North-South exchange. The magazine looks at some of the exchanges that have taken place in more depth, as well giving some govenments perspectives on working in partnership.
Participatory budgeting in Porto Alegre: toward a redistributive democrary
Abstract
Counter hegemonic globalisation occurs today in many forms and many settings and deals with a variety of issues from land and labour rights to sexual equality to biodiversity and the environment. This paper examines one urban experiment developed to resist the social exclusion that is an undeniable result of the globalisation process by redistributing city resources in favour of the more vulnerable social groups by means of participatory democracy. The experiment was the participatory budget established in 1989 in the city of Porto Alegre.
The first part of the paper describes basic information and the recent history of the city and its government, contextualising both within the Brazilian political system. The second part details a description of the main features of the institutions and processes of the participatory budget and of participation as well as the criteria and methodology for the distribution of resources. The third part examines the development of the participatory budget. The final part analyses the processes of the participatory budget with regards to its efficiency in redistribution, its accountability and quality of representation in a participatory democracy, the notion of dual powers and competing legitimacies and its relationship with the legislative body that formally approves budget.
From clientelism to cooperation: local government, participatory policy, and civic organizing in Porto Algre, Brazil
Abstract
The paper starts with the observation that it is increasingly accepted that improving the quality of life in impoverished urban areas depends on the capacity of local residents to form social networks and civic organisations. While much of the literature calls for a retreat of the state to accomplish this, some recent studies have shown that state actors can actually promote empowerment of civic organisations. The article looks at an example of state-fostered civic organising: Porto Alegre's "participatory budget", which involves handing over municipal funding decisions on basic capital improvements to neighbourhood-based forums. The analysis looks closely at the Extremo Sul district in terms of mobilising neighbourhood residents, opening closed neighbourhood associations, building co-operative alliances, and transforming participants' perspectives. It is argued that in response to this policy innovation, innumerable neighbourhood organisations have formed, whilst at the same time clientelist forms of neighbourhood action have been discouraged and participation and inter-group collaboration promoted. It is concluded that the first step to state-sponsored civic organising is that the state must be genuinely open to participation and responsive, and that potential participants must become aware of that responsiveness. In Porto Alegre, this did not happen straight away, but there was a demonstration effect that helped mobilise groups, and the targeted issues were found to be meaningful to poor neighbourhood residents. Community organisers also acted as external agents helping unorganised neighbourhoods organise. Networks of reciprocity and trust were built and clientelism discouraged, as alliances built up from year to year and people changed the way they perceived their interests. Against the trend for promoting self-financing and cost recovery in infrastructure investments, top priority went to raising revenue through taxation and administrative streamlining. Further, government spending set off, rather than discouraged, a boom in civic action. It is argued that the policy prioritised a different kind of investment: building new relationships between government personnel and citizens. This new type of governing privileges accessibility, flexibility, and negotiation. It is argued that, overall, there has been a fundamental transformation of political life in Porto Alegre as neighbourhood residents have shifted from powerless cogs in clientelist machines to being active participants in public life.
Power, process and participation: tools for change
Abstract
This book intends to provide participatory development tools that will enable those traditionally excluded - particularly women - from decision-making processes and control over resources to have a voice and to play an active role. The authors contend that the tools described increase the capacities of local communities, NGOs and public sector agencies by integrating applied and analytical methods. To illustrate, examples from field experience in urban, rural and agrarian communities from around the world are described. A brief overview of participatory approaches to development is described, including issues such as power relationships within a community and between local institutions and outsiders. Its explores the opportunities for using multi-media tools to strengthen the impact of other tools in conscious-raising, data-gathering, advocacy, and community decision-making and action.
Publisher
Intermediate Technology
Municipalities and community participation: a sourcebook for capacity building
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Abstract
Increasingly, governments and donors are advocating the participation of poor communities in the delivery of urban services and infrastructure. Yet local authorities responsible for implementing participatory policies often do not have the skills, organisations or resources needed, or an adequate idea of the capacity required. This sourcebook provides invaluable practical guidance for municipal officials, and others working in urban development and poverty reduction, on the range of issues to be addressed in planning and managing cities with community participation. It explains the key elements of participation, identifies common constraints and opportunities, describes the vehicles for moving participation forward and outlines the capacity building needed for a municipality to achieve participatory goals. Jannelle Plummer is an Urban Poverty Consultant based in South Africa and formerly a development officer with DFID. Contents: Introduction; A Strategic Framework for Municipal Capacity Building; The External Operating Context; The Elements of Participation; The Vehicles of Participation; Internal Capacity of the Municipality; Management Capacity of the Municipality; Framework for Action; Appendix and References
Publisher
Earthscan Publications Ltd.
Some experiences from the Philippines in urban community development planning
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Abstract
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.
Publisher
International Institute for Environment and Development
Empowering squatter citizen: local government, civil society and urban poverty reduction
Abstract
With the rapid growth in urban poverty in Africa, Asia and Latin America, most cities now have 30 to 60 per cent of their population living in shanty towns. The civil and political rights of these people are often ignored or constantly contravened and they face multiple deprivations that arise from dangerous living conditions and inadequate services. None of these problems can be addressed without local changes, and this book contends that urban poverty is underpinned by the failure of national governments and aid agencies to support local processes. It makes the case for redirecting support to local organizations, whether governmental, non-governmental or grassroots. After an introduction from the authors, eight case studies portraying innovative initiatives from government and civil society: the shift from the Urban Community Development Office to the Community Organisation Development Institute in Thailand, by Boonyabancha; the Community Mortgage programme in the Philippines, by Porio et al.; the Mexican National Popular Housing Fund, by Connolly; the Local development Programme (PRODEL) in Nicaragua, by Stein; the work of the Anjuman Samanji Behood in Faisalabad, Pakistan, by Alimuddin et al.; the Municipal Programme for the Reform and Extension of Homes, Casa Melhor/PAAC Cearah Periferia, Brazil, by Cavalcanti et al.; the work of the South African Homeless PeopleÆs Federation, by Baumann et al.; and the Alliance of SPARC, the National Slum Dwellers Federation and Mahila Milani, by Patel and Mitlin. The book is concluded with two chapters by the editors on addressing deprivations in urban areas and the role of local and extra-local organisations.
Publisher
Earthscan Publications Ltd.
Moving forwards with partcipatory monitoring and evaluation
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Publisher
International Institute for Environment and Development
Tools and methods for empowerment developed by slum and pavement dwellers' federations in India
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Abstract
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.
Publisher
International Institute for Environment and Development
Building better cities with children and youth
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Abstract
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.
Publisher
International Institute for Environment and Development
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