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Community participation has become an ambiguous umbrella term under which a huge diversity of practices may occur, ranging from 'true' participation to the rhetorical participation, which serves merely to legitimize external interests in a development project. One variable within the participation process that may differ enormously is that of who participates. The tendency to assume that communities are homogenous entities has meant that many people within the community have been excluded from participating. The first section describes some determinants of who participates, which include socio-economic and socio-cultural factors. The remainder of the paper focuses draws on the case study of a rural development project undertaken in a Guatemalan Mayan Community. The local environment and history are described followed by characteristics of the participants, including an exploration of the characteristics of the project staff. The author concludes that participation in voluntary community development projects is largely dependent on socio-economic factors. In addition, geographical access, external social links, age, personality and cultural values all played a part in distinguishing who participates.

This manual is divided into three parts. Part 1 introduces important concepts about homeworkers and value chains. Part 2 is the heart of the study, which provides the tools needed to carry out a value chain study. In particular it shows how to construct maps to represent a value chain, which make it easier to understand some of the complex aspects within the chain, such as the numerous controls and links that exist. Other techniques explored are: " widening the information net and strengthening the basis for action by learning from buyers, manufacturers, homeworkers, and comparing their perspectives; " working with public agencies, as these actors impact significantly on the lives of homeworkers in terms of regulations and laws impacting on labour, trade policies affecting industry, and forms of harassment of labour; " applying gender analysis to garment chains, which is advocated as a component to be included in all research of homeworkers. Part 3 puts forward suggestions about how to use the research findings from the value chain analysis to improve the conditions and opportunities for homeworkers, and how to promote best practice amongst employers. It deals with how to begin working towards solutions, and how to support collective action and mobilise around codes and standards, in particular the issues of occupational health and safety and child labour. It also looks at how to help workers switch chains.

Villa el Salvador, Southern Lima, is a poor district of roughly 300,000 inhabitants. It is famous for its tradition of 'self-management' by the population. This article describes the history of the district and its urban development plans and includes a speech given by the Mayor of Villa El Salvador, Martin Pumar, in 1999. In it he shares his vision of leadership, the urban development plan and the place of participatory budgeting within that. He goes on to present four key challenges that he faces: the lack of participation by all inhabitants; the shortsightedness of leaders not used their co-governing role; the lack of linkages between decision making structures and the internal issue of the municipal bureaucracy not yet being capable of dealing with change. The article goes on to look the vision and strategic objectives of the participatory budgeting process and finally at the process itself.

El estudio presentado en este librete es parte de una serie de documentos del trabajo que analizan los procesos y las actividades del desarrollo conducidos por el Grupo Nacional de Trabajo para la Participación (GNTP) en Bolivia, y en colaboración con LogoLink (Learning Initiative on Citizen Participation and Local Governance). El fenómeno de la globalización en los mercados internacionales ha generado un efecto doble e inverso: primero, de concentración de fuerzas productivas en determinadas zonas geográficas y segundo, de des-localización de bloques productivos hacia distintas regiones del mundo. La integración económica y los acuerdos comerciales como parte de los nuevos arreglos institucionales entre países han coadyuvado a dicho fenómeno. Como respuesta a estos dos efectos y a una nueva tendencia hacia la modernización del Estado, muchos gobiernos han iniciado procesos de descentralización otorgando nuevos poderes y competencias a los gobiernos locales o sub-niveles, desarrollando sus economías desde un enfoque local. Asimismo, en la actualidad parte de la nueva teoría del desarrollo, complementa la noción del desarrollo económico local bajo los enfoques de microeconomía del desarrollo y cadenas productivas. Esta publicación presenta lo concepto de Desarrollo Económico Local (DEL).

The study presented in this booklet is published as part of a series of work documents analyzing the processes and development activities conducted by the Grupo Nacional de Trabajo para la Participacion (GNTP) in Bolivia, and in collaboration with LogoLink (Learning Initiative on Citizen Participation and Local Governance). The phenomenon of the globalisation of the international markets has generated a double and inverse effect: firstly, the concentration of productive forces in certain geographic zones and secondly, the delocalisation of productive units towards different regions in the world. Economic integration and commercial agreements as part of new institutional adjustments between countries have helped to this phenomenon. To answer up to these two effects and to a new tendency of modernization of the State, many governments have initiated processes of decentralization granting new powers and authority to the local governments or sub-levels, developing their economies from a local approach. Also, at the present time part of the new theory of development, complements the notion of local economic development by the approach of the development of micro-economy and productive chains. This publication presents/displays the concept of Local Economic Development (DEL).

Research shows that the more resources reach the family through women, the greater the impact on poverty reduction. Therefore, if the main objective is to reduce poverty, CCGD (Collaborative Centre for Gender and Development) of Kenya, argues that there is a need to mainstream gender equity in the budget to ensure that more resources reach the households through women. This paper examines the task of CCGD to ensure that gender is taken on board in the National Economic Policies, e.g. PRSP (Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper) and the subsequent national budgets. The CCGD project of engendering budgetary policies is built on recommendations made at a workshop organised by the CCGD in 1997 where a dialogue between the government and other stakeholders in order to influence budgetary policies and processes to mainstream gender was launched. Since then and after a recommendation from the at the time Director of Planning in the Ministry of Planning and Development to focus where the distribution of resources takes place, women NGOs in Kenya have been concentrating their efforts on the activities of the Ministry of Finance and Planning. For the last three years the project has been implementing the programme on engendering the national budget and economic policies. The paper analyses the project and its implementation and lessons learned, and gives recommendations for the future.

As part of the 50th edition of PLA notes, the author looks at the history of participation and democracy over the last 10 years. The article looks at how participatory approaches have entered government arenas and confronted issues including policy influence and institutional change. The article looks at some key examples of participatory democracy, such as participatory budgeting in Porto Alegre, as well as some of the overarching principles that underlie the initiatives. These include active and participatory forms of citizenship, inclusion, multiple stakeholders and broader forms of accountability. The question is also raised about the transition from advocacy to inclusion in governance, such as when and how do groups make the transition from demanding a change in the shape of the table to deliberating around the table, sometimes with those against whom they have been advocating? Some of the initiatives described include the Local Government Code in the Philippines, the Law of Popular Participation in Bolivia, participatory budgeting in Brazil, and constitutional amendments in India. The article looks at learning from these examples in the South, and also at the critical questions about power, spaces for change, and the challenges of representation. In conclusion, the author suggests that documenting the outcomes of the difference participation makes to governance and policy is significantùboth for sustaining motivation and momentum for participants, who will be able to see the outcomes of their engagement, and also for sustaining the deepening of the democratic process itself.