Resources

This report is the outcome of organisational strengthening training programmes conducted by The Mel Nathan Institute and Human and Community Development Agency of the United Church in several communities in rural Jamaica. Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) was the primary methodology used. Participants were asked to prepare a list of community needs and to place them in order of priority using priority ranking, voting, scoring and pairwise ranking methods: details for the methods and findings are given. Correspondence between Robert Chambers and the author are attached to the original paper. An electronic version is available from the IDS Participation Resource Centre.

This toolkit draws on the lessons generated from learning projects and case studies supported under the Citizens and Governance programme of the Commonwealth Foundation. It offers practical guidance on how to promote the participation of citizens in governance. The contents of the toolkit include: the meaning of inclusive governance; ways for citizens to organise and engage in governance; strategies for multi-sectoral partnerships; key themes that emerge in governance, such as conflict, gender and power; suggestions for participatory methods in governance, including learning circles, popular theatre and role play; and methods for inclusive governance capacity building of citizens, intermediaries and government officials. Brief summaries of action-learning projects and case studies from the Citizens and Governance Programme from: India, the Caribbean, Vanuatu, Tanzania, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, Jamaica, Zimbabwe, UK, New Zeeland, Africa, Malaysia, Canada and Belize; are presented. A toolkit CD-ROM designed to run on Windows 95/98/XP and MacOS9 is also incorporated. The CD-ROM contains the toolkit in an electronic format and has a resource bank of downloadable materials, such as relevant publications, materials used by the project partners and a word bank which provides explanations of, and proverbs illustrating terms common in the debate about civil society and governance which project partners themselves have furnished.

Throughout the world, forestry departments have been rethinking the way they work to meet the challenges of a changing sector. Management that emphasises collaboration with stakeholders rather than regulation makes sense in this new context, but it involves risks. Jamaica is notable in the Carribbean region for its willingness to meet these risks head on, and in doing so has begun to create a new and positive dynamic between the Forestry Department and the people it serves. This paper presents the results of research by the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute and the Jamaica Forestry Department (FD) on one component of Jamaica's new approach: the establishment of two Local Forest Management Committees (LFMCs) to involve stakeholders in managing forest reserves. Eighteen months after their establishment, the LFMCs have become a channel of communication between the FD and local stakeholders that is valued by both. They have contributed to the DepartmentÆs watershed management plan; suggested ways in which forest management can be improved through collaboration with stakeholders; identified opportunities for increasing the contribution of forest reserves to local development; and translated some of these into small but ambitious projects. They are also having some influence on national policy and the institutional culture of the FD. Despite their progress, the LFMCs face a range of challenges, which this paper elaborates along with lessons for the development of LFMCs.