Category: Policy & Planning 1

Tool: Participatory Development Planning

Participatory Development Planning

1
Jennifer Rietbergen-McCracken

Tool summary

Similar to participatory policy-making (Tool, F2) participatory development

planning is more of a general approach than a specific ‘tool’. It can be defined on
the basis of a general set of principles, notable amongst which are: a willingness
to involve local people in the development decisions that will affect them; and a
desire to support locally-led development and empowerment as seen in the ‘best
practice’ cases,. Although it can take the form of a one-off exercise, the approach
brings much greater benefits and more sustained impact if it is adopted as part of
a broader commitment to participatory development. In other words, the
participatory planning process should ideally be followed by a participatory
approach for implementing, monitoring and evaluating the development activities.

What is it?

The core aims of participatory development planning are to give people a say in
the development decisions that may affect them and to ensure that development
interventions are appropriate to the needs and preferences of the population that
they are intended to benefit.

Participatory development planning can be undertaken by government agencies

or other development agencies and CSOs at the national, regional, municipal or
community level. Most of the methods and tools are inexpensive and simple to
use and many have been designed for use with or by community members and
do not require literacy.

The types of stakeholders participating in this approach can range from rural or
urban local communities, community-based organizations and other CSOs in the
for local development planning, to larger CSOs, international NGOs, the private
sector, and the academia, in the case of national or even regional development
planning. The level of stakeholder participation varies greatly depending on how
seriously the approach is being taken, and can range from minimal i.e.
involvement only in information-gathering or consultation to more active forms
such as for e.g. in identifying, prioritizing and designing the development
program/activities.

1
Jennifer Rietbergen-McCracken is an independent international researcher and expert on
environment and development
Category: Policy & Planning 2
Tool: Participatory Development Planning

While participatory development planning is generally initiated by the government

or development agency involved, there are also opportunities for CSOs to take
the lead. For example, there are many instances where NGOs have organized
and facilitated participatory action research to help development decision-makers
learn about local needs and preferences in order to plan locally-appropriate
interventions. Other CSO-led approaches that are outlined in the subsequent
sections of this article include: awareness-raising and mobilizing of communities
and citizens to encourage them to get involved in development planning
processes; building the capacity of local-level stakeholders to participate in these
processes; and campaigning for or against particular development interventions.
In the best of instances, long-term working relationships develop between, for
example local government offices and NGOs or development agencies and the
communities in which they work, to enable the planning to benefit from the
knowledge and experience of the different stakeholder groups. These linkages
may take the form of formal partnerships between the parties involved or informal
arrangements based on mutual trust.

There is a vast array of tools available for participatory development planning.

The following list illustrates some of the more commonly used ones:

 Information-sharing tools: News and updates on a participatory planning

process can be transmitted via traditional media such as newspaper, radio,
and television or electronic media such as websites and emails or via
meetings and presentations with the communities in a given geographical
area..
 Consultation tools: Stakeholders who are either interested in or likely to be
affected by the development decisions can be consulted through discussion
forums such as round tables, public hearings, town meetings, community
debates, focus groups, or electronic conferencing, surveys, opinion polls etc.
 Collaborative planning tools: These include: structural mechanisms such as
stakeholder representation on decision-making bodies, establishment of local-
level planning committees, participatory budgeting, or finance schemes to
fund community-managed development; technology-based tools such as
participatory GIS (Geographic Information System) or 3-D modeling; and
process methods like participatory action research and community planning
based on Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) such as community
mapping, priority ranking and wealth ranking.
Category: Policy & Planning 3
Tool: Participatory Development Planning

How is it done?

Since many of tools listed here are described elsewhere in the CIVICUS toolkit,
this section will focus on a generic process to show how a government or
development agency can involve local communities in planning interventions
while also providing information how CSOs can initiate their own activities to
promote participatory development planning. This section will illustrate the use of
‘process’ methods rather than ‘structural’ methods as categorized above.
Readers interested in learning more about the structural methods may for e.g.
refer to example, Barns (2003) or Howard (2002).

Participatory development planning has received a major fillip on account of the

decentralization reforms that seeks to bestow local governments with more
responsibilities and makes them more accountable to their citizens (See for
example Goldman & Abbot -2004, Kang -2002 and Republic of Uganda -2003
which provide good guidance for local governments wishing to undertake
participatory planning).2 Decentralization legislation often sets legal requirements
for citizen participation in local government planning such as for e.g. the Bolivian
Law of Popular Participation. Numerous participatory mechanisms have been
developed to involve citizens in setting the development strategies of the local
government and deciding on resource allocation (see for e.g. Imperial- 2001 and
Bitarabeho- 2008). However, decentralization can also bring challenges to local
planning, particularly if local governments lack the funds or capacity to carry out
their new responsibilities. In such contexts, CSOs can have a major role to play
in supporting sound and participatory development planning by articulating local
needs, mobilizing greater resources, and building the capacity of local
government staff to use participatory methods and approaches.

Methodological steps involved in a government-led participatory development

planning process

In order to make participatory development planning more effective, the

government body or the development agency needs to link the participatory
process and the outcomes of this process to its own planning framework. It is
often difficult to integrate and synchronize these different planning systems,
particularly where different levels of government administration are also involved.
Government-driven participatory processes can adopt either a long or short term
approach. The longer-term approach involves several months of participatory
research, negotiation and debate (see Goldman & Abbot, 2004). An example of
the longer-term approach is provided in the Brazil case study in the last section
of this article.
Category: Policy & Planning 4
Tool: Participatory Development Planning

The short term approach involves community-based planning process spanning

one to two weeks that can be replicated with relative ease using the available
resources of the government body/development agency. Such an approach
involves the following steps:

 Design of an integrated planning system by combining the community-

component with the more conventional planning framework used by the
government/development agency;
 Situational analysis of the area including variables such as poverty levels,
distribution of ethnic groups, presence of CSOs, etc.
 Selection of pilot communities based on the situational analysis to test the
participatory planning methods and introduction of the proposed planning
exercise to the communities through meetings with local leaders and the
community members;
 Training of community-level facilitators and government/development
agency staff in the participatory methods through field-based workshops;
 Planning and implementation of community-level planning by small teams
of trained community members and government/agency staff working in
each community. These may include participatory methods such as
visioning, ranking, livelihoods analysis, etc.;
 Feedback to communities of the outcomes of the planning processes and
how these will be taken forward by the government/agency involved;
 Analysis of outcomes of all the community-level planning exercises and
identification of key issues;
 Participatory workshop(s) or task forces involving community
representatives and government/agency staff and decision-makers to
draw up development plans based on the outcomes of the community-
level planning plus other sources of information like secondary data,
market surveys, capacity assessments etc.;
 Presentation workshops to highlight the process and outcomes to the
decision-makers of the government body/development agency and other
external stakeholders like partners, donors, etc.; and
 Development of follow-up actions including plans for monitoring and
evaluation of the implementation process using similar participatory
techniques.
Category: Policy & Planning 5
Tool: Participatory Development Planning

CSO-led tools to support participatory planning

CSOs can help promote and facilitate participatory planning in many ways such
as for e.g.:
 Campaigns: CSOs can organize campaigns to influence development
planning by actively supporting certain initiatives like for e.g. the provision of
basic services to poor communities or demanding the withdrawal or revision
of other inappropriately planned initiatives.

 Mobilizing communities: CSOs can play a key role in mobilizing communities

and citizens to encourage them to get involved in development planning
processes. This could include for example in raising the awareness of local
people about particular development issues and building their capacity to
seek outside action as well as taking their own actions to address the
pertinent issues (see for example PACT Tanzania -2006, International
HIV/AIDS Alliance - 2006 and Kang -2002).

Benefits

The benefits of participatory development planning include (adapted from

CIFOR -2007 and IDS Resources):

 Strengthened voice: Participatory planning processes can give people,

particularly the poor and marginalized sectors of the population, more voice
and influence over development decisions;

 Better informed plans: By consulting those whose needs the plans are meant
to fulfill, the resultant development interventions are more likely to be relevant
and appropriate to those needs;

 Strengthened capacity of citizens: Through their involvement in participatory

planning activities, local people and CSOs can learn more about the decision-
making processes of government bodies and can acquire valuable skills for
identifying, analyzing and prioritizing development issues, and for articulating
their needs and concerns to the relevant authorities;

 Strengthened capacity of governments: Government staff involved in

participatory development planning can not only learn about the use of
participatory methods and approaches but can also benefit from a ‘reality-
check’ by seeing for themselves the conditions of the local people and the
relevance of existing or planned development interventions;
Category: Policy & Planning 6
Tool: Participatory Development Planning

 Better understanding: By working together, different stakeholder groups can

develop mutual understanding and trust among themselves and can learn
how to collaborate on any follow-up activities and any future joint initiatives;

 Enhanced transparency and accountability: Participatory planning processes

open up the operations of government and development agencies to public
scrutiny and help set up mechanisms whereby these agencies are held
accountable for the implementation of the plans; and

 Strengthened democracy: Participatory development planning can create

processes that are more democratic and equitable, enabling the citizens to
share decision-making power with their locally elected representatives and
other external agencies.

Challenges and lessons

The challenges and risks associated with participatory development planning

include:

 Time and money: The participatory techniques themselves are as such

inexpensive to use. However, the overall planning process can require a
considerable staff time and resources on the part of the government or
development agency, especially if it involves extensive preparatory activities
like information campaigns and training of facilitators, and the convening of
large multi-stakeholder meetings. For local stakeholders, their participation
can have significant costs in terms of their time and effort, particularly if they
need to forego any wages or sacrifice time spent on subsistence activities.

 Resistance and manipulation: Some groups or individuals involved in the

participatory planning process may find it difficult to accept the collaborative
decision-making approach. For example the government decision-makers
may feel threatened that their responsibilities and power are being
undermined and may become obstacles to the process (see Co et al. -2004).
Other stakeholders may try and manipulate the process to push their own
agendas.

 Bypassing existing planning structures: If participatory approaches are not

carefully integrated into formal planning frameworks, they can undermine
these existing structures thereby risking conflict and a poor receptivity of the
outputs of the participatory planning on the part of public authorities.
Category: Policy & Planning 7
Tool: Participatory Development Planning

 Scaling–up risks: The success of participatory approaches relies on their

adaptability to different situations. Therefore, when governments or
development agencies attempt to replicate and standardize the use of such
approaches on a large scale, there is a risk that the participatory element will
become negligible or even meaningless.

 Tips for effective participatory development:

o Involve decision-makers from the start: This is essential to foster a sense

of ownership for the outcomes of the participatory planning process, and
will also help in enabling these key stakeholders to learn the value of
involving local people in decision-making;
o Plan for micro-macro linkages: Before starting a participatory planning
process, thought needs to be given as to how it will link with the larger-
level planning processes of the government or the concerned
development agency;
o Provide extra support to marginalized groups: Special efforts need to be
made to enable disadvantaged groups to participate in the planning
process. These efforts may include for example: arranging special focus
group meetings with different social groups; employing female facilitators
to work with women’s groups; providing transport for poorer groups to
attend meetings outside the community; and compensating day labourers
for wages lost due to their participation in planning sessions. At the same
time, it should be borne in mind that participation is not obligatory.
Everyone should have the right to participate but not everyone may have
the time or interest to do so;
o Respect differences of opinion: Different stakeholders will have different,
and sometimes conflicting, values and interests and it will be impossible to
satisfy all the needs expressed. Rather than seeking an artificial or forced
consensus, it is important to strengthen the capacity of weaker groups to
articulate their needs and concerns. An excellent guide on participatory
methods for analyzing and managing power relationships in multi-
stakeholder groups is provided by Sithole (2002) and Mayers (2005).
o Follow-up with local stakeholders: One of the most common complaints of
communities involved in participatory planning processes is the failure of
those organizing such activities to report back on the outcomes of the
process. The commitment to inform the communities should be followed
up as soon as possible after the conclusion of community-based activities.
Category: Policy & Planning 8
Tool: Participatory Development Planning

Key resources

Barns, J. (2003). Engaged governance: an overview of the Philippines

experience. Paper prepared for the Interregional Workshop on Engaged
Governance, Colombo, Sri Lanka, December 9-11, 2003.
http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/UN/UNPAN014414.pdf
 This is a paper that looks at the provisions for citizen participation in local
planning in the Philippines, through Local Development Councils and
other bodies.

Bitarabeho, J. (2008). The Experience of Uganda – Local Government’s Role as

a Partner in the Decentralization Process to Strengthen Local Development.
Local Government Finance Commission, Uganda. Paper Presented to the
Conference on Access to Development Funding for Local Governments in Africa,
Johannesburg, 15 – 17 September 2008.
http://www.lgfc.go.ug/uploaded_files/1221550727A%20Paper%20on%20the%20
Experience%20of%20Decentralisation%20in%20Uganda.pdf
 This paper outlines how decentralization in Uganda has been
accompanied by measures to ensure participatory planning.

CIFOR. (2007). Towards Wellbeing in Forest Communities: A sourcebook for

local government. CIFOR, Bogor.
http://www.cifor.cgiar.org/publications/pdf_files/Books/BAlbornoz0701.pdf
A practical guide that includes a section on participatory planning and
monitoring, with tools such as interactive mapping and scenario-based planning.

Co, E., Velasco-Fabonan, J., Nishimori, J.P. (2004). Some experiences from the
Philippines in urban community development planning. In PLA Notes 49, April
2004. IIED, London.
http://www.planotes.org/documents/plan_04910.pdf
 This article outlines three pilot participatory urban planning activities in the
Philippines, led by a national NGO and closely involving local government
officials.

Eldis (no date) Resource guide on participation.

http://www.eldis.org/go/topics/resource-guides/participation
 A web portal with a huge content of participation-related material,
including manuals, case studies and links to other resources, many of
which are of direct relevance to participatory development planning.

FAO (no date). ‘Participation’ website.

Category: Policy & Planning 9
Tool: Participatory Development Planning

http://www.fao.org/Participation/ft_find.jsp
 This site is a ‘one-stop shop’ for information on participatory approaches.
It includes a searchable library covering a wide range of issues and
numerous case studies, and a comprehensive section on participatory
approaches and tools, in both English and French (type ‘planning’ in the
search box to access those tools most relevant to participatory
development planning). It also includes databases on organizations and
other websites for further information.

Florisbelo, G. R., and Guijt, I. (2004). Municipal rural development plans in Brazil:
working within the politics of participation. In PLA Notes 49, April 2004. IIED,
London.
http://www.planotes.org/documents/plan_04912.pdf
 This article describes how a Brazilian NGO has developed a participatory
process for elaborating municipal rural development plans and overseeing
their implementation.

Goldman, I. and Abbot, J. (2004). Decentralization and Participatory Planning. In

PLA Notes 49, April 2004.
http://www.planotes.org/documents/plan_04901.pdf
 An overview article for this issue of PLA Notes (an informal journal on
participatory techniques and approaches) that focuses on community-
based planning linked to government planning systems.

Halkatti, M., Purushothaman, S. and Brook, R. (2003). Participatory action

planning in the peri-urban interface: the twin city experience, Hubli–Dharwad,
India. In Environment and Urbanization 15: 149. Sage Publications and IIED,
London.
http://km.fao.org/uploads/media/Participatory_actionplanning_in_the_periurban_i
nternface_twincity_experience_Hubli_Dharwad_India.pdf
 This paper describes a participatory planning project in five peri-urban
areas, managed by an agricultural university and its NGO and community-
based organization partners.
Category: Policy & Planning 10
Tool: Participatory Development Planning

Hardcastle, J., Rambaldi, G., Long, B., Lanh, L.V., and Son, D.Q. (2004). The
use of participatory three-dimensional modelling in community-based planning in
Quang Nam province, Vietnam. In PLA Notes 49, April 2004. IIED, London.
http://library.wur.nl/wda/dissertations/dis3970.pdf
 This report is a description of the project in Quang Nam Province that
used Participatory Land Use Planning methodology

Howard, J. (2002). [Original title unknown] MPhil Thesis, IDS, Sussex.

http://www2.ids.ac.uk/logolink/resources/downloads/PPcase_studies/Nicaragua-
Esteli1.doc
 An extract of this thesis is provided in the IDS Logolink site (see below)t
as an example of participatory planning. The brief extract outlines the legal
provisions for citizen participation in municipal planning in Nicaragua.

IAPAD (no date). Participatory Three-Dimensional Modelling.

http://www.iapad.org/participatory_p3dm.htm
 This website discusses the rationale and applications of 3-D modeling and
includes numerous case studies and tips and advice on how to use this
tool.

IDS (no date). Participatory Planning Topic Pack. Logolink: Learning Initiative on
Citizen Participation and Local Governance.
http://www2.ids.ac.uk/logolink/resources/topicpack.htm
 Logolink is a web portal representing a global network of practitioners from
CSOs, research institutes and governments that encourages field-based
learning on citizen participation in local governance. The ‘resources’
section of the site includes a ‘participatory planning topic pack’ that is the
reference cited here.

IIED (2004). PLA Notes 49, April 2004.

http://www.planotes.org/pla_backissues/49.html
 This issue of PLA Notes focuses on decentralization and community-
based planning, with case studies of PLA work from Africa, Asia and Latin
America.
Category: Policy & Planning 11
Tool: Participatory Development Planning

Imperial, D. (2001). Introducing participatory planning practices with local

governments: A Philippines case study. In Decentralized Rural Development and
the Role of Self Help Organizations. RAP Publication 1999/33. FAO Regional
Office for Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok.
http://www.fao.org/docrep/004/ac158e/ac158e0f.htm
 A case study of the provisions for participatory planning in the Local
Government Code of the Philippines.

International HIV/AIDS Alliance (2006). All Together Now: Community

moblisation for HIV/AIDS. International HIV/AIDS Alliance, Brighton.
http://synkronweb.aidsalliance.org/graphics/secretariat/publications/All_Together
_Now.pdf
 This manual offers practical advice for those involved in mobilizing
communities. Together with the companion volume ‘Tools together now!
100 participatory tools to mobilise communities for HIV/AIDS’, the manual
outlines 100 tools that will be of relevance to anyone involved in
community mobilization for participatory planning, in any development
field.

Kang, S.S. (2002). Decentralisation: The Kerala Experience. With special

reference to tourism development. Paper presented at the international
colloquium on regional governance and sustainable development in tourism-
driven economies. Cancun, Mexico, 20-22 February, 2002.
http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/un/unpan002906.pdf
 A detailed paper outlining the decentralization process in Kerala, which
has been hailed as one of the more successful examples of how
decentralization can support – and be supported by – participatory
development planning.

Mayers, J. (2005). Stakeholder Power Analysis. IIED, London.

http://www.policy-
powertools.org/Tools/Understanding/docs/stakeholder_power_tool_english.pdf
 A practical guide to a six-step process tool to identify and assess
stakeholders’ interests, interactions and power relations in the context of
development work.
Category: Policy & Planning 12
Tool: Participatory Development Planning

PACT Tanzania (2006). Community Mobilisation Manual. Advocacy Experts

Series. PACT Tanzania, Dar es Salaam.
http://www.pactworld.org/galleries/resource-
center/community_mobilisation_manual.pdf
 A guidebook for NGOs on how to go about mobilizing communities for
action on development issues. The manual includes step-by-step
guidance on participatory methods that are relevant to those involved in
mobilizing community-driven planning.

Rambaldi, G., Chambers, R., McCall, M. and Fox, J. (2006). Practical ethics for
PGIS practitioners, facilitators, technology intermediaries and researchers. PLA
Notes 54, April 2006. IIED, London.
http://www.iapad.org/publications/ppgis/ch14_rambaldi_pp106-113.pdf
 A review of the ethics of using participatory GIS (in terms of visualizing
place-specific local knowledge and making it available in the public
domain) and a practical guide to good practice.

Rambaldi, G., McCall, M., Weiner, D., Mbile, P. and Kyem, P. (2004).
Participatory GIS.
http://www.iapad.org/participatory_gis.htm#PGIS
 This web-page gives an outline of the development and uses of
participatory GIS and provides links to related tools.

Republic of Uganda (2003). Harmonised Participatory Planning Guide for

Parishes/Wards. Ministry of Local Government.
http://www.khanya-aicdd.org/publications/CBP_Parish_HPPG_0307.pdf/
 A practical guide for local government on participatory planning, following
an eight-step process.

Sithole, B. (2002). Where the Power Lies: Multiple Stakeholder Politics over
Natural Resources: a participatory methods guide. CIFOR, Bogor, Indonesia.
http://www.cifor.cgiar.org/publications/pdf_files/Books/where.pdf
 An excellent guide to recognizing, analyzing and managing ‘micro-politics’
within communities and multi-stakeholder groups.

USAID (no date). Development Resource Management Portal.

http://rmportal.net/tools/social-context-of-biodiversity-conservation-tools/themes-
partres
 A web portal that includes resources (case studies, manuals, etc.) on
participatory planning. While the focus is on conservation, most of the
material is equally applicable to a development context.
Category: Policy & Planning 13
Tool: Participatory Development Planning

World Bank (1996). The World Bank Participation Sourcebook. World Bank,
Washington, D.C.
http://www.worldbank.org/wbi/sourcebook/sbhome.htm
 A compendium of case studies and how-to guidance that was originally
written for World Bank staff though many of the resources are relevant to
a wider audience. A section on participatory planning includes advice on
identifying and involving stakeholders.
Category: Policy & Planning 14
Tool: Participatory Development Planning

Case Studies

Rural community and sub-district-level planning in Indonesia

The Indonesian government launched the Kecamatan (Sub-district) Development

Program (KDP) in 1998 as a response to a severe economic crisis. The aim of
the program which ended in 2008 has been to alleviate poverty and improve
local-level governance by: providing poor communities with the financial and
organizational resources to decide how to improve their livelihoods; build
appropriate infrastructure; provide health care and education services; and build
effective local government and community institutions. The World Bank-funded
program provided flexible grants, ranging from US$50,000 to US$150,000 per
sub-district which were channeled straight to the communities to finance activities
that villagers defined as the most important. In addition, the program set aside
funds for the thousands of participating villages specifically for participatory
planning at the sub-village, village and sub-district levels.

Villagers elected facilitators, a man and a woman, who assisted with the
socialization and planning process. The facilitators held group meetings,
including separate women’s meetings to discuss the needs of the village and
their development priorities. Social and technical consultants were available to
help with the socialization, planning and implementation processes. For the sub-
district level planning, an inter-village forum composed of elected village
representatives made the final decisions on project funding based on proposals
that came from the communities. KDP community forums then selected members
to be part of an implementation team to manage the projects, assisted by
technical facilitators provided by the program. While the KDP suffered from
numerous shortcomings, it is nonetheless an impressive example of allowing
ordinary citizens to plan and fund what development they want to see in their
communities.

For more information on this case, visit: http://go.worldbank.org/UFC7JTGER0

Municipal rural development planning in Brazil

The Centre for Alternative Technologies (CTA), a Brazilian NGO, has devised a
participatory process to develop municipal rural development plans (MRDP) in
three municipalities as a means to support pro-poor local development. The
process started in all three municipalities with an elaborate three-phase PRA that
included:
Category: Policy & Planning 15
Tool: Participatory Development Planning

 A mobilization phase that involved contacting communities and

negotiations and networking between partners to agree on the guiding
principles for the local development process and each partner’s role;
 A community planning phase that involved a series of group meetings and
family interviews in every community and an initial analysis of the key
issues emerging; and
 A final stage that included providing feedback to the communities,
deepening the analysis of the issues identified by the communities, and the
identification and prioritization of proposals to address some of these
issues.

The PRAs lasted several months and concluded with the process and results
being documented in a MRDP that then became the official agreement between
civil society organizations and the municipal council. In order to ensure
implementation of the plan, CTA and its partners established a municipal council
for rural development (MCRD), making use of the national legislation that
encouraged such bodies. The council is responsible for implementing the plan
and also provides a forum where the municipal policies and proposals for rural
investment are discussed. The council is composed of representatives from the
town council, agricultural/forestry extension and research services, CTA, rural
workers’ unions, women’s groups and smallholder cooperatives. Following
national guidelines, at least 50% of MCRD members represent smallholder
agriculture.

For more information on this case, see Florisbelo, G.R. and Guijt, I. (2004).

Peri-urban community-level planning in India

In 2001, an agricultural university in the Hubli–Dharwad twin city region of India

partnered with international and local NGOs as well as community-based
organizations to run a one-year participatory action planning project (PAPP). This
project operated in five peri-urban villages that were selected based on their
potential to show how trends in peri-urban areas could affect natural resources
and local livelihoods. Factors such as proximity to the city, presence of immigrant
populations, and incidence of alcoholism, gambling and other urban influences,
were taken into account. The early stages of the participatory planning process
involved initial rapport-building activities with the communities using methods like
using street plays and then PRA exercises, including group discussions with
various sections of the communities to facilitate a village-based analysis of the
problems faced by different groups and the identification of community
representatives to participate in all future events. A diagnostic workshop was
then held where the community representatives presented the findings of their
Category: Policy & Planning 16
Tool: Participatory Development Planning

analyses and community, government and NGO representatives collaboratively

identified possible solutions. Finally, village representatives designed and
presented their own action plans and logical frameworks viz. the format of the
action plans, in their communities.

For more information on this case, see Halkatti et al. (2003).