MED-004: Towards Participatory Management Assignment

Course Code: MED-004

Assignment Code: Asst/TMA/2023
Marks: 50
Section I

1. What is the meaning of participatory management? Discuss the phenomenon of transition

from the conventional to participatory approaches of management.

2. Explain the concept of community organization and its features and functions.

3. Why is change more successful in organizational set up of NGO, as compared to the private
sector?

4. Give your views on participatory forest management and its importance in sustainable
development and management.

5. Define coastal zone and its characteristics. Also make a map highlighting the coastal lines of
India.

Section II

6. Describe good governance and its characteristics.

7. Explain the main objectives of Orangi Pilot Project (OPP) and its impact on sanitation and
health.

8. Elaborate upon the key gender issues that need to be addressed while formulating a

policy for women.

9. Discuss the important activities of two important projects of South Asia Co-operative

Environment Programme (SACEP).

10. “Sustainable Development of Hindu Kush region will support the people of all the eight
countries of the mountain area”. Elucidate.
1. What is the meaning of participatory management? Discuss the phenomenon of transition
from the conventional to participatory approaches of management.

Participatory Management:

Participation of all the stakeholders throughout the project cycle from the visualisation and
planning to the implementation and final evaluation exercising influence over the decisions that
affect the organisation, project or any development activity can be defined as Participatory
Management.

Participatory management can improve the effectiveness and capacity of an organisation

involved in the development management thus contributing to good leadership by the
management. It also contributes to an increased transparency in organisational decision making
and implementation of the project activities.

Participatory Development enables people to address the local issues by forming into
associations. Through this they will be able to plan and act on their own behalf, encourage trust
and self-awareness and enable independence and self-sufficiency. Social organisation is a
process of organising the community in-groups to achieve any collective objective or to fulfill the
community needs. Community mobilisation is a process of mobilising the community for
participation in the social, human and community development process.

Transition from the conventional to participatory approaches of management:

The 1980s and 1990s have seen a gradually growing criticism on the development models and
strategies, which were followed for the past three decades with only minor adjustments. The
conventional models and strategies have seen development primarily as a series of technical
transfers aimed at boosting production and generating wealth.

In practice, conventional development projects usually target medium to large-scale progressive

producers, supporting them with technology, credit and extension advice in the hope that
improvements will gradually extend to more "backward" strata of rural society. In many cases,
however, the channeling of development assistance to the better off has led to the concentration
of land and capital, marginalisation of small farmers and alarming growth in the number of land-
less labourers, which is simply widening the gap between the rich and the poor.

The basic fault in the conventional approaches of development is that the rural poor and other
marginalised groups of society are rarely consulted and involved in the development planning
and usually have no active role in the implementation and monitoring and evaluation of the
development activities. Isolated, illiterate or under-educated and often dependent on rural elite,
they lack the means to win greater access to resources and markets, and to prevent the
imposition of unworkable programmes or technologies.

2. Explain the concept of community organization and its features and functions.

Local institutions formed to decide, plan, implement and manage activities in the light of the
principles formulated for the comprehensive community development are called Local
Community Organisation. These institutions may be a mass coalition of village, or an interest
group, or a group of like-minded people for the promotion of the groups' interest in the principles
of co-operation and democracy.

Salient Features of Community Organisation

• The members of local organisation should have a clear-cut understanding about the concept
of self-help and self-reliance through community development and its own duties and
responsibilities within a community organisation.
• The members of a community organisation should have collective and participatory approach
towards the solution of their common, social problems.
• They must believe that "all are for one and one is for all" and should have a sense of "we"
feeling and collective belonging.
• The community organisation should try to promote the common interest of its members and
facilitate them in the attachment of their needs. Minority benefits should be considered minor
and secondary factors by community organisations.
• Fortnightly/monthly meetings and savings should be a regular business of the community
organization.
• Community organisation should have spirit of self-management, self-help and self-reliance.
• The community organisation should try to obtain maximum benefits from the package offered
by development agencies.
• The community organisations should be free of all political and sectarian issues and its sole
objective should 'be the promotion of socio-economic interest of its members.
• The office bearers should be devoted, sincere and dedicated leaders and willing to develop
their communities.
• It should establish links with other institutions and agencies for the comprehensive village
development.

Functions and responsibilities of the local organisations:

♫ Promote local economic activity, which would lead to higher income;

♫ Take-up social projects in order to create harmony and mutual understanding among the
people;
♫ Mobilise savings to provide credit to the community members;
♫ Arrange reclamation and development of land and irrigation facilities and other productive
physical infrastructures and their regular maintenance;
 ♫ Identify productive projects and prioritise them according to the need;
♫ Supply agriculture inputs and other requisites of the community;
♫ Arrange the marketing of agricultural produce and handicraft products;
♫ Arrange veterinary and plant protection services and facilities in the village;
♫ Arrange and participate in the up-grading of-human skill training programme;
♫ Participate in the management of local affairs, settlement of dispute and petty affairs in
the village;
♫ Establish projects like poultry, livestock, dairy, agro-processing industries etc, and
encourage similar projects among members;
♫ Sponsor and supervise schemes of primary health with special emphasis on sanitation,
conservation, and cleanliness of environment and potable drinking water.
♫ Encourage primary education and adult literacy; Co-ordinate and co-operate with other
departments and organisations for their activities;
♫ Fix credit limit for members in accordance with equity and social justice; Examine the
accounts, sanction loans to members, supervise their end-use. And effect recoveries;
♫ Sanction contingent expenditures;
♫ Decide the tenus find conditions on which deposits are to be received and arrange for the
payment for return of deposits;
♫ Acquire and construct buildings or carry out works necessary or conducive to the proper
functioning of the council; and
♫ Any other function likely to promote the welfare and economic betterment of the village
community.

4. Give your views on participatory forest management and its importance in sustainable
development and management.

Throughout the world, a large number of forestry activities (national, multilateral, bilateral and
non-governmental) with participatory, local and community forestry components are being
implemented. Although much remains to be done, it is increasingly recognized that participatory
approaches are essential to sustainable forest management.
The below table shows advantages and disadvantages of various types of forestry:

India's experiences indicate that community forest protection can be highly effective in
regenerating degraded natural forest. Government planners in many developing nations
increasingly recognize the need, to devolve management downward from forest agencies to
local communities. More interaction among planner's, forest administrators and rural
communities will provide learning ground, which would accelerate change towards sustainable
growth and development. Sustaining well-being of people in developing countries, particularly in
the tropics, can be achieved by bringing people back into the equation and promote community
involvement in forest management, through collaborative, strategic and applied research and
through the transfer and adoption of appropriate new technologies and social systems for
national development. Helping local communities and small farmers gain their rightful share of
forest resources, while increasing the production and value of forest products, can help to
conserve forests and improve the livelihoods of people, especially in the tropics.

Thus, it can be clearly understood how participatory forest management yields effective results
in ecological conservation and in curbing deforestation.

6. Describe good governance and its characteristics.

In the 1990s, the World Bank became the first international institution to adopt the concept of
good governance into lending arrangements for developing countries and introduce the idea to
the general public. In its 1992 report entitled “Governance and Development”, the notion of good
governance was written as the way in which power is used to regulate the economic and social
resources of a country for development.

Definition of good governance

Good governance is the process of measuring how public institutions conduct public affairs and
manage public resources and guarantee the realization of human rights in a manner essentially
free of abuse and corruption and with due regard for the rule of law.

Good governance aims to minimise corruption, take into account the opinions of minorities, listen
to the voices of the oppressed people in the decision-making process, and respond actively to
the needs of the community now and in the future.
Characteristics of good governance

Citing from the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific
(UNESCAP), the concept of good governance has eight Characteristics:

1. Participation

Participation in the concept of good governance here is an opportunity for everyone to voice
their opinions through institutions or representations.

2. Rule of law

To implement good governance, the legal framework in the country must be enforced impartially,
especially concerning human rights law.

3. Transparency

There must be a guarantee that any information related to every policy taken and implemented
by the government can be accessed by everyone, especially those who are directly affected by
the policy.

4. Responsiveness

Good governance needs institutions and processes to attempt to serve all stakeholders within a
reasonable time.
5. Consensus oriented

When the decision-making process cannot accommodate everyone’s wishes, then at a

minimum, the decision must be a decision that can be accepted by everyone and does not harm
anyone.

6. Equity and inclusiveness

Good governance ensures justice for the community. Everyone has the same opportunity to
maintain and improve their welfare.

7. Effectiveness and efficiency

Every decision-making process and its institutions must be able to produce decisions that meet
every community need. Community resources must also be utilised optimally by the government.

8. Accountability

All institutions involved in good governance have full responsibility to the public for the sake of
improving the quality of society.

8. Elaborate upon the key gender issues that need to be addressed while formulating a

policy for women.

Institutions need to mainstream gender-awareness and participatory approaches into their own
work to ensure that development is truly equitable. Combining gender awareness and
participatory approaches can be used to unlock men and women's voices for gender
redistributive change and gender-sensitive programme and policy development.

Key gender issues that need to be addressed in our system which hinder the participation of
women is the development process:

a) Women remain largely absent at all levels of policy formulation and decision-making in natural
resource and environmental management, conservation, protection and rehabilitation; their
experience and skills in .advocacy for and monitoring of proper natural resource management
too often remains marginalised in policy-making arid decision-making bodies, as well as in
educational institutions and environment-related agencies at the managerial level.
b) Women are rarely trained as professional natural resource managers with policy-making
capacities, such as land-use planners, agriculturalists, foresters, marine scientists and
environmental lawyers. Even in cases where women are trained as professional natural
resource managers, they are often underrepresented in formal institutions with policy-making
capacities at the national, regional and international levels.

c) Women are not equal participants in the management of financial and corporate institutions
whose decision-making greatly affects environmental quality.

d) Furthermore, there are institutional weaknesses in coordination between women's non-

governmental organisations and national institutions dealing with environmental issues, despite
the recent rapid growth and visibility of women's non-governmental organisations working on
these issues at all levels.

Strengthening the Role of Women:

Women's participation in sustainable development and information to support this goal was a
critical element of Chapter 24 of Agenda 21 with governments being called upon to take steps
in a range of areas including (but not limited to)

a) increasing the number and proportion of women involved in decision making for sustainable
development,

b) strengthening of government institutions such as women's bureaus and other mechanisms

that systematically bring a gender perspective to government policy making,

c) strengthening NGO capacity, and

d) strengthening gender sensitive approaches to research, data collection and dissemination.

There is a shift towards the issues of gender equity over the years. Due to changes in the
organisational and institutional mechanisms, there is a reshaping of woman's role. There is a
cautious convergence of gender arid participation at all the levels i.e. from grass root level to the
formulation of policy. Many international and national organisations are focusing on women and
environment and development.