Resources: participatory approaches

The World Bank Participation Sourcebook

World Bank, 1996, The World Bank Participation Sourcebook, published by World Bank

This is a very useful resource that reflects on the issue of participatory development using numerous practical examples of development programs implemented worldwide with support from the World Bank. Because of its structure, the guide not only introduces a number of important factors influencing development in practice, but it also highlights the importance of knowing and adapting to the context into consideration in order for development assistance to be effective. The guide is divided into four chapters, which discuss participation from a very practical point of view, one appendix that presents the strengths and weaknesses of various methods and tools to facilitate participation, and a series of background papers on the issue.

Chapter One presents a reflection on the meaning of participation, showing its importance to actually reach the poor with development interventions. It is interesting to note that the authors of the guide do not just focus on popular participation, that is, participation of poor and disadvantaged people, but also on the fact that all the relevant stakeholders need to be directly involved, including borrowers, indirectly affected groups and the Bank itself.

Chapter Two is more practically focused and introduces context specific examples of participatory strategies.

Chapter Three is a step-by-step guide through participation planning and decision-making, and it starts by recognising the importance of obtaining government support. In fact, the Bank and country governments must have the same objectives in order to keep their partnership together. Collaboration should be established both with directly and indirectly affected stakeholders, which local social scientists, academics, NGO and government officials can help identify. Disseminating information is the first step to take to enable interested people to participate. Building trust comes next and to do so it could be useful to work with intermediaries who have an already established relationship of trust with beneficiaries, to share information, interact, work with the community to build its capacity, to involve the opposition and to create a learning mood among participants.

Finally, Chapter Four introduces a discussion on how to create an enabling environment for participants, in order to overcome obstacles limiting their participation and strengthen their ability to act for themselves. Providing incentives for people to participate, learning from beneficiaries what poverty means for them and what their priorities are is essential to achieve this.

© 2009 People and Development.