Participative Approach to Development

The idea of Democracy becomes a reality when people are involved in collective problem-solving. The type of system in which development projects are conceived, planned, executed, operated, and maintained by outsiders, people receive benefits with little or no participation in the actual process of development. The field investigations showed the 'top-down' approach as inefficient as outsourcing development projects needed to address social issues. The limitations were -

    1. Unequal distribution of development benefits among different sections of the population
    2. Increased dependency of people on external resources
    3. Indifference of people towards the facilities created
    4. Heavy spending by the government on the replacement, operation, and maintenance of facilities created
    5. Depletion of natural resources due to over-utilization
    6. Under-utilization of inputs, when unsuitable for use

The studies demonstrated that the problems mentioned above originated mainly from excluding people from the development process and considering them mere beneficiaries.

The late 1980s approach made steps to involve people in the process of development - "the participatory development approach". This suggests that all processes should begin with the people who know most about their life systems. People's own efforts to identify, project, implement, and evaluate projects for their felt needs is what is needed-

  • Development has to be holistic rather than fragmented
  • Qualitative information from people is as valid as quantitative data.
  • Development with and for the people involves a change and relation between the partners and stakeholders, a demand for dialogue and experimentation is seen in this new paradigm.
  • This also works based on respect for people's culture, beliefs & ways of coping with life.

After the Earth Summit of 1992, the development paradigm shifted to integrate local communities as key actors in defining development priorities, and models based on participation, knowledge-sharing, and two-way communication began to emerge steadily.

 

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