Interesting question

Alan:

Interesting and necessary question…

To start with, one needs to have an in-depth knowledge and understanding of the complexity of local issues to be able to engage in local decision making process. Issues bordering on poverty and livelihoods are crucial to local people. However in attempting to reach decisions that address these issues, we should be mindful of the fact that local people have their preferences and that individual tastes, cultures, value systems, beliefs and practices may differ. It is therefore essential to understand all these before engaging in the local decision making process.

To promote the involvement of people in local decision making process, there is the need to, first of all, bring these complex local issues to the people through publications, seminars, newsletters, radio and television programmes, social platforms etc. The issues should be packaged such that people will fully understand and appreciate the reality on the ground, and in a way that they can directly relate to the issues. Dissemination of information on success stories of past interventions and how this has change the lives of the target beneficiaries, may also help.

Ayivor:

Thanks for your reply! I agree with everything. But, actually, I seek for methodologies that can assist me in analyzing this confused issue. I seek for theories like Sherry R. Arnstein, "the Ladder of Citizen Participation" (1969), which ranks eight types of participation and the feature in the form of a ladder, where each step corresponds to the level of citizen power in deciding about the results, as in the illustration below.

I think you have to use Participatory Action Research methodology or PAR for increasing people's participation in decision-making in communities. However, there is always a need for facilitators to know how the method and techniques are applied. Meanwhile, there should be an emphasis on the history of participation in that community. It means that when there is a background and a history of participation, then community members will better participate (mostly it returns to their perception of participation, group identity and community understanding). Trust building is important too. Meanwhile, there should be institutions, local institutions. The ladder of Citizen Participation can help you as a series of steps for understanding the process of participation.

Neshat:

It is perfect! Thanks!

In the 1960s, partly in response to the riots in U.S. low income urban areas, the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity and Public Health Service established a grand health care experiment by funding hundreds of comprehensive primary care centers, called neighborhood health centers, located in the hearts of urban ghettos from coast to coast. These centers were required to provide comprehensive primary medical care, including prevention, train local citizens to work in the centers, and turn over administrative control of the centers to a duly elected local citizen board of directors. This was a grand experiment, no question.

I was very fortunate to have been able to study more than 30 of the neighborhood health centers, focusing on the citizen participation component. I and my colleagues published the findings through several articles. In short, we found that the centers were very successful in breaking the cycle of poverty, building a sense of community pride among the residents served, and in cutting health care costs to boot.

Hessler:

Could you provide a link of the results about the cycle of poverty? I looked at your page and didn't find them. Thank you so much for the information.

From the field of bMaybe also the approach and information collected at the Community Tool Box (CTB) might be of interest. It was created to help people build healthier communities and bring about the changes they envision. The CBT is a public service of the University of Kansas. Find more info here: http://ctb.dept.ku.edu/en/about

See also the papers by Francisco et al. http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023%2FA%3A1010339032238?LI=true - Fawcett et al. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1308726/ - and Schultz et al. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J017v17n02_06#.Uzv1GRAep5o

http://ctb.dept.ku.edu/en/

Bartke:

Thank you so much for the information and for your help! Of course, this data will be very valuable for my research.

Andrea, I hope this helps: http://www.solutionexchange-un.net/repository/af/mun/cr1-eng-07012013.pdf

Haidari:

Thank you for your reply !

Hello Andrea - there is a lot of writing about community participation, co-design and co-production. Let me know if you want some specific references.

Good luck

Helen

Hi, Helen!

Recently and for a long time, I've been involved with research on 'society's participation in urban decision.'

For me, effective participation and direct participation of society in  decision urban in favor of sustainable development is fantastic and deserves further study.

If you have something on this subject, I would be very happy to meet.

Thank you for your attention!

Dear Andrea,

One of the methods exercised nowadays in Poland is particiapatory budget, when people directly decide what kind of investments in community they really need. I agree with you that this is fantastic. Good luck with your study!

Best regards,

Mariusz

Hello Andrea,  Here is one reference - a scoping review written by a local research team in Australia. This is a very good overview of the literature:

 Kenny, A., N. Hyett, J. Sawtell, V. Dickson-Swift, J. Farmer and P. O'Meara (2013). "Community participation in rural health: a scoping review." BMC Health Services Research 13(1): 64.

Good luck

Helen

Mariusz:

Undoubtedly, the use of participatory budgeting has provided great advances worldwide.

Thank you for your support!

Helen:

Thank you for the reference literature. I'm sure I will be very enlightening to read.

Recent works are always very helpful, as they bring a vision of our real present.

Good luck to all!

Dear Andrea,

It is likely that you already know some data about my region.

Participative master plan in the city of São Paulo

http://www.prefeitura.sp.gov.br/cidade/secretarias/desenvolvimento_urbano/legislacao/plano_diretor/index.php?p=146180

Guide for preparation of the participative plan (Instituto Polis – SP):

http://polis.org.br/wp-content/uploads/Plano-Diretor-Participativo-1.pdf

Participatory budget in ABC Paulista (Instituto Polis – SP):

http://www.polis.org.br/uploads/989/989.pdf

Participative master plan - case of Santo André – SP (FGV):

http://ceapg.fgv.br/sites/ceapg.fgv.br/files/file/Cadernos/Cad46.pdf

Best Regards,

Vanessa

Dear Friends from Sao Paulo, tell me if I am wrong: Is the participatory budget an idea that was invented originally in Brasil?    

Dear Swora:

Yes, the 'participatory budgeting' is a Brazilian idea, first deployed in southern Brazil, in Porto Alegre, which spread to the rest of the world.

Thank you for your participation!

Dear Vanessa::

Thank you for your participation, it is always valuable!

Thanks for the idea, If ou have similar good ones please share it without a delay:-) Alhough there are some obstacles participatory budgeting starts to be more and more popular in Poland.

Thanks RG friends, for your insightful, informative, posts.

The main focus of low rate of development found are; top down approach non involvement of beneficiaries and other stakeholders in the process of problem identification and prioritization, less focus on identification of local resources and their exploitation for the development of local areas, non involvement of beneficiaries and stakeholders in scheme formulation and implementation, communication gap, ignorance of local conditions like social, cultural, physical technical, economical,

environmental, traditions, habits, incompetence of planners, lock of availability of scientific models of rural development.

http://persmin.gov.in/otraining/UNDPProject/undp_modules/ParticipatoryAdmn%20N%20DLM.pdf