• Home
• Site Map
• Foreword
  • Foreword
  • Contributors & Copyright
• Introduction
  • Introduction
  • Methods
  • Sites
    • Why Pando and East Kalimantan?
    • Municipal Governments and Decentralisation in Bolivia
    • Municipal Governments and Decentralisation in Indonesia
• Part I. Concepts
  • Wellbeing and Poverty
    • Poverty is More Than Low Income
    • Poverty is a Lack of Wellbeing
    • Poverty and Wellbeing Have Many Dimensions
    • Further Reading
  • Local Governments and Poverty
    • How can Local Governments Reduce Poverty?
    • Four Steps to Improve Local Governmental Action
    • Further Reading
  • Forests and Poverty
    • How do Forests Influence Poverty?
    • What is Poverty in Forest Communities?
    • Are Forests Safety Nets, Poverty Traps or Escape Routes?
    • Further Reading
• Part II. Tools
  • Monitoring
    • What is monitoring?
    • Types of Monitoring
    • Indicators
    • When to monitor?
    • Who conducts monitoring?
    • Linking monitoring to planning
  • Participatory Planning
    • What is participatory planning?
    • Why is participatory planning useful?
    • When and where is participatory planning done?
    • Who should participate?
  • Tool 1: Interactive Mapping
    • What is interactive mapping?
    • Interactive mapping step-by-step
    • Use interactive mapping for monitoring
  • Tool 2: Wellbeing Monitoring
    • What is a local wellbeing monitoring system?
    • Wellbeing monitoring step-by-step
    • Step 1: Define purpose, develop plan and budget
    • Step 2: Develop local poverty indicators and formulate survey questions
    • Step 3: Design the sampling strategy
    • Step 4: Train staff and perform the survey
    • Step 5: Analyse and present the data
    • Step 6: Present findings
  • Tool 3: Community Evaluation
    • Evaluating local government programmes through community focus groups
    • Steps 1-3
    • Steps 4-6
    • Steps 7-8
    • Community evaluation step-by-step
  • Tool 4: Scenario-based Planning
    • What is scenario-based planning?
    • Scenario-based planning step-by-step
    • Visioning
    • Pathways
• Final Remarks
• Acknowledgements
• Additional Resources
• PDF Version

Often those involved in participatory planning processes are specified by law. For example, in Bolivia, municipal governments are required to consult all of the legally registered communities in their jurisdiction. There is some flexibility for municipalities to determine how the consultation takes place and what types of participation should occur

A local government concerned about responding to the needs of the poor should take steps to ensure that the views of different interest groups from among the poor are included in the consultations. Even where a local government is not required to address the interests of all groups present, it is better to actively seek out the diverse opinions and perceptions present to avoid conflict and ensure support.

When determining who should participate, local government should begin by identifying all the possible interest groups in its jurisdiction. Groups may be defined in different ways, such as by their level of wellbeing or whether they have a particular stake in the decision (e.g. involving parents in decisions related to schools). Other groups may be defined by their identity as men, women, youth, elders, members of a certain community or ethnic group and the like. Still others may be defined by their livelihood or as users of certain forest resources. People in an interest group should have the opportunity to confirm whether they belong to that group, or to join a different one.

For each proposal, the way in which groups are defined may be different. The opinions of certain groups may be given more weight than others because they could suffer the consequences of the proposed actions or reap the benefits of certain outcomes.

It is best to tailor specific strategies to promote participation by each of the groups. Some groups, especially the very poor, may have difficulty travelling to distant meetings. In many cases, representatives need to be invited. However, this may require measures to ensure that they are fairly selected, that they solicit input from other group members and that they report back to ensure accountability. Once a strategy is developed to maximise participation, monitoring of whether or not the plan resulted in the intended levels of participation can indicate whether the strategy needs to be adjusted.

© 2007 Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)
Contributors and copyright information