Note No. 25 February 1996 Reflections from the Participation Sourcebook* Participation is a rich concept that means different things to different people in different settings. For some, it is a matter of principle; for others, a practice; and for still others, an end in itself. All these interpretations have merit. "The World Bank Participation Sourcebook," however, follows the definition of participation adopted by the Bank's Learning Group on Partici- patory Development: Participation is a process through which stakeholders influence and share control over development initiatives and the decisions and resources which affect them. The World Bank Participation Sourcebook is a how-to These steps are carried out for all Bank-financed guide to help Bank staff support participatory ap- projects, be they traditional projects or projects planned proaches in economic and social development. It is a in what we call a "participatory" way. But the key char- collection of cases, told in the first person, by Task Man- acteristic of a participatory approach is that stakehold- agers in the Bank. Some readers who know the World ers influence and share control over the decisions that Bank well will note that these examples differ from their are made. notions of how the Bank normally goes about its work. In our opinion, this difference is not a matter of style, External Expert Stance but rather the "stance" adopted by the sponsors and designers and the process used to organize and carry Bank-supported projects have in the past usually been out their work. In the Sourcebook examples, the spon- prepared in a different manner. We call this more tradi- sors and designers demonstrate a willingness to work tional approach the "external expert stance" to distin- collaboratively with the other key stakeholders in car- guish it from what we are calling the "participatory rying out the steps required to prepare a project for stance." In the external expert stance, the same activi- World Bank financing. Specifically, they: ties -- setting objectives, diagnosis, and so on -- are undertaken to prepare a project for financing. The dif- · identify the strengths and weaknesses of existing ference is that in the external expert stance, the project policies and service and support systems; that is, sponsors and designers place themselves outside the the stakeholders conduct the analysis and diagnosis local system they are investigating and about which they collaboratively; are making decisions -- even if they happen to come from or live within the local system. · decide and articulate what is needed; that is, the stakeholders collaboratively set objectives; Usually, these externally positioned sponsors and designers are substantive experts in the subject matter · decideonpragmaticterms,directions,priorities,and they are investigating. They determine what the project institutional responsibilities; that is, the stakeholders will look like. They view other stakeholders mainly as collaboratively create a strategy; and sources of information and opinions. Their "expert role" includes collecting information and opinions from the · develop or oversee development of project policies, other stakeholders, making sense out of what they col- specifications, blueprints, budgets, and lect, and converting all of it into a development strategy technologies needed to move from the present to the or project. future; that is, the stakeholders collaboratively formulate project tactics. The external expert stance is not a World Bank inno- vation, but an inherent and deeply embedded part of * This note is excerpted from Chapter One of The World Bank Participation Sourcebook written by Bhuvan Bhatnagar, James Kearns and Debra Sequeira with contributions from many staff and consultants across the Bank. Copies of the full document are available from the World Bank Bookstore, 1818 H. Street, NW, Washington, DC 20433, Fax No. (202) 522-3247. our understanding of how to produce results and the enough to enable them to take new actions effectively. role one plays in producing them. And if the actions taken turn out to be ineffective in practice, then we believe it is necessary to go back and Listening and Consultation reconstruct our strategy or project or plan. Even when working in the external expert stance, But, over time, development experience has shown Bank staff, their government colleagues, and the con- that when external experts alone acquire, analyze, and sultants they hire, consult with and listen to people in process information and then present this information the local system. Admittedly, in the past, sponsors and in reports, social change usually does not take place; designers may not have always listened to all the people whereas the kind of "social learning" that stakehold- or consulted the poorest and most disadvantaged mem- ers generate and internalize during the participatory bers of society, but this is changing. Concerted efforts planning and/or implementation of a development are now being made to consult and listen to all con- activity does enable social change. cerned stakeholders. The emphasis of the Bank's Af- rica Region on systematic client consultation is an ex- As indicated in the Sourcebook examples, Bank Task ample of the changes underway. The inclusion of ben- Managers are increasingly supporting processes in eficiary assessments in poverty assessments is another which the stakeholders themselves generate, share, and example. analyze information, establish priorities, specify objec- tives, and develop tactics. The stakeholders contribute We fully support and advocate consultation and lis- their experience and expertise -- for instance, the expe- tening -- especially with the poor and disadvantaged. rience of what it is to be poor or female, or the expertise But we do not equate this with the process called "par- to develop specifications for a new road or educational ticipation." Instead, we recognize consultation and lis- program. The stakeholders learn and develop a joint tening as essential prerequisites for participation, be- purpose together. cause, no matter how good the sponsors and designers are at consultation and listening, what is still missing Social Invention is learning on the part of the people in the local system. A person who is being "listened to" or "consulted with" This social learning is followed by "social inven- does not learn nearly as much as the person doing the tion." The stakeholders determine the new practices listening and consulting. and institutional arrangements they are willing to adopt. In the process, they individually and collec- By focusing attention on "who needs to learn what" tively develop insight and understanding of the new in a project and revising our understanding of how behaviors required to attain the objectives they set. learning occurs, we gain insights into the reasons why Having all stakeholders work, learn, and invent to- the behavioral change dimensions of Bank-financed gether reduces the need for the transfer of expert learn- projects have run into so many problems. We are also ing from one group of stakeholders to another. aided in our understanding of what is needed to en- able social change. Our Task Managers say that local people often cre- ate the most important parts of the projects. These Task Social Learning Managers make a point of distinguishing between what seem to outsiders to be good ideas and what the local In the external expert stance, experts design strate- stakeholders invent as practical and expedient ways to gies and projects that require behavior changes on the get things of value done. The implication is that ex- part of people within a given system. Then they turn perts standing outside of the local system often miss these preset specifications over to people who are ac- possibilities and opportunities that come naturally to customed to behaving in a significantly different way its members. The Chad Education project Task Man- and have not learned about how and why their behav- ager, for example, points out that he had never thought ior needs to change. The implementation challenge that about parent education as an important means of im- arises in such situations hinges, as far as we can tell, proving child education until the parents proposed it on the issue of "learning." Specifically, how can the first. people within a local system learn the value and ratio- nale of new behaviors specified by an expert? Commitment Behind the well-institutionalized practice of speci- The absence of "commitment" in many of the fying new behaviors in reports and other texts is the projects the Bank finances comes, we believe, mainly belief that people learn by reading information about a from the external expert stance, in which small groups reality external to them. Under this assumption, it is of experts ask the other stakeholders to commit them- logical to think that presenting people with a plan is selves to a project the experts have designed. Even if these stakeholders do so, they often have not learned · The Bank, that is, Bank management, staff, and enough to understand fully the commitment they are shareholders. being asked to make. Nor have they learned enough to judge their ability to fulfill their commitments. Com- We also noted that, in our examples, sponsors and mitments made under such circumstances cannot be designers of development activities had to work with relied on. and through powerful stakeholders to serve the needs of the poorest people. Attempts to bypass powerful Through the participatory process, however, people stakeholders often resulted in opposition from them; can make informed commitments, and by observing the and this opposition usually compounded the problem participatory process, assessments can be made by of getting anything useful accomplished. Bank and government staff, among others, about the presence or absence of the commitment necessary to For these reasons, we shifted our focus from popular ensure sustainability. participation to stakeholder participation -- the partici- pation of all relevant stakeholders in the development For example, in the Benin Health project, a strong process. This is a decision that we have made con- network of local health committees was formed during sciously, and one that has potentially important impli- the initial design phase to set the objectives and strate- cations for the way the Bank works. gies of the project. This network was able to keep the project going as officials continually changed -- with Although we argue that all stakeholders must work four new health ministers in fourteen months and four collaboratively to advance development projects, we different notions about what would be good for the recognize that different stakeholders have different lev- people. This is because the process that produced the els of power, different interests, and different resources. project was inclusive from the start, gaining broad- For these reasons, we also recognize that arrangements based support from all concerned. are needed to level the playing field and enable differ- ent stakeholders to interact on an equitable and genu- Of course, more than commitment is needed. Eco- inely collaborative basis. The Sourcebook describes many nomic, financial, and technical arrangements must be methods and tools that can be used for these purposes. in place to deliver on these commitments. But if these arrangements exist only on paper or in agreements Achieving consensus and reconciling key stake- made without the understanding of those stakeholders holder differences is not always easy: it may entail risks, who must implement and sustain the project, little will such as generating or aggravating conflicts among be accomplished. groups with competing interests and priorities. Deal- ing with conflict often requires an understanding of Popular Versus Stakeholder Participation the underlying societal interests inhibiting consensus and putting into place mechanisms for dispute resolu- When we began preparing the Sourcebook, we as- tion and negotiation. sumed we would be writing about `popular" partici- pation, that is, participation of the poor and others who Reaching the Poor are disadvantaged in terms of wealth, education, ethnicity, or gender. It seemed obvious to focus on the As the Sourcebook examples illustrate, the poor face participation of poor and disadvantaged groups be- many barriers on a number of different levels that cause, although often the intended beneficiaries, they prevent them from having a real stake in development are usually without voice in the development process. activities. Reaching and engaging the poor requires special arrangements and efforts by the sponsors and But, as we started documenting the examples, we designers that go beyond those used to involve govern- noted that apart from poor and disadvantaged people ment officials and other relatively powerful stakehold- who were directly affected, a range of other stakehold- ers in participatory processes. ers for Bank-supported operations existed. These stake- holders could affect the outcome of a proposed Bank Who are the Poor? intervention or be affected by it; and because of this, The poor include people in remote and impoverished their participation is critical. In addition to those di- areas. Women and children make up a large propor- rectlyaffectedbytheproject,thesestakeholdersinclude: tion of the very poor, which also include people · Borrowers, that is, elected officials, line agency staff, marginalized by virtue of their race and ethnicity as local government officials, and so on. well as those disadvantaged by circumstances beyond · Indirectly affected groups, such as non-governmental their control, such as disabilities and natural or man- organizations (NGOs), private sector made disasters. Some of the poorest people live in coun- organizations, and so forth with an interest in tries characterized by weak governments and civil outcomes. strife. Because the poor are generally less educated and On one end of this continuum, the poor are viewed less organized than other more powerful stakeholders, as beneficiaries -- recipients of services, resources, and because they are more difficult to reach, and because development interventions. In this context, community the institutions that serve them are often weak, inter- organizing, training, and one-way flows of resources ventions targeting the poor must often be small, con- through grant mechanisms are often appropriate. Al- text-specific, and resource-intensive. though much good work has been done in this mode, the provision of benefits delivered to people in this way Learning from the Poor may not be sustainable in the long term and may not Task Managers are learning a great deal about reach- improve the ability of people to act for themselves. ing the poor and engaging them in their own develop- ment. Understanding how to do this calls in part for As the capacity of poor people is strengthened and "bottom-up" approaches that begin by involving the their voices begin to be heard, they become "clients" poor and learning from them about their needs and who are capable of demanding and paying for goods priorities. and services from government and private sector agen- cies. Under these changed circumstances, the mecha- When we take a look at the types of methods and nisms to satisfy their needs changes. In this context, it approaches that work best at the field level for engag- becomesnecessarytomoveawayfromwelfare-oriented ing and enabling the poor to participate, we see that approaches and focus rather on such things as build- these are quite different from the set of techniques used ing sustainable, market-based financial systems, decen- when relatively educated and powerful stakeholders tralizing authority and resources, and strengthening are involved. Stakeholder workshops and other plan- local institutions. ning methods, such as Objectives-Oriented Project Plan- ning (ZOPP) and Appreciation-Influence-Control (AIC) We reach the far end of the continuum when these tend to work well when the objective is to gain owner- clients become the owners and managers of their assets ship and commitment on the part of stakeholders such and activities. This stage ranks highest in terms of the as government officials and staff of international agen- intensity of participation involved. A question we cies. Workshops can be structured to include the views asked ourselves while preparing the Sourcebook was, of the poor, but this requires conscious and careful plan- how can we support and prepare poor people to own ning. and manage assets and activities in a sustainable man- ner? In part, we found out that the more poor people But, when the primary objective is to learn from and are involved upstream in the planning and collaborate with the poor, a different kind of dynamic decisionmaking process, the more likely they are to own is involved, one that calls for a different approach to a development intervention, contribute to it, and sus- facilitating participation. Methods used should engage tain it. This alone, however, is not sufficient. poor people and build their confidence, knowledge base, and capacity for action. Visual methods that are Constraints exist at the policy level that impinge on carried out in the local setting using local materials the rights of people to organize, access information, and calling on local knowledge and expertise as in- engage in contracts, own and manage assets, and par- puts into project design are often used to good effect. ticipate fully as members of civil society. Efforts are needed, therefore, to create an enabling policy environ- Building Capacity to Act ment that allows all stakeholders -- especially poor Getting the participation of the poor involves more and disadvantaged ones -- to be part of the definition than finding the right technique. It requires strength- we noted at the outset. They too must be enabled to: ening the organizational and financial capacities of the poor so that they can act for themselves. In searching "...influence and share control over development initiatives for ways to build local capacity, we found it useful to and the decisions and resources which affect them." think of a continuum along which the poor are pro- gressively empowered.