Participatory Learning and Action

Participatory development implies an approach to planning and governance that encourages and supports the two-way exchange of information between local communities and outsiders. Participatory development recognizes that community members have valuable knowledge, legitimate concerns, and a lived experience that can contribute to exploring solutions to natural resource–related issues, to planning, and, more broadly, to redressing inequality. Currently, the term is used extensively because of the widespread and growing recognition that participation of local communities in decision making is critical to achieving sustainable development. As a result, community participation has become a central precept underpinning the development agenda.

Fundamental to participatory development practice is a clearly articulated and systematic set of strategies, methodologies, and literature that facilitate community mobilization by community development intermediary organizations (CDIOs) in the ...