(Sample Material) Gist of Important Articles from IIPA Journal
Topic: People’s Participation in Governance E. Vayunandan and Dolly Mathew
Peoples Participation—Meaning and Prerequisites
Participation here is referred to the consultation, involvement, and empowerment of the people. It implies that people participate in decision-making, design, formulation, implementation, evaluation and monitoring of various programmes and development projects concerning them. People works patterns with the government projects concerning them. People work as partners with the government and various other agencies in initiation and fulfillment of goals. It further connotes the control an managements of the resources. It manifests equity, as there as complete involvement of each and every individual, including women. If reflects the attainment of skills and capacity building of the community. It means discipline and self-control. There is accessibility to services and the people bear the onus to ensure proper functioning and accountability. Participation signifies cost sharing and resource mobilisation. It works towards sustainable development and reliance on the local knowledge. It takes place in a number of areas, such as, community resources management, environmental sustain polity through social forestry and alternative energy, social and gender equity issues pertaining to child labour and women development, livelihood generation, infrastructure development, self finance and micro-finance and sustainability of institutions of self-governance.
According to Cohen and Uphoff, participation is the involvement of the people in the decision-making processes, in implementing the development programme, sharing the benefits and evaluating such programmes.
The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) consider people’s participation not just the process of involvement of people in project activities but rather it is the process by which rural people are able to organise themselves, an are able to identify their own needs, share in design, implementation and evaluation of participatory action.