The power of community participation
Decide for yourself, change for yourself
Community participation is more than just participating; it is the key to sustainable change. The direct involvement of people in projects, from problem identification to solution, not only realises a project that meets the concerns and priorities of the community, but also creates local ownership.
When communities themselves are in charge and make decisions, self-confidence and motivation grows to realise the change that they desire and to push this change forward on the long term.
In this blog, we will explore how a participatory approach not only increases the effectiveness of projects, but also contributes to empowerment and long-term impact for the whole community. The information is based on our Whitepaper on community participation, which is an introduction to our Whitepapers on Participatory Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (PPMEL).
Everything starts with the people themselves
Wilde Ganzen believes that real change only comes when people living in poverty decide themselves which improvements they want to work towards and what they need in order to do so. By supporting these ideas, we break through poverty from the bottom up. We support those we lead the change, and continue this change in the future.
We call this community participation and believe it should be at the heart of all the projects we support as it is the key to lasting change, active involvement, and a sense of responsibility for the project and its continuity.
When people set their own priorities and make their own decisions, they feel responsible for bringing about the desired change. This ensures active involvement, increases local ownership and is crucial for long-term change. In addition, people know and understand their local context best and, with their local knowledge and customs, can best assess what is needed to grow and bring about change.
Shift the power movement
When outsiders make decisions, this can have negative consequences for the course of the project and for the community. For instance, there are risks of patronising local knowledge and wishes, dependence on foreign money and support, and undermining local needs, resulting in loss of self-esteem, self-confidence and motivation.
Currently, a lot of decision-making power still lies in the hands of donors and international NGOs and governments. Therefore, Wilde Ganzen supports the #shiftthepower movement, which is committed to changing power relations within the sector and empowering and supporting communities to come up with their own projects and ideas that they believe are valuable and importance.
Are you participating in the movement?
Who is the ‘community’ and how do you involve them?
The community refers to the people and organisations that have a common interest in tackling a problem. In this, you often have different layers: local, regional, national.
Each of these layers has a different form of participation and is involved and touched by development initiatives differently, either direct or indirect. It can also be layered differently within the local context: school board, parents, pupils, local government, village chief.
How these relationships interact with each other and who has control over what is very context-dependent and can be influence by various factors: gender, age, religion, origin, among others. It is always important to be aware of this and handle it with care. Local people know best about this.
To enhance community participation, partner organisations can use the ‘Participation Ladder for Community Involvement’ tool (page 5 white paper community participation). This tool explains participation in 5 steps. Furthermore, at the Change The Game Academy, Wilde Ganzen also offers a toolkit for international partner organisations on how to use the participation ladder.
You could also have a look at our Whitepapers on Participatory Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning for more information on community participation in every step of the project cycle and to find some examples from our partners who work with this approach.
Role and importance of clear information
Compared to traditional methods around development cooperation, participatory methods are often criticised for being too time-consuming and intangible.
Nevertheless, we would like to stress that this process is important and will ultimately save time by representing the interests of the people who are affected by a development initiative from start to finish. This ultimately avoids the waste of time, money, and effort on a project that does not (effectively) address the concerns of the community.