The Role and Limitation of

Participatory Approaches in
Development
November
2008

Abstract:

Participation is the concept that means different

things to different people in different settings
and has a number of limitations and difficulties.
However, it is not because contemporary experts
need it, but because it is human needs that we By Dereje Dejene
have to work on participatory approach.
Updated from a paper presented at
The fundamentals of participation and University of Antwerp, Institute of
participatory processes is the matter of Development Policy and
recognizing human needs; and bringing ‘all’ Management in 2003 and Rated
stakeholders of a programme/ an issue on equal ‘AAA’
footing in the decision making process and share
of responsibilities. Participatory Approach in
real sense benefits all involved (villagers,
professionals, officials, donors, etc.)
Participatory approach and institutions can also
overcome some known and hidden limitations of
markets in addressing human needs.
 The Role and Limitation of Participatory Approaches in Development

I. Introduction

Participation is 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. However, the tendency
to limit the concept to PRA (as Robert Chambers is strongly pushing) and to call
almost any development practice that in some way involves local people
‘participatory’ hides the diverse set of understanding the practices in particular set
of contexts.

Thus before going into the role and the limitation of the ‘Participatory Approaches in
Development’ I will briefly discuss the origin and concept of participation and
participatory approaches in section II. In section III, I will deal with the role and
merit of participation, in Section IV the limitations, in section V I will give brief
overview of ‘Participation and Market Economy’ and conclude my opinion in
section VI.

II. The Origin and Concept of Participation and Participatory Approaches

The Etymology of the word participation in Webster Dictionary indicates the word
Participation is originated from Latin and being in use since 14 th century.
Participation is defined as: 1: the act of participating (to take part, to have a part or
share in something); 2: the state of being related to a larger whole. Where as the
term Participatory (as adjective) become in use since 1881 and characterized by or
involving participation; especially: providing the opportunity for individual
participation.

Even though democratic system in Europe and North America is evolved from the
need for participation in politics, the popularity of the concept is more related to
labor movement for Participatory Management and students’ movement for
Participatory Democracy in 1960s. During that decade advocates of participatory
management challenged many of the traditional principles of organization and work
group design by arguing for ‘enlarging the scope of responsibilities and influence of
individual workers as better means of motivating workers and increasing job
satisfaction’ (“Industrial relations"-Encyclopedia Britannica – accessed on may
15,2003)

According to Arnold Kauman (1960), one of the professors at University of

Michigan, during student movement "Participation means both personal initiative - that
men feel obliged to help resolve social problems and social opportunity -that society feels
obliged to maximize the possibility for personal initiative to find creative outlets.” (cited in
Michael Hauben, from James Miller, 1987). In favor of Participatory democracy the
Port Huron Statement of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in 1962 state
that “Men have unrealized potential for self-cultivation, self-direction, self-understanding,
and creativity. It is this potential that we regard as crucial and to which we appeal, not to the
human potentiality for violence, unreason, and submission to authority”. Paulo Freire
(1921 - 1997), the Brazilian educationalist, who has left a significant mark on the
theme that “poor and oppressed people can and should be enabled to conduct their

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 The Role and Limitation of Participatory Approaches in Development

own analysis of their own reality”, might have contributed to and/or benefited from
the SDS statement.

Although the 1960’s students and labour movement for participation was more
intense in North America and Europe, the vision, particularly of the SDS, was
inspiring and international. The Port Huron Statement state that “the United States'
principal goal should be creating a world where hunger, poverty, disease, ignorance, violence,
and exploitation are replaced as central features by abundance, reason, love, and
international cooperation” (Port Huron Statement of the Students for a Democratic
Society (1962)

These were the break through of thought that make different participatory
approaches to emerge mainly in the West as theories and spread, per-dominantly, in
Developing Countries as practices. This inspiring break through of attitudinal
changes and mass push for participation was never mentioned by Robert Chambers,
in his article “The Origin and Practice of Particpatory Rural Appriasal (1994),
although he acknowledged activist participatory research such as the work of Paulo
Freire –Pedagogy of the oppressed (1968), participatory action research -1970s &
1980s and other research methods as sources of PRA.

According to Robert Champers, the known leading proponents of participatory rural

development in the 1990s, “the word ‘participation’ and ‘participatory’ entered into the
vocabulary of RRA (Rapid Rural Appraisal) in mid 1980s, as a result RRA evolved in to
PRA (Participatory Rural Appraisal), which has developed and spread fast in 1990s.”
(Chambers, 1994). “The major distinction is”, Chambers explained, “an RRA (extractive-
elective) approach where the main objective is data collection by outsiders, and a PRA
(sharing and empowering) approach where the main objectives are variously investigation,
analysis, learning, planning, action, monitoring and evaluation by insiders.” Here we can
observe that Chambers didn’t want to specify the concept of participation separating
from ‘Rural Appraisal’. He insists to say “PRA as a term also used to describe a variety of
approaches”. “A recent description of PRA is”, Chambers defined, “a family of approaches
and methods to enable rural people to share, enhance, and analyze their knowledge of life and
condition, to plan and to act”. I will come back to the limitation of this branding and
definition in section IV.

In his recent paper entitled ‘Participation and Development: Perspective from the
Comprehensive Development paradigm’, the Noble prize laureate and distinguished
economist, Joseph E. Stiglitz (2002) said, “the term “participation” in broader sense
encompasses transparency, openness, and voice in both public and corporate settings. The
term “Participatory process” refers not just to those processes by which decisions are made in
national governments, but also to processes used at local and provincial levels, at the
workplace, and capital markets.” “From comprehensive development perspective’, Stglitiz
(2002) argued, ‘participation does not refer simply to voting. Participatory process must
entail open dialog and broadly active civic engagement, and it requires that individuals have
a voice in the decisions that affect them. Process not just outcomes, are key to this broader
interpretation of participation.”

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 The Role and Limitation of Participatory Approaches in Development

In the view of the donors participation still has different interpretation and
operational definitions. USAID defines Participation as "the active engagement of
partners and customers in sharing ideas, committing time and resources, making decisions,
and taking action to bring about a desired development objective." Participation describes
both the end and the means; both the kind of results we seek, and the way that we, as
providers of development and humanitarian assistance, must nurture those results.  It
underlies two of USAID's core values: customer focus and engagement of partners and
stakeholders through teamwork. (USAID- 1993)

The World Bank Participation Sourcebook, however, follows the definition of

participation adopted by the Bank's Learning Group on Participatory Development
(1994) “Participation is a process through which stakeholders influence and share control
over development initiatives and the decisions and resources which affect them”. A bit
expanded definition of Participation at World Bank Participation Web-page goes,
“Participation is the process through which stakeholders influence and share control over
priority setting, policy-making, resource allocations and access to public goods and services”1

Although it doesn’t define or specify the concept of participation and participatory

approach, the European Community's Development Policy- Statement by the
Council and the Commission, on Principles and objectives of Community
development policy states that “Community development policy is grounded on the
principle of sustainable, equitable and participatory human and social development.
Promotion of human rights, democracy, the rule of law and good governance are an integral
part of it.”2

The recent interesting concept about participation is Participatory Economics

(Parecon). This is a theory, also a sort of an ideology, related to post-modern theory
seeking alternative to capitalist economic system. Michael Albert (2003), the leading
scholar in this theory, said, “Participatory economics seeks to accomplish production,
consumption, and allocation to efficiently meet needs consistent with the guiding values:
equity, diversity, solidarity, and self-management”

Now, there is no question about the popularity of Participation and Participatory

Approaches. But how one can talk about the merit and limitation of the approach
with such diverse concepts, although concept should not expected to be static for
ever. My judgment here is that different agency and different
reactionaries/professionals value different forms and levels of participation
differently. For example, despite the definition given above, the world Bank task
Mangers (in the Video recoded to publicize World Bank discourse on participatory
development) have different interpretation for participation. For some participatory
approach is understanding the interest of the people affected and respond to that if
feasible, for others it is contribution of labor and material for community services/
infrastructure, for some others it is empowerment (involvement of people in
decision making and agenda setting), for others again, participation is not attending
meeting or workshop but it is the matter of dialogue. Still others viewed as a
systematized approach and new ways to do bank’s business better. Others also
1 ”.world bank//www.worldbank.org/participation/participation/participation.htm

2 http://europa.eu.int/comm/development/development_old/lex/en/council20001110_en.htm

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 The Role and Limitation of Participatory Approaches in Development

indicated that participatory approach can’t be done by recipe book in a, b, c… order;

it is the process:-changing the way of doing business; to sit in a passenger sit and act
as facilitator.

This clearly depicts how participation means different things for different people.
Despite its popularity and wider use, this indicates unclearness of the concept and
shallowness of the understanding about participatory approaches. I will discuss this
more in detail in Section IV…

From these, one can generalize that there are different forms, types and levels of
participation. From my field experience I present these different forms, types and
levels as follows.

Matrix 1. Forms and Type of Participation

Forms of Type of Participation

Participation Active Passive Forced
1. Ideas and Dialogue how and Taught how and Obliged to say yes
decision what to do and make what to do, or or accept the idea
making decision on responded to specific or opinion of
consensus or of question of outsider outsider
his/her own =(Consultation/ =(‘Repression/ Co-
=(Co-learning & Prescription) optation’)
Joint decision
making)
2. Resources Contribute what is Contribute amount Obliged to bring or
(Labor/ available and can be needed at time and receive a given type
materials/ affordable to the place fixed by and amount of
Finance) & person(s) by his/her outsider, or receive labor/material/
Services own will or get the specific type & finance whether it
type and amount amount delivered to is available,
he/she wants him/her regardless affordable, his/her
=(Cooperation) of his/her priority or need or not.
needs. =(Subjugation/
=(Compliance) Imposition/)
Outcome of Collective Action/ Dependency Frustration/
(1+2) self reliance syndrome/ Inferiority Anxiety
(for leadership and for
action)
Source: Dereje Dejene (2000) Participatory Need Assessment and Planning;
Concepts, Methods and Process: Unpublished Manual.

From the above matrix we can identify six typologies of participation. The level of
empowerment decreases as we go from left to right and empowerment increase as
we go from bottom to top and from right to left.
III. The Role/Merit of Participation and Participatory Approaches

3.1 Fundamental issues and values of Participation

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 The Role and Limitation of Participatory Approaches in Development

In his 1998 Annual Meetings speech, Mr. Wolfensohn, World Bank President said:
“Participation matters—not only as a means of improving development effectiveness, as we
know from our recent studies—but as the key to long-term sustainability and leverage. We
must never stop reminding ourselves that it is up to the government and its people to decide
what their priorities should be. We must never stop reminding ourselves that we cannot and
should not impose development by fiat from above—or from abroad.” (World Bank 1998)

“Development is a matter of changing people’s lives, seeing smile of child face. The
complexity of development requires solution that must be sustainable and sustainability is
ensured when most participate in his/her own issue” (Mr. Wolfensohn, World Bank
President on world Bank video)

USAID views participation as both an essential feature of effective development

work and as a purpose of development itself. The Agency's directives define
participation as a means: "to actively engage partners and customers in sharing ideas,
committing time and resources, making decisions, and taking actions to bring about a desired
development objective." The second concept--participation as an end in itself: "broad-
based participation and democratic processes are integral elements of sustainable
development" (Diane E. La Voy, USAID Senior Policy Advisor for Participatory
Development, September 1999)

My view is that participation of people in their own issue is not only a matter of
development effectiveness and sustainability; it is fundamentally a matter of human
needs. According Abraham Maslow, human needs is not simply basic
(physiological) needs it is much more than that, but has hierarchs- Physiological
needs, Safety needs, Belonging needs, Esteem needs, and Self-actualization
(Abraham Maslow 1968.) Although Self-actualization is special and uncommon type
of need, this hierarchs of human needs follows cumulative pattern; under stressful
conditions or when survival is threatened, human need “regress” to a lower need
level. If needs doesn’t meet human beings misbehave or retaliate. For example if
hungry/famished, there will be scrambling to get food; if feel unsafe, he/she has to
be continuously on guard, if Belonging needs not meet he/she become increasingly
susceptible to loneliness and social anxieties and jealousy, if Esteem needs does not
meet he/she suffer from low self-esteem and inferiority complexes and become
defensive or compensate by unexpected moments of ruthlessness. (Maslow 1968)

Stiglitz (2002) emphasized the necessity of participation for fully effective, society –
wide development transformation. “Development requires a change in mindset, in
particular, an acceptance of and indeed a seeking out of productivity- enhancing change.
Participation is thus essential to effect the systematic change in mindset associated with the
development transformation, and to engender policies that make change-which is at the center
of development-more acceptable. And because individuals have had a voice in shaping the
changes, in making them more acceptable, changes is likely to be accepted or even embraced,
rather than reversed at the first opportunity.” Stiglitz (2002)

What I am substantiating is that, although there is different types and forms of

participation exists, as I indicated in the above matrix, participation in its true and

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 The Role and Limitation of Participatory Approaches in Development

active sense is a matter of belonging needs and esteem needs. It is the matter of
bringing ‘all’ stakeholders of the program on equal footing in the decision making
process and share of responsibilities. Participation by force is imposition (tyranny)
and doesn’t belongs to any of the human needs, it rather threaten self-esteem and
make the participant to retaliate. Active participation is the true participation that
let the human being to enjoy his/her belonging needs and esteem needs. And that is
why participatory development intervention is effective and sustainable. This is
what I witnessed during change of government in Ethiopia after 17 years Civil War.
The destruction caused to many community forests (including putting on fire),
community schools, water points, cooperative offices, and state farms were not due
to selfish or distructive mentality, it was mainly a retaliation due to forced
contribution of their labor, money and land. The communities have guarded most of
rural dispensary and vet posts built based on their request and providing service for
them at affordable prices.

The passive participation is the situation in which outsiders try to meet physiological
needs and safety needs regardless of belonging needs and esteem needs, which is
neither empowering nor sustainable. A soil conservation project on food for work
(FFW) basis in Northern Ethiopia were a typical example, where farmers were
trained how to construct conventional terraces, and told to construct on their plot to
get the payment in food for a given length of terraces. The farmers did as per the
instruction and received food in return. Year after a few years there were no
permanent structure on the land and no improvement in controlling soil erosion.
This was later found to be because of 1) the structure is done in a very loose way and
even wind can below it up, 2) there were animals trampling as there was no control
for animals movement till the terrace stabilize, 3) in some plots the structure was
blocking farming operation and/or harbor rodents-thus, the farmers and family
themselves removed the terrace. The fundamental point here was, there was no
dialogue between the trainers, the development agents that supervised and recorded
the length of constructed terrace, and the farmers: as to the importance,
compatibility, etc., of the terrace in relation to their existing farming system. These
were, of course, discovered after training on Participatory Need Assessment and
Project Planning.

Participatory approach is therefore, a matter of human needs. It is the matter of

recognizing the complementarily of knowledge of different stakeholders and
existence of multiple realities, and knowing the synergy of share of responsibilities
and collective action and letting human enjoy their belonging and esteem needs and
satisfy their physiological and safety needs.

In line with this, I like to quote the Port Huron Statement of the Students for a
Democratic Society (SDS) in 1962 which say s “The goal of ‘man’ and society should be
human independence: a concern not with image of popularity but with finding a meaning in
life that is personally authentic: a quality of mind not compulsively driven by a sense of
powerlessness, nor one which unthinkingly adopts status values, nor one which rep its
habits, but one which has full, spontaneous access to present and past experiences, one which
easily unites the fragmented parts of personal history, one which openly faces problems which

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 The Role and Limitation of Participatory Approaches in Development

are troubling and unresolved: one with an intuitive awareness of possibilities, an active sense
of curiosity, an ability and willingness to learn.”

3.2 Specific Merits of Participatory Approach in Development Work

If we follow active participatory approach, with values that permits professionals

work to be responsive to local initiative and accountable to stakeholders, we can see
a lot of merit in the approach.

1. Participatory approach ensures sense of belongingness, build self-esteem and

result in sustainability of development intervention and self-reliance

Recognition of participation and participatory processes as fundamental human

needs; recognition of participation as the process of bringing ‘all’ stakeholders of the
program on equal footing in the decision making process and share of
responsibilities, recognition of complementarily of knowledge of different
stakeholders and existence of multiple realities, and knowing the synergy of share of
responsibilities and collective action; ensure sense of belongingness, build self
esteem and result in sustainability of development intervention and self-reliance.
Stiglitz (2002) explained benefit of participation in community project in the
following statment: ‘participation brings with it commitment, and commitment brings
with it greater effort-the kind of effort that is required to make the project successful.’

2. The approach provides greater voice and influence to the poor and
disadvantaged.

Participation and involvement is not just a matter for government officials or

mangers; it needs to reach deeper to include those who are often excluded and who
are key to the strengthening of social and organizational capital (Stiglitz, 2002.) The
true participatory approach bring different groups of community (poor and rich,
man and women) and organizations representative of the poor "to the table" in the
discussions of policy and development interventions involving donors and local
government leaders. It creates enabling environment for the poor and disadvantaged
(women) to take action where before they appeared powerless or unmotivated.
Some of the participatory tools such as visual methods can also empower the weak
and disadvantaged (Chambers ,1994.) Emma Jones & Speech (2001) even come to
say that ‘participatory analysis creates heterotopian space and sustainably transform
their social relations in every day lives’, But I believe this is a gradual process, and
participatory approach induce changes in social relation.

3. The approach enables outsiders (donors or professionals) to ensure that the

program is consistent with the values and priorities of the affected populations as
well as other stakeholders.

“Best practices” or reforms that are imposed on a country through conditionality

(“carrot and sticks”) may very well fail to produce lasting change. They well tend to
undermine peoples incentives to develop their own capacities and weaken their
confidence in using their own intelligence (Stiglitz, 2002). Thus, the participatory

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 The Role and Limitation of Participatory Approaches in Development

approach and its tools and techniques enables outsiders (donors or professionals) to
ensure that the program is consistent with the values and priorities of affected
populations as well as other local stakeholders.

4. The approach put information into the hands of communities and local
organizations to permit them to hold government and its partners (NGOs,
Donors) accountable for the usefulness of the assistance provided.

“Success in a knowledge- based economy requires a highly educated citizenry, and it require
an effective and decentralized communication network, for involvement of the citizen in the
process of shaping and adapting ideas and policies” (Stigliz, 2002). True participatory
approach entails using broadly representative advisory or reference groups to
design, monitor, and evaluate activities; publishing information about the
development activities in local language; giving local organizations access to budget
information about umbrella grants run for their benefit are some of the methods.
These ensure access to information on the intervention affecting their life.

5. The approach strengthen the capacity of institutions throughout the society to

carry out programs that are responsive to people's priorities

The approach strengthens the capacity of community organizations to advocate

effectively as it let local government officials to work in partnership with the
initiatives of communities and neighborhood associations. It also enables local
NGOs to develop governance that is more representative of and responsive to the
community. It strengthens the knowledge base of local universities, consultancy
firms, and other agencies by bringing them close to the community for assessments,
research, and evaluation instead of dealing with data gathered by enumerator,
without seeing the living condition of the communities. It builds the capacity of.

6. The approach strengthen and broaden communications among players in the

development process

Participatory approach create opportunities for policy discussion among public

sector, business, and non-profits; enable communities to be heard by local officials,
and local officials to be heard by national-level officials; enlarge the scope of
permissible discussion between citizens and government or broaden the range of
players who participate in the discussion, to include women and other groups that
typically are excluded; build attitudes and skills that engender good listening.

7. The approach give freedom for innovation and local initiative

Participatory approach (for example participatory technology development (PTD))

give opportunity to individuals and families to adapt (‘not adopt’) new farming
practices, businesses, or sanitation techniques to different circumstances. The
approach enables local or national-level institutions to approach problems in new
ways. It let organizations of the poor taking the next steps in their community's
development after the assistance ends. The goal of Participatory Approaches in

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 The Role and Limitation of Participatory Approaches in Development

Development to enable communities to engage in collective action, which is the most

participatory form of participation.

IV. The Limitation of Participatory Approaches:

Although one can talk a lot about the values and merits of participatory approaches,
we can still find a number of limitation. The limitations are mainly related to misuse
and misbranding of the approaches, non-generalizebility of conclusions, rise of
expectation and ambition. I will discuss the details as follows.

1. Vulnerability of the approach to misuse and manipulation

Participatory approach being seen as ‘politically correct’ term is rapidly spreading

and being used by different organizations. ‘Participation becoming ways of doing
business for government, NGO, Trade Unions and people are scrambling for
expertise” (World Bank video). However, the belief that some of the tools and
techniques of participatory approaches, particularly that of PRA, as simple, easy,
quick way of getting the business done lead to the misuse by sticking on labels of
PRA without substance. In this regard Chambers (1994) said, “The hardened
professional who knows how to vary vocabulary to fit fashion will replace questionnaire or
‘RRA’ in project document with ‘PRA’, but may not know or care about what it entails.”

On the other hand, although the fundamental elements of participatory approaches

are to let all stakeholders to dialogue on equal footing, negotiate for share of roles
and responsibilities and make joint decision; emphasis of most practitioners on tools
and techniques of participatory approaches, particularly that of PRA, overshadowed
the essence of participation and become mechanistic. Participatory approaches in
development are much more than PRA (the research method and instruments.)

There can be also a situation where stakeholders (community group) provide social
desirable answer instead of their real situation and need (need in broad sense as in
section-II). This can be due to a number of reasons: including sense of helplessness,
guessing hypothesis of the outsider, etc.

2. Difficulty to bring the poor and disadvantage in the process and avoid the
domination of certain group(s) in priority setting.

In participatory decision making mostly local ‘elites’ or wealthy villagers participate

in the process and influence the outcomes. Therefore, where it is not carefully
targeted participatory approaches may be used to legitimize the demand of the more
powerful without listening to the silenced, particularly, the very poorest men &
women, and children. Johnson & Mayoux (1998) also cited such an example from
Malawi, and India.

Collective decisions making process also does not necessarily mean that decision
represent the best interests of all the groups. There are no homogeneous or
harmonious communities in real life. Participatory decision making can combine
heterogeneous groups by providing agreement on the losses. Paulo Vieira da Cunha

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and Maria Valeria Junho Pena- (1998) argued that “determining whether the decisions
represent the groups’ best interest is difficult because it requires comparing interpersonal
well-being, whether by aggregating preferences or establishing a hierarchy of preferences”

3. Misbranding and labeling of participatory approaches may contribute to

misunderstanding of essence of participation and participatory approach.

There are a number of participatory approaches developed, codified and used by

different reactionaries. To name a few PRA, PLA (Participatory Learning and
Action), PNAP (Participatory Need Assessment & Planning), PPD (Participatory
Program Development) PIDA (Participatory and Integrated Development
Approaches), PM&E (Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation), Participatory
Research, and ZOPP (German Acronym for objective Oriented project planning) are
among the common. Although there is a lot of overlaps and similarities of all above
methodologies, with some exception of ZOPP that is quite different, they are not
identical, and their process and area of emphasis is different. However, as I
indicated in section II, Robert Chambers, the most influential proponents of
participatory rural development in the 1990s, claim to call all participatory
approaches PRA (Rapid Rural Appraisal). In spite of remarkable contribution of
Robert Chambers for the development of PRA and for popularity of Participatory
Approach; this misbranding is a source of confusion for ‘what participation is about’.
As Chambers repeatedly indicated in his articles-PRA was mainly developed from
and still used with RRA (Rapid Rural Appraisal) to make the ‘appraisal’ of rural
situation in a participatory manner. Most of the tools (Menu of PRA Methods,
which are over 30) are basically a technocratic instrument/ methods of participation
in research.

Johnson & Mayoux (1998) have commented saying that “Labeling a research process
‘Participatory’ doesn’t mean that it will automatically lead to ‘empowerment” PRA
methods doesn’t bring different groups of community (poor and rich, man and
women) and organizations representative of the poor, donors and local government
leaders "to the table" in the discussions of policy and development interventions. As
I already emphasized, the fundamental of participation and participatory process s is
bringing ‘all’ stakeholders of the program on equal footing in the decision making
process and share of responsibilities. Villagers by their own or with PRA
practitioners can’t change the policy, put up irrigation scheme, or access road, etc.
PRA only partially address the belonging needs and little of esteem needs.

My argument is that- PRA –exercise is a necessary element in rural development but

not sufficient to ensure true participation, empowerment and sustainable
development. And also it can not be applicable in all setting. Branding PRA as the
family name of all participatory approaches and perfect method; looks like “let us
call all the antibiotics ‘Penicillin’ and use ‘the Penicillin’ to treat all illnesses.”

Recently, Chambers himself partly accepts the problem of misbranding. In his notes
on practical approaches and methods in PRA/PLA (Jan 2002) he said, “Labels are
problem but we seem to be stuck with them. ‘Participatory learning and action’ is a more
accurate title for what many practitioners of PRA is believe in and are doing”

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4. Difficulty to use participatory tools and techniques to generate information and

build consensus on wider scale

The tools and techniques of the current participatory approach (particularly PRA) is
limited to deal with generating information at grassroots level and generalized for
the particular village with very high internal validity. But it is difficult to generate
information that represents a given region or country using PRA techniques. Robert
Chambers (1994) also indicate this difficulty; form the experience of National
Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) of in India. ‘RRA/ PRA methods
were found to generate valid reliable qualitative as well as quantitative data at the village
level, and also some fairly good ratio estimates for the State level for some, but not all
variables.” (Chambers 1994)

5. The approach might raise too much expectation and sometimes end up with
disappointment of a given community or a group

Participatory approaches has usually the power to make people enthusiastic and
come up with a shopping list of demands and a number of roles and responsibilities
which at times difficult to realize; may be because of inadequate resources, lengthy
processes and procedures, and also lack of commitment and poor attitude.

V. Participation and Market Economy

Participation by individuals allows institutions to determine what it is that people

want. But in the presence of markets, is participation needed to identify demand?
Many economists, especially the neo-classical liberal economists, strongly influenced
the world with the ‘philosophy’ of “competitive markets allow individuals and
households to express their preferences under a much broader set of conditions and
lower cost than nearly all other forms institution.” The basic reasoning is that ‘unlike
other social constructs for exchange, markets simultaneously exchange information about
preferences, relative scarcities, quality, and reputation. Competitive markets thus dominate
other forms of participation and exchange.’ (Paulo Vieira da Cunha and Maria Valeria
Junho Pena- 1998).

Markets, however, have some well-known limitations, which can be overcome by

participatory institutions. In developing countries, despite the widespread and
growing use of market institutions, there still are pockets of the population that are
so loosely integrated with the market that the very concept of market preference or
demand may not apply. In general, preferences revealed in the market are
constrained by what is supplied to the market.

The fundamental issue is that what is supplied to and demanded from the market
are limited to physiological, and to certain extent safety needs of human beings;
market rarely satisfy the very crucial-belonging and esteem needs of human.
Unemployment by the name of downsizing or adjustment in developing country
and transitional economy for which the employee committee no fault result in
diminishing of self-esteem. Although the unemployed is in some cases provided
with social safety net, in most case get dependent on family or join illegal business

Updated from a Paper presented by Dereje Dejene Engdashet; 2003, IDPM-UA 11

 The Role and Limitation of Participatory Approaches in Development

and commit crimes. “When workers are deprived of opportunity to be meaningful

participants in the community by working – when, through no fault of their own, they
simply cannot find work –they lose self-esteem. No welfare system will ever restore the
dignity that comes from work (Stigliz, 2002) Market is therefore highly imperfect in
meeting these needs and in most cases it rather negatively affect these needs of
human beings.

VI. Summary Conclusion

Participation is part of the fundamental need of human beings. It is not because

contemporary experts need it, but because it is human needs that we have to work
on participatory approach. Participatory Approach in real sense benefits all involved
(villagers, professionals, officials, donors, etc.,) starting from local village up to
global village, except the egoistic and power mongers. PRA –exercise is a necessary
element in rural development but not sufficient to ensure true participation,
empowerment and sustainable development. And also it can not be applicable in all
setting. Participatory approach and institutions can overcome some well-known and
hidden limitations of markets in addressing human needs.

The fundamentals of participation and participatory processes is not the matter of

‘bringing last to first or first to last’ nor ‘putting farmers first and professionals/
officials last’ it is the matter of recognizing human needs; and bringing ‘all’
stakeholders of the program on equal footing in the decision making process and
share of responsibilities. In ideal situation no body want to be last but all can accept
equal footing philosophy, where all become first. This is of course a challenging
process, but it is the best way to let human being to satisfy their Physiological and
Safety needs, enjoy their belonging and esteem needs, and may also reach at Self-
actualization.

“Open, transparent, and participatory process are important ingredients in the development
transformation,-important both for sustainable economic development, and for social
development that should be viewed as an end in itself and as a means to more rapid economic
growth” (Stiglitz, 2002)

Updated from a Paper presented by Dereje Dejene Engdashet; 2003, IDPM-UA 12