Catalog

ADB emphasizes participatory development in its new business processes and in its reorganized internal structure.

It is committed to engaging stakeholders—both citizens and institutions—in participatory decision-making processes so they can influence and share control over development initiatives and the resources involved in these.

This requires time, resources, appropriate incentives, and careful, respectful listening. It supports poverty reduction by creating more effective, equitable, and sustainable activities.

People develop a sense of ownership, pride, and commitment to an activity when they work together to assess their resources and problems, reflect on possible solutions, select criteria for evaluating various options, choose the best course of action, and then formulate and act on plans for initiating, managing, monitoring, and evaluating a shared project, program, or policy change.

Poor and vulnerable citizens discover hope and feel empowered when they are given a voice in decisions that affect their lives.

Members of government, civil society, and private sector organizations build trust and gain capacity as they learn through shared experience. Donors and other international organizations coordinate better when they discuss planned activities openly.

By building and enriching social networks, participatory development enhances social capital, the most fundamental resource on which the poor, like everyone, rely for survival and mobility in the face of adversity or limited opportunity.

Inclusion of diverse stakeholder groups supports human rights, promotes gender equity, and helps with equalizing opportunity for indigenous peoples and members of minority groups.

Participation thus enhances the quality and effectiveness of development efforts, improves operation and maintenance, and promotes sustainability of outputs and impacts.

In the long run, it also reduces delays during project implementation and averts legal problems by facilitating communication and addressing potential conflict before misunderstanding becomes counterproductive.

As an approach to the process of public decision making, participation requires planning for each specific situation.

Involvement of key stakeholders in these preparatory steps may significantly increase learning and country ownership. Stakeholder interests and capacities, the national and institutional context, social conditions, the extent and quality of networks, and features of the relevant sector must all be analyzed in each case.

This will help in determining an appropriate strategy for disseminating information about the proposed activities, eliciting views of relevant groups, and engaging stakeholders more deeply in analysis and planning, and later in implementation and monitoring of activities.

ADB supported a second Participatory Development and Capacity Building Regional Technical Assistance (RETA) fund in 1999 to promote participation and capacity building early in project development, capture unexpected opportunities that arise during project design and in poverty assessments and related work, and increase experience among ADB staff and partners.

This special issue of ADB Review provides examples of the range of activities that were supported by the RETA. It also presents the results of the evaluation of this RETA.

Statements on participation by Rajesh Tandon, President of Participatory Research in Asia, Delhi, India, and on social capital by Michael Woolcock of the World Bank and Harvard University are also included.