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Participatory Process and Empowerment
Lesson Learned From ETESP Irrigation Sector in NIAS

A. Totok Hartono
Sociologist/WUA Empowerment

Participation is a process of empowering the community to solve their own problems through equal partnership, transparency, power-sharing, shared responsibility and co-operation. The long-term objective of participatory approaches is to improve the capacity (empowerment) of everybody who directly or indirectly participates in a program or project, through their involvement in decision-making and follow-up activities

Participatory approaches are applied for the planning, design and implementation of investments in the irrigation sector financed under the Earthquake and Tsunami Emergency Support Project (ETESP). These approaches are not only applied in the Province of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam Province, but also on Nias, an island off the coast of Northern Sumatra Province.

There have been notable successes with applying participatory approaches to implement development projects both in the government and non-government sectors. But these successes tend to be patchy and localized. There remain many institutional constraints to their more widespread application, including the lack of a general understanding of what "participation" means. For some, it is enough if farmers participate by receiving the benefits of projects delivering inputs. For others, projects are not participatory unless all stakeholders are equal partners and equally involved in all aspects of decision-making related to project planning, design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

The ETESP Facilitation Team working with communities on Nias face many challenges in introducing participatory process in support of rehabilitation of irrigation schemes. This is caused by the communities' past experiences. Normally, communities are the recipients of projects prepared by government agencies on the basis of a "patron-client" relationship; they are not the "owner" nor the "implementer" of their assets in their own living areas. The Facilitation Team has to hold many meetings, both formally and informally, with the communities to shift their perception of being recipient to that of owner and implementer.

At the beginning, during the preparation phase, communication and social interaction between Facilitation Team and the communities are usually difficult due to the communities' perception of the old patron-client relationship. They are so used to do what they are told to do by outsiders or by their leaders. This makes it difficult for them to adjust to a new approach in which they can tell their leaders what is needed, what their problems are and how these can be solved. Giving everybody a role and opportunity in the process through "Community Plenary Meetings" ensures that everybody becomes involved and feels responsible for the execution of the project.

Transparency in the provision of information and clarity on the project implementation mechanism and procedures creates mutual trust among the community members and between the communities and Facilitation Team. Using this process, communities realize that the project's interventions can make a difference to their lives. The participatory approach has shown to be an effective to improve knowledge, organizational skills and capacity among all the stakeholders and to empower communities to better negotiate with the agencies providing assistance.

Now, most of communities participating in ETESP's irrigation component are rehabilitating and improving their own irrigation canals through community-based contracts (SP3 - Surat Perjanjian Pemberian Pekerjaan). The next step is to involve the communities in the monitoring and evaluation process. The tools for participatory monitoring and evaluation are still to be prepared and developed together with communities. They can not only provide good information about project impacts, both positive and negative, but will also help increase commitment to follow through with maintenance and thereby contribute to the sustainability of the impacts.