Consultation and Participation

Case Studies and Other Resources

Case Studies by Sector and Theme

This section contains case studies and lessons from the application of C&P to particular sectors and thematic areas.

Agriculture and Natural Resources

The Cordillera Highlands Agricultural Resources Management Project (CHARM) was designed to help 82 communities in 3 provinces in Northern Luzon to develop and implement their own action plans. The process involved participatory community analysis, priority setting, and action planning, followed by multistakeholder review and overall ranking at the municipal and provincial levels to identify which projects would be funded. Read the article CHARM Offensive, which tells how Cordillera farmers are learning ways to better battle the natural elements and human challenges in their rice and vegetable plantations

The proposed Balochistan Water Resources and Rural Infrastructure Project aims to capitalize on the capacity and expertise of provincially based implementing partner NGOs, which have demonstrated their strengths in community mobilization within project districts and disciplines.

AusAID investment pays dividends in Sri Lanka: case of community based forest management*. This article describes a pilot experiment of community engagement in forest protection and management supported under an AusAID funded project in Sri Lanka.

Country Strategy and Program

In preparing the Nepal results-based Country Strategy and Program 2005-2009, ADB organized consultations in all of the country's five development regions to solicit direct feedback from the local populace on poverty and ways to address it. The consultation process is described in Voices from the Field (December 2004).

As part of the midterm review of the Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) 2005–2009, the Nepal Resident Mission organized regional consultations in all five development regions of the nation and a central-level nongovernment organization and civil society consultation between January and April 2008. Voices from the Field: On the Road to Inclusion (September 2008), a publication that was recently launched, summarizes the key discussions and feedback from the local level consultations and reflects the concerns and issues raised.

Education

ADB's project performance management system (PPMS) highlights stakeholder participation at all stages of the project cycle. PPMS has been successfully applied in the Literacy is for Everyone Project in Papua New Guinea. The ADB-assisted project was financed by a technical assistance grant from the Japan Special Fund.

Energy

The Tajikistan Power Rehabilitation project [ PDF: 121kb | 39 pages ] provides an example of incorporating participatory activities into an infrastructure development project. ADB project managers wanted to ensure that the initiative was rooted in the needs and priorities of local people and that, in accordance with ADB's Poverty Reduction Strategy, the project was addressing the needs of the poor.

Transportation

The Timor-Leste Road Sector Improvement Project [ PDF: 1.59mb | 8 pages ] was designed specifically to support sustainability of transport sector projects and includes stakeholders and beneficiaries such as women and the poor that have been ignored in typical road improvement projects. The new aspects of the project support the Government of Timor-Leste’s commitment to sustainable development of community infrastructure. As ADB’s first attempt to mainstream social and gender concerns in infrastructure-related projects in Timor-Leste, the success of the initial design phase of this project provides valuable lessons for other road and transport projects in Asia and the Pacific.

Urban Development

The project, Polluted Places India [ PDF: 358kb | 5 pages ], was implemented by the Blacksmith Institute through a grant under ADB’s Poverty and Environment Program. The project focused on reducing mortality and morbidity levels caused by chemical pollution in local communities, as well as strengthen local government and community capacity to undertake successful remediation efforts in India. Blacksmith’s approach relied heavily on building local consensus by setting up cooperative stakeholder groups, in project locations, stakeholder groups. Each group comprise of representatives of government, the private sector, the NGO community, which helped initiate remedial activities related to pollution.

The Development of Poor Urban Communities Project [ PDF: 121kb | 39 pages ] in the Philippines illustrates the value of participatory activities in designing a project. This project has the aim of providing land titles to urban squatter communities and to rehabilitate the communities by improving housing, municipal infrastructure, and social services.

ADB approved five urban development projects in India [ PDF: 121kb | 39 pages ] worth $780 million between 1996-1999. The first project, in four cities in Karnataka State, was formulated in 1994. As in the other urban projects, one objective was to develop basic infrastructure in urban squatter communities. Project implementers learned that their view of what the communities needed differed from the community members views.

The Income Generation for the Poor through Community-Based Environmental Improvements Project [ PDF: 3,380kb | 60 pages ] assisted poor communities in Phnom Penh, Cambodia to improve their living conditions. These efforts were supported by the dynamic leadership provided by the Municipality of Phnom Penh, and complemented by district and village leaders, NGOs, and the private sector.

Water

The processing of the Nam Theun 2 Hydroelectric Project entailed unprecedented public consultations for a project in Lao Peoples Democratic Republic. Project-affected persons and others with an interest in the project, approved in 2005, were consulted at the local, national, regional, and international levels [ PDF: 3,217kb | 194 pages ].

In 1999, the original project team for the Third Water Supply and Sanitation Project in Sri Lanka - comprised mainly of environmental engineers and sociologists-headed to Sri Lanka to begin implementing a project that was already on the path to being unlike ADB's previous attempts to bring rural people potable water and promote hygiene for safer sanitation.

The Second Small Scale Water Resources Development Sector Project covers 61 districts in Bangladesh and aims to develop participatory, sustainable, and stakeholder-driven small scale water resources management system. The project has given special attention to the poorer section of the population and has adopted community participation as the main tool for gender mainstreaming in water management.

Over the past few years, large investments in irrigation infrastructure have resulted in substantial irrigation potential, which, however, remains largely underutilized in the absence of effective irrigation management reform initiatives.The Department of Water Resources, Government of Orissa**, and the Asian Development Bank organized a National Workshop on Participatory Irrigation Management and Integrated Water Resource Management as part of the design process for the proposed Orissa Integrated Irrigated Agriculture and Water Management Project. The objective of the workshop was to share experiences from around the country regarding major issues in water management

Sustainable Sanitation Programme in Sri Lanka

This was presented during the 28th WEDC Conference Kolkata (Calcutta), India, 2002 by Ananda Dissanayake, Community Development Specialist (ADB Consultant) who assisted the Third Water Supply and Sanitation Project, Rural Water Supply Division, NWS&DB, Ratmalana, Sri Lanka.