Annex III.

WHO'S DOING WHAT? ORGANIZATIONS SUPPORTING PARTICIPATION
Various donors and organizations have been experimenting with the concept of participation for a number of years. For some, participation is not simply a technique or approach to be applied at different stages of the project cycle; it is also a philosophy about how development is approached and implemented.

This section seeks to summarize key organizational thinking on the subject of participatory development and evaluation. It should be noted that for most donors, participatory evaluation is relatively new and challenges conventional modes of evaluation with its emphasis on outside external experts. There is much work to be done before participatory evaluation methods and approaches are mainstreamed into the operational processes of organizations. More time will also be needed to change attitudes, approaches and institutional cultures.

Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)
Support for participatory development has been concentrated primarily at the project level. The creation of umbrella mechanisms or microrealization projects has permitted the funding of numerous discreet activities at the grass-roots level that promote and foster participation. Workshops have also been launched to try to introduce staff to PRA techniques and approaches. The agency is currently seeking to address participation at the policy and programme levels in a more consistent manner. CIDA is also exploring, in cooperation with the World Bank Inter-Agency Group on Participation, the institutional changes that are required to mainstream participatory approaches within donor organizations.

Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
In 1992, FAO put forward a Plan of Action on People's Participation with the aim of ensuring the "active participation of people in the achievement of sustainable development... Without participation, rural development initiatives are unlikely to be sustainable in the long run and rural inequities are unlikely to be addressed" (FAO: 1992:5). FAO has established a People's Participation Service within the Division of Women and Participation. This service, established in 1992, has built on the work pioneered in the mid-1970s, initially through the Rural Organization Action Programme and Small Farmer Development Programmes and in the 1980s through the People's Participation Programme, which aimed at promoting self-managed and self-reliant groups at the community level.

Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ).
Since the mid-1980s, GTZ has spearheaded a number of efforts aimed at increasing participation. The ZOPP method was introduced into GTZ's project cycle management approach. This method seeks stakeholder participation in the planning and monitoring processes of projects and is now used with other methods and tools, such as PRA. Regional Learning Groups on Participation have been created with a view toward gaining a better understanding of what is happening at the local level and how the organization can be adapted to promote participation at the project and societal levels. Numerous projects have been initiated that have adopted bottom-up approaches aimed at initiating ownership and the self-organization capacity of the community.

International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)
IFAD has been concerned with participation of the rural poor over the past ten years. People's participation is viewed both as a means and an end to poverty alleviation. Apart from believing that "investing in the production potential of the poor can bring high returns", IFAD views participation as a catalyst for self-supporting and sustainable development. IFAD has invested
over $2.6 billion in self-help, participatory development projects targeted at small-holder farmers, the landless, rural women, fishermen, nomadic herdsmen and agro-pastoralists

(Lineberry, 1989).

International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED)
Located in England, IIED is a policy research institute linking environmental concerns with the development needs of resource-poor people in the South and with other global environment and development priorities. The Institute has been instrumental in developing and spreading participatory methodologies and approaches. Since 1988, it has put out a series of user-friendly RRA notes, which are now called PLA Notes-Notes on Participatory Learning and Action. Development practitioners from around the world contribute to the notes by sharing their experiences, conceptual reflections and methodological innovations.

Overseas Development Administration (ODA)
For ODA of England, participation is seen as a central element in achieving effective, sustainable development. ODA is concerned with how to involve other key secondary and primary stakeholders in the monitoring and evaluation process and developing systems and procedures for more systematic assessment of impact. The agency has recently published a number of guides that look at measuring participation, doing a stakeholder analysis, and enhancing stakeholder participation in aid activities.

Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA)
PRIA is an NGO based in India that promotes people-centred development, participatory research and participatory development. As an educational support institution, PRIA offers training in participatory development and participatory methodology to grass-roots organizations and to personnel from bilateral and multilateral organizations and from government and semi-government institutions. PRIA conducts participatory training of trainers and participatory evaluations for grass-roots organizations.

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
UNDP has defined grass-roots participation as "a process whose objective is to enable people to initiate action for self-reliant development and acquire

the ability to influence and manage change within their society". The promotion of participatory approaches and empowerment of people are key intervention points for UNDP activities. Establishing close partnerships with NGOs, community-based organizations (CBOs) and other civil society groups is an essential element of external support. This builds on earlier efforts to promote regional and global programmes that seek to promote participation at the grass-roots level.

United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
UNICEF advocates a people-centered, poverty alleviation approach to environment and development. Participation is seen as key to empowering people to take control of their lives and to act to meet their own needs.

United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
Participation is a key dimension of the Agency's efforts to redesign government. A systemic approach is currently being used in redesigning systems and operations so that they are more responsive to USAID customers­the poor. Participation is seen as essential for moving from macro-management, top-down approaches to those that empower and enable. USAID holds a series of informal, monthly meetings on participatory development for its staff. Speakers, who come from both inside and outside the agency, are invited to share their experiences. A Senior Advisor specifically promotes the integration of participation into Agency activities and acts as a focal point at USAID.

World Bank
The World Bank defines participation "as a process through which stakeholders influence and share control over development initiatives, and the decisions and resources which affect them". A Learning Group on Participatory Development, established four years ago with representation from all the Bank's departments, has led the Bank to adopt an action plan that advocates greater stakeholder participation in all aspects of the Bank's operations. Participatory development is increasingly being looked at as essential for achieving greater efficiency and sustainability in Bank operations. The recent World Bank Participation Sourcebook provides an overview of the Bank's experience as well as methods and tools that enable the poor to participate. The Bank has also piloted several beneficiary assessment and stakeholder evaluations and supported participatory approaches in Bank operational activities.

At an international level, the World Bank is spearheading an inter-agency group on participation composed of six sub-groups: institutional changes and mainstreaming of participatory approaches; project preparation and implementation; training and learning; monitoring and evaluation; information dissemination; and country-level capacity-building.

World Neighbors
World Neighbors is a small development agency with an overall budget of $3.2 million supporting programmes in approximately 22 countries that seek to "strengthen the capacity of marginalized communities to meet their basic needs". World Neighbors has been interested in participatory development and evaluation since the 1980s and published its own handbook on self-evaluation. More recently, World Neighbors has been concerned with strengthening its ability to learn from its experience, particularly in terms of "strengthening community capacity" to meet basic needs, and to use this experience to influence peer agencies and policy-makers. World Neighbors has been applying PRA techniques, such as social mapping, wealth ranking, time-line, household composition and identification of women of reproductive age, to its development work.