Urban Community Development (UCD) People participation is very important in Community Development.

1. PEOPLES
PARTICIPATION-
UCD
Prof.Sakthi Devi
Dept of Social Work
Chennai

2. ARISTOTLE OBSERVED THAT IF
LIBERTY AND EQUALITY ARE TO BE
FOUND IN DEMOCRACY, PEOPLE NEED
TO BE INVOLVED.’

3. Participation -Definition
■ According to United Nations Development Programme (1993) “participation means that
people are closely involved in the economic, sociocultural and political processes that
affect their lives.”5 Participation in development is usually said to mean the full
involvement of the people in development which affect their lives regardless of gender,
race, age, class, sexual orientation or disability.
■ According to International Labour Organization, participation involved active collectively
organized and continuous efforts by the people themselves in setting the goals, pooling
the resources together and taking actions which aim at improving their living conditions

4. Participation in Development
■ United Nation’s resolutions show that there are three basic ways of popular
participation in development. These are
■ a) Mass sharing of the benefits of development.
■ b) Mass contribution to the development efforts.
■ c) Decision making in development
■ Midgley, Hall, Hardiman and Narine (1986) define community participation as
the direct involvement of ordinary people in local affairs. Community
participation can be summed up as a means of educating citizens in order to
increase their competence

5. The ladder
of citizen
participation
The ladder of citizen participation
(shown below) has eight steps, each
representing a different level of
participation. From bottom to top, the
steps explain the extent of citizen
participation and how much real power
citizens have to determine the process
and outcomes.

6. Bottom to Top
■ At the lowest end of the ladder, forms of non-participation are used by powerful
actors to impose their agendas. Participation as tokenism occurs when
participants hear about interventions and may say something about them, which
power holders denote as ‘input’. However, the voices of participants will not
have any effect on the intervention; thus participation does not lead to change.
At the higher end of the ladder, participation is about citizens having more power
to negotiate and change the status quo. Their voices are heard and responded
to.

7. The forms
and
functions of
participation
■ Sarah White distinguishes four forms of
participation: nominal, instrumental,
representative and transformative. She
reasons that each form has different
functions, and argues actors ‘at the top’
(more powerful) and ‘at the grass roots’
(less powerful) have different perceptions
of and interests in each form.
Nominal participation
Instrumental participation
Representative participation
Transformative participation

8. ■ Nominal participation is often
used by more powerful actors to
give legitimacy to development
plans. Less powerful people
become involved in it through a
desire for inclusion. But it is little
more than a display, and does not
result in change
■ Instrumental participation sees
community participation being
used as a means towards a stated
end – often the efficient use of the
skills and knowledge of
community members in project
implementation.

9. ■ Representative
participation involves giving
community members a voice in
the decision-making and
implementation process of
projects or policies that effect
them. For the more powerful,
representative participation
increases the chances of their
intervention being sustainable; for
the less powerful, it may offer a
chance for leverage.
■ Transformative
participation results in the
empowerment of those involved,
and as a result alters the
structures and institutions that
lead to marginalisation and
exclusion

10. Types of Participation
■ D. P. Fauri describes 4 types of participation. These are:
■ 1. Democratic participation
■ 2. Social protest participation
■ 3. Community development participation and
■ 4. Programme participation

11. Democratic
participation
■ Democratic participation may be
called political participation. It
is the basis of democracy and
political modernization or
development. According to S. P.
Huntington and John M.
Nelson, “political participation
is the activity by private citizens
designed to influence
governmental decision making.”
Social participation
■ It includes all types of
participation. Social participation
sometimes takes the form of social
protest. The deprived section
people have less access to the
center of authority to influence the
decision making process in
government and politics. In this
situation social protest can be an
effective form of communication
between social and political
system.

12. Administrative
participation
■ Various scholars called it in
different forms as
“programme participation”
and “community
development”. It is used
synonymously with decision
making process. Such as
policy planning, programme
planning, implementation
and evaluation of policies
and programmes
Community
development
participation
■ Community development is the
process by which the people
combine their efforts with a view to
improving the socio-economic and
cultural life of the communities.
Community development in South
Asian countries primarily mean
encouraging rural people to become
self reliant making them capable of
enlighten their participation in
socio-economic development and
nation building measures through
mobilization and utilization of
resources.

13. Importance of Peoples Participation
■ According to WHO (2002),
community participation helps
communities to target resources
more effectively and efficiently,
allowing people to become more
responsive to community needs
and take responsibility.
Communities have a wealth of
untapped resources and energy
that can be harnessed and
mobilized through community
participation.
■ Community participation ensures
ownership and sustainability of
programs, provides a source of
information, knowledge as well as
experience and eliminates
deficiencies in the society,
empowering members to put
emphasis on problem solving
(Christensen and Robinson 1980)

14. Importance of Peoples Participation
■ People's participation andinvolvement is an important factor for the successful implementation of any
development activities. Specially, in decision making, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and sharing
thebenefits of the developmentprogrammes, people's participationand involvement is necessary.
■ People’s participation impact on local governance elements and sustainable local
development.
■ Local people get empowered to raise their voices in government decisions that affect
their lives
■ Participatory decision provides more appropriate outcomes and the highest use of any
development program, which enhances economic growth. These economic
improvements then reduce poverty and enhance equity among all comunity members
■ To get local services people’s participation is important
■ To improve Local self governance

15. Problems of people’s participation
in Urban Development
■ Lack of systematic planning
■ Missing link with local people /beneficiaries
■ No information provided to the beneficiaries
■ Inadequate information
■ Unavailability of information
■ Manipulation of people’s participation
■ Lack of fund and influence in fund utilization

16. Hinderance or factors affecting People
from participating in development
activities
■ Physical health
■ Attitude
■ Lack of support
■ Lack of knowledge
■ Lack of awareness
■ Poor communication and information sharing
■ Powerful people wont allow powerless people to participate(Domination)
■ Lack of financial resources
■ Lack of Interest/ Lack of Trust
■ unfair distribution of benefits in the community

17. Methods or ways of involving people in
Development processes
■ Promote active and representative participation toward enabling all community
members to meaningfully influence the decisions that affect their lives
■ Giving them an awareness on the importance of participation
■ strategy was to be responsive and address questions specifically, reach out to the community,
and conduct additional public meetings.
■ Engage community members in learning about and understanding community issues,
and the economic, social, environmental, political, psychological, and other impacts
associated with alternative courses of action
■ Work actively to enhance the leadership capacity of community members, leaders, and
groups within the community
■ Be open to using the full range of action strategies to work toward the long-term
sustainability and well- being of the community

18. ■ Use particular sources and influential persons and organizations to reach
the specific groups you hope to involve
■ Reach out to those who can benefit and contribute (those we most want to
involve) through people who can connect with and persuade others
■ Use particular sources and influential persons and organizations to reach
the specific groups you hope to involve
■ Recruit and Training and support the volunteers
■ Create the ways for Self Help
■ Plan activities or meetings or Trainings in the same area or locality so that
people can easily come and take part.

19. Conclusion
■ Community strategies and initiatives are only successful when the local
communities are fully involved in planning and implementation of such
initiatives. Participatory community initiatives bring psychological and Social
satisfaction to members of the local communities, giving them a sense of
ownership to community initiatives while tapping into the unlimited potential of
skills and knowledge from local communities.