The Role Of Community Participation In Development Planning And Project Management

While the rate of urbanisation in the developing world has increased dramatically over the past 20 years, governments' capacity to support urban growth has, in many cases, failed to keep up with this trend. Non-governmental organisations working in the field have long advocated community management of the urban environment as the best solution to this problem, and there is now a growing consensus that the answer does, indeed, lie with local communities. Yet there is still little understanding of what constitutes meaningful and effective community participation, or how it may be achieved in such a complex operating environment. Sharing the City gives a comprehensive account of urban community participation, both in theory and practice. It first presents a wide-ranging analysis of the issues, and develops a participatory framework for urban management. Using case studies and existing examples from around the world, and drawing on lessons learned from previous experience, it then develops the theory into a practical working model. Effective participatory urban management calls for a fundamental rethink on the part of all the actors involved - from local authorities and development agencies, through local and international NGOs, to the community-based organisations and the communities themselves. In redefining their roles and relationships, Sharing the City presents a new and radically different, yet viable and effective, approach to the concept of urban management.

Draws on the experience of Bulgaria to study the problems encountered in financing government operations in the transition economies. This report describes Bulgaria's experience in addressing external shocks to its economy and large declines in the ratio of tax revenues to GDP. The book provides broad coverage of the problems many other governments face in transforming their systems of taxation in the transition to a market economy. Chapters discuss taxation and incentives, government and households, indirect taxation, and financing of social expenditures. Attention is also drawn to the implementation of a value-added tax and to policies on fuel taxes. The report facilitates an understanding of the differences between actual and optimal policies as governments seek to establish a framework for resolving their budgetary problems in the transition.

This Collection Of Essays Seeks To Explore Common Lessons From Political Sociology And Development Studies And In This Process Tries To Resolve The Tension Between The Author S Academic And Practitioner Worldviews. The Author Has Tried To Highlight One Principal Concern In This Volume That Development Is More Often Than Not A Multicultural Construct Of Everyday Politics That Is Context-Bound And Predicated By Statements Of Informed Choices On The Part Of The Stakeholders And/Or Beneficiaries Involved. So Development Is More About Who Gets What, When, How, Where And Why In Terms Of An Authoritative Allocation Of Values That Is Underpinned By Definitions Of Stakeholders Or Beneficiaries Or Affected Persons. Such Definitions Are Power Statements That Are Scripted By Agencies That Generally Tend To View Development As An Unevenness That May Be Restructured In Terms Of Human And Physical Engineering As A Level Playing Ground Where Players Are Equipped With Uniform Access To Resources And Similar Opportunities. This Is, However, A Contentious Issue Without Any Simple Answers. Such An Interventionist Approach May Not Always Be Sponsored By The Mode Of Production Or The Marketplace Of Politics That By Definition Thrives On Discrepancies And Discriminations Among Unequally Affected Persons. The Present Work Will Be Of Interest To Political Sociologists, Economic And Social Historians, Development Consultants, Non-Profit Professionals, Social Workers, Grassroots Activists, Urban Planners, Academics As Well As Researchers Working In The Development Sector.

Quality of life (QOL) research in tourism has gained much momentum over the last two decades. Academics working in this area research issues related to tourists and host communities. Practitioners are becoming increasingly interested in understanding the science that allows them to develop better marketing and managerial programs designed to enhance the quality of life of tourists. Tourism bureaus and government agencies are increasingly interested in issues of sustainable tourism, specifically in understanding and measuring the impact of tourism on the quality of life of the residents of the host communities. This handbook covers all relevant topics and is divided into two parts: research relating to travelers/tourists, and research relating to the residents of host communities. It is the only state-of-the-art reference book in its field and will prove invaluable to academics interested in QOL research, as well as tourism practitioners interested in applying the science of QOL in the tourism industry.

This paper reviews the World Bank's experience with community participation (CP) in a sample of its projects selected from three different sectors; urban housing, population, health and nutrition (PHN), and irrigation. The sample was chosen on a judgmental basis and consisted of forty projects which were known to have the potential for the use of CP or incorporated it in their strategies, and ten successful projects from the same sectors which did not make use of CP. The focus of the paper is on the approaches to participation employed by the first set of projects and the lessons to be learned from their experience. An analysis of the second set of projects sheds light on the reasons why community participation was neglected by them.

An anthropological study of the failure of community participation in health-care in Costa Rica.