It works better in some areas than others. It will proceed at different speeds in different countries. Its form and extent will vary from one stage of development to another. Benefits and costs are also relative. Increased development effectiveness is one of the practical benefits of participation.
Participation sometimes entails painstaking collaboration.
There is the difficulty of ensuring that the process is not captured by a small group of intermediaries intent on advancing their own agenda. There is the risk of raising expectations that may prove impossible to fulfill. In addition, there can be cultural and political constraints. In a Bank-supported project in one Latin American country, for example, the government was extremely suspicious of campesino organizations as representing opposition political groups. But we should be equally candid in recognizing the costs of not undertaking participation.