**3**

# 2. PARTICIPATION AND DEVELOPMENT

The direct involvement of individuals in the resource allocation decisions which affect their lives has become a central theme of development. Thus, the "broader participation of all people in productive processes and a more equitable sharing of their benefits" is a major thrust of the Development Assistance Committee's Policy Statement on Development Cooperation in the l990s.1/ This conception of development reflects promising policy trends in developing countries. The push towards broad-based participation is linked to the recent reorientation of policy towards poverty reduction; private sector development, human capital formation and environmental protection. Evaluation findings confirm that projects developed with sensitivity to social and cultural realities are more likely to deliver productive results. Beneficiary participation and community involvement have begun to permeate development assistance programs. The transition to democracy in Latin America, the collapse of communism in the former Soviet Union, and the political liberalization emerging in Africa have induced greater popular participation on a global scale. So is the realization that the shortcomings of deveiopment in the 197Cs and 1980s will only be overcome through strategies which embody sustained adjustment and sound economic management.

Thus, the advent of participatory development will imply changes in development practice as well as in the focus of development research, operational evaluation and policy dialogues.

# **Development Theory**

Participatory development also coincides with the emergence of human development as a counterpoint to traditional theories which purport to describe vast societal and economic changes through simplistic equations. Stripped to their essentials, neoclassical models rely on a production function which relates output to the amount of capital and labor employed. Empirical efforts to validate these models have yielded discouraging results. Typically, half or less of observed economic expansion can be explained by labor and capital increments. In addition, capital intensive patterns of development have done little to achieve the fundamental objective of development-poverty reduction. The new growth economics 2/ incorporate human capital and technological progress as distinct factors of production. They recognize the role of people, knowledge and ideas in the development process, thus inviting non economists to trespass into development economics.

# Lessons of Experience

At the micro level, project evaluation studies have unearthed high failure rates, where beneficiary involvement is lacking and organizational capacities are overestimated. The importance of appropriate policy environments in determining project outcomes is well established. Project preparation, appraisal and implementation techniques are being retooled to incorporate upto-date participatory techniques.

Equally, country dialogues are being affected. The excesses of central planning and State domination of productive sectors are now widely recognized. Conversely, triumphalism about instant market solutions to each and every development problem has become muted. The precise delineation of laws and regulations, the sequencing of reform, its scope and the institutional development strategies which must follow policy adjustment receive tailor-made solutions. A wide