Participation...

Unique Collocates by Organisation Type

Shared Collocates by Organisation Type

• The studies carried out during the Global Study showed that in unstable situations and violent contexts, the promotion of participation requires great care. In addition to the question of "why" participation should be incorporated, it is important to also consider "how", "where" and "when", as well as possible counter-arguments. The majority of actors agree about the importance of more participation on the part of the affected population, at least, once the emergency relief phase is over. However, opinions vary amongst beneficiaries themselves, because they are often suspicious that there are hidden agendas behind the rhetoric of participation. Each organisation's institutional culture, its perception of its place in the relief-development continuum, power stakes and the role of donors are among the determining factors of a participation "system" which has yet to be clarified. The "tyranny of participation" was how one author put it. The participatory tools contained in the Participation Handbook come from the field of development and have been adapted to take into account the specific constraints and dangers of humanitarian contexts: difficult access, limited time, insecurity, increased vulnerability, etc. Participation should obviously not be seen as a miracle recipe which can ensure that programmes are relevant, effective and efficient. If implemented in an appropriate and sensitive way, this approach can have a very strong impact both in terms of quality and downward accountability. As such, engaging with the population is absolutely critical!

• But critics see participatory development as flawed, idealistic and naïve. A key articulation of this view is Participation: the new tyranny? (Cooke and Kothari, 2001), which challenges the notion that participation is a universal good. It argues that in practice, participation has not promoted the liberation and redistribution of power in the aid relationship that its rhetoric suggests, but rather largely maintains existing power imbalances and masks them with the rhetoric and techniques of participation. Participation: the new tyranny? (Cooke and Kothari, 2001) challenges assumptions about the ability of top-down development organisations to transform themselves into bottom-up facilitators of locally grounded processes. How, it asks, can local knowledge and capacities transform and transcend bureaucratic organisations whose primary stakeholders are not truly those affected by crises and disasters?

• The political critique argues that participation, as a process that seeks change, is inherently political and thus is alien, if not opposed, to the principles and aims of humanitarian action. The philosophical critique maintains that engagement has become a means to reinforce rather than resolve power imbalances within the humanitarian/development sector. This critique suggests that the engagement debate is useless unless there is a readiness to question and tackle the fundamental structures of the humanitarian system.

• External actors often focus on quantifying the results of peace-building. Agreeing on what is a legitimate result is therefore crucial. Achievements cannot be fully understood if they are not seen as a contribution to creating the foundations for: trust, reconciliation, greater confidence in public institutions, a better connection between leaders and people, improved security, freedom of speech, participation in policy debates and a broad-based consensus. These factors create a cycle of peace and stability that over time helps a country emerge from conflict.

• Issue-based participation can help to broaden coalitions among different communities to influence decision-making and higher levels of government. It is harder to ensure political interest and wide participation in strategic and long-term policy-making and planning, which seems remote to many citizens, and which has time horizons longer than typical political terms of office.

• It is questionable whether the "spontaneous participation by people" approach can be achieved in development projects. Spontaneous participation in the execution of projects fails if participatory committees lack practical authority as people's decision-making bodies.

• Civilian political participation in repressive states is very low because the population confronts governments and institutions with distrust and scepticism. Repressive governments often consider promoting democracy an illegal external interference and resist it. Transitions to democracy should be slow, peaceful, initiated and supported by indigenous people. When there is any question of participating in politics, this is done outside customary channels.

• Despite the widespread recognition of their field-based and context-specific knowledge in conflict prevention, there is a lack of space for CSO input and engagement with IGOs and RIGOs, as well as formal conflict prevention and peace-building processes. While CSO participation in global policy debate on social and economic issues has taken on structured and sometimes institutionalised formats, CSO involvement in the deliberation of strategies to address human security related or specific conflict situations is still unusual. Decision-makers in the international system have historically perceived conflict situations as primarily if not exclusively the domain of state and intergovernmental actors, who are responsible for maintaining security.

• In Burkina Faso, new wells may stop operating because of the lack of leadership by water management committees in charge of managing each well and the low awareness of the need for participation by local residents.

• In 2013 GISWatch looked at women's rights and gender issues through an ICT lens. The report sparked a public debate about internet freedom, because the internet has strengthened women's participation but also led to increased digital stalking and sexual violence.

• As human beings, women and men have an innate and equal right to achieve a life of material and moral dignity, the ultimate goal of human development. Arab society does not acknowledge the true extent of women's participation in social and economic activities and in the production of the components of human well being, and it does not reward them adequately for such participation. The spread of the concept of "women's empowerment" in the Arab region has excited the rancour of certain socio-political forces. They have tended to see it as "imposed" by the West and not emerging from either the realities or needs of Arab societies, which are based on the entrenched role of the family as society's basic building block.

• Space for women candidates may be particularly squeezed in unstable or hotly contested political environments, although in any system, if parties are not supportive of gender equality and women candidates, women's representation will be low. Women in some Asia-Pacific countries have viewed parties with skepticism, seeing them as ineffective in advancing women's participation or campaign promises of gender equality. In Pakistan, women's activists have argued fervently against applying quotas for women through parties, maintaining that this will constrain women to parties with patriarchal structures and that are weak and corrupt in some cases as well. They have demanded direct elections instead. Women's ability to appeal directly to the electorate was clear in Bangladesh's 2008 national election, where 19 of the 64 successful women were directly elected by voters, without assistance from party quotas.

• Discrimination in employment and wages plays a part in restricting women's participation in economic life. Laws concerning labour and personal status are among the most daunting obstacles to Arab women's participation in economic life. The failure to use human capital, especially highly educated women, curbs economic development and squanders important energies and investments.

• Even tightening definitions and improving the quality of statistical operations lead nonetheless to massive variances in estimating the extent of women's participation in the economy. If available statistics underestimate women's participation in economic activity, imagine how much more they fail to grasp the value of their contributions, direct and indirect, to human welfare, which cannot be achieved without women's participation in human society – and that with a multiplier effect that adds to the contribution of men. Of course, this does not mean that women's capacities should be limited to household work. Rather, it means that women's contributions, as with any human contributions to the collective welfare, whether inside or outside the home, should be recognised as having a value beyond narrow monetary terms.

• Decision making on themes for international celebrations often excludes rights holders as the themes are decided for them. When concerned about empowerment and participation , questions arise about how power is used and promoted inside these efforts, who sets the agenda, who carries strategies out, on what issues and using what approaches?. Contrary to rights-based approaches, rights holders have not driven the agenda for collective struggle for change.

• Despite these important State accomplishments, often termed “developmentalist” or “State feminist,” such policies were criticised by some as top-down gifts prepared without the participation of their supposed beneficiaries. The latter, however, were the same parties that were capable of protecting and developing them. Critics also contended that, at the same time as the State was granting women such recognition in the name of modernisation, it was working to destroy their unions and independent associations and either co-opt women within its executive framework or marginalise them.

• The challenges facing engagement are not exclusively practical or operational. Some critiques challenge the idea of engagement itself and its relevance (specifically, the elements of participation and ownership) to humanitarian activities. Three of the most relevant critiques focus on technical, political and philosophical issues. The technical critique argues that in rapid-onset disasters top-down approaches save the most lives, at least in the first few days or weeks, because they allow the unencumbered use of technology – everything from military-style emergency medicine to humanitarian drones – by the military, government, local authorities, media, businesses, and local and international aid agencies.

• While disaster risk reduction and health emergency preparedness programmes focus on community participation, humanitarian response demands immediate, life-saving interventions with apparently little space for participatory processes. Nonetheless, the need for immediate response is not incompatible with the concept of community participation . The community's involvement in assessing immediate needs and deciding response priorities is, in fact, increasingly part of humanitarian response strategies. It is a myth that populations affected by crises are too shocked and helpless to take responsibility for their own survival. On the contrary, many people find new strength to address urgent and pre-existing health needs. In the aftermath of an emergency, the local population is almost always the first to respond to immediate, life-saving needs.

• The humbling experience of the flood disaster that struck the Western Balkans in 2014 taught us an invaluable lesson about the importance of bottom-up approaches and the value of civic participation and the role of community and solidarity in action planning. The burning question now, two years after the floods, is how to learn collectively from such a successful community based response to disasters in the region and most importantly how to apply the lessons learned to strengthen DRR. How can we scale up and capitalise on such an unprecedented engagement of women, youth and minorities to ensure effective, inclusive and sustainable approaches in the future? How can such a spontaneous outburst of human solidarity be systematised within communities into sustainable systems for future use? How can such organic deployment and transformative use of technology and social networks be translated into inexpensive community sourced early warning systems and emergency response tools? These questions remain, but high broadband internet and mobile penetration combined with the soaring absorption of social networks in the region has certainly proven to be a strong enabler.

• Most anti-corruption programmes in the country target the strengthening of government institutions, starting from the establishment of new institutions to the managerial reform of existing ones. This may arise from the largely government-to-government funding for good governance programmes. But this sets aside the strengthening of social institutions and expansion of public participation channels. In this case, corruption seems to be regarded as a managerial problem or failure of government – judiciary, bureaucracy, fiscal systems, parliament – instead of as a result of imbalanced relations among the State, society and business. Nothing is wrong with the objectives of reforming government institutions. However, with policymakers who have low political will and limited ownership of a reform agenda, this approach faces a huge challenge in implementation and has led to democratic corruption.

• Some countries have tried to exclude the poor from cities by implementing anti-urban policies or by focusing on rural poverty in the hope that this will discourage rural–urban migration. Because of the failure of these policies, it is now clear that urban planning should strive to reduce poverty through propoor programmes that emphasise equity, participation and social justice. Planning can address the problem of slums and informal settlements through upgrading programmes, which entail the provision or improvement of infrastructure and basic services such as water, sanitation, garbage collection, storm drainage, street lighting, paved footpaths and streets.

• Young people should have a greater voice in decision-making at local, national, regional and international levels, and how Member States can set up appropriate mechanisms to enable young people's meaningful participation in peace processes. Young people are often see as a "problems to be solved", but should be seem as partners to work with towards achieving sustainable peace. The pervasiveness of stereotypes and policy myths about youth not only obstructs young people's ability to contribute to peace and security but may actually act as a driver for the minority of young people who do engage in violence.

• In May, the London School of Economics hosted its annual public panel discussion organised in cooperation with the ICRC. Debate on this occasion focused on the need for a legal framework regulating participation of private security companies in military action and peacekeeping operations overseas. The All-Party Parliamentary Group and similar bodies invited the ICRC spokesperson to give presentations on the role of the ICRC in specific areas of armed conflict.

• It is also important that sustainable shelter is maintained within the context of local economic development and poverty reduction over the long term. A recent review of shelter reconstruction identifies much scope for positive reform and innovation. The review argues for flexibility and the participation of all stakeholders, particularly beneficiary communities, if housing reconstruction is to fulfil its potential as a mechanism for enhancing social and economic development. To do this, agencies should try to avoid standard one-size-fits-all approaches to housing.

• The targeting of the Fourth Estate and modern means of communication has brought many in the region to see the need for alliances between the media and NGOs. There are new forms of resistance and activism that rely on interaction and cooperation between the two in order to create democratic consciousness, oppose corruption, and deepen and spread the concept of participation in responsibility and decision-making.

• When humanitarians want to adopt a participatory approach, they often have to go through a "cultural revolution" which involves listening, showing humility and empathy, questioning their own ideas and giving up some of their power. Information sharing, transparency and responsibility towards aid beneficiaries is an essential part of both theoretical debate and operational practices with regard to participation in humanitarian action. Even when it is difficult to implement participatory practices, it is still possible to ensure that local people are well-informed about what is happening, but this is rarely done. And yet, sharing information is both an important sign of respect and an essential factor of security for staff.