What is participation?

Mark Reed

What are stakeholders?• Anyone who can affect or be affected by a decision or

action(after Freeman, 1984)

What is stakeholder participation?• A process where stakeholders (e.g. individuals,

groups and organisations) choose to take an active role in making decisions that affect them

(After Wandersman 1981; Wilcox 2003; Rowe et al. 2004)

What is community planning?• A strategic planning process in which a range of

stakeholders participate to plan, provide and promote the future well-being of their area

• Rural community planning is simply community planning in rural contexts

• Understanding who has a stake in rural planning and working with them is an essential part of any planning process…

Different levels/types of participation in community planning

The ladder of participation (Arnstein, 1969)

Different levels/types of participationThe wheel of participation (Wilcox, 2003)

Different levels/types of participationCommunication flows (Rowe & Frewer, 2000)

Facilitators Stakeholders

Facilitators Stakeholders

Facilitators Stakeholders

Communication

Consultation

Participation

Why engage stakeholders?• Participation is increasingly embedded in policy for

the normative & pragmatic reasons discussed• A democratic right e.g. Aarhus Convention

• Higher quality and more durable decisions

Challenges and disillusionment• Empowering marginalised may interact with existing power

structures to cause unintended consequences

• Group dynamics may create “dysfunctional consensus”

• Consultation fatigue as poorly run processes fail to deliver change

Evidence for claims of participation?•Few claims have been tested, but there is firm

evidence that effective participation can enhance:• Quality of decisions: due to more comprehensive

information inputs

• Durability of decisions: due to stakeholder buy-in

•But, decision quality and durability are highly dependant on the quality of the process leading to them

Tools vs overall process

• Participation is more than a collection of tools and methods for engaging stakeholders

1. Stakeholder participation needs to be underpinned by a philosophy emphasing empowerment, equity, trust and learning

•Empowering stakeholders:• Ensuring participants have the power to really influence the

decision

• Ensuring participants have the technical capability to engage effectively with the decision

•Overcome power inequality between participants

•Facilitating iterative and two-way learning

2. Where relevant, stakeholder participation should be considered as early as possible and throughout the process

• Involvement typically at implementation and increasing in monitoring

•Needs to be from concept development and planning, throughout process

3. Relevant stakeholders need to be represented systematically

•Stakeholder analysis (later)

4. Clear objectives for the participatory process need to be agreed among stakeholders at the outset

• “As with any analysis, well-formulated questions are more likely to generate robust answers” (Lynam et al. 2007; online)

•May require negotiation and trade-offs

• If goals developed through dialogue, ownership and partnership building more likely, and outcomes likely to be more relevant to stakeholder needs & priorities

5. Methods should be selected and tailored to the decision-making context, considering the objectives, type of participants and appropriate level of engagement

•Set objectives, then decide level of engagement, then select stakeholders, & only then select tools

•Adapt methods to changing contexts e.g. literacy

•Adapt methods to stage in process e.g. getting engagement versus evaluating outcomes

•Need a range of tools so you can adapt

6. Highly skilled facilitation is essential

•The outcome of any participatory process is far more sensitive to the manner in which it is conducted than the tools that are used

•Same tool, different facilitator = different outcome

•Skills in managing groups and difficult situations sensitively

•Techniques to help (later)

7. Local and scientific knowledges should be integrated

•Stakeholder processes need to be informed by scientific analysis: the “know-why”

•Comparing/integrating with local knowledge (“know-how”) can investigate uncertainties and assumptions and develop a more rigorous understanding

•More robust decisions

8. Participation needs to be institutionalised

•Many limitations in participatory processes have roots in top-down organisational cultures e.g. non-negotiable positions

•Decision-makers must commit to resource as-yet unknown outcomes: uncomfortable

•Create organisational cultures that facilitate processes where goals are negotiated and outcomes are necessarily uncertain

•Risky, but worth it?

Further Reading

Reed MS (2008) Stakeholder participation for environmental management: a literature review. Biological Conservation 141: 2417–2431