Preparation of strategic development programmes: is participation the right way?

If you want to run a successful regional policy you need to behave similar to the company manager: you need to have vision, mission, strategy and action plans. In Croatia, during the past 13 years, more than 100 official national and regional documents called "strategies", "programmes" or "plans" have been produced. Therefore, it would be reasonable to assume that Croatia has an extensive experience in the production of such documents. Nevertheless, in the last couple of years Croatia has and is still receiving international and financial assistance for the production of development projects. Why? Although many, too many strategic documents were produced, once when the supervisory body adopts such documents, they usually end up in somebody's draw and without any repercussion stay there. Through the international assistance a new, participative methodology in regional development planning was applied with three regional programmes as results. The first section of this paper briefly explains the old practice and distinctive features of the participative methodology. The major part of the paper is focusing on the analysis of the three pilot programmes: Island of Šolta, Town of Virovitica and Town of Samobor. The idea behind these analyses is the critical overview and evaluation of the participative methodology implementation successfulness regional development planning. Although the analysis indicate that there are certain objective as well as subjective obstacles for sound implementation of participative methodology, the three pilot programmes clearly mark the new approach to regional development planning in Croatia. The last section of the paper is providing recommendations for the participation methodology future improvement in regional planning. Key words: regional development, strategic planning, participative methodology

Forms of Participatory Democracy: An Analytical Framework Based on the Experiences of Bolivia, Brazil and Colombia

Based on the experiences of Colombia, Brazil and Bolivia, the paper proposes a general analytical framework for participatory mechanisms. The analysis is oriented to detect the incentives in each system and the ethics and behavior sustaining them. It investigates about the sustainability of participatory democracy, in the face of tensions with representative democracy. The article presents a theoretical framework built from these experiences of institutional design and political practice, and confronts it against the theoretical conceptualizations of participatory democracy in Bobbio, Sartori, Elster and Nino, among others. In this context, different ways in wich those schemes can be inserted in the political systems become apparent, along with the variables that result from combinig elements of direct, representative and participatory democracy.********************************************************************************************************A partir de la experienca de Colombia, Brasil y Bolivia, el artículo propone un marco de análisis general de esquemas de democracia participativa. El análisis está orientado a detectar los incentivos presentes en cada uno de los sistemas y la ética y el comportamiento que sostiene estas instituciones. Investiga además su sostenibilidad al enfrentar tensiones en su interacción con la democracia representativa. El artículo presenta un marco teórico a partir de estas experiencias de diseño institucional y prácticas políticas, y su comparación con las conceptualizaciones teóricas de la democracia participativa de Bobbio, Sartori, Elster y Nino, entre otros. En este análisis se resaltan las diferentes maneras en que tales sistemas políticos son introducidos, así como las variables que resultan de la combinación entre democraica directa, participativa y representativa.democracy, participation, participatory budgets, local government

Educative experiences through cooperation for development activities

Ending nineties, UPC decided to push a Development Education program embedded in its usual education activities, jointly with campus-based co-operation for development groups. The proposal was initially included in a four-year university strategic plan, and it has been politically prioritized since then. The origin and main characteristics of the program 2000-2005 are presented here (see [1] and references therein for more details).Postprint (published version

Strengthening governance through engaged societies : lessons from the implementation of poverty reduction strategies

In December 1999, the Boards of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund approved a new approach to their relations with low-income countries. The approach was centered around the development and implementation of Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRS), which are intended to be country-driven and medium- to long-term in perspective, comprehensive and results-oriented, partnership-oriented, and built on broad-based participation. Against this tall order of business, experience to date has been varied, and much debate is ongoing on whether the approach can be considered more than"old wine in new bottles."This paper-based on the results of a thorough review of the five-year implementation experience-examines the implementation of the PRS approach from the point of view of participation and accountability. For some 50 countries adopting the approach since 1999, it discusses the factors which can facilitate the development of accountability and participatory governance mechanisms. Lessons learned from distinct country circumstances are analyzed, arguing that ownership of the PRS depends on the way countries and their external donor partners handle real tensions in the relationship between country ownership on the one hand, and perceptions of internationally-driven prescriptions on the other. The central message of the paper is that in several countries the PRS initiative has helped open up societies to forms of dialogue and contestability not previously experienced in-country or observed by external partners. This positive outcome, however, has been largely influenced by the extent to which the PRS process has reinforced existing trends and strengthened institutions already prone to open discussion of policy choices. The paper also shows that even in the best cases change has, to date, been largely in the area of process and that impact of participatory governance on policymaking, while emerging, is still a work in progress. The paper concludes with recommendations for how developing country societies might sustain real achievements in participatory governance and domestic accountability going forward, with external partners playing a key supportive role through harmonization and alignment.Governance Indicators,Social Accountability,Poverty Monitoring&Analysis,Achieving Shared Growth,Rural Poverty Reduction

Putting the new aid paradigm to work: challenges for monitoring and evaluation

Over the last few years a remarkable shift has taken place in the aid instruments advocated for low-income countries, characterised by a conversion from project to more programme oriented aid and by the inclusion of 'broad-based civil society participation' as a form of new aid conditionality. PRSP constitutes a new framework for policy negotiations with the recipient government but also a new set of rules for aid implementation. As most of the PRSPs are currently in the early stages of implementation, so far scant attention has been directed to monitoring and evaluation and particularly to the implications of the PRSP 'participatory' rhetoric and 'programme-based' approach. This paper contributes to this under-exploited field of research by stocktaking and assessing different aspects of M&E systems for a selected number of SSA countries. Findings of our desk study confirm evidence from other studies that M&E is among the weaker parts of most of the PRSPs. We argue that PRSP with its focus on 'process conditionality' functions as a catalyst for change, while its basic philosophy of 'participation' and 'comprehensiveness' puts at the same time unrealistic demands on at best embryonic national M&E systems.

Measurement and reporting of climate-smart agriculture: technical guidance for a countrycentric process

Given the extent of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) initiatives at project, national, regional and global levels, there is increasing interest in tracking progress in implementing CSA at national level. CSA is also expected to contribute to higher-level goals (e.g., the Paris Agreement, Africa Union’s Vision 25x25, and the Sustainable Development Goals [SDGs], etc.). Measurement and reporting of climate-smart agriculture (MR of CSA) provides intelligence on necessary the status, effectiveness, efficiency and impacts of interventions, which is critical for meeting stakeholders’ diverse management and reporting needs. In this paper, we build the case for a stakeholder-driven, country-centric framework for MR of CSA, which aims to increase coordination and coherence across stakeholders’ MR activities, while also aligning national reporting with reporting on international commitments. We present practical guidance on how to develop an integrated MR framework, drawing on findings from a multi-country assessment of needs, opportunities and capacities for national MR of CSA. The content of a unified MR framework is determined by stakeholders’ activities (how they promote CSA), needs (why MR is useful to them) and current capacities to conduct periodic monitoring, evaluation and reporting (how ready are institutions, staff and finances). Our analysis found that explicit demand for integration of data systems and active engagement of stakeholders throughout the entire process are key ingredients for building a MR system that is relevant, useful and acted upon. Based on these lessons, we identify a seven-step framework for stakeholders to develop a comprehensive information system for MR of progress in implementing CSA

APFIC Regional Workshop on "Mainstreaming Fisheries Co-management"

This is the report of the APFIC regional workshop on "Mainstreaming fisheries co-management" held in Siem Reap, Cambodia from August 9-12, 2005 . The goal of the workshop was to provide a forum to learn from past experience and to promote devolved management of fisheries. Participants at the workshop had the opportunity to be exposed to a range of coastal and inland fisheries co-management interventions and the elaboration of approaches needed to make fisheries co-management a "mainstream" activity in developing countries. The objective of the workshop was to develop summary conclusions on the status of co-management in the region and provide some concrete recommendations for action towards mainstreaming fishery co-management in the Asia-Pacific region. The report contains the action plan and recommendations of the workshop. Many agencies (both governmental and non-governmental) are striving to improve the livelihoods of poor people that are dependent on aquatic resources by including these stakeholders in the planning and implementation of fisheries management. Many states have adopted decentralization as the way to implement future fisheries management, especially in developing countries, which often involves a partnership between government and the local communities, i.e. a co-management approach. The challenge is to find a way for co-management to become a mainstream practice of both government and non-government organizations and communities