People and Development 2 Is participatory development possible

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People and Development 2 Is participatory
development possible?
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Aims of this lecture

• To illustrate the difficulty of participatory
  development
• To describe how scholars have explained the
  common failure of participatory development
• To provide a background to Roger Jefferys
  lecture tomorrow

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Structure of lecture

• 1. Panchayats in India
• 2. Joint Forest Management in India
• 3. Interpreting Failure of JFM

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Section 1

• Panchayats in India

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Case study Indian panchayats

• From 1993 73rd amendment to Indian constitution
• Village level councils (panchayats) given more
  authority
• Included reservations for women and
  ex-untouchables

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Have panchayats empowered local communities?

• Dominant groups tended to seize power
• Ex-untouchables often excluded
• Women sidelined

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Section 2

• Joint Forest Management in India

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Joint Forest Management in India

• 1952 Forest Policy
• 1988 New Forest Policy
• Partnership between Forest Department and local
  communities
• Aimed to foster participation

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How is JFM supposed to work?

• FD and local people work together
• Joint responsibility for forest management
• Transfer of power from state to people

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Problems with JFM I

• Village committees lack information
• Forest Department often dominating relationship
  because
• 1. State retains ownership
• 2. Local people sidelined

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Problems with JFM II

• Powerful groups dominate
• Women marginalised
• JFM arena for elites to develop

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Section 3

• Interpreting Failure of JFM in India

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Interpreting JFMs failure IParticipatory
Development critique

• Participatory development CAN work but need
• better mechanisms to ensure peoples
  participation in JFM
• more attention to womens needs
• reassessment of the role of the state

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Interpreting JFMs failure IILeft-Wing
critique

• Local inequalities
• Better to try to change asset structure
  redistribute economic and political opportunities
  in society

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Interpreting JFMs failure IIIAnti-development
critique

• Externally-imposed development is impossible
• Better to let local communities decide

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Conclusion key points

• Participatory development initiatives have often
  failed
• This is partly because of inequalities
• But there is debate about how to interpret these
  failures