Participation in development can be defined in broad terms as the PROCESS through which people with a legitimate interest (stakeholders) influence and share control over development initiatives, and the decisions and resources that affect them. Thus, participation often comprises:
Participation is an ill-defined term. We all have different conceptions of what the term means.
Participation has become an umbrella term within development strategies, not always referring to participatory approaches. Major aspects of development intervention - research, planning, implementation ad evaluation - have all been reoriented to make them appear more participatory, using in most cases participation as a means, not as an end in itself. As a means it implies the achievement of some predetermined goal or objective. As an end it is a process whose purpose is to develop and strengthen their capabilities (empowerment) of local people to intervene more directly in management and development initiatives.; This kind of participation means that individuals are active in the development programs and processes; they contribute ideas, take initiatives, articulate their needs and problems, and assert their autonomy.
Many management and development policies focus on participation as being synonymous with empowerment - but for participation to be empowering it must be seen as participation as an end. There is often conflict between development project efficiency on the one hand and empowerment of the beneficiaries on the other.
For participation to be truly empowering for the whole community and not just the powerful members there are some other aspects of participation that need to be taken into consideration, such as social reach, functional reach, and decision power.
Social Reach. A distinction is made between the width and depth of the social reach of participation. A wide social reach of participation means that a great number of different sections of the local community actually participate in the project. The depth of the social reach is the extent to which the specific target groups of the project participate, without intermediaries.
Functional Reach. The functional reach dimension focuses not on who participate, but on the content of participation. Again a distinction can be made between width and depth. A wide functional reach of the participation means that people participate in many project components and phases. The functional depth deals with how important these issues are.
Decision Power of participants. People may provide labour only or they may give information only on request - these people have no decision power at all, as opposed to those people who are more fully involved.