The first stage in the planning process is developing an awareness of the present state.

Participatory planning

Participatory planning is a process by which a community undertakes to reach a given socio-economic goal by consciously diagnosing its problems and charting a course of action to resolve those problems. Experts are needed, but only as facilitators. Moreover, no one likes to participate in something which is not of his/her own creation. Plans prepared by outside experts, irrespective of their technical soundness, cannot inspire the people to participate in their implementation.

However, the training on participatory local planning and management of the three million newly elected local government Panchayati Raj officials, one-third of them women, is a major challenge. The handbook module on this topic is intended to be utilized by NIRD and State-level government and non-government agencies to build awareness of both government officials and grassroots representatives, elected to district, mandal and local village-level councils, including the village head, called the Sarpanch, who is often a woman.

Awareness building on principles of participatory planning

1. Development should be seen more as a change from the bottom up than from top down.
2. The development process should be managed as a natural organic process rather than according to plans, goals, objectives, targets and schedules, implying that goals and targets may change and, therefore, their timing should be tentative and flexible to make room for adaptation to local conditions.
3. Development programmes should aim to strengthen local organizations and not state and central government bureaucracies. New programmes should be chosen according to their ability to increase local development management capacity. Start with a few schemes to solve some immediate local problems to build local confidence and experience.
4. The development process is supported by local institutions with village panchayats, primary cooperatives, religious, youth, community-based users’ and self-help groups playing a lead role. It is more important to make sure that the development process is rooted in a strong local institution than ensuring that local institutions have a grasp of all the finer technical points. It is comparatively easy to arrange technical services from outside than to bring about social involvement and willing popular participation in the development process. Strong local institutions are necessary as support posts quite independently of whatever technical skills and other background they may have.
5. It follows from the above that the development process must be based primarily on confidence and learning rather than on experts and training. It is more important for the people who will take decisions at the local level to have full confidence of the people they represent, than to be trained experts. This also implies that technical staff of departments should work in tandem with local institutions rather than sit on judgement on the plans prepared by these institutions.

Simple is practical

The participatory planning process has implications for the working methods of a conventional local development planner. Current decentralized planning techniques often keep people out of the planning process, which severely limits their ability to deliver the intended results at local level and reinforces the centralizing tendencies in decision-making. The basic issue of whether people or planning techniques should be changed first, has not yet been answered.

As a facilitator of local change, the development planner will have to shed much of the planning jargon and simplify his planning techniques so that these are widely understood. In view of the training needs of the three million newly elected local decision-makers and the limited local expertise, there is an urgent need for training material on the introduction of simple local planning methodologies and techniques that can be used at the village level, with minimal need for external assistance.

How to initiate participatory planning

(i) Identify local needs, particularly of rural poor families

• The best way to find what people need and what they see as possible solutions to their problems is to ask them directly. This also creates awareness and willingness among the people to take part in any action that will follow.

• But before asking what they want, it is necessary to establish a common ground of understanding with them. There are bound to be conflicting interests within a community. Special skills and sincerity are needed to build consensus.

• It is important to ensure steadfast community support for a pro-poor development initiative. Local officials, CBOs, field workers of voluntary organizations, teachers, women, and retired people, must be involved in the consultations and discussions.

(ii) Collect basic data

• Once local contacts are established, the next step is to collect, with the people’s help, basic data about the community, characteristics of the area, resources situation, socio-economic status and other relevant facts.

• The aim is to get a factual baseline picture which will help in setting goals and measuring changes brought about by the project at a later stage.

• It is helpful at this stage is to associate with local officials and NGO functionaries in collecting and verifying facts from different sources.

• To seek people’s cooperation, it is important to respect their ideas and abilities. The focus should be on the community as a whole and seeking its commitment to helping the poor.

• Participatory rural appraisal (PRA) is a practical tool for participatory data collection and analysis.

(iii) Formation of working groups

• It is helpful is to form working groups that include local officials, to prepare status reports and develop perspectives.

• The aim of the working groups is to analyse and compare data, draw inferences and identify priority areas for intervention. This is aimed at greater clarity and strengthening of participation of local people, particularly the rural poor, by giving greater local planning responsibility and establishment of good working relationship between technical planning experts and the local people. Importance is to be given to detailed specification of the roles of participant individuals, groups and committees in carrying out the tasks.

• Conflicts and disagreements may arise in the process, which are not in themselves a negative factor, but have to be properly resolved and managed at every stage of decision-making.

(iv) Formulation of the objectives

• The first step in participatory local planning is to define precisely what specific objectives are to be achieved, which should be stated in concrete terms, e.g. increasing i) incomes of identified households, ii) production of certain crops and iii) literacy among locally elected women officials.

• The objective may not always be quantifiable, particularly when it involves attitudinal changes. Its still helps to be as specific as possible so that people can see how much change has taken place.

(v) Deciding the strategy

• This is the most difficult part of participatory local planning as it involves assessing and mobilizing needed resources and choosing the planning methods. It is important to specify: a) resources that are locally available and those needed from outside. (people with skills, funds, raw material inputs, etc.); b) if resources are available when needed; and c) who should be approached, who will approach and with whose help to secure these.

• Consider alternative local planning methods and approaches such as (i) whether to contract a job to private individuals or to do it on a cooperative basis; ii) whether to focus on several small household-based units or one big unit; and iii) whether to train local people as trainers for the jobs or to hire trained personnel from outside.

• Once a course of action is chosen, it should be explained and specified in clear terms to avoid confusion and misunderstanding among the local stakeholders.

(vi) Ensuring feasibility

• The working groups at this point should consider whether the objectives are realistic. It is important to ensure that: i) assumptions and stipulations regarding the availability of resources, managerial competence and technical expertise are realistic; ii) proposed activities are economically viable; and iii) local market can absorb the expected outputs.

• It is important to identify potential project beneficiaries and check how the benefits would flow to them.

(vii) Preparing the work plan

• This is a blueprint for decentralized project management drawn up by the project implementation committee, specifying the ‘what, who, when and how’ of local project implementation.

• The work plan should contain the following information in simple tabular form: (i) all activities for implementation of the project; (ii) names(s) of the person(s) responsible for each activity; (iii) starting and completion time for each activity; and (iv) the means to carry out the activities.

• It should also define the outputs expected from each activity to measure performance during implementation or on completion of the project, for effective monitoring and evaluation.

Project work plan format

(viii) Preparing the budget

• The material and human resources must be given a monetary cost, which form the project budget.

• The cost is further broken down in terms of each period of time and also in terms of availability - whether locally available or to be secured from outside.

• External resources can be government grants or loans from financial institutions, etc.

Budget format

Participatory Planning Operational Steps

Steps in implementation of local development projects

1. Appointing a project coordinator

• After hiring staff and technical persons for different jobs according to the schedule, the organization/agency in charge of the project should appoint a coordinator for the project.

• The coordinator can be hired from outside or someone from within the community with the commitment and demonstrated leadership qualities can be chosen for the job.

2. Setting up a project implementation and monitoring committee

This is made up of the project coordinator, representatives of the local community and a representative of the funding agency. Its role is to supervise implementation on a day-to-day basis and to work as a crisis management group.

3. Staff training

This is needed to reorient project planning staff for the jobs to be performed.

4. Transparency

• Important for retaining community interest and support for the project to ensure its smooth progress. Maintain total transparency in procurement and use of resources. Project details, budget and sources of funds can be displayed publicly at different places in the project area.

• Involve more and more local people in various activities with daily/weekly briefings to inform community leaders about ongoing activities and problems, if any. Care is needed to ensure the quality of inputs procured and used.

5. Anticipating obstacles

The project coordinator should be aware of likely difficulties, be able to anticipate obstacles and take preventive action. Advance action is needed to ensure timely availability of workers, especially technical people. Plans should be ready to deal with any contingency.

6. Timely release of funds

• Implementation is often delayed by the non-availability or inadequacy of funds. Various bureaucratic formalities, postal delays, etc. may delay commencement.

• If there is more than one source of funding, it is all the more necessary to ensure that no mistake is made in completing formalities of Terms and Condition (T&C) documents and also in submitting timely progress reports, which are needed for timely release of fund installments.

• The project coordinator should ensure that there are enough funds for the activities as well as for paying project staff salaries.

• It is important to be prepared for delays by having flexibility in project design for such eventualities. Sticking to the guidelines and instructions of funding agencies and adherence to the project schedule are the best way to ensure timely releases of fund instalments.

Monitoring

This is important for timely and proper project implementation. Monitoring provides feedback so that necessary adjustments can be made in the work plan and budget. Therefore, monitoring schedules are often based on the project work plan. It is essentially a tool that helps both project-implementing and funding agencies.

1. Monitoring parameters

• Time schedule;
• Cost; and
• Process.

These are already specified in the work plan. Monitoring reports must be reviewed by the project implementation committee, focusing on information about delays - the extent and implications, needed corrective action and the person or agency responsible for it. This not only points out the source of the fault but also protects project management from blame for the delay.

An honest assessment of the implications of delay, under or over-utilization of funds, leads to timely corrective action. It also helps in building a reasonable case for additional funds in case the delay is caused by the late release of funds and results in escalation of project costs.

Periodic monitoring format

2. Integrity

• It is important for the implementing agency to maintain a high level of financial credibility, which is closely watched by funding agencies.

• Monitoring, therefore focuses on cost-flows and wherever there is under or over-expenditure, this should be brought to the immediate attention of the funding agencies. It should be discussed frankly with them in order to reach agreement on the best course of action.

• Implications of delay or cost-overrun can also be discussed with the village community to explore possibilities of mobilizing local contributions to compensate for the extra cost. Integrity pays in the long run.

Contributed by B. P. Maithani, Professor and Head (CIBT), National Institute of Rural Development (NIRD), Hyderabad, India.

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