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Empirical evidence supports local participation in improving the attainment of development and social change goals for communities. Nevertheless, debates about whether participation should aim to create access and interaction among participants or redistribute power through local empowerment remain unsettled. The current disciplinary and context-informed typologies of participation, with varying conceptions of participation, create a possible theoretical confusion. Hence, this paper labels desirable participation as involvement. Involvement reflects a two-way endeavour of (i) project initiators' willingness to make space for local participants, and (ii) local participants' efforts to gain control and leverage their influence as equal decision-making partners. Partial involvement and pseudo-involvement represent less desirable forms of participation. These uniform labels reflect a conception of the forms of participation as a continuum in which local influence improves progressively. Thus, the involvement continuum model is offered as an organising framework that synthesises and harmonises the diverse but complementary conceptions of participatory development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2018, the Thai Government proposed industrial investment in the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC). This research aimed to identify ways for a community to safely voice their concerns about the perceived impacts of rapid economic policy under an authoritarian regime. Practice-theories of Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) and Participatory Development Practice (PDP) guided community facilitators. Research methods included in-depth interviews, observation, and a consensus conference with key stakeholders. The results suggest that ABCD assisted the community in identifying physical and social capacity and cultural values as assets. PDP helped stakeholders to 1) raise awareness about inconsistency with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); 2) engage young people in voicing their concerns; and 3) achieve greater collaboration. The research showed that community development approaches can aid government policy implementation processes, to enable consistent achievement across the SDGs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivation Purpose Methods and approaches Findings Policy implications Local government can develop democracy and community participation if institutions support it. But when a military regime takes over following a coup d'état, it may use familiar methods of patronage, corruption, and exploitation of kinship ties to render decentralization a spectacle—that is, done for show, but without substantial change. Local elites may then capture local administration and extract public resources.Does decentralization as spectacle bring positive change — when the military hold power and the state is laden with corruption, patronage, and kinship ties?We analyse how respondents experienced two periods of local government, including post‐election public interactions between representatives and their constituents.Data comes from responses to qualitative interviews with 70 key informants from the Qambar Shahdadkot and Larkana districts of Sindh, Pakistan. We analysed the themes generated by responses to questions.Some 40% of respondents reported those who came into local government power aimed first and foremost to promote the interests of their own class. Some 29% of respondents reported local government made empty promises to provide services with public participation.Pakistan's decentralization has been a spectacle, to serve powerful elites. Local government has been captured by local elites.Decentralization, muzzled by the military, is mere spectacle, and predatory to boot. Donor agencies should explore possibilities for change at the local level; for example, where local networks and informal governmentality can build up trust amongst hyper‐local communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Religious leaders have become a vital part of public health projects in developing countries like Tanzania. Development organisations seek them as implementers who can provide access to populations and amplify their messages. Yet, at least in Tanzania, the type of religious leaders (viongozi wa dini in Kiswahili) sought by these public health projects rarely exists in rural areas. Therefore, projects have to construct them through training programmes. The making of rural Muslim religious figures into project implementers entails 'misrecognition,' a process where their existing roles and identities as healers, marriage counsellors, and Quran teachers are pushed to the margins for the priorities of public health development organisations. Viongozi wa dini involved in health projects rarely correct their misrecognition, and at times capitalise on it. This dynamic suggests misrecognition can offer a productive space of various possibilities for rural Muslim religious figures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change persists despite growing attention from a wide range of disciplines. In its 2018 report, the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) called for an urgent global response from all segments of society to counter the impact of climate change. Rural women in developing countries whose livelihoods largely depend on nature are among the most impacted by climate change. Thus, there is no justification for marginalizing rural women or any group in the fight against climate change. But existing literature shows little scientific knowledge on women's participation in climate change project planning and implementation. This study examined rural women's involvement and roles in climate change-related projects and the potential barriers therein. The analysis of in-depth interviews with relevant government officials and women from farmers' and fishers' groups showed that women are involved in climate change projects. But women's involvement is inadequate and constrained by multiple, interlinked sociocultural and other structural challenges. Recommendations for advancing participatory development communication practice beyond stakeholder engagement to focus on strategies for navigating the hindrances to women and other target groups' participation are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is increasingly exacerbating water shortages worldwide. Among the various repercussions of water scarcity, notably in developing countries, the most critical are the decline in social sustainability and the widening inequality within farming communities. In response, irrigation reforms aimed at establishing farmer-managed networks have been introduced to foster equitable water distribution and enhance the livelihood and food security of underprivileged farmers. However, these reforms have largely fallen short of achieving their social sustainability goals. A significant factor in this shortfall is the farmers' limited capacity and reluctance to assume roles typically filled by bureaucracy under institutional reforms. This study explores farmers' willingness to engage in a World Bank-assisted participatory irrigation infrastructure program. We utilized questionnaire surveys and hierarchical analysis to evaluate how various factors influence farmers' willingness to participate. The findings indicate a multifaceted challenge that intensifies in communities fragmented by socioeconomic and political divides. Particularly, the predominance of large landowners in agricultural communities and the absence of sufficient bureaucratic support for participation are key impediments. Our research offers comprehensive insights into the regional sociopolitical obstacles obstructing farmer involvement in government-led participatory projects. It also guides policymakers in grasping the intricate interplay between program design, execution, and contextual elements, which is crucial for the sustainable development of resource-stressed areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some scholars have argued that every year, huge amount of financial and human resources are being deployed by international development agencies, and NGOs to improve the living conditions of millions of poor people living in most African countries, yet most of these interventions are not achieving the objectives expected. This study seeks to know the validity of this postulation by exploring the intersection of participatory communication, role-players engagement, and project proposal in achieving far-reaching impact and success of development interventions in Africa. A systematic literature review method was used. The findings showed that 25% of the 48 development interventions evaluated were failed projects, 64.58% projects came midway, and 10.42% projects were successful. The findings support the postulation of Farreach perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An increase in the frequency of natural disasters around the world had caused a widespread attention to the issue of climate change. This research aimed to study the role of Community Based Disaster Risk Management approach in minimising these hazards by: 1) examining the level of commitment in the people of Lamphaya Subdistrict Municipality community towards Community Based Disaster Risk Management approach; and 2) examining the relationship between the ‘prerequisites’ and the success determined by preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation. Through quantitative data analysis, the research revealed that the level of commitment are high in all aspects. Astoundingly, the data showed that the people of Lamphaya also felt the level of disaster management success is high in all aspects even though those same people (all but 1.9 percent) also reportedly claimed being ‘moderately’ and ‘highly’ affected by the disasters. Unlike what we learned from an extensive literature review, data from multiple regression model shows that all factors but ‘stakeholder’ significantly predict the success of Community Based Disaster Risk Management.

Background: The escalating global prevalence of type 2 diabetes and prediabetes presents a major public health challenge. Physical activity plays a critical role in managing (pre)diabetes; however, adherence to physical activity recommendations remains low. The ENERGISED trial was designed to address these challenges by integrating mHealth tools into the routine practice of general practitioners, aiming for a significant, scalable impact in (pre)diabetes patient care through increased physical activity and reduced sedentary behaviour. Methods: The mHealth intervention for the ENERGISED trial was developed according to the mHealth development and evaluation framework, which includes the active participation of (pre)diabetes patients. This iterative process encompasses four sequential phases: (a) conceptualisation to identify key aspects of the intervention; (b) formative research including two focus groups with (pre)diabetes patients (n = 14) to tailor the intervention to the needs and preferences of the target population; (c) pre-testing using think-aloud patient interviews (n = 7) to optimise the intervention components; and (d) piloting (n = 10) to refine the intervention to its final form. Results: The final intervention comprises six types of text messages, each embodying different behaviour change techniques. Some of the messages, such as those providing interim reviews of the patients' weekly step goal or feedback on their weekly performance, are delivered at fixed times of the week. Others are triggered just in time by specific physical behaviour events as detected by the Fitbit activity tracker: for example, prompts to increase walking pace are triggered after 5 min of continuous walking; and prompts to interrupt sitting following 30 min of uninterrupted sitting. For patients without a smartphone or reliable internet connection, the intervention is adapted to ensure inclusivity. Patients receive on average three to six messages per week for 12 months. During the first six months, the text messaging is supplemented with monthly phone counselling to enable personalisation of the intervention, assistance with technical issues, and enhancement of adherence. Conclusions: The participatory development of the ENERGISED mHealth intervention, incorporating just-in-time prompts, has the potential to significantly enhance the capacity of general practitioners for personalised behavioural counselling on physical activity in (pre)diabetes patients, with implications for broader applications in primary care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses an approach to translational bioethics (TB) that is concerned with the adaptation—or 'translation'—of concepts, theories and methods from bioethics to practical contexts, in order to support 'non‐bioethicists', such as researchers and healthcare practitioners, in dealing with their ethical issues themselves. Specifically, it goes into the participatory development of clinical ethics support (CES) instruments that respond to the needs and wishes of healthcare practitioners and that are tailored to the specific care contexts in which they are to be used. The theoretical underpinnings of this participatory approach to TB are found in hermeneutic ethics and pragmatism. As an example, the development of CURA, a low‐threshold CES instrument for healthcare professionals in palliative care, is discussed. From this example, it becomes clear that TB is a two‐way street. Practice may be improved by means of CES that is effectively tailored to specific end users and care contexts. The other way around, ethical theory may be enriched by means of the insights gained from engaging with practice in developing CES in a process of co‐creation. TB is also a two‐way street in the sense that it requires collaboration and commitment of both bioethicists and practitioners, who engage in a process of mutual learning. However, substantial challenges remain. For instance, is there a limit to the extent to which a method of moral reasoning can be adapted in order to meet the constraints of a given healthcare setting? Who is to decide, the bioethicist or the practitioners? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background A healthy lifestyle may improve mental health. It is yet not known whether and how a mobile intervention can be of help in achieving this in adolescents. This study investigated the effectiveness and perceived underlying mechanisms of the mobile health (mHealth) intervention #LIFEGOALS to promote healthy lifestyles and mental health. #LIFEGOALS is an evidence-based app with activity tracker, including self-regulation techniques, gamification elements, a support chatbot, and health narrative videos. Methods A quasi-randomized controlled trial (N = 279) with 12-week intervention period and process evaluation interviews (n = 13) took place during the COVID-19 pandemic. Adolescents (12-15y) from the general population were allocated at school-level to the intervention (n = 184) or to a no-intervention group (n = 95). Health-related quality of life (HRQoL), psychological well-being, mood, self-perception, peer support, resilience, depressed feelings, sleep quality and breakfast frequency were assessed via a web-based survey; physical activity, sedentary time, and sleep routine via Axivity accelerometers. Multilevel generalized linear models were fitted to investigate intervention effects and moderation by pandemic-related measures. Interviews were coded using thematic analysis. Results Non-usage attrition was high: 18% of the participants in the intervention group never used the app. An additional 30% stopped usage by the second week. Beneficial intervention effects were found for physical activity (χ 2 1 = 4.36, P = .04), sedentary behavior (χ 2 1 = 6.44, P = .01), sleep quality (χ 2 1 = 6.11, P = .01), and mood (χ 2 1 = 2.30, P = .02). However, effects on activity-related behavior were only present for adolescents having normal sports access, and effects on mood only for adolescents with full in-school education. HRQoL (χ 2 2 = 14.72, P

Background: A healthy lifestyle may improve mental health. It is yet not known whether and how a mobile intervention can be of help in achieving this in adolescents. This study investigated the effectiveness and perceived underlying mechanisms of the mobile health (mHealth) intervention #LIFEGOALS to promote healthy lifestyles and mental health. #LIFEGOALS is an evidence-based app with activity tracker, including self-regulation techniques, gamification elements, a support chatbot, and health narrative videos. Methods: A quasi-randomized controlled trial (N = 279) with 12-week intervention period and process evaluation interviews (n = 13) took place during the COVID-19 pandemic. Adolescents (12-15y) from the general population were allocated at school-level to the intervention (n = 184) or to a no-intervention group (n = 95). Health-related quality of life (HRQoL), psychological well-being, mood, self-perception, peer support, resilience, depressed feelings, sleep quality and breakfast frequency were assessed via a web-based survey; physical activity, sedentary time, and sleep routine via Axivity accelerometers. Multilevel generalized linear models were fitted to investigate intervention effects and moderation by pandemic-related measures. Interviews were coded using thematic analysis. Results: Non-usage attrition was high: 18% of the participants in the intervention group never used the app. An additional 30% stopped usage by the second week. Beneficial intervention effects were found for physical activity (χ21 = 4.36, P =.04), sedentary behavior (χ21 = 6.44, P =.01), sleep quality (χ21 = 6.11, P =.01), and mood (χ21 = 2.30, P =.02). However, effects on activity-related behavior were only present for adolescents having normal sports access, and effects on mood only for adolescents with full in-school education. HRQoL (χ22 = 14.72, P <.001), mood (χ21 = 6.03, P =.01), and peer support (χ21 = 13.69, P <.001) worsened in adolescents with pandemic-induced remote-education. Interviewees reported that the reward system, self-regulation guidance, and increased health awareness had contributed to their behavior change. They also pointed to the importance of social factors, quality of technology and autonomy for mHealth effectiveness. Conclusions: #LIFEGOALS showed mixed results on health behaviors and mental health. The findings highlight the role of contextual factors for mHealth promotion in adolescence, and provide suggestions to optimize support by a chatbot and narrative episodes. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov [NCT04719858], registered on 22/01/2021. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the last two decades, global disasters have impacted over 5.2 billion people, with economic losses exceeding USD 2.97 trillion. This underscores the critical need for inclusive risk-sensitive urban planning (RSUP) that integrates community insights. Community-based disaster risk reduction (CBDRR) has demonstrated a potential reduction of up to 40% in mortality rates during disasters and cost savings in disaster response and recovery. However, research has shown that only 20% felt they are involved in decisions related to neighborhood planning, despite communities' lived experience in surviving local hazards. This highlights a gap where practitioners dominate the development of mitigation and development plans, sidelining local perspectives. Using Sri Lanka as a case study, this study investigated the barriers to effective community participation in the decision-making of RSUP and thereby developed an interpretive logic model to establish an understanding of why they occur and how each barrier is interlinked. The data gathered from a sample of 44 experts and community representatives revealed 19 factors that impede community inclusion in the decision-making of RSUP in Sri Lanka. The Total Interpretive Structural Modelling (TISM) analysis adopted identified that the absence of legal provisions for inclusive development, political dynamics, and corruption are the most significant barriers. The Matrix Impact of Cross Multiplication Applied to Classification (MICMAC) further revealed that fewer financial provisions and the absence of an institutional framework for community engagement are the linking barriers to the other 17 barriers. This study not only extends the theoretical debate on barriers to community engagement for risk-responsive and equitable development but also helps urban planners, disaster management practitioners, and strategy policymakers focus on critical areas that need major reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Participatory development has become, 'development orthodoxy', receiving widespread proclamations of support from foreign aid agencies. Participatory development engages international development beneficiaries in making decisions about project activity selection and design. Yet, many foreign aid donors deliver project assistance through top-down, highly controlled systems that may constrain the flexibility needed to delegate decision-making power to project beneficiaries. This paper explores whether and under which conditions these foreign aid agencies delegate decision-making power to project beneficiaries, focusing on the key mechanism for delivering foreign aid: government contracts. The analysis relies on a novel dataset of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) projects that incorporates contract specifications for beneficiary decision-making during project implementation. Despite an expectation that delivery system constraints would prohibitively exclude contract specifications for beneficiary decision-making, donors are found to commonly use contracts to delegate decision-making power to beneficiaries, but within pre-determined parameters. The results suggest that USAID is using contract specifications to engage in bounded delegation, providing some decision-making power to beneficiaries, but using boundaries to ensure the right 'fit' with institutional goals and constraints. By focusing on contract specifications and variation within these specifications, this study identifies widespread use of a 'middle ground' in how donors motivate participatory development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this report, I review the concept of community-based adaptation, showing how it morphed from a participatory development-informed approach centred around agency and empowerment to one which is often externally driven, focusing on a spatial, rather than social, definition of community. I then highlight how locally-led adaptation is attempting to re-focus attention on agency, whilst also managing a conceptualisation of 'local' that is not limited to the community-level. Since the concept of locally-led adaptation is emerging, it is critical to learn from participatory development and the critiques of community-based adaptation to ensure that it is not also diluted from its intentions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agriculture is one of the most important economic activities for any nation to have self-reliance and food security. Indian agriculture has unique challenges given its geographic, social and demographic variations and farming practices that tie deeply with local culture and rituals. Environmental sustainability is now a central discourse in all aspects of socio-economic development as we witness the growing adverse impact of climate. Governments and policymakers all across the world find it hard to accommodate the Millennium Sustainable Development Goals while trying to feed their growing population. A possible solution lies in large-scale adaptations of innovative farming practices that compromise neither on yield nor on the sustainability of the land. The challenge lies in trying to change traditional agricultural practices that have been used for thousands of years, which fall in the domain of behaviour change through development communication. This paper focuses on using the participatory form of development communication to help in establishing an ecosystem of integrated farming. Agricultural extension and its messaging need to be modified to imbibe the values of sustainable farming along with the dissemination of innovative technology and inputs for farming. The paper uses conceptual analysis from different sources of secondary literature to propose a set of key messages and themes around which extension workers can create a dialogue with farming stakeholders. Adapting these communication approaches may help in creating an essential connection between rural and urban aspects of Indian agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attempts to implement participatory processes are often complicated by realities which make objectives of participation unattainable. Hence, if participation is to mean more than good intentions, it is vital to understand the strategies deployed by international nongovernmental organisations (INGOs) in participatory development. This study employed a qualitative case-study approach to evaluate the participatory processes employed in two WASH projects implemented by WaterAid Nigeria attempting work with Local Government Areas: the Sustainable Total Sanitation project and the HSBC Water programme. WaterAid Nigeria's participatory development approach recognises the responsibility of the various tiers of government for its citizens' wellbeing, especially the need for partnership with the Local Government Area (LGA) towards the delivery of WASH services. The state, as the ‘duty bearer’, is responsible for the provision of WASH services. Thus, both projects centred on government capacity building and community empowerment through the establishment and capacity development of WASH units in LGAs, insistence on counterpart funding and the establishment of water, sanitation and hygiene committees (WASHCOMs). Despite these attempts, findings highlighted the persistence of inefficiencies within the LGA WASH system that rendered partnerships ineffective. At the community level, WASHCOMs were not sustainable. Despite the challenges of implementing partnerships between INGOs and LGAs, such partnership remains a way to improve the provision of WASH services in Nigeria and other low- and middle-income countries. To better work within the participatory model, WASH INGOs should explore how to better use existing LGA arrangements for service delivery. Additionally, the LGA, as a duty bearer, could foster genuine, non-discriminatory spaces for the participation of communities by taking political, socio-economic and cultural differences into account. HIGHLIGHTS In the WASH sector, a growing feature of participatory development is the building of partnerships between different tiers of government and international nongovernmental organisations (INGOs) to deliver development projects.; In two case study projects in Nigeria, WaterAid elicited partnerships with Local Government Areas (LGAs) in WASH service delivery through the formation of WASH units, capacity building, insistence on counterpart funding and formation of WASH committees.; Various frustrations existed with implementing LGA-INGO partnerships. Despite capacity building attempts, there was still inefficiency, bureaucracy and aid dependency within the LGA WASH system that served as impediments to effective partnership. Institutions and structures established to facilitate partnership with LGAs were not sustainable.; To more effectively work within the participatory model, WASH INGOs could seek to understand the power dynamics in the LGA system and explore how to better use existing LGA arrangements.; Additionally, the LGA, as duty bearer responsible for WASH service provision, could foster genuine, non-discriminatory spaces for participation of communities by taking political, socioeconomic and cultural differences into account.;

This study sheds light on the factors that affect the effectiveness of implementing international development policies in recipient countries. The implementation of international aid policy should focus not only on what can be implemented and on what can work, but also on incorporating local knowledge and skills to ensure effective implementation aligned with the local environment. By adopting the participatory approach, the implementation of international development aid policies becomes a learning process to better understand the local environment and specific political and social contexts during implementation. It is noted that the implementation of development policies in the international context is a complex and interactive process between stakeholders from both the donor and the recipient and calls for building consensus and resolving disputes that may arise between the main stakeholders. In this study, the participatory development approach introduced in the framework of Dutch aid aimed at reforming the public education sector in Yemen, with projects aimed at reforming the higher education sector as a case study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thembelihle, an informal settlement to the south-west of Johannesburg, South Africa has experienced a wave of popular protest and grassroots democracy since the African National Congress (ANC) attempted to evict residents in 2002. Drawing from original in-depth interviews and observation, the article highlights the process through which the struggle waged by the Thembelihle Crisis Committee alongside the community has brought state concessions leading to material changes in poor people's living conditions. In contrast to conventional approaches to the study of protest and popular participation, which focus on organisations as well as the frequency and intensity of protest, this study investigates their politics through the lens of a series of mass meetings: in Thembelihle, residents call these the People's Parliament. There is ongoing contestation within the community regarding the extent to which the struggle is for the people of Thembelihle only (for housing and electricity) or for the working class more generally. The article argues that social and historical contexts are central for unpacking the meaning of participatory spaces. The conclusion suggests that in the midst of the declining hegemony and crisis of the ANC, it is necessary for both scholars and activists to reimagine the relationship between grassroots politics and the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present research, carried out in Gowa Regency, Indonesia, examines the incorporation of indigenous knowledge into participatory development interventions, with a specific emphasis on the perceived advantages associated with this integration. The study of qualitative data yielded four prominent themes, namely "Cultural Preservation," "Sustainable Practices," "Community Empowerment," and "Environmental Impact." The advantage of "Cultural Preservation" was found to be often mentioned, highlighting the community's dedication to protecting its cultural legacy. The significance of "Sustainable Practices" was underscored as a crucial component for environmentally aware agricultural practices and the promotion of sustainable development. The significance of "Community Empowerment" in promoting active community engagement and the good environmental impact of "Environmental Impact" were both acknowledged. The aforementioned results highlight the many benefits of integrating local knowledge and skills into development processes, with a particular emphasis on the preservation of cultural heritage, the empowerment of communities, the promotion of sustainability, and the enhancement of environmental well-being. Recognizing these advantages may assist stakeholders in the process of choosing culturally suitable and environmentally sustainable development initiatives. This study enhances the comprehension of the significance of local knowledge in participatory development and advocates for more research and cooperation to strengthen community-led advancement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a nearly ten-year-long process of covering the history of social enterprise development in a small village in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County, Hungary. The paper covers the hermeneutical interpretation of the process, the role and relationship between the community and the social enterprise developer, the process of development work, and how university education complements this process. The case study provides insights into the theory of community planning, the methodology of social-enterprise development and the issue of empowerment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2014–15, Pakistan’s provincial government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) launched a decentralised power generation initiative, installing over 356 small hydro power units to provide electricity to over 2.5 million people in its mountainous regions. This initiative built on the foundation of prior community-based mini/micro hydro-power projects (MHPPs) deployed in the region since the 1980s that have experienced mixed success; by 2020, over 150 units were non-operational. This paper investigates the socio-technical factors influencing the success and failure of these projects, focusing on outcomes and processes integral to community MHPPs. The study analyses the critical implications of MHPPs for socio-economic welfare, gender equity and democratic governance through extensive primary research including field observations at 40 sites, questionnaire surveys with community residents in three in-depth case-studies, and expert interviews with local policymakers and project developers. Analysis shows that electricity provision from MHPPs has had positive outcomes for the communities in terms of improved education, poverty alleviation and economic growth, alongside enhanced access to information and gains in women’s entrepreneurship and health. Nonetheless, the study also identifies significant shortcomings in the processes involved in community MHPPs related to inadequate technical assessments, monitoring, and evaluation, as well as challenges arising from undemocratic governance mechanisms and inequitable participation. By teasing out the multiple socio-technical dimensions that shape infrastructure resilience of MHPPs in KPK, this paper contributes to the broader discourse on sustainable community energy projects and informs policy for decentralised energy transitions that ensure democratic alignment and inclusive design.

Abstract Background Existing clinical ethics support (CES) instruments are considered useful. However, users report obstacles in using them in daily practice. Including end users and other stakeholders in developing CES instruments might help to overcome these limitations. This study describes the development process of a new ethics support instrument called CURA, a low-threshold four-step instrument focused on nurses and nurse assistants working in palliative care. Method We used a participatory development design. We worked together with stakeholders in a Community of Practice throughout the study. Potential end users (nurses and nurse assistants in palliative care) used CURA in several pilots and provided us with feedback which we used to improve CURA. Results We distinguished three phases in the development process. Phase one, Identifying Needs, focused on identifying stakeholder and end user needs and preferences, learning from existing CES instruments, their development and evaluation, and identify gaps. Phase two, Development, focused on designing, developing, refining and tailoring the instrument on the basis of iterative co-creation. Phase three, Dissemination, focused on implementation and dissemination. The instrument, CURA, is a four-step low-threshold instrument that fosters ethical reflection. Conclusions Participatory development is a valuable approach for developing clinical ethics support instruments. Collaborating with end users and other stakeholders in our development study has helped to meet the needs and preferences of end users, to come up with strategies to refine the instrument in order to enhance its feasibility, and to overcome reported limitations of existing clinical ethics instruments.

The United Nations General Assembly's 2010 legal recognition of the human rights to water and sanitation shaped approaches of many actors working to improve access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH). Persistent challenges of poor WASH sustainability, scale and inclusion are increasingly being tackled through system thinking and system strengthening. However, little has been written about how participatory system analysis and monitoring can equip and empower WASH actors to apply system thinking, self-assess and course-correct in their own work to improve sustainable WASH for all. WaterAid's Sustainable WASH Services at Scale (SusWASH) programme applies a system approach, underpinned by human rights principles. In this paper, we share perceptions of local stakeholders, engaged in empowerment evaluation in Cambodia and Uganda, and lessons learned for future initiatives that seek to catalyse WASH system improvements for the realisation of the human rights to water and sanitation. We argue that a system approach, underpinned by human rights principles, can help advance progress towards inclusive and sustainable WASH for all. Working in this way fosters inclusive, locally led decision-making about how system blockages can be overcome, strengthening local ownership of a shared vision for change and the capacities and skills required to achieve it. HIGHLIGHTS WaterAid's approach seeks to tackle systemic blockages to WASH sustainability, inclusion and scale.; This paper illustrates how empowerment evaluation, system concepts and human rights principles can coalesce into a practical, accessible, participatory approach that helps to strengthen WASH systems.;

Citizen participation in decision making has been widely lauded as a method for improving societal outcomes. Deliberative discussion, in particular, is believed to be more transformative than a mere aggregation of individual preferences, leading to more socially optimal decision making and behavior. I report the results from a laboratory experiment with 570 subjects in Nairobi, directly testing the effect of participation in deliberative group decision making on collective outcomes. Participants engage in a group task to earn compensation toward a shared group fund. Randomly assigned treatments vary according to whether decision making over the task to be completed involves: (1) external assignment; (2) non-deliberative majority voting; or (3) consensus through deliberative discussion. I find that deliberation improves collective decision making. Deliberation is also associated with changes in preferences, greater agreement with decision outcomes, and greater perceived fairness. Evidence for behavior change is weaker, but there is some support for further research into the relationship between preference change and behavior change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to conceptualise contemporary understandings of 'inclusive development'. The article draws upon two conceptual models: plural/universal rights (Mégret, 2008, 10.1353/hrq.0.0000) and social–relational inclusion (Gupta & Vegelin, 2016, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10784-016-9323-z) to demonstrate how 'inclusion' is understood concerning economic, social, and human development. The article then draws upon these disparate, yet interconnected understandings of inclusive development and maps four contemporary inclusive development approaches (participation of stakeholders, representational politics, social protection, and economic redistribution). The purpose of this mapping is to provide context for how the singular word 'inclusion' can be used to pursue multiple desired outcomes, some of which may conflict with one another. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I demonstrate how soda, an ostensibly inconsequential component of development implementation, can have wide‐ranging impacts in shaping programmatic outcomes. Drawing upon 6 months of participant observation alongside an international nongovernmental organization (NGO), I demonstrate how sodas contributed to new ways of valuing time, altered intracommunity and intercommunity relations, and offered unique insight into programme efficacy. In so doing, I argue that refocusing attention beyond the larger discourses of development to the everyday objects, mundane practices, and the interstitial spaces that populate implementation enables critical insights that would otherwise be overlooked. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Existing clinical ethics support (CES) instruments are considered useful. However, users report obstacles in using them in daily practice. Including end users and other stakeholders in developing CES instruments might help to overcome these limitations. This study describes the development process of a new ethics support instrument called CURA, a low-threshold four-step instrument focused on nurses and nurse assistants working in palliative care.Method: We used a participatory development design. We worked together with stakeholders in a Community of Practice throughout the study. Potential end users (nurses and nurse assistants in palliative care) used CURA in several pilots and provided us with feedback which we used to improve CURA.Results: We distinguished three phases in the development process. Phase one, Identifying Needs, focused on identifying stakeholder and end user needs and preferences, learning from existing CES instruments, their development and evaluation, and identify gaps. Phase two, Development, focused on designing, developing, refining and tailoring the instrument on the basis of iterative co-creation. Phase three, Dissemination, focused on implementation and dissemination. The instrument, CURA, is a four-step low-threshold instrument that fosters ethical reflection.Conclusions: Participatory development is a valuable approach for developing clinical ethics support instruments. Collaborating with end users and other stakeholders in our development study has helped to meet the needs and preferences of end users, to come up with strategies to refine the instrument in order to enhance its feasibility, and to overcome reported limitations of existing clinical ethics instruments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Can social capital effectively cushion households against adverse income shocks, especially in the absence of formal insurance mechanisms in developing countries? And what if such shocks are due international finance and thus universal and systemic in nature? We analyse whether participation in formal and informal community activities (our measure of social capital) helped households in Indonesia mitigating the impact of the 1998 financial crisis. We use the 1997 and 2000 rounds of the Indonesian Family Life Survey (IFLS) to capture the impact of the crisis on household welfare and assess the potency of social capital as a safety net. In contrast to previous studies, our empirical results do not lend support to this hypothesis. Using a fuzzy regression discontinuity design (RDD)—coupled by an IV strategy for extrapolation, we find community participation not to be statistically significant in explaining changes in household expenditure. The large magnitude and universal nature of the shock might explain why social capital did not help households. However, we find some suggestive evidence that households who participated in such activities are more likely to have received financial assistance from the local community without necessarily being the neediest ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Baan Mankong ('Secure Housing') programme of Thailand has been heralded as a model of participatory slum upgrading. Many scholars have praised its participatory and community-based processes, as well as its success in terms of going to scale. The celebration of the programme emphasises its particular model of housing finance, which includes community savings, housing cooperatives, and collective loans for physical upgrading provided through a government agency. This financial model, along with the collective and participatory processes it employs, form the foundation of the programme's claims to 'empowerment.' In this article, I offer a sympathetic critique of Baan Mankong by analysing how this financial model actually plays out on the ground through an in-depth ethnographic study of the policy and its participants. I conclude that, despite the policy's intentions to empower communities through access to collective finance, many participants find themselves struggling with debt and living under a new form of financialised community that reshapes their social relations with neighbours and burdens them with the responsibility for financing and carrying out development desired by the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background The potentials of audit and feedback (AF) to improve healthcare are currently not exploited. To unlock the potentials of AF, this study focused on the process of making sense of audit data and translating data into actionable feedback by studying a specific AF-case: limiting antimicrobial resistance (AMR). This was done via audit and feedback of AMR prevention measures (APM) that are executed by healthcare workers (HCW) in their day-to-day contact with patients. This study’s aim was to counterbalance the current predominantly top-down, expert-driven audit and feedback approach for APM, with needs and expectations of HCW. Methods Qualitative semi-structured interviews were held with sixteen HCW (i.e. physicians, residents and nurses) from high-risk AMR departments at a regional hospital in The Netherlands. Deductive coding was succeeded by open and axial coding to establish main codes, subcodes and variations within codes. Results HCW demand insights from audits into all facets of APM in their working routines (i.e. diagnostics, treatment and infection control), preferably in the form of simple and actionable feedback that invites interdisciplinary discussions, so that substantiated actions for improvement can be implemented. AF should not be seen as an isolated ad-hoc intervention, but as a recurrent, long-term, and organic improvement strategy that balances the primary aims of HCW (i.e. improving quality and safety of care for individual patients and HCW) and AMR-experts (i.e. reducing the burden of AMR). Conclusions To unlock the learning and improvement potentials of audit and feedback, HCW’ and AMR-experts’ perspectives should be balanced throughout the whole AF-loop (incl. data collection, analysis, visualization, feedback and planning, implementing and monitoring actions). APM-AF should be flexible, so that both audit (incl. collecting and combining the right data in an efficient and transparent manner) and feedback (incl. persuasive and actionable feedback) can be tailored to the needs of various target groups. To balance HCW’ and AMR-experts’ perspectives a participatory holistic AF development approach is advocated.

The evidence on the effectiveness of participatory development approaches in low-income countries is ambiguous. We randomly vary governance modalities to study elite capture in Ethiopian forest user groups and explore implications for livelihoods of group members. Top-down monitoring and punishment increases consumption and income, and decreases inequality. In contrast, internal monitoring has no effect on livelihoods. Additional heterogeneity analysis, based on observational data, reveals that while top-down monitoring works in groups where forest benefits are unimportant, internal monitoring improves economic outcomes in those groups where forest benefits are an important component of rural livelihoods. This suggests that participatory approaches work if targeted participants have strong incentives to voluntarily contribute effort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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'Do No Harm' or 'conflict-sensitivity' has been mainstreamed into the planning and implementation of development-humanitarian interventions in conflict-affected situations. An umbrella term encompassing a range of frameworks and tools, all approaches involve analysing conflict dynamics in order to minimise negative impacts and maximise support for positive change. Most, however, treat conflict analysis as largely technical, requiring external expertise, and while all espouse participation, it is not inherently embedded in any. This paper explores the practice and ideals of conflict-sensitivity, and promising, more participatory advances in the 'critical peacebuilding'/'local turn' literatures, to argue the case for more genuinely participatory, grassroots conflict analysis to augment existing analysis underpinning the planning and implementation of development-humanitarian agency projects. Concluding that none yet offer tools to facilitate participation of marginalised poor, often functionally non-literate locals, into the actual analysis of conflict, it then presents and reflects upon the trial of a new, highly participatory conflict analysis approach, developed by the authors to complement a specific, highly participatory development programme in Myanmar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Participatory development became a new development orthodoxy during the early 1990s. However, many researchers have criticised that its implementation often fails to live up to its original transformative roots. This article analyses the participatory research methods promoted by the UNDP, its epistemological foundations and the knowledge–power dynamics within them. The inquiry finds that the local experts hired by the UNDP play a central role in articulating the top-down authority of the UNDP with the bottom-up legitimacy of the local perspectives. Rather than promoting 'development by the people, for the people', the UNDP promotes 'development by the experts, for the people'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Insufficient decent work for young people in lower income countries is a pressing global challenge. • Unemployed young people tend to make positive social contributions. • While young people's aspirations for work are tailored to their context they are nevertheless ambitious. • The persistent lack of demand for young people's labour needs to be tackled. • Overall, young people tend to contribute to their communities despite limited chances of finding decent work. Insufficient decent work in lower income countries is one of the most pressing global challenges facing young people today and is captured by SDG 8: decent work for all. Specific concerns include high levels of working poverty and informality, underemployment, and a lack of demand for youth labour. The vast majority of research into this subject focuses upon wealthier countries, and there is a need for greater engagement with young people's experiences and aspirations. Here we draw upon an international survey in lower income countries, alongside focus groups and interviews in Uganda, to challenge dominant conceptual and empirical understandings. Though our sample is limited to a relatively privileged group, by accessing young people's own perspectives on the employment challenge we contribute to an essential and ongoing disruption of the narrative that young people are the root of the youth employment problem. We do this by demonstrating that (1) unemployed young people tend to make positive social contributions, (2) while youth aspirations for work are tailored to their context they are nevertheless ambitious, and (3) lack of demand for youth labour needs to be directly addressed alongside the current focus on skills development. Our novel contribution to the literature on youth geographies is that young people in lower income countries tend to be dynamic and committed to contributing to their communities on a voluntary basis despite – and at times because of - the context in which they live limiting their chance of finding decent work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public health practitioners face challenging, potentially high-consequence, problems that require computational support. Available computational tools may not adequately fit these problems, thus forcing practitioners to rely on qualitative estimates when making critical decisions. Scientists at the Center for Computational Epidemiology and Response Analysis and practitioners from the Texas Department of State Health Services (TXDSHS) have established a participatory development cycle where public health practitioners work closely with academia to foster the development of data-driven solutions for specific public health problems and to translate these solutions to practice. Tools developed through this cycle have been deployed at TXDSHS offices where they have been used to refine and enhance the region's medical countermeasure distribution and dispensing capabilities. Consequently, TXDSHS practitioners planning for a 49-county region in North Texas have achieved a 29% reduction in the number of points of dispensing required to complete dispensing to the region within time limitations. Further, an entire receiving, staging, and storing site has been removed from regional plans, thus freeing limited resources (eg, personnel, security, and infrastructure) for other uses. In 2018, planners from Southeast Texas began using these tools to plan for a multi-county, full-scale exercise which was scheduled to be conducted in October 2019. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is increasing recognition of the importance of co-producing climate services to bridge the current “usability” gap in climate information for decision-making – yet understanding precisely how this should take place is less well elaborated. One key stage of the co-production process involves identifying specifically which climate metrics can usefully inform decisions – but methods that can be drawn upon to construct this information are often overlooked. We discuss how the choice and application of four existing social science methods (interview-informed role play workshop, open-ended interviews, prioritised surveys and enhanced surveys) arose out of, and was in turn embedded within, a different epistemological approach characteristic of co-production to identify decision-relevant climate metrics for the water and agriculture sectors in Malawi and Tanzania. In so doing, we reflect on the evolution of our understanding of co-production as our assumptions were challenged, from the expectation that we would be able to “obtain” metrics from users, to a dynamic mutual definition based on better understanding of the decision-making contexts. Such reflections inform emerging experiences of co-production of climate services, as well as having implications for broader contexts beyond the climate change space in which co-production is attempted to improve science-society interactions.

The traditional settlement structure of many Swiss regions was typically characterised by dispersed small settlements, providing an important basis for agriculture. As industrialisation and structural change have accelerated, these hamlets are increasingly losing their original purpose. However, many of them are of high value in terms of their building culture and heritage. Trying to preserve them adequately presents both architectural and socio-economic challenges. In order to address these difficulties, we developed a new strategy for the hamlet of Kirchbühl, in the town of Sempach. By bringing together experts’ viewpoints and the viewpoints of the key stakeholders in a participatory process, we aimed to identify potential conflicts between the different views and address them early on in the development of new guidelines. For each work-package, the goals were defined with the aim of formulating a set of principles and recommendations for planners, builders and the public authorities. The results of the participatory elements have shown that it was possible to integrate the local viewpoints continuously into the ongoing process and the guidelines. A clear line of conflict emerged between the practical vision of the owners and inhabitants and a more preservationist vision of some authorities. Thus, a more direct dialogue between the local stakeholders and the experts should be aimed for in future projects. The ex-post process reflection has also shown that the process needs to be tightened financially and temporally, to be able to carry it out in other municipalities.

There is a recognized need for the participation of local communities in designing and implementing agricultural interventions for the sustainable intensification in smallholder systems. This study examines the perspectives of local community leaders towards the widely promoted, but not widely adopted, practice of Conservation Agriculture (CA) in African smallholder systems. Perceptions from 47 community leaders (both from traditional local authorities and farmer organizations) across six African countries are documented regarding how CA matches the wants, needs and capabilities of farmers in their communities. While community leaders generally perceived CA as potentially beneficial, they also indicated that CA is not currently perceived as feasible within their communities and hence has limited relevance. Three key themes were identified that limit both CA use and sustainable intensification more generally: [1] a perceived reluctance of farmers to engage with the community platform as part of a higher input, market-oriented production system; [2] informational constraints due to non-functional exchange mechanisms; and [3] a lack of local adaptation of CA underscored by the persistence of top-down, linear research and extension approaches. Through greater understanding of local perspectives, a clearer picture emerges of the need for greater participatory engagement and local adaptation if sustainable intensification of African smallholder agricultural systems is to be achieved.