ARBA MINCH UNIVERSITY SAWLA CAMPUS

COLLEGE OF COMMERCE AND BUSINESS

ADMINSTRATION
DEPARTMENT OF COOPERATIVES
Program Cooperative Accounting And Auditing

PARTICIPATORY APPROACH IN COOPERATIVES

coop (2034) Cr Hr. (ECTS) 2 (3)

+251926886427
By: Hido Chulo (MA)
[email protected]
[email protected]
 Course Content
1. INTRODUCTION TO 6. PARTICIPATORY
PARTICIPATION PLANNING,ASSESMENT,MONITERING
AND EVALUTION

5. PARTICIPATORY
2.ORGANS OF
PARTICIPATORY RURAL METHODS&APPROAHES
APPRAISAL (PRA)

3. PARTICIPATION IN
COOPERATIVES
4. PARTICIPATORY APPROACH

2
 Course objective
• Dear Students! Up on the successful completion of this module you will be able to:

 Be familiar with what participatory approaches are

 Elaborate the current burning issues of participation in development

 Express organs of participatory rural appraisal by correlating with community development, area, minimum needs
and integrated approaches
 Describe meaning, importance and participation of different stakeholders of cooperatives like members, board of
directors, employees and officials of cooperatives.

 Analyze participation problems of cooperatives in areas of constitutional, managerial and administrative and
services related issues of cooperatives.

 Analyze applicable tools for participatory approaches and participatory planning, monitoring and evaluation in
cooperatives

3
 Teaching and learning methods
• Dynamic and interactive lecture and discussion sessions
• Discussions are built around in-class exercises, and case discussions
Organizing the 3H’s
understand, memory, analysis
Head

3H

Heart Hand
Learning with inspiration Writing assignment and
and motivation examinations

4
 Assessment and evaluation
• Test 1 10%
• Community participation 10 %
• Mid term exam 30%
• Final exam 50%
Total 100%

5
 Chapter One: Introduction to Participation

Objective of the Chapter

 At the end of this chapter, students will be able to

 To know definition, features and significances of participation

 Describe the process and framework of participation

 Discuss the principles, typologies and advantages of participatory approach

 Discuss challenges of participatory approaches

 Chapter One: Introduction to Participation
Definition of Participation
 Participation is the process of learning by doing and the purpose is to empower the community to
decide on their own fate/future and bring sustainable development.

 With regard to rural development, participation includes people's involvement in decision-making

processes, in implementing programmes, their sharing in the benefits of development programmes
and their involvement in efforts to evaluate such program.

 Participation is concerned with the organized efforts to increase control over resources and
regulative institutions in given social situations on the part of groups.

 Genuine participation is defined by Servaes (1999) as a process that “touches the very core of
power relationships in society”.
 Definition of participation can be further broken down more specifically as follows
 Participation is considered a voluntary contribution by the people to one
or another of public programs supposed to contribute to national
development.
Participation means in its broadest sense, to sensitize people and thus, to
increase the openness and ability of rural people to respond to
development programs, as well as to encourage local initiatives.
Popular participation in development should broadly understand as the
active involvement of people in decision-making process in so far as it
affects them.
 The Process and Framework for Participation
The participatory process should involve all stock holders’ right from the beginning to the
end of the project and involves the following steps as outlined by DFID (2001).

1.Identification those who want to participate

2. Participants’ expectations of the process should be clarified.

3. Participatory identification of threats, opportunities weakness, strength and priorities

worked out.

4. Identifications of indicators that will provide the information needed for measuring
development of the project in question.
 Participatory Approaches
Participatory approaches are the active approaches that encourage people to think
for themselves.
Participants actively contribute to teaching and learning rather than passively
receiving information from out side experts who may not have local understanding
of the issues.
These approaches encourage the people to share information, learn from each other
and work together to solve common Problems.
Participatory approaches are used in situations where a number of people must
work together to resolve a common problem.
 Advantages of Participatory Approaches
• They use inexpensive resources

• They can be used in any physical setting

• They are interesting and fun –helping to involve people in the subject

• They help people to build self confidence

• They help people to learn about themselves

• They help people to understand the perspectives of others

 Cont’d
• Participants with different degrees of experience and literacy can use them

They can help people to analyze the complex situations

Outcomes are often documented during the process

They are memorable

Lessons learnt can be brought back to local communities or organizations

 Participatory process(steps)??????
I. Agreeing on the method, responsibilities and timing of implementations of the
projects.

II. Selected community members to be involved in the program are trained in relevant
technical and management skills for sustainability.

III. Implementation of the program

IV. Participatory monitoring and evaluation; The community is trained in the process of
collection of data for monitoring and for learning purposes.

V. During monitoring and evaluation, new problems are identified, they own the process
of development and that contributes to its sustainability.
 Participation must--
Contribute to the quality of project

Add value

Have a multiplier effect

Have a long lasting effect

Improve the status of participant

Leading from behind

Clarifying objectives

Learning together

Empower etc.
Here, Empowerment implies the control of
• Technology

• Information

• Material resources

• Money

• Decision-making
 Characteristics of participatory approach
1. Participation as a means and an end
Participation as a means implies team work- peoples cooperating with each
other to achieve certain goals which are difficult to attain individually in a
better manner

When participation is understood as an end by itself, in a cooperative

development, the objective is related to the enhancement of the capacity of
the members to solve problems and improve working and living conditions.
 Comparative analysis of participation as a means and an end
As a means As an end
It implies use of participation to achieve some Attempts to empower people to participate
predetermined goals in their development more meaningfully.

It is an attempt to utilize existing resources in The attempt is to ensure the increased role of people
order to achieve the objective of program in development initiatives.

The stress is on achieving the objectives The focus is on improving the abilities of people to
participate

Participation is generally short term It is a long term process

2. Participation as a process

• Participation as a process is critical for the end outcome, how people take part,
how ideas discussed, how decisions made and how results communicated are
important issues when consider participation in cooperatives.

3. Participation as an approach to development

• Participatory approach is an analytical tool and method which provides people

with an opportunity to investigate and analyze their own situation and play a great
role in determining and enhancing responses and solutions to their own problems.
 Main Features of Participatory Approach
• In the participatory approach to development, the community works in partnership with
support organizations, different service providers, NGOs and the government.
• Special Features of Participatory Approaches
1. Triangulation

• Triangulation is a kind of cross-checking. By using people’s different views and different sources
of information to get a more complete picture of the situation.

• Triangulation means that the teamwork with different experts or different people from different
places given information and uses different methods and ways to work.

• Therefore, Triangulation is done in relation to composition of Team, Sources of information and

mix of techniques.
 2. Multi disciplinary Team
• The members of the Participatory Approaches should have different skills and
backgrounds. The different viewpoints of team members will complement each
other and will provide a more comprehensive picture.
3. Mix of techniques
• The participatory approaches techniques are taken from wide range of possible
tools, which are tailored (adapted) to the specific requirements of the study.
4. Flexibility and Informality
• Plans and research methods are adapted and modified as the Participatory
Approaches field work.
 Cont’d---
5. In the community

• The main aspect of the Participatory Approaches is learning from, with and by members of
the community.

• The team should emphasize with the community members and be able to see their lives
and their problems through the eyes of the community members.

6. Optimal ignorance

• The Participatory Approaches team avoids the unnecessary details, which is not really
needed for the purpose of the Participatory Approaches. The team asks itself, what kind of
information is required? For what purpose and how accurate does it have to be?
 Cont’d---
7. On the spot analysis

• Learning takes place in the field and the analysis of the information gathered is an
integral part of the field work itself.

• 8. Offsetting biases and being self critical

• The Participatory Approaches team actively seeks out the poorest women and other
disadvantaged groups in remote areas, and avoids talking only to the better
educated, the articulate and the men.
 Principles of Participatory Approach

• There is no single approach to development but all of them conform to same general principles.
Some of the 5 majors’ are:

1. Privacy of people; people (the community) should be treated as subjects (a person who have a
right to belong to something) than as objects- which is in case of conventional approach.

2. People’s knowledge and listening to the peoples; The knowledge, skill, and potentials of
people need to be considered. Thus, the development agents should listen to the local people
who know more about their problems.

3. Women issue; the women population covers half of the population of the nations. The
development endeavor will remain unchanged without the participation of this section of the
population.
 Cont’d---
4.Respect village diversity; a village may be homogeneous, but at other times
it can be also heterogeneous having conflicting interest or perceptions. In such
cases, the development agent should give equal treatment to the different
socio- economic groups in the village by bringing them together and
discussion.

5.Examine the situation from different viewpoints; using only one

solution/tool or techniques/approach may lead to wrong solutions. So, it is
important to solve problems using flexible ways/systems.
 Types of Participation
• Pretty (1995) describes seven types of participation:

1. Passive participation: The community has no decision making role and is

asked, or forced, to participate. There was no involvement in the decision-
making process.

2. Participation in Information giving: Participate by answering questions; no

opportunity to influence the decision-making process.

3. Participation by Consultation: participate by being consulted; where they can

express views and opinions, but are still excluded from any decision-making
 Cont’d
4. Participation for Material Incentive: Communities participate by providing
resources in return for food, kind and cash.

5. Functional Participation: Participate by forming groups to meet

predetermined objectives .

6. Interactive Participation: Participate in joint analysis, leading to action plans

and formation of local Groups take control over local decisions.

7. Self-Mobilization: Participate by taking initiative independent of external

institution to change systems.
 Obstacles to a Participatory Approach
1.Local government agencies and bureaucratic forces, despite their
rhetoric of support, have reasons to fear farmer participation and
may seek to divert the threat.

2.Some professional technical advisers and development workers

find it hard to accept that rural people have something to contribute
to technology development.

3. Many organizations, both governmental and non-governmental,

lack the flexibility and the internal openness to follow a participatory
 Cont’d
4. A large part of the rural population women and youths - face special obstacles:
heavy labor inputs prevent them from taking part in meetings;

5. In most countries, there are disadvantaged minorities which are distinguished by

race, religion or ethnic group. The participation of these minorities in development
activities may be strongly resisted by the dominant groups.

6. The poverty of certain categories of the rural population and their bad experiences
with (non-) supporting agencies may have robbed them of any hope for improvement,
depleted their self-confidence and increased their distrust of outsiders. This results in
a ‘culture of silence’.
 END OF CHAPTER ONE
THANK YOU STUDENTS’!!!