Resources

This article gives an overview of housing and environmental problems in the metropolitan area of Mexico City. It describes the history of attempts to encourage participation in two particular cases, and discusses the basic elements of the methodology used to conduct these processes.

This article describes how mapping of local peoples perceptions of child malnutrition was used to improve the quality of focus group discussions. Time was taken at the beginning of the study to understand all the words related to malnutrition and ensure that all members of the group had the same definition, since in the urban setting there was no one single language which all members shared.

The Kitagata Project advocates participatory settlement development in urban low-income communities in Japan. This article introduces the background, processes and methods of community participation in Kitagata. It also describes the planning process and participatory housing design. It concludes by briefly discussing issues related to settlement management.

A participatory well-being needs assessment on a deprived urban housing estate on the outskirts of London in UK. The report describes how the process of using a participatory approach proved as, if not more, important as any substantive findings about the well being needs of people on the estate. What mattered most was not what was known, but who found out about it and how. The report describes the different methods and tactics employed to incorporate different voices from around the community and some of the essential outcomes. It also shows how the community set about making action plans and leaves us at the stage of some of the intial ideas being put into action.

Increasingly, governments and donors are advocating the participation of poor communities in the delivery of urban services and infrastructure. Yet local authorities responsible for implementing participatory policies often do not have the skills, organisations or resources needed, or an adequate idea of the capacity required. This sourcebook provides invaluable practical guidance for municipal officials, and others working in urban development and poverty reduction, on the range of issues to be addressed in planning and managing cities with community participation. It explains the key elements of participation, identifies common constraints and opportunities, describes the vehicles for moving participation forward and outlines the capacity building needed for a municipality to achieve participatory goals. Jannelle Plummer is an Urban Poverty Consultant based in South Africa and formerly a development officer with DFID. Contents: Introduction; A Strategic Framework for Municipal Capacity Building; The External Operating Context; The Elements of Participation; The Vehicles of Participation; Internal Capacity of the Municipality; Management Capacity of the Municipality; Framework for Action; Appendix and References

A 1995 study in Zimbabwe of Harare's urban population revealed that 10% of the city's population were living in informal settlements. Labelled as temporary by the government, these settlements lack investment in social services, housing, health care, education provision, waste disposal and water and sanitation facilities. Concern over the children in the communities of these settlements prompted Save the Children UK and a local partner organization, Inter Country People's Aid, to carry out a situation analysis in two settlements. The results of this analysis led onto a new research project involving participation where the researchers were the children themselves. The article outlines some of the findings as well as problems encountered by the project, such as parents and confidentiality. It includes illustrations by children and has a detailed conclusion which includes issues such as how to involve children in genuine and meaningful debate, overcoming reluctance by younger children to participate in mixed age group sessions and the need for methodologies to be stimulating and interactive.

This report from DFID presents the findings from a review of 23 Participatory Poverty Assessments covering 14 countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe. The objective of the review was: To document the main findings and key messages from PPA's and complementary studies; To provide guidance on how poverty/environment links can be made more explicit in future PPA's. Three distinct aspects were addressed in the review; The messages of the poor; What the PPA's leave out; Areas where environmental causes and effects are alluded to but not elaborated upon. The report firstly provides an introduction to PPAs and the Environment, and is then divided into three key sections. The first section is entitled Conceptualising Environment - Poverty Links, and looks particularly at dispelling myths. The next is Poverty and Environment: Key Messages from the Poor which includes issues such as characteristics of well-being and ill-being, environmental trends, livelihood management activities, institutional influences, stresses related to poverty and the environment and an overview of key messages from the poor. The last section is entitled Lessons for the Future, and includes identifying gaps and partial analysis, and recommendations. Annexes detail references and a Matrix of Issues. Key points from this report are given in a 2-pager - Environment policy key sheet no. 1, available on-line - see below