Resources

This pack contains four documents drawing together the themes of gender and participation. It has also been translated into Arabic. The documents are as follows: (1) Gender and Participation - Overview Report (Supriya Akerkar) 31 pp. This report looks at convergences between approaches to gender and to participation, how these have been played out, and how they have been or could be constructively integrated into projects, programmes, policies and institutions. (2) Report Summary 4 pp (3) Gender and Participation - Support Resources Collection (Emma Bell and Paola Brambilla) 43 pp. This includes summaries of key resources, practical examples of approaches from around the world, examples of what tools used in participatory development can achieve and networking and contact details of relevant organisations. (4) Development and Gender In Brief - Gender and Participation (Issue 9)

This article discuess a pilot exercise in participatory heritage assessment carried out in 2000 in Newtown, an ethnically diverse suburb of New Zealand's capital, Wellington. The approach and process discussed aimed to challenge the criteria and processes associated with built heritage selection and to provide an alternative which is more inclusive of different ethnic and cultural groups. It does this by asking: what is protected? Who decides what is worth keeping? Who is it meant for?|The following recommendations are made regarding the development and implementation of participatory heritage assessment:|Develop a core of facilitators who specialise in participatory approaches;| Expand the range of groups to include specific communities of interest;|Facilitate a discussion of outcomes with group representatives and a heritage specialist;|Support residents to establish projects to manage their own built heritage.

The author narrates a personal journey to participation, through her work with local fisher communities in Tanzania, who were trying to stop dynamite and other illegal fishing methods. The use of video as a medium of communication empowered local villagers, giving them a means to forward their claims directly to those in authority. She describes the experience of lobbying the government at the national level, and how she stepped outside her role of NGO worker to accompany the villagers she had been working with to confront the Prime Minister. This act drew on an awareness that a facilitator is not neutral, and that commitment must be personal and political, not just that of professional duty. However, along the way, her journey has been fraught with personal risks as they confronted powerful local elites and opposed vested interests. She reflects on the need to change attitude and behaviour in institutions, and to put our own interests last, for participation and peoples' empowerment to go beyond rhetoric.

This paper surveys public participation policies across a range of international institutions and environmental agreements to better understand whether opportunities exist for meaningful participation in international decisions that affect the environment. It examines the implementation of Principle 10 in the Rio Declaration, supported by the Aarhus convention which details measures countries must take to ensure that citizens have access to information, participation, and justice in decisions that affect the environment. It looks specifically on how Multilateral Development Banks, Multilateral Environmental Agreements, and trade regimes and regional economic bodies have lived up to these goals. Co-produced by WRIÆs (World Resources Institute) International Financial Flows and the Environment Program (IFFE) and The Access Initiative (TAI), the survey concludes that: Policies on public participation are quickly becoming the norm; Public participation at the national level is uniformly weak; domestic stakeholders have limited ability to influence international decisions that affect their environment; Institutions and agreements subject to the greatest public scrutiny have the most advanced public participation policy frameworks; A common methodology is needed to assess the implementation and practice of public participation. This analysis provides the reader with an overview of where multilateral institutions are contributing to the development of effective public participation, and the extent to which opportunities exist in domestic and international political spheres for affected parties and the interested public to incorporate sustainability concerns in multilateral decision-making processes.