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This article reviews a project in Pune, India, where 400 community toilet blocks have been built through a partnership between municipal government, NGOs and community-based organisations. In 1999, the Municipal commissioner sought to greatly increase the scale of public toilet construction and to ensure that toilets more appropriate than those previously constructed by the municipality got built, by inviting local NGOs to make bids for toilet construction and maintenance. One of the NGOs that received contracts had long had a partnership with two people's organisations, the National Slum Dwellers Federation and Mahila Milan (a network of slum and pavement women's savings and credit groups). The three institutions had been working in Pune for five years prior to this, supporting savings and credit movement among women slum dwellers, which had included experiments with community toilets. One factor that constrained community participation was the municipal commissioner's desire to complete the programme while he was still in office. Despite this limitation, many of the inhabitants were involved in the design and construction of the toilets. The authors conclude that the project was made possible through a reconfiguration of the relationship between city government, NGOs and communities, with the government recognising the capacity of the community organisations to develop their own solutions. The project was unusual for India in its transparency and accountability, with weekly stakeholder meetings and constant communication between community leaders and government officials.

In this article, the authors recount the experiences of an NGO, Nepal Water for Health (NEWAH), in helping the community of Lele Mahadev Khola village to manage their water system through maintenance and funding. The activities carried out by the NGO through PAR is detailed with insights on what the PAR approach has been able to achieve.

Drawing on the experience of Anil Shah in facilitating participatory irrigation management in Gujarat, this paper explores how policy can be influenced to facilitate the spread of participatory approaches.

This chapter from a guide to participatory land and water resource management, designed for community leaders and extension officers in Australia, discusses participatory planning for community action. Its main points are: the planning process consists of situational analysis, goal-setting, selection of solutions, development of implementation plans and monitoring and evaluation; seven steps are given to provide understanding of institutional planning undertaken by various agencies in the district; eight steps work through community planning by developing managerial skills; and eight techniques for improving participatory planning are described in detail. The chapter is written in a comprehensible and interactive style.