Community participation is provided and facilitated by various legal provisions. In many countries constitution provides the basic framework for empowerment of both the urban local government and the citizens. The mechanism of creation of Wards Committees, local groups, self help groups etc provides the structure for citizens’ participation. Institutions of local government are highly participatory, primarily by virtue of their close interface with local communities.
Types of Community Participation
Participation can be viewed from different perspectives and there are several types of participation. They include:
Passive Participation: People participate by being told what is going to happen or has already happened through unilateral announcement by administration.
Participation in Information Giving: People participate by answering questions posted by extractive researchers using questionnaire surveys or similar approaches and do not have the opportunity to influence proceedings.
Participation by Consultation: People participate by being consulted, and external people listen to views and may modify these in the light of people’s responses but do not involve them in decision-making.
Participation for Material Incentives: People participate by providing resources, for example labour, in return for food, cash, or other material incentives, yet people have no stake in prolonging activities when the incentives end.
Functional Participation: People participate by forming groups to meet predetermined objectives related to the project after major decisions have been made.
Interactive Participation: People participate in joint analysis, development of action plans, and formation or strengthening of local institutions.
Self-mobilisation: People participate by taking initiatives independent of external institutions to change systems. They develop contacts with external institutions for resources and the technical advice they need, but retain control over how resources are used.
INVOLVEMENT
Involving the community in planning, implemention, management and evaluation of programmes. This is important because, it contributes towards a feeling of responsibility and involvement in such a programme. In other wards we could refer to the process as that by which active partnership is established between a developmental programme within the community and the community itself. Thus community participation and involvement contributes to the attainment of community responsibility and accountability over all development programmes. Therefore preventing a community from alienating itself from such a programme. The community develops self-reliance and social control over its own infrastructure
COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN DIFFERENT SITUATIONS
• Top-down – approach
• Bottom-up – approach
Top-down – approach : In traditional approach health care planning , the decisions are made by senior persons in health services, the so called “experts”. Research may be carried out through surveys to what the community thinks or believes to be the problem, but in the end it’s usually the health workers who makes the decisions on what goes into the programme based on medically-defined needs.
BOTTOM-UP – APPROACH
In this approach members of the community make decisions.
FACTORS WHICH INFLUENCE THE DEGREE OF COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION POSITIVELY
• Relevance and accountability
• Education status of the community
• Community infrastructure (including communication network)
• Economic factors
• Social and cultural factors
• The level of intersectoral collaboration
• Suppression of involvement and initiative by projects which create dependency
• Political stability
• Good leadership
• Motivated community
• A sense of ownership
• Locally available resources
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