ABSTRACT
Participatory development is an umbrella term for approaches that directly involve local people in the design and delivery of development initiatives: projects, programs, and partnerships. The chapter shows how this way of 'doing development' with communities has started to respond to the challenges identified. It explores the range of ways that participatory development approaches have been used and misused in development practice across a range of country contexts. Nevertheless, when translated into projects and programs, social inclusion initiatives to tend to look a lot like participatory development initiatives; both focus on securing the participation of members of disadvantaged communities in on-the-ground initiatives to create change. Participatory rural appraisal (PRA) is an approach and suite of methods commonly used around the world to assess local contexts with local people, usually prior to the implementation of a development initiative. Multistakeholder workshops are a popular mechanism for bringing different development actors together to identify issues, agree on desired outcomes, and plan actions.
