Framework perspective on local participation in policy: Views through FAO experience | Land Portal

Resource information

Date of publication: 
December 2007
Resource Language: 
ISBN / Resource ID: 
FAODOCREP:26671d41-37d8-5044-9ac0-27cd3db51f2b
Pages: 
125
License of the resource: 
Copyright details: 
© FAO. FAO is committed to making its content freely available and encourages the use, reproduction and dissemination of the text, multimedia and data presented. Except where otherwise indicated, content may be copied, printed and downloaded for private study, research and teaching purposes, and for use in non-commercial products or services, provided that appropriate acknowledgement of FAO as the source and copyright holder is given and that FAO's endorsement of users' views, products or services is not stated or implied in any way.

The goal of this exercise is to identify some of the tools a development agent needs for achieving effective local participation in policy development. The intended audiences are FAO professionals and their colleagues, in other agencies and in the field programs. This paper uses an analogy of walking and climbing to separate the familiar project experiences (the walking) from the less-known territory of policy influence (the climbing). This exercise is unusual in that it looks back at a number of field experiences that were not formulated with a focus on local participation in policy development (no one started out with the intention to climb). From a research perspective we attempted to understand processes after the fact rather than following them as they developed, and we leaned on fields such as organizational management that deal with such challenges on a regular basis. The case studies here were written with the aim of learning about the participatory policy development processes that took place around and within the contexts of the FAO projects. The majority of selected cases constitute a series of projects that started with a technical orientation (e.g. food security) and over time began to appreciate the significance of the policy context as an area where the project could play a direct role. All projects contributed by creating new capacities at the individual and organizational levels. They created networking opportunities (spaces) whereby different stakeholders gained a voice. While many of those spaces were temporary, their very existence established both a precedent and a sense of what is possible. However, by not having an explicit “policy influence” agenda, the projects may have missed opportunities to document and report on some of these achievements. In the analogy: the walker may have climbed without knowing he followed good practices because he did not know their name, or their foundation.

Authors and Publishers

Author(s), editor(s), contributor(s): 

Ramirez, R.
Economic and Social Development Department
Ricardo Ramirez

Corporate Author(s): 
Publisher(s): 

Data provider

Share this page