PLA Notes CD-ROM 1988-2001 3 Participatory community planning: some unresolved challenges from The Gambia

Document begins: PLA Notes CD-ROM 1988­2001 3 Participatory community planning: some unresolved challenges from The Gambia Sharon Truelove · Introduction Community Development Plans within the new Community Development approach. Since the early 1990s, The Gambia has been In this paper, I consider the integration of PRA developing a decentralised community into national or regional planning strategies planning process. The key to this process has and tackle the following issues: been the belie f that rural people should be defining their own development needs, be at · Can PRA act as a bridge between research the centre of development planning decisions and development? Can it reconcile the and translate development plans into action. traditional function of researchers This paper describes the approach and some of (production of knowledge) with that of its strengths and shortcomings, with the aim of developers (implementing development raising some debate about this type of action)? participatory development, and the · methodological issues arising from the How can we deal with the problem of transition to a more participatory community scale in PRA? PRA is often locality planning process. specific whereas development planning requires data aggregation at higher levels. The decentralised approach is being promoted How do ...