PLA Notes CD-ROM 1988-2001 4 Beauty is in the process and not in the name: an alternative approach for participatory planning

Document begins: PLA Notes CD-ROM 1988­2001 4 Beauty is in the process and not in the name: an alternative approach for participatory planning Kamal Bhattacharyya and Ajay Kumar Summary are the products of a conventional top-down system. Unlearning can be more difficult for From our experiences in practising them than learning. Second, and more participatory approaches for promoting importantly, a few common approaches that sustainable agriculture, we have realised that are being used for planning, especially in some approaches for planning that claim to be agricultural development, are far from being bottom-up are not participatory. Furthermore, fully participatory. some approaches are not logically sequenced, while others are difficult to follow by Three common approaches to participatory grassroots level workers. Consequently, the planning include agro-ecosystem analysis planning becomes top-down instead of bottom- (AEA), the system diagram and a systematic up. An alternative approach (AAA) for approach (ASA). In all these approaches, it is participatory planning was first used with an only the problems that are identified through NGO, in Bihar, India and has since been participatory methods. But subsequently, a expanded to several other NGOs. AAA is easy more top-down approach is used for project to follow for grassroots level development ...