Participation Of Local Stakeholders Research Articles

Understanding clients’ role in community stakeholder participation and influence on infrastructure sustainability—a stakeholder theory lens

The nature of project clients and implementing agents is crucial to Local community stakeholder (LCS) participation in infrastructure development. However, few studies have explored this relationship. The questions regarding clients’ and implementing agents’ nature remain under-explored. Therefore, this article uses stakeholder theory to investigate the clients’ values and stakeholder participation in infrastructure development. A qualitative method used interviews with professionals from clients, consulting organisations and stakeholders to collect data in South Africa. The study revealed that LCS participation was related to client organisation’s values and nature. Equally, the stakeholder participation level influenced delivery of sustainable infrastructure. The significance of the study is that it reveals the gap in stakeholder management, an area extensively studied. Moreover, the study compels project sponsors and researchers to consider factors in clients’ and implementing agents’ organisations to improve stakeholder participation. The study redirects attention to client organisations’ nature and demonstrates the need for the right organisational attitude if stakeholder participation and sustainable infrastructure delivery are to be realised. This study may have important implications for policy and practice regarding stakeholder participation and sustainable infrastructure. However, limitations should be noted regarding the sample size.

Governance drivers hinder and support a paradigm shift in wildfire risk management in Italy

Fire is a fundamental social-ecological process, but a combination of changing climate, land use and values at risk is increasing the incidence of large wildfires with high societal and biodiversity impacts. Academic and practitioner understanding is now converging around the need to manage fire risk as an outcome of intersecting governance regimes, comprising geohistorically defined institutions and decision-making pathways shaped by earlier wildfires. We investigate this proposition through a case study of Italy, a country greatly affected by wildfire and characterised by strong organisational, socio-cultural and geographical variation nationally. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study collecting and analysing qualitative data on how different national and sub-national governance procedures interrelate to promote particular risk management strategies, and support or impede adaptive change. Participants in key agencies were consulted across seven nationally representative regions. Findings show a highly fragmented institutional structure, where wildfire policy responsibilities are increasingly allocated to disparate organisations at a variety of scales. Local stakeholder participation has been displaced by this shift to extra-local actors and networks. While institutions are formally committed to adopting a precautionary approach to wildfire risk, in practice, emergency response remains the default choice, as a result of patchy and uncoordinated legislation. Notably, the wider national and international (EU) regulatory context plays a muted role in governing wildfires. We present our results as a novel action research agenda for Italy and southern Europe more generally, emphasising the urgent need to develop new anticipatory systems of wildfire incidence through closer integration of cross-scale governance arrangements.

Factors Influencing the Strategy for Increasing Regional Original Income in Buton Regency

This research aims to analyze the factors that influence the strategy to increase Buton Regency's Original Regional Income (PAD). Regional income is an important source for district governments to finance development programs and public services. This research combines secondary data analysis with interviews with government officials, local economic experts, and other stakeholders to gain a deeper understanding of the external and internal factors that influence PAD. The findings show that national economic fluctuations, national tax policies, and local tax policies have a significant impact on Buton Regency's PAD. Apart from that, the potential of local natural resources and the active participation of local stakeholders are also key factors in the strategy to increase PAD. This research also highlights the importance of increasing internal capacity in regional financial management. In conclusion, this research provides a deeper understanding of the factors that influence PAD in Buton Regency and formulates recommendations for sustainable and adaptive PAD increase strategies.

Designing a Health Strategy at Local Level: A Conceptual Framework for Local Governments.

This article addresses a gap in the literature regarding the design and implementation of health and well-being strategies by local governments. It presents a conceptual framework that can help local governments to include health and well-being among their political priorities by promoting the participation of local stakeholders and the community in general. The article also highlights the important role that local governments play in public health, especially in times of crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. To demonstrate the approach, the manuscript explores the recent shift toward decentralization in Portugal and the resulting emphasis on local governments leading new approaches to health governance. The planning process for Arouca's Health Strategy, an inland municipality, is used as a case study to demonstrate the approach, which emphasizes the meaningful participation of the entire local community. The article concludes by noting that there is still significant room for improvement in all areas related to health and well-being and a need to adopt new multistakeholder governance arrangements to sustain the institutional capacity for upcoming strategies.

Web-Based Management of Public Buildings: A Workflow Based on Integration of BIM and IoT Sensors with a Web–GIS Portal

In this paper, we present the final results from the research project “Urban Abacus of Building Energy Performances (Abaco Urbano Energeticodegli Edifci–AUREE)” aimed at supporting the renovation process and energy efficiency enhancement of urban building stocks. The crux of the AUREE project is a Web–GIS GeoBlog portal with customized semantic dashboards aimed at sharing information on an urban built environment and promoting the participation of local stakeholders in its improvement. As the latest development of this research, a workflow that integrates the AUREE portal with BIM authoring and an open-source IoT platform is implemented and applied to an experimental case study concerning a public building in Carbonia (Italy). The headquarters of the Sotacarbo Sustainable Energy Research Center was selected as the case study. The presented results proved that it was possible to create a valid open system, which was accessible to both specialist and unskilled users, and aimed at guiding, through a progressive knowledge deepening, common end-users toward proper conscious “energy behaviors” as well as public administrations and decision-makers toward sustainable facility management. Later, the proposed open system could also be suitable to be used as an effective tool to support the rising “energy communities”.

Managing community-based conservation in Bobaomby, Madagascar

Conservation and development projects that prescribe the participation of local stakeholders in decision-making around the sustainable management of their own ecosystems have become commonplace in Madagascar in recent decades, as have scholarly critiques questioning the likelihood that such “community-based conservation” (CBC) efforts can achieve the win-win scenarios they purport to offer Malagasy communities and ecosystems. This article, co-authored by differently positioned collaborators, documents the history of exchanges that have proven fundamental to the development and maintenance of one CBC project in northern Madagascar, focusing especially on the value of ongoing interpersonal relations among community members and external partners.

The Village Needs Attention: Collaborative and Participatory Design Studio Process in Teaching Rural Architecture

Looking at the village through the lens of ‘romanticism’ often frames a village with thatch-roofed courtyard-centered houses, situated within a green-blue landscape. The people are not placed in this picturesque view, and their day-to-day life activities are ignored. The rural-to-urban migration, changing landscape and profession due to climate change, loss of agricultural land, etc. need careful attention. Because of the rapid growth of urbanization and associated infrastructure, every year Bangladesh loses 0.3% of its cultivated land, where the country is still mostly agrarian. Again, the short-sighted yet populist political statement- ‘Village will be the city’, looks for immediate ‘action’ leaving the ‘romanticism’. Frustratingly, rural planning and architecture are not well placed in the curriculum of Architecture. Professionals who will shape the future of the built environment, if unaware of a context, can’t act in an informed way. Four residential workshops were conducted in the Department of Architecture, DIU during the 2018-2021 time period, under an initiative titled ‘Grammo’, by the author. The residential workshop tried to look at the architecture of the village within a broad spectrum of socio-cultural and environmental events. Therefore, the participation of local stakeholders as well as the social hub was carefully included. The outcome of these workshops searched for need-based project ideas, which are then practiced either as class projects or documented digitally. These project proposals/ documents were displayed in those villages for user feedback. The paper aims at sharing the participatory process and outlining a participatory framework so that a new method of teaching rural architecture can be formulated in the design discipline.

Responsive neglected tropical disease programme delivery: listening and responding to the views and perceptions of beneficiaries.

In neglected tropical disease (NTD) programmes, beneficiary feedback mechanisms (BFMs) can be utilised to enhance programme quality and strengthen health outcomes by promoting the participation and empowerment of local stakeholders. This article reflects on the experiences of the Ascend programme in embedding a BFM in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria where key NTD data collection tools were adapted and prioritised across various elements of the NTD programme. Findings suggest that listening and responding to the needs of beneficiaries and building upon existing systems within NTD programmes is highly valuable in informing the planning and delivery of NTD activities.

Beneficiary and Local Stakeholder Participation in Community-Based Nutrition Interventions

ABSTRACTBeneficiary and local stakeholder participation is an essential element to the success of community-based nutrition interventions. We sought to define active participation and review the available evidence on beneficiary and local stakeholder participation in community-based nutrition interventions in Africa. From reviewing the literature, we provide a reflective assessment on the process and findings. Participation falls on a continuum of community involvement from passive (no real involvement) to empowerment and community ownership (full active involvement). However, we found a clear gap in the research on defining active participation and identifying what constitutes active participation on behalf of beneficiaries and local stakeholders. However, progress was found; evidence included the use of participatory methods to engage beneficiaries and local stakeholders in the assessment and design phase. Beneficiary and local stakeholder participation in delivering interventions has moved forward with quantitative measures from process evaluation and implementation science. Research has started on the extent of beneficiary engagement (as recipients) and connecting this to outcomes. Evaluation has benefited from qualitative inquiry with insights from participants on engagement itself, and the barriers and facilitators to engagement. Yet questions remain in each study phase around defining and quantifying active participation and in understanding the personal, social, and motivational elements of active participation. We offer a simple framework to stimulate thought and commitment to research on participation in community-based nutrition interventions.

Recognising geodiversity and encouraging geoconservation—Some lessons from Callander, Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park, Scotland

In the past decade progress has been made recognising the contribution that geodiversity makes to biodiversity and society. Scotland's Geodiversity Charter, launched in 2012 and revised in 2017, has attracted the support of almost 100 organisations and encourages signatories to work together to recognise the value of geodiversity and ensure it is managed appropriately and safeguarded. The case study presented here highlights that while there is a real desire to protect sites that are scientifically valuable, significant challenges exist to balance this with societal demand for resources and development. There are also challenges for geoscientists and geoconservation groups to communicate effectively with planning authorities and local communities. The case study also sheds light on the problems associated with the systems of designating geosites of national and regional importance, the maintenance of these systems, and how the value of these sites is conveyed beyond the scientific community. Scotland's Geodiversity Charter offers a framework that stakeholders can use to work in partnership to increase awareness of the issues and help achieve the sustainable management of geosites. Case studies such as Callander provide lessons and solutions to overcome the challenges that arise and highlight the need for the participation of both national and local stakeholders.

Bio-Economy and Sustainable Agri-Food Value Chains: Involvement of Local Stakeholders through Contract Farming

Due to expanding middle-class populations’ increased awareness of food safety and quality as well as the high standards set by developed countries’ export markets, contract farming has a bright future. In many developing nations, contract farming has become more significant. Previous research examined the impact of contracts on the welfare of smallholder farmers, but they often did not take into account the variety of contractual arrangements. As a result, agrifood sustainability makes an effort to use acceptable farming methods’ potential for mitigation to lessen rather than exacerbate the environmental problem and climate change. Prior to now, the focus of policymakers has mostly been on the production end of the food chain. However, for food systems to be sustainable, they must also be productive, environmentally friendly, and provide equitable revenue distribution across the food chain. Whether the products are bought by governmental organizations, multinational corporations, smaller businesses, farmer cooperatives, or independent business owners, it is a factor that is becoming more and more significant in agribusiness. Sponsors must therefore assess how a replacement crop might also be introduced and take into account social attitudes before implementing new cropping practices. Contract farming is frequently seen as a crucial strategy for raising social welfare, strengthening food security, increasing food quality and productivity, and protecting the environment. It aids farmers in overcoming obstacles such lack of capital, insurance, good input availability, output markets, and managerial and technical skills. The majority of studies show that contract farming increases income. The influence of contract farming on farmers’ income, according to certain research findings, is either negligible or even detrimental. This study empirically examines the effects of local stakeholder participation in contract farming on income and farming challenges and theoretically hypothesizes the influencing mechanism.

A Methodological Proposal for the Climate Change Risk Assessment of Coastal Habitats Based on the Evaluation of Ecosystem Services: Lessons Learnt from the INTERREG Project ECO-SMART

Climate change is seriously impacting coastal biodiversity and the benefits it provides to humans. This issue is particularly relevant in the case of the European Union’s Natura 2000 network of areas for nature protection, where the sensitivity of local ecosystems calls for intervention to increase resistance and resilience to climate-related risks. Given the complex ways in which climate can influence conservation hotspot areas, there is a need to develop effective strategic approaches and general operational models to identify priorities for management and inform adaptation and mitigation measures. Here, a novel methodological proposal to perform climate risk assessment in Natura 2000 sites is presented that implements the systematic approach of ISO 14090 in combination with the theoretical framework of ecosystem services assessment and local stakeholder participation to identify climate-related issues for local protected habitats and improve the knowledge base needed to plan sustainable conservation and restoration measures. The methodology was applied to five Natura 2000 sites located along the Adriatic coast of Italy and Slovenia. Results show that each of the assessed sites, despite being along the coast of the same sea, is affected by different climate-related issues, impacting different habitats and corresponding ecosystem services. This novel methodology enables a simple and rapid screening for the prioritization of conservation actions and of the possible further investigations needed to support decision making, and was found to be robust and of general applicability. These findings highlight the importance of designing site-specific adaptation measures, tailored to address the peculiar response to climate change of each site in terms of biodiversity and ecosystem services.

Reducing Wild Meat Sales and Promoting Local Food Security: Lessons Learnt from a Behavior Change Campaign in Yangambi, Democratic Republic of Congo

Marketing strategies to promote behavioral change are increasingly used to reduce the unsustainable use of wild meat. One of the mayor keys for success of behavior change campaigns lies in the choice of the channel for communication and the messaging. In this research, we present a behavioral change campaign implemented in Yangambi, Democratic Republic of Congo framed around an integrated conservation and development objective: improve food security in rural communities, reduce the unsustainable use of wildlife for food and promote locally grown pork and chicken. The campaign was co-developed based on the research team’s knowledge of the hunting system in the study area and the participation of key local stakeholders (village leaders, hunters and their families). It used participatory community theater, various printed materials, radio and face to face interactions. We evaluated the efficiency and clarity of messaging for channels used through semi-structured interviews with hunters, households and wildlife traders. We found that participatory community theater resulted in increased clarity and understanding among hunters and households. Moreover, community theater promoted word-of-mouth communication that reached an audience well beyond the location where the theater was held. Messages that were framed positively and used amusing channels of communication triggered positive receptiveness by our audience. Using local languages, avoiding written materials for illiterate audiences, and using repetitive means of communication may be among the strategies that could help increase the clarity of communication messages, particularly for sensitive topics such as this one. Our work calls for more lessons learnt from the ground about the most appropriate communication channels and messages, keeping in mind the social and cultural background of the audience, and ensuring that messages trigger emotions that lead to the desired changes.

Participation of Local Stakeholders at Ban Chiang World Heritage Site

This article deals with the empowerment of local residents and the economic development of the World Heritage (WH) site at Ban Chiang, Thailand, a prehistoric necropolis dating back to the first millennium BC. The site itself was added to the WH list in 1992, with the intention of safeguarding it from further looting by local inhabitants through the possible combination of restrictive laws and tourism-generated income. To ascertain the success of those policies three decades later, tourism activities and local community participation have been assessed in this study through GIS spatial analysis and a questionnaire survey based on the Resident Empowerment through Tourism Scale (RETS). The spatial analysis shows that no tourism activity has developed within the heritage property, which remains unvisited by tourists, while the questionnaire survey confirms that tourism and the related income potential for Ban Chiang residents are limited, but they are proud of the fact that Ban Chiang is a WH site, and strongly support tourism. The other negative aspects are the lack of political participation by the local community, and the lack of tourism skills, both of which limit any possible further development of the site. Based on such results, a theoretical framework for sustainable heritage development derived from Landorf 's research is elaborated in this study, employing all the various stages of sustainable heritage development and analysis tools from site assessment to the planning and development stages.

Participatory Action Research for the assessment of Community-Based Rural Tourism: a case study of co-construction of tourism sustainability indicators in Mexico

ABSTRACT Research about Community-Based Rural Tourism (CBRT) shows that participation of local stakeholders is a key factor in the pursuit of sustainability and supports the idea of using collaborative methods like Participatory Action Research (PAR) with local initiatives to address management and planning issues. This paper describes a case study in which tourism sustainability indicators (SIs) for a CBRT initiative were constructed through PAR with a group of women in rural Mexico. It reconstructs the steps and the process through which the indicators were established and implemented, and proposes a critical analysis of the assessment and its impacts on the group. The findings show that, provided that the SIs are adapted to the rural context, the co-construction of tourism SIs has led to assess the tourism activity using criteria adapted to the women’s needs and vision. The PAR process encouraged collective action, horizontal dialogue and made more visible the inter-relations and power relations between the stakeholders, demonstrating the potential for collaboration and empowerment in a transdisciplinary perspective.

A Methodology for Planning and Prioritisation of Rural Roads in Bangladesh

Local government bodies and other concerned agencies in developing countries spend a considerable amount of money on rural road development. However, in the absence of any robust and systematic methodology, road development largely relies on ad-hoc decisions and subjective judgement of public officials. Such a decision-making process often leads to inefficient resource allocation bypassing equity and long-term societal benefits. Although there are some established methodologies for road network planning, complexities exist in applying those methods. First, most of the established methods are not suitable for rural road development, particularly regarding the volume and nature of traffic on them. Second, some methods are highly complex and lack practical applicability. Third, road development planning should not be top-down alone but ensure the participation of local stakeholders. Given these limitations, this study proposes a methodology—Rural Road Planning and Prioritisation Model (RPPM). It consists of two major components (i) developing a core network in participation with local stakeholders and (ii) prioritisation of roads based on Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) and Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA). The proposed method is piloted in one district, and a web-based software is also developed for practical implementation by the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED), Bangladesh. The paper also discusses the results of the pilot study.

The Application of Ethnographic Methods to Engineering for Global Development: The Case of the Improvised Betel Nut Cutter

Abstract This technical brief is an attempt to report a case analysis of Engineering for Global Development (EGD) research from India. As a part of the engineering design and research project, two models of improvised betel nut cutter (IBNC) are designed, manufactured and field-tested. Engineering ethnography is adopted as a research tool during the design process of IBNC. The “engineering ethnography” facilitated the participation of local stakeholders in the design process which is found to be effective for contextual understandings of the target community’s needs, aspirations, constraints, and socio-cultural norms and values. The technological intervention is expected to solve the problems like finger cut and health drudgery (musculoskeletal pain, back pain, etc.) of the women involved in the supari business in Assam, India. It will also improve productivity and efficiency in the supari cutting practices of women. This case analysis depicts the effectiveness of trans-disciplinary effort in solving complex engineering problems at the bottom of the pyramid (BoP). Evidence gathered from this study is expected to be a useful resource for future endeavors in EGD research.

Localisation of the Sustainable Development Goals in an emerging nation

AbstractThe Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), agreed to by all member countries of the United Nations, require urgent action on the world's most pressing problems. Success requires bottom‐up participation of local stakeholders. This case study of Timor‐Leste—a fledgling, fossil fuel‐supported economy—maps the awareness and commitment of grassroots stakeholders to the SDGs and the roadblocks to localisation. Guiding this paper is Habermas’ view of societal evolution and communicative action, which aids analysing the socio‐political and structural dynamics affecting SDGs localisation in a developing nation. This study reveals stakeholder inability to articulate a clear vision for the SDGs, lack of human capital and funds, a weak public‐administrative system, strong socio‐political nuances, and poor governance infrastructure to support multi‐stakeholder relationships. This paper provides insights for developing a more nuanced and robust public intervention to support local stakeholders that will enable knowledge, cultural and communication transformations required for successful SDGs localisation.

Whose Journey to Self-Reliance? Participation in the Journey to Self-Reliance and the Land-Grant Imaginary

Land-grant university and civil society development actors have long partnered with local and global communities to eliminate food insecurity. Despite the common aim of addressing food insecurity as a wicked problem, their approaches and designs differ in scope and scale. Similarly, levels of local stakeholder participation in agricultural development historically vary reflecting the complexity in relinquishing hierarchal decision-making power. In this pilot study, we investigated how participation is framed within the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) policy, “The Journey to Self-Reliance”. Subsequently, we sought to understand the implications of this framing on land-grant universities’ agricultural development aims in addressing global food security. We drew upon Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis and Pretty’s typology of participation in sustainable agriculture to analyze the inaugural speech launching the policy framework by the former USAID administrator. We also held two focus groups with development actors at two land-grant universities. Findings indicate local participation of governments, citizens, and civil society to be important. However, governmental participation may be contingent on accountability to both USAID and the private sector indicating an increased commitment to neoliberal ideology. The focus group themes identify self- reliance and its journey as prescriptive and at times, neocolonial, raising questions about participatory possibilities. The final theme illustrates land-grant praxis from participants as they advance visions for centering local partner needs through more equitable decision-making and resource sharing. We conclude with considerations for future research to more deeply understand the implications of “The Journey to Self-Reliance” policy through a CDA lens Keywords: Agro-ecology, Extension, Theory and Practice, Qualitative Research, Community Development

Whose Journey to Self-Reliance? Participation in the Journey to Self-Reliance and the Land-Grant Imaginary

Land-grant university and civil society development actors have long partnered with local and global communities to eliminate food insecurity. Despite the common aim of addressing food insecurity as a wicked problem, their approaches and designs differ in scope and scale. Similarly, levels of local stakeholder participation in agricultural development historically vary reflecting the complexity in relinquishing hierarchal decision-making power. In this pilot study, we investigated how participation is framed within the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) policy, “The Journey to Self-Reliance”. Subsequently, we sought to understand the implications of this framing on land-grant universities’ agricultural development aims in addressing global food security. We drew upon Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis and Pretty’s typology of participation in sustainable agriculture to analyze the inaugural speech launching the policy framework by the former USAID administrator. We also held two focus groups with development actors at two land-grant universities. Findings indicate local participation of governments, citizens, and civil society to be important. However, governmental participation may be contingent on accountability to both USAID and the private sector indicating an increased commitment to neoliberal ideology. The focus group themes identify self-reliance and its journey as prescriptive and at times, neocolonial, raising questions about participatory possibilities. The final theme illustrates land-grant praxis from participants as they advance visions for centering local partner needs through more equitable decision-making and resource sharing. We conclude with considerations for future research to more deeply understand the implications of “The Journey to Self-Reliance” policy through a CDA lens.