Stakeholder Participation In Planning Research Articles

Bringing politics back into water planning scenarios in Europe

The shift from government to governance in European water policies conveys a pluralist conception of stakeholder participation in planning. This article argues that the current Driving forces-Pressures-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) approach to the planning of natural resource use, developed by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the European Environmental Agency (EEA) is at odds with a pluralistic conception. The DPSIR approach consists in constructing a single socio-environmental model to address a specific problem in water management, while paying no attention to the existence of conflicts surrounding the definition of the issue at hand, the social, political and spatial delimitation of that issue, and the translation of stakes in terms of quantitative variables. Scenarios produced in this process therefore explore a limited range of policies, i.e. those defining the problem in the same way, as illustrated here with the case of the Garonne River in France. This article presents an alternative method, combining knowledge in social science and natural determinisms to build contrasting socio-hydrological scenarios that do not share the same hypotheses regarding their respective key issues.

Improving Citizens’ Participation in Local Government Planning and Financial Management in Ghana: A Stakeholder Analysis of the Sefwi Wiawso Municipal Assembly

Ghana‘s decentralization concept was initiated to promote popular grassroots participation in the management and administration of local governance institutions for improved conditions of life. This is believed to be an important means to improving the effectiveness of service delivery and empower the local people to participate in the development processes that affect their lives. Despite this important role of local communities and stakeholders in the local governance processes, their involvement in decision making on planning, budgeting and financial management of local government agencies is only marginal. This low level of participation is one of the most structural challenges confronting Ghana‘s decentralisation process and local government financial management. Using Stakeholder Analysis, this paper examines the role and level of participation of stakeholders in planning, budgeting and financial management of the Sefwi Wiawso Municipal Assembly. The results of the study indicate that, there has been very little space for local participation and that most of the stakeholders lack proper understanding of the planning, budgeting and the financial management systems of the district assemblies. This lack of space for stakeholder participation has constrained the promotion of effective, responsive and responsible government at the local level for poverty reduction. Procedures and structures for community engagement in the monitoring and evaluation of development interventions seldom exist. The paper argues that an effective engagement of local communities and other stakeholders will enhance transparency and improve upon service delivery within the local government systems. A conscious effort to build capacities and create space for local engagement will enhance the efforts of decentralisation and fast track poverty reduction and national development in Ghana

Challenges to Democracy in Market-Oriented Urban Planning in Norway

Neo-liberal ideas have resulted in a planning practice characterized by an informal phase in which early agreements are reached in closed negotiations between municipal planners and private developers. This challenges norms of legitimacy and accountability found in traditional democratic theories, as well as deliberative planning and network governance theories. Input-based legitimacy may be weakened by the lack of participation as well as by asymmetry in resources available for participation (voice). The representative democracy's (vote) responsiveness to the electorate may be weakened due to the lack of knowledge of the views of those affected, early lock-in to agreements and weak meta-governance due to the lack of adherence to overall plans. Throughput legitimacy is reduced by the lack of transparency, and thus accountability, in the informal phase. Output legitimacy might justify the privileged position of developers if tangible results are achieved. However, lack of participation weakens the quality and long-term lastingness of decisions, and lack of deliberation weakens the acceptability of justifications for those burdened by the decisions. We argue that two different types of reforms are necessary to increase the input legitimacy of planning practices: representative democracy reforms that strengthen the role of politicians and reforms that strengthen the direct participation of stakeholders in planning.

Decentralized wastewater management in peri-urban areas in low-income countries

In peri-urban areas in low-income countries, conventional centralized approaches to wastewater management have generally failed to address the needs of communities for the collection and disposal of domestic wastewater and faecal sludges from on-site sanitation. There are opportunities for implementing wastewater management systems based on a decentralized approach that may offer opportunities for wastewater re-use and resource recovery as well as improvements in local environmental health conditions. Decentralized approaches may also offer increased opportunities for local stakeholder participation in planning and decision-making, and the paper emphasizes the importance of building the capacity of local organizations in all aspects of decentralized wastewater management. Using examples of functioning systems, the paper discusses the operational sustainability of decentralized technologies for wastewater management in peri-urban areas and their associated management requirements. The paper concludes that a concerted capacity-building effort is required to overcome the constraints that hinder the implementation and sustainability of decentralized wastewater systems, and proposes a framework for achieving this goal.