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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Participatory Planning: Counterbalancing Centralisation
Authors:Bar-On, Arnon A.ISNI
Prinsen, GerardISNI
Year:1999
Periodical:Journal of Social Development in Africa (ISSN 1012-1080)
Volume:14
Issue:1
Pages:101-119
Language:English
Notes:biblio. refs.
Geographic terms:Botswana
Southern Africa
Subjects:rural development
popular participation
Development and Technology
Economics and Trade
government policy
development planning
Grass roots groups
political participation
Abstract:Building on its indigenous political legacy, Botswana tried to institute a genuinely 'bottom-up' development planning system in which popularly identified local priorities are coordinated horizontally and then gradually combined vertically to form a comprehensive national development plan, modified only by constraints of finance and implementation. This ideal, however, has run into considerable difficulties at village, district, and national levels, to the extent that the planning process has become chiefly a device for engineering consent to centralized decisionmaking and giving it credence. Pressures for change came from both politicians and bureaucrats. In 1997, the government of Botswana formally adopted the community-based approach as its chief strategy for rural development, and participatory rural appraisal (PRA) as the primary tool for its development plannning, following a pilot project which indicated that participatory planning can provide some of the leverage required to change three critical elements in development planning practice, viz. district officers' communication with and attitudes towards their constituents, their communication among themselves, and their communication with central government. Bibliogr., notes, ref.
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