INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR GEO-INFORMATION SCIENCE AND EARTH OBSERVATION

PGIS & P- Mapping in PSP

Participatory Spatial Planningand Good Governance

Rationale, Principles, Characteristics, Operationalisation

Participation means different things to different people

‘Good Governance’

Accountability - transparency & visibility of government decisions and policies, accountability mechanisms, responsiveness to lower levels community involvement a means to generate

accountability.

Accountability not the end in itself, a means of supporting higher-level social-political goals of: Legitimacy, Participation Respect for Rights, Empowerment Equity (not simply, equality), and Competence (including efficiency).

UNDP - Good Governance

UNDP (1997) core characteristics of GG:

Participation; Rule of law; Transparency;

Responsiveness; Consensus-orientation;

Equity; Effectiveness and efficiency;

Accountability; Legitimacy; Strategic

Vision; Resource Prudence; Ecological

Soundness; Empowering and Enabling;

Spatially grounded in communities.

Historical Phases of “Participation”

"Self-help" schemes 1960s-1970s Labour inputs of local people in land clearing, tree

planting, ditch digging, etc., "blood & sweat".

Needs Assessment late 1970s-1980s Problem identification & prioritising by local people.

Identification of potential Solutions 1990s Identification of solutions by local people, Incl. use indigenous / local knowledge

“Decentralisation”– towards Participation

De-concentration of administrative authority. Delegation of decision-making authority. Devolution of decision-making powers.and: De-institutionalise: transfer public functions

outside of govt. authority to non-governmental or private sector bodies, i.e. privatise; or disengage to NGOs; or, devolve to local authority bodies.

Why ‘Participation.?

What are the strengths / positive points about Participatory (Neighbourhood or Community) Planning ?

Rationale for Participatory Planning

o Democratic decision-making + equity component.

o Local accountability.o Economic & Technical efficiency of activities .o mobilise under-utilised local physical, human,

institutional, and knowledge resources.o Policy impact (effectiveness) improved better

feedback – implementation & policy more adaptive & responsive to internal conditions.

o Strengthen understanding of local variability in natural & social ecology.

o Long/term view & stability of policy programmes, and commitments to sustainable management.

Intensity of Participation - “Ladder”

Information Sharing, communication between outsiders and local people,

primarily technical information, e.g. needs assessment.

 Consultation Outsiders refer certain issues to local stakeholders, for

further details, or refinement, or e.g. for prioritising.

Involvement in Decision-making by all actors, Involve local people in decision-making, policy-setting.

Initiating Actions Initiatives of local people who are empowered

e.g. self-mobilisation to perform activities

Community Participation Purposes Continuum

Facilitate Collaborate Empower(Mediate)

 LESS------------------------------------------------MOREEmphasis on self-reliance

Emphasis on action and collective actionEmphasis on internal process

Explicit recognition of specific socio-economic groups / actors

Requirement for political commitment from outside partiesEmphasis on bottom-up inputs to decision-making

"Participation as a process having its own inherent value –as an end in itself"

LESS------------------------------------------------MORE

What is wrong with Participation?

What are the deficiencies / weaknesses / problems with Participatory local planning

?

Obstacles to Participation in Spatial Planning. External political resistance to 'real' local empowerment. internal local holders of power will not give it up. breadth of needs, priorities, opinions, etc. between

actors in the local community is too wide.women especially are frequently excluded from early stages of decision-making, etc.

minorities - e.g. ethnic groups, castes, - are frequently excluded.

there is an absolute scarcity of resources to be shared - and, overall there is poverty.

unequal distribution of access to power - ultra-poor, elderly, children, handicapped, refugees, inarticulate.

serious time constraints involved in processes of participation.

participation may be costly.

Problems of Local Institutions

Local-level planning organs are not in policy-setting position; therefore difficult to advise policy-makers.

Influenced by local elites and politicians Limited Capacity of local staff – w.r.t. calibre,

commitment, (corruption), and continuity. Skills of govt. staff and NGO cadre less developed at

local level Local govt. officers normally subordinate to their

central offices. Ethnic, religious, caste, language conflicts often

found within the local level. National requirements to support national goals &

policies, even not in interests of local population, therefore locally unpopular.

Indicators for Assessing Participation

Target Groups' Role in Problem Identification, Design, Planning Part. in preparing proposal; & in project planning Indigenous knowledge in problem identification & prioritisation. Distribution of Part. between groups

Target Groups' Role during Implementation   Financial contributions; Labour contributions ITK in identifying possible solutions or, Dependency on outside

expertise Distribution of Part. between target groups

Beneficiaries' Role in Continuation  Continued use of ITK / or, dependency Degree of local ownership and control Flow of income from project Local initiatives for new projects

Village sketch mapping exercise with villagers

How to be Participatory?

What approaches and methods to encourage / promote a participatory planning approach

?

Instruments for Participation

"Top-Down" - Information Sharing untargeted, one-way dissemination:

Mass media, information dissemination Public meetings, public exhibitions

"Top-Down" - Consultation + Information Sharing more targeted, partially two-way information:

Public hearings Local Community meetings and workshops RRA methods 

"Two-way' - Consultation + Information Sharing Public Fora; PRA methods; Focus groups, Interest groups

Instruments for Participation

"Bottom-up" - Decision-Making + Consultation + Information Sharing Initiating Actions

Advocacy planning Petitions; Elections Civil Action; Demonstrations PRA

"Stand Alone" - Initiating Actions instruments for Empowerment implementing participation within a community:

Social Mobilisation; animateurs, etc.

Local K is a key to PSP

Local Knowledge, IK, ITK, ISK

Local Knowledge is a resource that disadvantaged & marginalised groups control - whilst land, property, resources, labour are appropriated;

resource needing little investment for realisation; reflects capability, competence of local

community places community on equivalence with outsiders local knowledge is operational.

Identification / Selection of ‘Stakeholders’

Select by a consistent variable? – e.g. number of people involved, or economic power and/or economic vulnerability, or level of knowledge, or political influence?

Do parties identify and select themselves? – or are they “obvious” ?

How do categories of parties change with geographical scale?

Arguments for proactive, positive discrimination to support weaker, less articulate actors.

Gendered Space

Ignorance – (huh?) IK of resources & resource management

Invisibility – Spatial scale of women´s activities

Exclusion Women´s spaces , restricted spaces

Gendered ISK & Genderising GIS

GIS as ‘masculinist’, materialist positivist technology

handles only discrete, bounded, pre-defined units of analysis, and

unable to cope with ambiguity, fuzziness, abstract concepts or synthesis, and

straight-jacketing emotions and spiritual values. GIS is missing reflexivity, & ignoring qualitative

info “feminisation of GIS”. Hall 1996, Kwan 2002, …

Promoting 'Participation‘ in Geo-Information terms

Facilitation elicit local knowledge of ITK and NRM, school children assist with GPS, participatory

mapping, for baselines & on-going monitoring.

Collaboration [activities under ‘facilitation’], + e.g. participatory assessment of needs,

collaborative spatial problem analysis, joint prioritising of interventions, joint map legend

Empowerment [activities under collaboration], + importantly: “taking over” sustainably self-determination & local initiative in all stages.

Which is P-GIS?

P-GIS as form of ‘participatory spatial planning’ (PSP) which makes use of maps and GI output, especially GIS. Core is ‘degree of participation’ in planning, essential issues are: processes, activities, instruments,

and procedures that involve participation?

P-GIS is ‘doing (technical) GIS with some degree of people’s participation – Participation could be simply data collection, or , choice

of data inputs, data layers, analysis, data queries. Core activity is the GI outputs (maps, etc.),

Which is P-GIS?

P-GIS as form of ‘participatory planning’,

specifically, ‘participatory spatial planning’

(PSP), makes use of maps, GI output,

and especially GIS’.

Which is P-GIS?

Spatial planning can hardly not include maps, etc., though can be PP without maps, e.g. the PP of a school curriculum or a cultural policy.

Core element is the ‘participatory’ in PSP, what are the functions, processes, activities,

measures, instruments, procedures of spatial planning which involve participation?, and

what criteria and indicators to measure the presence & degree of participation?

Good Practice Sequence in PGIS

Pre Conditions

Purpose purpose purpose• Partnership• Positively discriminate• Power • Products• Participation is learning • Participation is slow• PRA principles – flexibility, innovative,

involved, triangulation

Reiteration

Check the Purpose – for whom?

Check Impacts and EffectsFor whose benefits? At whose costs?

Where does Power shift to / from?