Initiatives: workshops

International Learning Initiative on Participatory Planning

This international conference organised by LogoLink was held in Bandung and Jakarta, Indonesia, from 20-27 January, 2002. The focus of the conference was on Participatory Planning Approaches for Local Governance. The event was organised in partnership with the Indonesian Partnership for Local Governance Initiatives (IPGI).

The workshop gathered 25 participants from organisations around the world and was structured in three parts. The first three days involved intensive discussions in Bandung. During these three days, the participants worked on deepening their understanding of participatory planning approaches and shared their experiences of participatory planning initiatives by presenting case studies.

This was then followed by two days of field visits with local IPGI presidiums after which all the participants reconvened in Jakarta for a final day of discussion and reflection.

Highlights of the Discussion

The participants recognised that participatory planning is not just about generating plans, but also implementing, monitoring and evaluating actions defined in such plans.

After considering plenary case presentations from Bolivia, South Africa and Indonesia, the participants identified six themes around which more detailed discussions were held and many ideas were raised:

• legal frameworks for participatory planning
• citizen participation in planning
• resource-mobilisation for local plans
• changing habits to make participatory planning happen
• skills and capacities for participatory planning
• power relations in participatory planning.

A list of questions around these themes was prepared by the participants for them to take to the field as part of their learning agenda

Case studies, workshop proceedings and a Topic Pack are available online.