by Dr Michael Stumpf, Bavarian Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Forestry, Munich, Germany
ABSTRACTS
Facilitating rural development projects by means of citizen participation
Citizen participation has developed from merely informing the citizens about decisions already taken by the relevant administrative bodies to a nowadays extensive involvement of highly motivated citizens, thus increasing the planning quality and at the same time reducing the number of staff provided by the administration. The intense involvement of the citizens additionally contributes to the smooth implementation of the project. In the last few years citizen participation by means of working groups has gradually become very popular beyond the field of rural development in the context of implementing the agenda-21-idea.
RESUME
Les projets du développement rural peuvent être effectués plus facilement en utilisant la méthode de la participation des citoyens
Autrefois la participation des citoyens à un procès de planification normalement consistait en l'information postérieure d'une décision administrative prise par les autorités. Aujourd'hui les citoyens sont intégrés de bonne heure et fournis de pouvoir mais aussi de responsabilité. De cette manière, la qualité de la planification augmente et le nombre des experts payés par l'Etat se réduit. L'intégration intensive contribue aussi à une réalisation lisse du projet. Dans les années dernières la participation citoyenne en forme des atéliers de travail est devenu de plus en plus populaire au delà des projets du développement rural. L'exemple le plus connu c'est actuellement la réalisation d'une agenda 21 au niveau local.
ZUSAMMENGFASSUNG
Projekte der ländlichen Entwicklung werden erleichtert durch die Anwendung von Methoden der Bürgerbeteiligung
Bürgerbeteiligung hat sich von der nachträglichen Information über bereits getroffene behördliche Entscheidungen zu einer frühzeitigen und verantwortlichen Einbeziehung hochmotivierter Bürger entwickelt. Dadurch kann die Planungsqualität erhöht und das vom Staat zu finanzierende Personal reduziert werden. Die intensive Einbeziehung der Bürger trägt ferner zu einem reibungslosen Ablauf des Projekts bei. In den letzten Jahren ist die Bürgerbeteiligung in Form von Arbeitskreisen über die Projekte der ländlichen Entwicklung hinaus populär geworden. Bekanntestes Beispiel ist die Verwirklichung einer lokalen Agenda 21 auf gemeindlicher Ebene.
THE AGENDA-21-SYNDROME
The qualified participation of citizens in public planning finally became popular with the implementation of the decision taken at the UN-conference in Rio 1992. It was there that an action programme focusing on sustainable development was signed by 179 nations. Its well known and prominent features are
Although the action programme of Rio was signed by representatives at the level of the state, the actual approach was to make the idea clear to the individual citizen and to motivate him or her personally. The lowest level where individuals can express their opinion and influence politics is that of the local community. It is therefore within the local community that working groups should get together and discuss ideas concerning the future development of their surroundings.
In the beginning the idea spread slowly. However, after some years the pace has quickened considerably. By the end of 1997 in more than 10 % of all the approximately 2000 Bavarian municipalities local agenda-21-working-groups had been established - the tendency is still increasing rapidly.
In spite of this positive sign one must admit that it is not always mere conciousness of sustainable development which is behind this process. On the one hand, the degree of local committment is also influenced by public subsidies, which, by the way, are not exceedingly generous. On the other hand there is often the temptation to abuse the agenda-21-idea for political ends. The approach is obvious and simple: by means of the leadership in a local agenda-21-movement a group or even an individual person could try to impose pressure on the legally elected community council, thus counteracting its decisions. As a consequence we strongly recommend that the local governments should take the agenda-21-idea on board as fast as possible and as convincingly as possible. So far, the recommendation has worked satisfactorily.
As mentioned above, citizen participation got its breakthrough on the occasion of the implementation of local agendas. The ability to play an effective role in a sometimes complex planning process requires some skills and undoubtedly was quite a challenge for the average citizen. However, a considerable percentage of them could profit from a similar participation model that was set up years ago and whose instruments have been successfully applied ever since.
The field of application has been rural development, more precisely, the field of village renewal as well as the more agriculturally orientated land consolidation.
RURAL DEVELOPMENT - A JOINT VENTURE OF THE CITIZENS, THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND THE EXPERTS
Rural development is by no means a field only for experts. It is uncontested, that the natural expertise brought in by local citizens may significantly improve planning results. The citizens' ideas, automatically take into consideration the local situation and also structures which are not obvious at first sight. These qualities are being taken quite seriously nowadays. The citizen with his competence to start actions spontaneously from the bottom is well accepted by the coordinating governmental agency on the lines of an equal partnership.
Another indispensable partner is the local government. Being furnished with an enormously strong position in terms of deciding the community's own future, the local government is the most obvious partner of the governmental agency both in technical and administrative affairs. Local government and council normally are extremely open to the development project because of the impetus the community can expect from the project's implementation. The advantages for the community are guaranteed by the government agency's technical input and the investment of government funds within the community's boundaries. These initial steps by the governmental side truly justify similar efforts by the local side.
There is also the know-how of public and private experts - administrative bodies and free lance specialists - which can be brought in additionally if necessary. These experts in general have a consulting function; in exceptional cases they even may have a decisive one. It is particularly appreciated when they present feasible solutions. However, arguments which are supposed to explain, why the envisaged result cannot be achieved are greatly disliked. This private public partnership is one of the preconditions for the creation of synergy. An effect, which is needed to obtain a high level of common success.
METHODS OF ACTIVE PARTICIPATION
In order to profit to the largest extent from the participation of local citizens, certain moderation techniques have been developed to obtain high quality results. The government agency's representative no longer is the expert whose knowledge and power is decisive from the beginning. It is rather the ideas of those benefiting from the project which are considered to be highly important for the decisions to be taken. Thus, high acceptance of and the identification with the project by the citizens can be achieved.
The moderation technique follows certain rules and is characterized by certain criteria. To give an example, working in small groups where every member is asked to contribute and nobody can hide is as typical as the presentation of the small group's results in the plenary meeting. Other characteristic features are the technical aids used to visualize and to operationalize the individual ideas. For example, individual ideas are written on small paper cards, which, in a second step, are arranged in a logical order on a pin board.
The moderation technique can easily be applied to the planning process of rural development projects. There is e.g.
As long as the method is not common practice in all opinion forming committees and organizations, the government agency in charge of the development project has to see to it that the future participants in a planning process are well trained and familiar with the tools. That is why in Bavaria three training centres or educational institutes were established some years ago. They have successfully been working since then and gradually extended their field of operation. Let us take the projects funded by European money as an example. We all know that the European Union is very much in favour of those bottom-up-approaches. However, in order to perform local action in a qualified way, training is required. This kind of training is also provided by these centres which, incidentally have all found accomodation in historic old buildings in the rural area, thus giving new importance to these buildings which otherwise would have continued to stand idle.
APPLICATION IN THE PREPARATORY PHASE
In terms of the actual rural development project, the training results first of all can be applied in a so-called starting or preparatory phase prior to the scheme's formal beginning. Normally there is one or several working groups which are in charge of this opinion forming process. They consist of citizens as well as of public and private experts. Each of them focuses on a specific subject. At the time the working groups assemble for the first time, the development project may not be more than a vague idea. However, one of the most important results of this initial phase must be an answer to the question whether or not there are prospects for the future of this idea and how they may look.
Among the topics to be discussed are the following:
EFFICIENT BUREAUCRACY BY ITS JOINT RESPONSIBILITY FOR PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTATION
In the event that the preparatory phase comes to the conclusion that the project is feasible, the government agency has to initiate some administrative steps before officially starting the procedure. The agency's task is among others:
SMOOTH TRANSITION FROM PARTICIPATIVE TO COOPERATIVE BASIS
After the formal beginning of the project by administrative decision, an advisory board is elected by the participants. Normally, the most prominent members of the former working groups are elected to the board. The board exists until the formal decision is taken that the scheme has ended.The board's tasks vary according to the different by-laws in the different parts of the country. Whereas in some regions the board's competence is restricted to a mere advisory function, in Bavaria it is a real decision-making body. The reason lies in the roots of land consolidation law which dates back over more than 100 years and whose origin was strongly influenced by the cooperative idea.
CONCLUSION
Development projects in rural areas are and have always been carried out with extensive participation of the citizens affected by the project. However, in former times the decision that a development scheme should be carried out as well as the setting up of the overall guidelines was taken by the government agency without having consulted with the citizens extensively. Citizen participation was more or less confined to the implementation phase. Nowadays, efforts are successfully being made to extend citizen partizipation to the preparatory time before the project's formal beginning. Thus additional advantages can be enjoyed with regard to the contentment of the citizens and the quality of the planning.