FAO’s Participation Website E-Newsletter

No. 15, July 2008

This is FAO’s Participation Website E-Newsletter, which will keep you up to date with the Website’s latest resources.

For comments and/or suggestions or to receive this Newsletter via email, please write to IWG-PA-Webbox@fao.org

IN THIS ISSUE:

Highlights of the Library Section

Highlights of the Field Tools Section

Highlights of the Lessons Learned Section

Highlights of the Links Section

Submit your documents, lessons learned, tools…  

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In the Library section, we highlight some examples of newly received FAO publications:

Communication and sustainable development. Selected papers from the 9th UN roundtable on communication for development, Servaes, J.; Malikhao, P.; Dean, J.; Röling, N.; Bessette, G.; Balit, S., EN, FR, ES, 134 p.

Disaster Risk Management Systems Analysis, Baas, S.; Ramasamy, S.; Dey DePryck, J.; Battista, F., EN, 74 p.

Water and the Rural Poor. Interventions for improving livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa, Faurès, J.-M.; Santini, G. (edited by), EN, 110 p.

Case studies in fisheries self-governance, Townsend, R.; Shotton, R.; Uchida, H. (eds), FAO Fisheries Technical Paper No. 504, EN, 451 p.

Improving tenure security for the poor in Africa. Mozambique - Country Case Study, Norfolk , S.; Tanner, C., LEP Working Papers No.5, EN, 40 p.

Good governance in land administration projects: project preparation, project implementation, and capacity building, Wehrmann, B., Land Reform, land settlements and cooperatives 2007/2, EN, 11 p.

Integrating fisheries into coastal area management, FAO, EN, FR, ES, 11 p.

Forest Monitoring and Assessment for Climate Change Reporting: Partnerships, Capacity Building and Delivery, Holmgren, P.; Marklund, L-G.; Saket, M.; Wilkie, M.L. , Forest Resources Assessment Working Paper No. 142, EN, 43 p.

To view the 807 documents currently available in the Library section go to: http://www.fao.org/Participation/bibdb/retrieval/index.asp

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In the Field Tools section we highlight the following methods, approaches and tools:

Participatory Social Auditing:  this is a way of measuring and reporting on an organisation’s social and ethical performance, which adapts and applies tools from Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) and Participatory Learning and Action ( PLA ). It rests on a process approach, which involves management and worker education and aims to instil learning and improvement rather than simply checking for one-off compliance.

Participatory Budgeting Toolikt:   this is a mechanism that allows the citizens of an area to participate in the allocation of part of the local Council’s available financial resources. PB aims to increase transparency, accountability, understanding and social inclusion in local government affairs.

Participatory Scenario Planning technique: the Scenario Planning exercise is a methodology to assist different stakeholders in addressing practical problems and management objectives. The technique aims at exploring long-term future scenarios in a participatory way, facilitating the development of a common a long-term vision among the stakeholders of an ecosystem, which provides the framework for effective planning.

Multi-stakeholder partnership for ICT policy:  multi-stakeholder partnership for ICT policy is a very broad term that describes groupings of civil society, the private sector, the public sector, the media and other stakeholders that come together for a common purpose, which refers to the intent to drive changes in ICT policy development. These partnerships are voluntary, with participation driven by the perceived benefits emerging from the process.

Road Journey Diagrams:  road journey diagrams chart a journey from point A to point B over time. They show the starting point, ultimate aims, opportunities, visions for the future, obstacles along the way and strategies of individuals and groups.

Sakhi Saheli Training - Promoting Gender Equity and Empowering Young Women:  this training is an important tool for young women, facilitators and trainers. It aims to promote critical reflection among young women to understand and challenge gender inequitable norms in an effort to reduce their vulnerabilities to HIV and sexual and reproductive health problems.

Using popular culture to engage young people in human rights reporting:  this is an innovative tactic that was used successfully by Never Again (Nigdy Wiecej), an anti-racist network in Poland, in order to advance human rights. It is based on the use of cultural resources (including concerts and football games) in the community, to recruit and organize activists into an information-gathering network.

To view the 257 methods, approaches and tools currently available in the Field Tools section go to http://www.fao.org/Participation/ft_find.jsp 

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In the Lessons Learned section we highlight the following articles:

Gender equity and rural enterprises, by Rosemary Vargas-Lundius and Annelou Ypeij (IFAD): a more effective mobilization of women’s labour capacity and skills is often viewed as a source of additional household income. Accordingly, most rural development projects include components to support the creation of better possibilities for women to start small enterprises. However, due to issues related to gender inequity, some of these endeavours are still ineffective.

Stakeholder perceptions and participation in the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) public consultation process regarding the labelling of genetically modified foods, by Janice Albert: this study analyses stakeholder perceptions and participation in two FDA processes, public meetings and public comments. These processes are aimed to give citizens the opportunity to exercise their rights to speak, to be informed, and to participate in deliberations about regulatory policies as protected by law.

Lessons learned in how to select female beneficiaries for the FAO gender project ”Support to household food security and income generation through bio-intensive backyard agricultural production and cottage industry activities for women” (OSRO/GAZ/602/NOR), by Intissar Eshtayeh and Rosalind Earis: this article focuses on the methodology adopted by FAO gender projects for selecting female beneficiaries , especially those which concentrate on female-headed households, in the context of the deteriorating crisis affecting the Palestinian territories, since the second intifada.

To see the Lessons Learned currently available in the Resources area, go to http://www.fao.org/participation/lessonslearned.html 

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In the Links section we highlight the following websites and organisations:  

Children and Youth Participation Guide (UNICEF): this is a resource guide jointly compiled by UNICEF East Asia and the Pacific Regional Office, as a response to a growing need to organize the large and diverse literature on children's participation. It provides information on publications that focus on the protection of children and adolescents from exploitation, violence and abuse, child and youth participation in community and national programmes, HIV prevention, health, hygiene and sanitation and more.

Participatory Management, IRC: hosted by IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre, this website focuses on the development and use of various participatory assessment approaches and methods for the effective and efficient planning of new services and for the monitoring of existing ones, at both community and district levels .

Public Participation Campaign (PPC) Website: this web site organizes email discussion groups, distributes the Participate newsletter and provides a number of useful publications which aim to keep citizens and NGOs updated.

Participation Resource Centre: hosted by participation.net website,this website provides over 6000 documents, books and videos, incorporating the collections of the Participation, Power and Social Change Group at the Institute of Development Studies ( IDS ) and the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED). It contains mainly unpublished practical information and includes research reports, training manuals, workshop reports, critical reflections and newsletters from practitioners and networks.

Participatory Budgeting Unit: participatory budgeting directly involves local people in making decisions on the spending and priorities for a defined public budget. The aim of this website is to share information, and to strengthen the links between communities engaged in discussing local budgets, local authorities and statutory agencies, within the UK and around the world .

Mountain Forum: this website is a global network of individuals and organisations concerned with the well being of mountain people, their environments and cultures. It seeks to bring lessons and experiences of mountain people into policy discussions with the aim to improve their livelihood and promote the conservation of mountain environments and cultures. An online library is available, offering a wide selection of documents on participation and related issues.

The HKKH Partnership Project: the HKKH Partnership Project aims at consolidation of institutional capacity for systemic planning and ecosystem management in the Hindu Kush-Karakoram-Himalaya region. It works together with local, national and regional stakeholders on capacity building and decision support for ecosystem management. A modular Decision Support Toolbox, composed by software and participatory modules, will be a key expected output.

Information Management Resource Kit (IMARK): IMARK is a partnership-based initiative developed by FAO and partner organizations aimed at mobilizing and building upon existing resources to create a comprehensive suite of distance learning resources for information management and exchange.

Glocal Forum: the Glocal Forum, a Swiss non-profit organization founded in 2001, is a leading international organization in the field of city-to-city cooperation. According to a “Glocal” vision, it emphasizes the central role of mayors in creating links, growing networks, and fostering a balance between global growth and local needs, through the mobilization of the goodwill, energy and expertise of civic communities.

dgCommunities: this website brings together people and organizations from 200 countries to exchange experience, resources, and partnership opportunities for development. It is both a place to find knowledge resources focused on development issues and an interactive space to share experiences and participate in discussions. More than 800 documents on participation are available on-line.

International NGO Training and Research Center (INTRAC): this is a non-profit organisation supporting non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and civil society organisations (CSOs) around the world. Its work focuses on four themes, including Participatory Development, Organisational Capacity Building and Strengthening Civil Society.

To view the 270 websites and organisations currently available in the Links section go to http://www.fao.org/Participation/ow/links.asp 

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