Dialogue in Pursuit of Development - Are you looking for one of ...

The participation of all stakeholders in policy dialogue, however, has been
hampered on the one hand by the lack of capacity among society groups,
and on the other by the poor knowledge (or suspicion) with which civil
society may be greeted by donors and partner governments. In that respect,
civil groups who are the ones to give voice to often-excluded members of
society (such as women) are an important part of the social capital that
needs to be strengthened. Recent overall contraction in the role of governments
has been accompanied by an exponential growth in the number of
civil society organizations that are playing an increasingly important role in
the development process. These organizations span a wide spectrum: from
large politicized associations and unions through to small but vociferous,
and often well-funded and organized, advocacy NGOs and development
NGOs. They now serve as a channel for well in excess of 40 per cent of
bilateral Official Development Assistance (ODA) to small, traditional
community-based institutions. The role that ODA has played in the
creation of NGOs has also been significant, resulting in the growth of special
interest NGOs that direct involvement in the management of ODA. They
have gradually assumed an oversight function on the management of both
external and domestic resources allocated for the purposes of development.
The importance of participation, as the answer to the question of what
needs to be done in order to assure a productive policy dialogue and a
successful development intervention, has been generally agreed upon. However,
we need to consider the other side of the coin; that is, we have to
answer the question of how (how are we going to achieve a constructive
participatory dialogue?). In the case of PRSPs, which are explicitly intended
to be developed through a participatory process incorporating contributions
to policy design from across society, not much attention has been
given to how best to facilitate involvement of all stakeholders in the dialogue
processes or how to ensure that the dialogue/participation is active
and not merely symbolic. We need to respond to the challenges of the question
‘how’ by reconsidering the role of planning. Running away from the
traps of rigid short term planning we have swung the pendulum to the
other extreme – lack of foresight. Thus, in their enthusiasm for ownership
and participation, some have implied that the participatory process by itself
would suffice. But while individuals within a community may physically
participate in policy discourse about what to do and how to do it, there
must be more to this process than the simple act of discourse.
First, in order to have a constructive and meaningful participatory policy
dialogue, the participants should be fully informed as well as capable of
contributing to the debate; hence, the crucial role of learning and capacity
development. In the PRSP process, the governments of the South are required
to develop new policies with little capacity and the weight of old
prescriptions, while civil society generally lacks the capacity to participate
effectively on the level of macro-economic debate (see box 1 and 2). More-
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