Estratègies per al desenvolupament sostenible - Generalitat de ...

5.Participation and Communication5.1. Participation. There is a high degree of consensus on the need for participationof stakeholders in order to progress towards sustainable development.However, what precisely is meant by the term “participation” is less clearand there are considerable differences in the way that participation isperceived and understood.Sustainable development is essentially a political process, and politicalstructures can tend towards top-down systems of governance. Butsustainable development requires the consensus and commitment of societyas a whole; experience shows that this cannot be delivered by governmentplanning and acting alone. So participation processes are needed to involvethe private sector and civil society, as well as government, in a partnership– processes that will transform governance approaches and facilitate multistakeholderinvolvement in the development and implementation of NSSDs.The authorities’ dilemma is that they both need and fear people’s participation.They need the agreement and support of diverse groups of people–development is not sustainable otherwise– but they tend to fear thatgreater involvement is less controllable, less predictable, likely to slow downdecision-making, and may challenge the existing distribution of wealth andpower.Governments therefore need to work out how to take a leadership role indeveloping strategies for sustainable development – in terms of making thecommitment and setting the agenda, creating an open and participatory“environment” for the processes involved, inviting civil society and othersto participate in all strategy tasks, and providing support where needed.Care is needed to avoid participation being seen or promoted as analternative to established democratic processes. Rather the approachesand methods available can bolster and support such processes and helpto improve their quality and effectiveness.153