Participatory Development
Participatory development refers to participatory processes focused on strategizing for (sustainable) development of a locality.
This can be a commune, municipality, city or even a micro-region. This type of development mobilizes all different stakeholders for improving quality of life now and in the future. Green Agenda is one of the methods that can be used for this type of development. Green Agenda differs from other methods in a few main aspects:
Values not problems
Map of natural heritage in Liznjan, Croatia
In the very beginning of the local process stakeholders identify the values of their community, for instance local forests or water resources (lake, river, drinking water supply) or cultural heritage (handicrafts, food and songs), things that people locally are proud of. Only later on in the process will possible existing or projected future problems related to selected values be identified and analyzed. It has proven to be a very powerful motivator to start out from a feeling of common pride.
Wide participation & capacity building
Everyone who is committed to their community is actively invited to take part in the process and enabled to do so through local capacity building. Training and coaching is used to provide stakeholders with the tools needed to go through the process, implement the joint strategy and action plan as well as to be involved in monitoring of implementation afterwards. For this approach people do not need to be recognized experts, they just need to be motivated and committed and willing to learn on the job.
Local ownership
In a first open stakeholder meeting 3 to 4 values are selected. For each of these a local working group is formed, consisting of different stakeholders. Working groups analyze their values: what are trends, impacts, standards, problems and causes of these problems? What opportunities and potentials can be used to solve or avoid problems? They also define a strategy and an action plan for implementing the strategy. And implement it through monitoring & implementation teams, that also keep track of what has been done and what results were achieved and that publicize their findings. In some cases new NGOs are formed out of the working groups or the monitoring and implementation teams.
All of this is being done by local stakeholders and rooted in their priorities, needs and wishes. As a result, there is strong local commitment and local ownership of plans made. With help of the capacity building programmes this commitment and ownership can yield concrete, tangible results and is sustainable in the long term. Today, in Nedelisce, Croatia, more than 5 years after the close of a foreign funded project Green Agenda plans are still being implemented with local municipal funding!
Method
The term Green Agenda is used for both the process, involving all the different groups and sectors in a local community, and the document, which lays down the conclusions and plans for the future. The aim of the Green Agenda is twofold: on one hand the participatory process is important, through which common agreement, communication and cooperation can be achieved. On the other hand, the output of the process is equally important: a local action plan to improve the local quality of life by sustainable development.
The Green Agenda method was developed by the Dutch NGO Milieukontakt in different countries (Romania, Croatia, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosova, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia) and consists of 17 steps, divided over 5 phases. More information can be found on www.greenagenda.net.
Changing Tides Suzanne Bakker was involved for 8 years in the development of the Green Agenda method and implemented projects and trainings on Green Agenda in 9 countries during this time. She also wrote the Manual Green Agenda in Croatia: Theory & Practice, together with Ivana Laginja and Ana Zeljezic, and contributed to Green Agenda manuals in 6 Western Balkan countries. The method and the manual are open source. Download here: Manual Green Agenda in Croatia: Theory and Practice
Background
The concept of Green Agenda was first developed in Romania, by Milieukontakt and its local partner Focus Eco Centre. The concept of the Green Agenda originates from the Local Agenda 21, introduced globally at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. However, as pointed out above, the Green Agenda starts out with local natural and cultural values, and focuses on identifying win-win scenarios for local sustainable development using the identified values. Quite naturally, economic and social factors are taken into account in these scenarios.
