Towards empowered participation : stories and reflections.

  • Great Britain. International Institute for Environment and Development
Date:
2008
Catalogue details

Licence: Open Government Licence

Credit: Towards empowered participation : stories and reflections. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Follow-up on PLA 57 - Immersions: learning about poverty face-to-face We hope you enjoyed issue 57, which seems to have generated a lot of interest. We are hoping to hold a special event on the topic at the UK Department of International Development office's in London in September. Update on IKM PLA co-editor Angela Milligan attended a conference in Cambridge, UK organised by IKM Emergent. IKM Emergent is a five-year research and communication programme funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It brings together a group of development researchers and practitioners concerned with the ways knowledge is created, handled and used in development practice. It is particularly concerned with multiple knowledges — different kinds of knowledge from different sources — and how to ensure that all relevant knowledges are considered, including those which are often overlooked such as local knowledge and knowledge generated in the ‘South’. We are currently discussing the possibility of some joint work between IKM Emergent and PLA which would look at what happens to knowledge generated in the course of participatory work at local level. Does it feed into regional, national or international level strategies and policies? What happens if it conflicts with these strategies? Is it shared between organisations at local level? What are the barriers to using the knowledge in this way and how have organisations and individuals overcome them? Following a call for papers in our last issue, we received two research proposals which are now being discussed with IKM Emergent. If the work goes ahead, one of the expected outcomes would be an issue of PLA which would capture some of the challenges and ways forward for participatory work. We hope to have more news in our next issue. In the meantime, if you have particular experiences in this area that you would like to share, please contact Angela at angela.milligan@iied.org. Next issue: PLA 58 — Participatory web for development, December 2008 There are dozens of emerging interactive web applications and services (often referred to as the participatory web, or Web 2.0). These can enhance the ways we create, share, and publish information. But these technical opportunities also bring challenges that we need to understand and grasp. Some of the key questions that this special issue will seek to address include: e How can Web 2.0 applications be integrated with participatory development approaches? e How can they facilitate and contribute to people’s participation and decision-making? e What are the challenges and barriers to people's participation? ¢ How do we address factors such as access, equity, control, and © oversight? ¢ Can Web 2.0 applications challenge fundamental social inequalities? This forthcoming special issue aims to publish a collection of articles, ey, we a re which provide working examples from practice. The articles will be based on a selection of papers presented at the Web2ForDev 2007: Participatory Web for Development conference, Rome, September 2007. | It will be co-published by IIED and CTA. Forthcoming issue For PLA 60, we are hoping to produce a special issue on community-based adaptation methods to climate change. The issue would look at the methods used by communities to cope with climate change impacts (such as floods, rising sea levels, droughts and other extreme weather events). In addition, the special issue would look at methods communities _ worldwide are using to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. If you have had any relevant experience, please do send us contributions to consider for this issue. We hope that PLA 58 will provide you with some interesting food for thought and we look forward to your articles for our general section, or . material for In Touch or Tips for Trainers. Please visit our website (www.planotes.org) for our guidelines for submissions. Here too subscribers can link with IngentaConnect to download the latest issues. Holly Ashley, Nicole Kenton, and Angela Milligan, Co-editors PLA 57 errata p3.— 1st column — Fahamu is a pan-African NGO not a Kenyan NGO. p.137 — VIPs should be Very Important Person visits (not Village Immersion Programmes).
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