Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
talk about resettlement,” he concluded, “we have to emphasize three things: rights [
quanli
],
responsibilities [
zeren
], and benefits [
liyi
]. They are all important.”
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
If SIA is to become an effective tool in China, one that provides meaningful and timely in-
put into the decision-making process regarding hydropower development, its practitioners
will need to remain faithful to core principles such as public participation. But they will
also need to exercise flexibility and creativity in order to operate within the “unique his-
torical, structural, cultural and practical barriers to participatory planning” in contemporary
China (Tang and Zhan 2008:58).
This brings us to a key point about the role of public participation in development
initiatives. “Participatory development”—an approach that makes people “central to de-
velopment by encouraging beneficiary involvement in interventions that affect them and
over which they previously had limited control and influence” (Cooke and Kothari
2001:5)—has been a principal aim of multilateral development agencies since the early
1980s. UNDP acknowledges the importance of public participation in its Millennium
Development Goals, as does the World Bank, which has published its own guidelines for
carrying out participatory development programs. The latest term for this practice in the
World Bank is
community-driven development
, which regards people as “assets and part-
ners in the development process” and gives “control of decisions and resources to commu-
nity groups and local governments” (World Bank 2005).
Over the past two decades, participatory development has evolved in at least two fun-
damental and significant ways. First, the idea has moved from a set of concrete steps to a
more general, abstract attitude regarding the need to engage stakeholders and build social
capacity. Indeed, many development agencies see the promotion of “social capital,” “civil
society,” or even “empowerment”—all of which were once seen as stepping stones toward
more concrete development outcomes such as improved nutritional status or more sustain-
able land-use practices—as laudable goals in their own rights. Second, the idea of parti-
cipatory development has been scaled up: where the “community” was once the important
level of analysis, broader participation in governance and institutional decision making are
now seen as tenets of the participatory framework.
In regards to employing a participatory framework for dams, different constituencies
may have radically divergent ideas about whether and how a given project should proceed;
in such cases, the key question becomes how to ensure that these various voices are heard.
The landmark report published by the WCD in 2000 emphasizes the application of what
it calls a “rights and risks” approach to evaluating large dam projects. This approach in-
cludes, among other things, “self-determination and the right to consultation in matters that
