Gedefaw, Addis (2005) Assessment of Community Participation in SIDA’s Woreda Support Program Activities in Amhara Region: The case of Awabal Woreda. Masters thesis, Addis Ababa University.
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Abstract
The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia shows the political will to involve communities’ participation in development by explicitly stating in the Federal Constitution and devolving power to the Woredas. In line with this, all development actors are attempting to make development intervention participatory. One of these is Sida Amhara Rural Development Program (SARDP) that is operating in East Gojjam and South Wollo Zones since 1997/8 in three program phases. One of the major components of SARDP is the Woreda Support Program (WSP) that is intended to increase the capacity of the Woreda and the community to administer development affaires. This study was aimed at investigating the participation of the community, the approaches used and problems encountered to realize community participation in WSP activities in Awabal Woreda, East Gojjam Zone. In addition to secondary data; focus group discussion, key informant in-depth interview, semi structured interview, and small-scale survey were used to address the research problems. It was found out that Woreda Support Fund given to the Woreda was increasing through time to the extent of covering part of the recurrent budget and the entire capital budget of the Woreda; however, the power of the Woreda over the fund was decreased. The WSP used different participatory approaches in different program phases. In the first phase of the program, it used PADETS approach; in the second phase of the program, there was no methodology used; and in the third phase of the program, a representative KLPT from representative kebeles were chosen to involve in different stages of project cycle. Community participation was increasing in implementation in terms of contribution of labor and material. They were supposed to cover 25% of cost of the projects in the first and second phases of the program and 75% of the cost of projects in the third phase of the program. On the other hand, their involvement in planning was reduced. It was virtually absent in monitoring and evaluation. Their involvement in managing and administering projects was also low. Participation of different groups of the community was different. Youth, elderly and women participated less than that of adult men. Comparatively, youth participated better during implementation than did elderly; and elderly participated better in planning than did youth. The low participation of the community in different stages of projects was mainly because of the approaches used by the program and their poor implementation, high staff reshuffling and turnover, limited capacity of community members, lack of follow-ups on training of different stakeholders, lack of commitment by different stakeholders and conflict of interest of dwellers in locating projects, and dependency syndrome of the community on the Government or other development partner. Therefore, development actors are exploring community participation in Ethiopia; yet it is not well grounded as it is wrapped by social, political, cultural and institutional variables. Hence, realizing real community participation demands transforming these setups in a way that it reduces the impediments imbedded in them.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Masters) |
|---|---|
| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HM Sociology H Social Sciences > HT Communities. Classes. Races |
| Divisions: | Africana |
| Depositing User: | Tim Khabala |
| Date Deposited: | 11 Sep 2018 13:35 |
| Last Modified: | 11 Sep 2018 13:35 |
| URI: | http://thesisbank.jhia.ac.ke/id/eprint/5213 |
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