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Programme Activities: Participatory Techniques
Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) is key to all Living Earth programmes because it ultimately determines whether development is sustainable. It is no simple feat to ensure that a community is able to achieve its own sustainable development. LENF staff employ community development and participatory techniques to build a committed partnership with each community. Through this approach LENF make an important contribution to a communities ongoing and self-defined development.
A truly participatory process allows the community to take the initiative and to operate independently of external institutions. It is not a process where communities merely participate by being consulted or by implementing initiatives promoted by outsiders. External organisations should act as partners in community development projects.
The role of LENF is to create a learning environment that encourages facilitators to acquire and develop a broad range of appropriate community development skills, which they can pass on to their communities. These skills include project planning, team work, financial management, project monitoring and evaluation.
A wide range of PLA methods are employed to create a visual and participatory approach to learning which builds the capacities of village institutions to initiate and implement their own projects. The success of Living Earth's participatory work is also due to the strengthening of existing local institutions, which is often referred to as 'capacity building'.
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Nigeria in a Nutshell
Participatory Techniques |