Attaining Self-reliance and Sustainability of Local Level Development through Citizen Participation. Experience from Bangladesh

This article examines the necessity of bottom-up planning and citizen inclusion in lieu of the top-down approach at the local level development and it explores the potentiality of attaining self-reliance and sustainability of local level initiatives through citizen participation. It looks into citizen inclusion with an assumption that local knowledge is a prerequisite of responsiveness in determining local priorities and pro-poor development through which local citizen could be self dependent and local initiatives could be sustained for a longer period. Before writing this article, a participatory initiative named the "Participatory Rural Development Project" (PRDP), implemented jointly by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the government of Bangladesh were studied. This article addresses two questions like- (1) why is citizen participation necessary? (2) What would be the role of citizen participation to make local people self-reliant and to ensure sustainability of the initiatives? In fact, six reasons were identifi ed: coverage, dignity, efficiency, effectiveness, self-reliance and sustainability behind opting for citizen inclusion in local level development. The study found that PRDP nearly failed to inculcate a sense of self-reliance among local citizens. The traditional mindset of local citizens, to be dependent on others, did not change to a required level and they were still possessed by a mood of dependency. Furthermore, the absence of self-reliance meant the sustainability was under threat. While efficiency, effectiveness, coverage and dignity were somewhat attained, PRDP could be described as having almost failed in the issue of self-reliance and sustainability.