Participatory governance for poverty reduction

'Development is too important simply to be left entirely at the discretion of the state's functionaries'. Mark Turner and David Hulme (1997) Governance, Administration and Development, London: MacMillan Press, p. 241. Conventional poverty reduction strategies have produced disappointing results in many instances, especially in situations of high initial inequality which tend to reflect political obstacles to broad-based development. Participatory governance draws on insights from political and institutional economics and from experiments promoted by social activists. It represents a paradigm shift based on the trilogy of empowerment, accountability and capacity building which constitute the interdependent building blocks of participatory governance. Their role is threefold: i) to ensure that policy makers and their administration are more committed than they tend to be in non-participatory governance settings; ii) to base policies on better information; and iii) to make the implementation of policies more effective and efficient. 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.