Beneficiary, Consumer, Citizen: Perspectives on Participation for Poverty Reduction

The paper takes the declarations of intent and arguments for participation
made in the 1970s as a starting point for exploring changing perspectives
on participation for poverty reduction over the last two decades.
It explores the ways in which participation discourses dovetailed with and
departed from mainstream development thinking, and examines the practices
associated with ‘community participation’, ‘participatory development’
and ‘participation in development’ over this period. It tracks the
emergence of anti-poverty and poverty reduction measures that sought,
often through the instrumental use of participation, to give the poor a part
in initiatives designed for their benefit. In doing so, it seeks to disentangle
some of the meanings that have come to be associated with ‘participation’,
‘partnership’ and ‘empowerment’.