Voices from the margins : consensus building and planning with the poor in Bangladesh

Describes the work of Practical Action in introducing consensus-based planning approaches in villages that are poor even by Bangladesh standards, where 90 per cent of people live under the poverty line and over 60 per cent are illiterate. These methods work on raising the voice and confidence of the poor at the local level within their communities, and the results have been spectacular: opening up new income generation and resource management and influencing opportunities for marginalized communities in flood-prone areas. Highly useful in countries that reject the role of NGOs in governance or human rights, and in planning for disasters and humanitarian interventions. Essential reading for programme staff of national and international NGOs, governance and rural development advisors in the national and multilateral agencies, Ministry officials, and researchers and students in universities and development institutes.

Author Notes

Francis Murray is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Aquaculture, University of Stirling, UK.

Foreword	p. vii
List of tables	p. x
List of figures	p. xi
List of boxes	p. xii
List of photographs	p. xiii
Acronyms and glossary	p. xiv
Acknowledgements	p. xvi
Introduction	p. 1
1 Conflict resolution and consensus building for natural resource management and development	p. 5
The principles of consensus	p. 5
The origins of conflict resolution and consensus building methods	p. 8
Characteristics of the approaches and recent developments	p. 9
Consensus building and NRM in the development context	p. 10
Transplanting approaches to consensus building	p. 17
Participatory Action Plan Development (PAPD)	p. 20
Synthesis - a typology of consensus building in NRM	p. 25
2 Consensus building in the Bangladesh charlands	p. 31
The informal institutional environment of the poor	p. 32
Developing char-modified PAPD	p. 33
Navigating the local social and institutional landscape - experience from the char villages	p. 44
Summary	p. 58
3 The char-modified PAPD approach	p. 61
The stages of the char-modified approach	p. 62
Characteristics of the char-modified PAPD	p. 63
The key modifications summarized	p. 65
Synthesis	p. 70
4 Discussion	p. 71
One step at a time	p. 71
The potential role of government structures	p. 73
Farming futures	p. 74
Voices from the margins	p. 74
Understanding the institutional environment for participatory planning	p. 75
Current and potential uses of PAPD	p. 77
Notes	p. 79
References	p. 83
Index	p. 87

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