Opening Participatory Spaces for the Most Marginal: Learning from Collective Action in the Honduran Hillsides

Lauren Classen, Sally Humphries, John FitzSimons, Susan Kaaria, José Jiménez, Fredy Sierra and Omar Gallardo

World Development, 2008, vol. 36, issue 11, 2402-2420

Abstract: Summary Community-driven development faces considerable criticism for excluding the poor. A series of participatory, qualitative, and quantitative assessments of a participatory agricultural initiative in rural Honduras shows that the project, once susceptible to elite capture, over time shifted to include the "most marginal." Participating farmers--both men and women--demonstrated significant improvements in well-being and new-found capabilities relative to non-participants. Opening a space for the most marginal was achieved through long-term commitment by a local NGO to the principle of inclusiveness, and to research and capability development beyond the guiding methodology for establishing local agricultural research committees (CIALs).

Keywords: elite; capture; community-driven; development; participation; Honduras; Central; America (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305-750X(08)00170-8
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:36:y:2008:i:11:p:2402-2420

Access Statistics for this article

World Development is currently edited by O. T. Coomes

More articles in World Development from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().