The World Bank and Participatory Development in China

Overview

Despite China's much-heralded progress in poverty alleviation, many rural areas remain characterized by poverty and environmental degradation while new sources of poverty or social inequity are emerging in cities. To address these issues, the Government of China (GoC) now emphasizes "people-centered development," balancing economic growth with social equity and increased opportunities for participation in development.

China's development plans and pronouncements increasingly emphasize that active public engagement is essential to poverty alleviation, improving social equity, and strengthening environmental management. Public participation offers many potential benefits. Consultation is necessary to identify local needs and priorities, so that available public investment is used more effectively. Popular support is necessary when program success requires behavioral change. Involvement of communities in program management often strengthens enforcement and sustainability. Public involvement in monitoring or oversight can help strengthen transparency and accountability. And, importantly, various forms of participatory development give local people an enhanced capacity to collectively articulate their preferences and collectively address their problems, as well as to pursue their individual or household aspirations.

The World Bank supports participatory development in China through operational program initiatives as well as through promotion of participatory research and methods.

World Bank's Participation and Civic Engagement Website

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Community-Driven Development

Through pilot activities in both urban and rural areas in China, "Community-Driven Development" (CDD) is gaining acceptance and popularity among local community residents and government agencies. Among participatory development approaches, CDD represents a relatively strong form of community empowerment, vesting communities with control over local project decision-making, financial management and implementation. When successful, CDD promotes active engagement and ownership among community residents, increased accountability and efficiency in the use of public development funds, and increased emphasis on service delivery within responsive local government agencies. More

Participatory Planning and Monitoring

Involvement of the public in project design and implementation can enhance the flow of benefits, improve project performance and accountability, and minimize or mitigate adverse environmental or social impacts. A Liaoning project is demonstrating how public consultations can improve road design and public transport arrangements. A pilot program promoting participatory monitoring in urban projects promotes involvement of those who may be adversely affected and hence have strong incentives to push for problem identification and remedial action. It also generates an alternative flow of public information, strengthening public accountability. More

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Water Users Associations (WUAs)

WUAs are nonprofit associations that are established, owned and democratically controlled the by majority of water users who benefit from the water facilities managed by the WUAs.  The responsibilities of WUAs are to serve their members by seeking benefits from the irrigation and drainage facilities within the WUAs' command areas; organizing the water users to construct, rehabilitate and maintain the irrigation and drainage works; actively conducting construction of on-farm water infrastructures; negotiating and signing contracts with water supply units; and mitigating conflicts among their members and between their members and the water supply units. More

Farmers Associations

Farmers in China are organized as co-operatives or other forms of groups under different names and for different purposes. The recent Law on Farmer Professional Cooperatives (effective July 1, 2007) is guiding this development by stating that "co-operatives are self-help organizations which are associated voluntarily and controlled by producers of the same agricultural products or by service providers and users of the same agricultural business operations". More

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Participatory and Integrated Watershed Management

Land degradation through erosion is a severe problem in China. It is caused by unsuitable land uses and inappropriate land management practices. Effective solutions can only be found through understanding the underlying reasons and the close interlinkages between socio-economic and environmental factors. These are local solutions that can only be found through the active participation of all affected stakeholders, in particular the local population. The World Bank has been working with the Government since the early 1990s to develop and implement approaches that combine 'top-down' planning with strong participation of the local population and other stakeholders, and that combine various engineering, livelihoods and policy measures for an integrated solution. More

Forestry Co-Management  

In collaboration with the China State Forestry Administration and the European Union, the China Sustainable Forestry Development Project introduced community co-management as a means to strengthen management of protected areas. In this initiative, participating communities received Community Conservation Funds for community or household-level projects in return for their assistance in monitoring and enforcing restrictions on forestry resource use. 

Inclusive Mobility: Improving the Accessibility of Road Infrastructure through Public Participation  

Some innovative steps have been taken by some Chinese cities to ensure that urban transport systems are more accessible for the mobility-challenged.  Public participation by disabled residents in Liaoning Province of northeast China has increased awareness and consideration for special needs in the design and implementation of road infrastructure.  With greater attention and some low or no-cost features, the Chinese principle of "people first" for urban transport has been put into practice.   More