Participatory Diagnosis
a strategy for self-sustainability
More self-sustainability means having more autonomy and less reliance on external funding, expertise or decisions. It means having a larger capacity to choose and negotiate with other initiatives what’s best for your project and what’s not. It means an increasingly equitable participation, which will lead to development models that are more comprehensive and relevant for all, that is, more sustainable. Know more
Several development initiatives increase their self-sustainability through participatory diagnoses, which are mechanisms where a project’s different stakeholders are invited to point out problems and design or adapt possible solutions.
Participatory diagnoses can increase some development initiatives’ self-sustainability because they encourage a diversity of inputs, knowledge and points of view in the design of solutions that are contextually relevant. A participatory diagnosis allows stakeholders to name their priorities, describe the specific ways in which development problems (lack of water, insecurity, etc.) affect their context, identify obstacles and opportunities, and suggest difficulties that could be prevented, resources that could be tapped, or strategies that could be devised to address community needs. In addition, many initiatives have found that when participants see their views incorporated into the project, they become involved with it and take ownership: they take on roles and responsibilities or contribute money, labor and other resources that lighten the initiative’s burden to raise funds elsewhere.
In order to collectively diagnose problems to tackle, some projects organize dynamics that foster the exchange of ideas –such as events, meetings or colloquiums– or design mechanisms such as forms, suggestion boxes or evaluation and feedback systems (like those offered by social media which may include star-ratings and reviews). Others form organizations so that different stakeholders can express their views at different stages of the project (such as children’s parliaments in schools), or canvass beneficiaries’ opinions and concerns with different activities (such as participatory mapping, which uses geographic maps to visualize project ideas and make it easier for beneficiaries to describe their needs). Still others partner with initiatives that already operate in a given community and know its members to learn about the context, sometimes even before their project actually takes on.
There are many types of participatory diagnoses that can increase the self-sustainability of a project. Take a look at how these initiatives have done it!
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