By María González de Asis & Barak D. Hoffman Participatory
development is a growing focus of donor development policies.
Over the past decade, the World Bank alone has allocated
approximately $75 billion for these types of initiatives
(Mansuri and Rao 2011) and other development partners are also
allocating large sums of money in this area. Interest in
participatory development derives in part from understanding
that poor development outcomes often result from bad governance
and lack of citizen empowerment. Participatory development seeks
to remedy these weaknesses by having people take an active role
in community development and by creating demand for good
governance (DFGG). The World Bank defines DFGG as the capacity
of “citizens to hold the state accountable and make it
responsive to their needs” (World Bank 2011: 3). Participatory
development seeks to reduce poverty directly through engaging
citizens in the design and implementation of development
projects, and indirectly through encouraging improved gove