2.1.3 Barriers to Effective Youth Participation A host of factors have been identified as obstacles to effective youth participation in development programs and projects. Oakley (1991) discusses three major obstacles to and participation which are structural, administrative and social people’s youths’ barriers. Structural obstacles form part of the complex and centralized organizational systems that control decision making, resource allocation and information, and are not oriented towards participation. This situation is usually typified by a people’s development approach. Administrative obstacles relate to bureaucratic ‘top-down’ procedures, operated by a set of guidelines and adopt a blue print approach, providing little space for people to make their own decisions or control their development process. The social impediments include mentality of dependence, culture of silence, domination of the local elite, gender inequality, and low levels of education and of exposure to non-local information (JOE, 2007). Furthermore, another obstacle is of and Shah, “standardization approaches” (Guijt 1998) which contradicts the original aims of participation to move away from the limitations of blue print planning and implementation towards more flexible and context-specific methodologies. This approach practically faced resistance from both the urban and rural elites. Consequently, by the late 1970s emphasis was imparted to in planning and administration. The prime objective was to ‘people’s participation’ involve people in decision making process (Finn, 2001). During the same period the idea of also attracted wide attention of the developmentalists as a ‘decentralization’ strategy for ensuring participation in devolvement activities. Since 1970s people’s scholars, development practitioners, donors as well as governments particularly
2.1.3 Barriers to Effective Youth Participation A host of factors have been identified as obstacles to effective youth participation in development programs and projects. Oakley (1991) discusses three major obstacles to people’s and youths’ participation which are structural, administrative and social barriers. Structural obstacles form part of the complex and centralized organizational systems that control decision making, resource allocation and information, and are not oriented towards people’s participation. This situation is usually typified by a ‘top-down’ development approach. Administrative obstacles relate to bureaucratic procedures, operated by a set of guidelines and adopt a blue print approach, providing little space for people to make their own decisions or control their development process. The social impediments include mentality of dependence, culture of silence, domination of the local elite, gender inequality, and low levels of education and of exposure to non-local information (JOE, 2007). Furthermore, another obstacle is “standardization of approaches” (Guijt and Shah, 1998) which contradicts the original aims of participation to move away from the limitations of blue print planning and implementation towards more flexible and context-specific methodologies. This approach practically faced resistance from both the urban and rural elites. Consequently, by the late 1970s emphasis was imparted to ‘people’s participation’ in planning and administration. The prime objective was to involve people in decision making process (Finn, 2001). During the same period the idea of ‘decentralization’ also attracted wide attention of the developmentalists as a strategy for ensuring people’s participation in devolvement activities. Since 1970s scholars, development practitioners, donors as well as governments particularly
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