Report from Participatory Development Forum

Posted by on October 14, 2005

[posted from Community Based Participatory Research listserv]

The Participatory Development (PD) Forum has just held its third international conference “Participating to Create a Different World: Shaping Our Own Future”, held at the University of Ottawa from 14 – 17, August, 2005. There were 123 participants from over 21 countries.

In this conference, participants explored the latest approaches to and critiques of participatory development, shared skills and experiences of participatory practices and discussed topics ranging from grassroots movement to natural resource management. Participants and presenters came from institutions like the UN, NGOs, academia, public and private sector and grassroots organizations in Asia, Latin America, Africa, Australia, Europe and North America. The conference offered two days of Capacity Building Workshops, one day of Presentation on Best Practices and Lessons Learned, and one day of Open Space Technology. In all, there were 17 capacity building workshops and 19 presentations on best practices and lessons learned.

The Conference Report will be released by the end of September or the first week of October 2005 and available on the PD Forum website at http://www.pdforum.org

The PD Forum is an international network of development practitioners, NGOs, action-researchers, private sector representatives and policy makers committed to promoting a philosophy of participation that advocates for people’s capacity and right to define and control their own development, in order to achieve social justice and equality. By subscribing to the listserv, you will become a member of the PD Forum. To join, email pdforum@pdforum.org or visit http://www.pdforum.org.