Participatory Development

Participatory development is one of the alternative theories that are against the notions of the dependency theory and the modernisation theory which state development can only be brought by economic strategies, instead, this theory states that development should be human centred. Participatory development's main focus is to show that development is more about people and the community, it states that for development to occur, the people who will benefit from it should participate from the beginning until the end, in this way the people will be independent and they will focus on what their community needs. The people involved/beneficiaries are able to question the process and get information about it. In order to achieve participation development, community members can form their own community groups or participatory organisations where they can com up with ideas and initiatives as a collective.

Although participatory organisations or community groups are a good way to enhance development in the community, community members should be careful of the upper class or popular individuals in the community who might block them from achieving their goals by either stealing their ideas or not wanting anyone's idea but their own. For example, in South Africa there is a community development initiative where the department of agriculture gives funds to communities that want to start agricultural projects, if one member of the community feels that they do not want to work with the others, they might jeopardise the project by making it seem like the ideas are his.