People can have their say, make decisions and participate if a few basic conditions are observed. To create these opportunities for participation and involvement, we ask ourselves:
What resources, capacity and knowledge do participants have to get involved?
What are the interests and motivations of the participants to get involved and with what outcomes?
Are opportunities and resources for participation made available and considered?
What role did the participants play in the conceptualisation, design and implementation of the project?
How realistic were the chances of achieving the goals?
How can these be measured?
Why these questions?
For many of our target groups, some of these conditions represent barriers that often receive little or no attention, thus limiting opportunities for participation and entrenching structural hierarchies. We therefore consistently try to envisage, think about and overcome potential visible and invisible barriers.