COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA

Abstract

In the 1960s development was based on centralized planning and administrative control or the top-down approach. However, emphasis has shifted from centralized planning to community participation in addressing inequality. The aim of this paper is to critically examine community participation, through a review of empirical literature on participatory approaches. The question was do people really come out to participate. Findings suggested that people really come out to participate in programmes, but , projects that rely on community participation have not been particularly effective in reaching the less privileged. Evidence revealed that such projects could lead to development of effective community infrastructures, but there outcomes do not correlate with participatory elements. Findings also showed that most of the participants are elites. I advocate for social movements to be considered as contributing towards inequality reduction and their operations to be scaled-up, and funding sources to be independent in order to be more effective