What About Public Participation?

Over the years we’ve been hearing about public participation, but do our Namibian leaders and government officials really practice this approach?

According to the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development, public participation can be any process that directly engages the public in decision making and gives full consideration to public input in making that decision. Public participation can be a changing element in our country if we practice this process. It affords stakeholders or those who have interest an opportunity to influence decisions that affect their lives.

I look around my community and detect that not all our community members are encouraged to participate in decision making, especially the vulnerable, as some leaders feel like these are uneducated people who really don’t have the knowledge that can be useful. Not knowing that it’s not only about the educational level that a person gained. Sometimes it can be natural intelligence or experience that one encountered. For example, a person living in a place for more than 30 years will have more background knowledge than a newcomer who perhaps wants to develop a project in that area, so it is wise for that person first to involve the community in his/her plans.

In order to consider the previous opportunities and success, this can be a helpful hand as the community members are more familiar with their locality over the years for effective project implementation and not just implement something that already failed over the years or is just not compatible with the area, which can result in a waste of resources, etc.

Furthermore, when a large number of people are involved in a specific project/programme and are working towards a specific goal, this raises awareness and can attract several investors/donors and also save time as the work is now shared between the stakeholders involved.

Nevertheless, I encourage all Namibian institutions to put in more effort towards the decentralisation policy and achieve its objectives such as enhancing and guaranteeing participatory democracy and to emphasise the need for empowering regional councils and communities as well as to promote broad-based grassroots participation in development planning and implementation of development projects that are responsive to locally defined needs and priorities.

With these few remarks, we can conclude that with public participation as our first step, we can achieve some development goals and develop our motherland Namibia.

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