Empowerment of individuals and communities:
Participatory projects create forums where individual are free to express their values and aspirations in relation to topics which are important to them. Outcomes can include:
•Communication and collaboration between members or groups in the community, which might otherwise not communicate
•The identification and/or development of diverse and/or common community perspectives
•The potential to share values and aspirations with the broader community through public exhibitions of the works produced by the participants and/or productions coming out of the process (reports, photos of the process, video documentary)
The ability to affect policy:
Communities are beginning to have more of a say in the development of policies affecting their futures. Evidence of this can be seen in the latest Nobel Prize for Economics being awarded to Elinor Ostrom for her work on common property resources and community-based management strategies.
Another example is the International Union on the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) recognition and incorporation of Indigenous and Community Conserved Areas within their protected areas delegations. This is a clear demonstration of the inclusion of local peoples in policy development and is a milestone in the international shift towards community engagement and participation in decision-making.
As other international organizations and governments continue to acknowledge communities in high-level decision-making, they will need to gain community perspectives.
Participatory community-based projects can communicate community values and aspirations for places, resources, and/or other subject matters, and can help direct policies towards outcomes that are more representative of their respective community members.
