Participatory development in action: Track 1

Do you take your access to water for granted? The Peruvian and Tanzanian communities featured in this album certainly don’t. This album examines how development agencies can empower communities to help themselves by introducing simple technologies, and facilitate the sharing of ideas through education. In the Andean mountains, scarce supplies of water and agricultural challenges give rise to conflict; but the changes engineered by development agencies can start to show a way out of poverty. Meanwhile, Tanzanian rural schoolchildren are instrumental in bringing about positive long-term change within their communities. However, development in practice is very complex and sometimes controversial. The audio tracks delve into the dilemma of how to incorporate the value systems of impoverished communities and agencies, which can have differing agendas. They also show how development is linked to issues of identity, urbanisation, politics, economics, social relations and gender. To complete the album, Dr Helen Yanacopulos of The Open University's Development Policy and Practice unit explains the choice of some of the case studies provided, and unpicks some of the issues that emerge. This material is taken from The Open University course TU871 Development: context and practice.