Summary
The Ward Development Planning (WDP) model is a participatory planning approach currently implemented in five counties in Kenya’s arid and semi-arid areas. The WDP model provides the opportunity for local knowledge and development priorities to be integrated and funded through Ward Development Plans. These plans are multi-sectoral and include a comprehensive range of public goods investments that build resilience to climate change and other shocks. This brief summarises key learning on the WDP approach and gives recommendations for scaling up participatory planning for contextually appropriate and locally legitimate resilience-oriented development.
Key findings
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There is great potential to take a bottom-up approach to development planning in the drylands that is inclusive of the knowledge, input and support of dryland communities. To date, limited participation of pastoralists in government planning processes has resulted in misguided development interventions in the drylands that undermine livelihoods and increase vulnerability.
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WDP is a local development planning process that deepens Kenya’s devolution to the ward level and addresses the chronic political and economic marginalisation that is evident in dryland regions.
The ward-level planning institution fills a gap between community- and county-level planning institutions and devolves decision-making to the ward level. -
WDP empowers pastoralist communities to directly engage in development planning through participatory and deliberate processes. There is effective representation and accountable decisionmaking through inclusive public selection processes of Ward Planning Committees (WPCs), whose role it is to identify communities’ development needs and priorities and to oversee the implementation of a Ward Development Plan. The high socialembeddedness and deliberate selection of WPC members make these individuals well placed to represent the community in mediating conflict, as well as to share knowledge and information that helps address community needs and builds resilience.
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WDP prioritises development action at the local level according to needs identified by the community. This ensures that investments are contextually relevant and locally appropriate, and avoids wasteful, redundant or maladaptive projects. The model provides a comprehensive multi-sectoral and cross-scale approach that has the promise to strengthen planning across sectors (e.g., water and rangelands) and boundaries to build pastoralists’ resilience to climate and other recurrent shocks and stresses.
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Scaling up the approach holds much potential but requires contextualisation and adaptation during implementation to match the approach to the local governance institutional context and avoid proliferating redundant institutions. It will be important to maintain a focus on the quality of the process, including participation, representative selection and inclusivity. Learning from the WDP model can also be integrated with alternate wardlevel planning institutions in the future.