People’s Participation in Development Projects in Sri Lanka (With special reference of Kalthota village)

Abstract

The strong people’s participation in development projects enhances the greater possibilities for project efficiency, effectiveness, cost recovery, social accountability and sustainability. Since development is a participatory process, meaningful community participation must be there. Project has four stages named planning, implementation, beneficiary and evaluation. People’s involvement is essential for each four stages . The research was implemented to measure the level of people's participation in each stages of development projects and to find reasons for lower level people's participation in development projects. Kalthota village was the study area. Among the 290 families, 100 were selected as the sample. Both quantitative and qualitative data was collected by using interview administered questionnaires. Among the 100 persons in the sample, 20 family respondents gave their opinions as lower level participation in development projects. The people’s participation is at a very lower level in each project stages. About 58% of respondents’ participation is at a lower level in planning stage and about 62% of respondent’s participation is at a lower level in implementation stage. In beneficiary stage about 41% of respondents’ participation is low. About 75% of respondents’ participation is at a very lower level in evaluation stage. The reason for lower level participation in development projects was the lack of information provided by the government.