Participatory development: learning from the South Asia

The decade of the 1980s was a 'lost' decade for development. For many countries development actually went into reverse. At the same time, the dominant macro-economic paradigm moved away from the Keynesian consensus to a sharply monetarist and neo-classical type. However, given the present crisis of development, increasing doubts are being felt about the validity of this dominant paradigm. The contributors to this volume have highlighted this multifaceted crisis, not only in economic terms but also in political and human terms. Since people are one of South Asia's greatest assets, it is felt that a people centred development strategy can help reverse much of the imbalances and contradictions created by past development policies. The authors have pointed to the need for new forms of accumulation, and have indicated that participatory development at the micro level reflects a new approach to resource mobilization and resource use, and can be an economically viable and cost-effective approach to poverty alleviation.