Are International Aid and Community Participation Inevitably at Odds?
by Silvio Waisbord Before a certain former community organizer was swept by a landslide vote into the presidency of the United States, community participation had already captured the imagination of international development. Documents of aid agencies are chock-full of hosannas to community actions. Heads of state and philanthropic organizations frequently praise communities and participation. Shimmering images of participation, elderly men having animated conversations and purple-fingered youth with beautiful smiles decorate the hallways of international agencies and NGOs. Publicity materials, report covers, and Web sites graphics are endless streams of feel-good snapshots of communities in action. From humanitarian actions to bankrolling development projects, a wide range of aid actions are often justified on the grounds of people, communication, rights, and democracy. All these amount to the notion that communitiesrather than isolated individualsand participationrather than passivit
