Influences on participatory development approaches in Non-Government Organisation policy: comparing two cases of food security policy in Kenya

This research aims to address the proposition that non-government organisations (NGOs) with fewer major institutional donor (MID) partnerships have greater capacity to incorporate participatory development (PD) approaches within development work, as suggested within paradigmatic thinking. The PD paradigm emerged in the 1990s, emphasising the empowerment of recipient communities and encouraging their direct involvement in policy formulation. Previous research has highlighted issues of PD being an ambiguous concept, exploited by more powerful stakeholders, such as MIDs, so development policies meet their targets. The influence of MIDs has brought issues of trust and corruption within development policies labelled as 'participatory', as NGOs prioritise MID demands and follow their perception of PD, rather than beneficiary demands incorporated within 'local knowledge'.