Awareness on the Benefits of Participatory Decision Making

The indicator assesses the proportion of the target groups (such as local authorities, youth, grassroots group members, CSOs, or the general population) aware of the promoted benefits of participatory decision-making processes. People´s awareness and understanding of the promoted benefits is one of the preconditions for their active engagement in the decision-making processes that affect their communities.

Collect the following data by conducting individual interviews with a representative sample of your target group members:

RECOMMENDED SURVEY QUESTIONS (Q) AND POSSIBLE ANSWERS (A)

Q1: What do you think are the benefits of local people participating in the local authorities’ decisions about the future development and investments in their communities?

A1: Since different target groups are likely to see different benefits (e.g. youth versus local authorities), pre-define the answers based on which benefits the project is promoting/ plans to promote among the given target group members. Examples of possible answers include:

  1) there are no benefits

  2) people learn about the local authorities’ plans

  3) people can say what their communities need most

  4) people can propose to the local authorities good solutions to addressing the local needs

  5) the local authorities’ budget is spent in a more effective way

  6) there is less space for corruption

  7) people are more satisfied with the development of their communities

  8) I do not know

However, keep in mind that the answers must always be tailored to the local context, the target group (the respondents), and your project’s content – do not just copy these examples into your survey. 

To calculate the indicator’s value, divide the number of respondents aware of the minimum number of promoted benefits by the total number of interviewed respondents. Multiply the result by 100 to convert it to a percentage.