Summary: Examines horizontal issues such as participation, inclusion, and governance mechanisms, emphasizing their integration into project design to enhance effectiveness and sustainability.
Learning Objectives:
Participation practices involve striving to boost public involvement focused mainly on the substance of programs and policies. Inclusion practices involve consistently fostering a community engaged in collaboratively shaping processes, policies, and programs to identify and tackle public concerns (Quick and Felman, 2011, p.272). Participation and inclusion are among the concepts that have been given importance in many grant and funding programs in recent years. Therefore, the concepts of participation and inclusion should also be considered when designing your goals, activities and outputs. If there is a section for this in the project proposal template form, you can include the concepts of participation and inclusion from different perspectives. If a specific section is not reserved for this in the project proposal form, you can mention these issues in different sections.
Different perspectives on participation and inclusion can be listed as follows:
The relationship between participation and governance underscores that good governance necessitates governance rooted among the people, representative democracy lacking participation is weak, development devoid of public involvement lacks genuine popular support, and public participation in development enhances the prospects of good governance (Davids et al., 2005, p.64). The concept of governance has gained a lot of importance in recent decades. Many grants and funding institutions and programs require relevant stakeholders, especially the youth and disadvantaged, to contribute to the projects and activities. In order to ensure the participation of stakeholders in governance, first of all, they should be aware of the project and its activities. Afterwards, it is important to share information about the project regularly and accurately in line with transparency and accountability. Finally, the methods, tools and procedures for participants' participation in decision-making must be clearly defined, explained and non-discriminatory.
In addition, today, social media platforms are very popular and virtual structures that allow interactive interaction in terms of receiving and presenting feedback, requests, complaints and suggestions. You can specify that you can also benefit from these virtual tools in your project.
People in your target audience(s) profile should not only take part in the project activities as a target, but should also participate in their realization. This participation includes not only participating in an activity, but also the process of realizing that activity. Active participation or involvement of the target audience at any stage of the project will ensure their ownership and internalization of the project.
How can you ensure this participation? You need to consider different methods for each activity. If you are going to organize a training course, you must inform the participants about the announcement of this training, its benefits, the contribution that will be made to them, whether they will be given certificates. You also need to pre-register and get reserve participants as much as the number of quotas. If the grant program allows, participants can be paid daily wages, transportation and food/beverage expenses can be covered. In addition, if any intellectual output (educational material, booklet, etc.) is foreseen to be prepared in your project, the participation of target audiences can be ensured for certain parts of this output. For example, a preliminary stage can be implemented for a booklet / material. In this preliminary stage, needs analyzes can be carried out with surveys and interviews to be applied to the target audience. Feedbacks can be also received online through digital channels. If a conference with wide participation is to be held, high-profile speakers who are in the interest of the target audience can be announced by inviting them.
The most crucial element at this stage is to increase both quantitative and qualitative participation in activities.
It is very important to receive feedback from the target audience within the scope of evaluation activities. These feedbacks will be more critical and objective than self-assessments in the project consortium. It is important to provide information about each stage of the project and to receive the opinions, suggestions, requests and demands of the participants regarding these stages. This process should be carried out not only by receiving the feedback, but also by evaluating them and reflecting them on the activities, processes and outputs, and providing information by returning to the feedback provider. The feeling of ownership towards the project of those whose ideas are taken into consideration and to whom feedback is received, will increase. On the other hand, improvements made with the ideas and suggestions presented by the target audience will be more effective and efficient and will increase satisfaction. While this will contribute to the achievement of the project's goals, there will be an increase in the quality and quantity of outputs and activities.
The participation of those in the target audience in visibility, promotion and dissemination activities will enable the project to reach more people with the target group profile. It is expected that a target group with similar characteristics will have a high level of communication with each other. For this reason, when a person in the target audience introduces the project to their peers and colleagues, more people are reached. In extreme cases, this creates a snowball effect, reaching far more people than intended (Pescher etal, 2014). For example, some of the challenges produced create a viral effect (See: Ice Bucket Challenge).
Contests: In addition to contests that may have a viral effect, prize-winning contests can be organized at the local level. For example, you can use the budget allocated for the project logo design (if the grant program allows) by organizing a competition. In addition, You can organize a contest related to the subject of the project such as painting, poetry, literature, design, project. In this case, you will not only be able to carry out an activity required in your project with your target audience, but also ensure that the project will spread and be promoted to the target audience. The target audience that will participate in your contest will have also examined your project, so it would be useful to provide information about your project in your contest announcement.
Digital Communities / Web Pages: Social media, digital communities and web platforms, which are widely used and popular today, are online places where different target audiences come together. You can ensure the dissemination and visibility of your project by creating digital platforms and communities, or by finding a platform or community that is already suitable for your target audience. As a result of the information sharing and visibility activities you will carry out, you can receive feedback and contributions from the wider community.
Social media: Today, politics, sports, public and private institutions and organizations actively use social media platforms to receive interaction and feedback and thus to increase the quality of their services and products. In order to benefit from these opportunities within the scope of your project, you should use your social media accounts actively and interactively. For this reason, it would be appropriate to specify your measures and activities regarding social media in your project proposal.
Inclusion of target group and disadvantaged people: Inclusion of the disadvantaged has gained importance especially in recent years. Disadvantaged people cannot adequately participate in social decision-making mechanisms, activities, projects, and cannot express their opinions due to their situation. In your project proposal, it is important that you design activities that will reach these people and ensure their participation and take precautions. While some grant programs directly target disadvantaged groups, some programs can provide extra funding for disadvantaged people. Disadvantage may arise due to concepts such as geographical, cultural, economic, social, educational, disability, immigration, discrimination, gender inequality. If you think which disadvantageous situations can be seen predominantly in your target group, you are expected to give your justification for this.
For example, when you organize a conference, you can offer a translation service for the hearing impaired. Similarly, you can receive facilitator services for the disabled in trainings. If your project envisages the establishment of a center, you can also indicate in the proposal your measures to facilitate the access of the disabled to this center. If your project envisages a mobility abroad, you can put budget for the travel materials of your disadvantaged participants.
Perspectives and approaches to participation and inclusion are not limited to these. If a different approach to these concepts is requested in the project call for proposals, program priorities and evaluation criteria, you should also make an evaluation and justification in this respect.
