Gender and participation in community based development: Evidence from the Decentralized Climate Funds program in Senegal

<h3>Project Summary</h3>The ‘Decentralizing Climate Funds’ (DCF) project, implemented in Kaffrine, Senegal and Mopti, Mali, is a project that aims to support locally led climate change adaptation. The underlying belief of the projects approach is that involving communities in project selection and implementation creates a greater impact and will enhance individual, household, and community resilience to climate change, relative to a top-down decision-making approach. DCF’s approach rests on the assumption that bringing decision-making to the local level will increase the voice and inclusion of the poor and marginalized within communities by giving them a greater say in decisions that affect their lives, ensuring that development initiatives are correctly targeted to the needs of all beneficiaries. This study seeks to evaluate the ability of the DCF project to encourage the voice, participation, and inclusion of marginalized communities by focusing on participatory development. In particular, given Senegal’s patriarchal context, the study aims to answer whether the DCF approach allowed women to increase their participation and voice their needs. <h3>Data Overview</h3>The study is based on in-depth focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews that explore the subjective and dynamic views of participation by different beneficiaries. Fieldwork was conducted in two villages and one city in the Kaffrine region of Senegal that had engaged in a community decision-making process and received funding for a public good from the DCF project. Recruitment for the focus group interviews was through the head of the village, who helped identify women who were part of the village-level deliberations on selecting an investment. While there are selection bias concerns when speaking to and recruiting these women as they are all actively participating in the development and decision making in their communities, it was essential to speak to them to understand the level of participation within group meetings. For the semi-structured interviews, participants were selected through a snowball sampling strategy. The researchers walked around the sites and found residents to speak with contingent on their willingness and availability. This approach was described to and approved of by the heads of the respective villages to ensure the team was respecting the norms of the community. The interview notes were thematically analyzed using an inductive approach that systematically identified themes and patterns within the data.