Participatory Governance and Sustainable Development: The Use of Participatory Learning Workshop as a Case Study

The challenge confronting by cities today is more daunting than ever. The twin challenges of urbanization and climate change influenced an unmistakable opportunity for city governments to rethink fundamentally how they function and intend to develop their cities. The study identified that conventional planning and its top-down processes with the rigid end-state form of master plans has been strongly criticized for its failures in finding sustainable solutions to the present urban issues faced by the cities in both developing and developed countries. Thus, some local governments have taken steps to change from hierarchical forms of government structure to more flexible forms of partnership with its stakeholders. This paper reviewed the experience of application of participatory learning workshop in a decision-making process based on the researcher’s on-going research activities in the Philippines and Japan. The key findings suggested that participatory planning workshop offers an important learning process for communities and stakeholders. However, for the successful implementation of the participatory learning workshop, the role of workshop facilitator is critical. In addition, the existence of local political system that encourages active citizen participation, the commitment and skills of the planning staff, availability of sufficient resources and responsibilities are required to make participation worthwhile.