Stakeholders’ interactions in participatory approaches

This research is a case study, and the non-profit organization initiated the project of revitalization of back alleyways in the Central Business District, Yangon city, Myanmar. The project was designed for participatory approach in collaboration with multi-stakeholders. This event is rare to see local actors trying to initiate volunteering activities which embed in non-profit organization based on a notion of local autonomy instrumental policy and decision-making in the context of Myanmar. The research objective was to understand and explain the extent to which community were able to influence the decision-making processes and the outcomes in the revitalization of back alleys in the Central Business District in Yangon City, Myanmar. The main research question is: To what extent did the community influence the decision-making processes and the outcomes in the revitalization of back alleys in the Central Business District in Yangon City, Myanmar? The sub-questions are: what types of local actors were involved in revitalization of back alleys and what role did they take in decision-making? How is decision-making organized and who has what kind and degree of influence in decision-making and outcomes of revitalization of back alleys project? And what factors influenced the decision-making process and the outcomes of the project? The formulation of the conceptual framework was based on literature on levels of participation, forms of participation, democracy cube, rounds model in decision-making process and outcomes in governance network in urban revitalization. In this research, rounds model was used for identifying local actors’ interactions in each round and how decisions were changed over time. Moreover, the tool of stakeholders’ analysis was used to explain the degree of the local actor’s influenced in decisions and how the levels of participation created the outcomes in perceptions. In order to operationalize the conceptual framework and indicate them, this single case study is used for research strategy which based on the collection and analysis of mixed method (both quantitative and qualitative). The primary data was collected by questionnaires and semi-structured interviews, and the secondary data was also collected for triangulation data. The key findings were that community were able to influence the decision-making at consultative level and the actors had essential collaboration for achieving the outcomes in the revitalization of back alleys in the Central Business District in Yangon City, Myanmar. In this case, stakeholders such as residents/local community were able to participate in discussions and consultations but were not able to fundamentally influence over decisions and actions. Therefore, while there was broad participation, it was rather shallow and tokenistic. In participatory process, women, youth, and minority groups interests and their needs are essential to consider. However, these people involvement in decision-making process in Myanmar is not easy and it will have time-consuming because the country has been male cultural dominant for more than three decades and the patriarchal mindset is extremely predominant. In this sense, non-government organization cannot do it alone and it needs the collaboration of different actors to consider the gender mainstreaming, youth empowerment and minority rights in their policies, plans and programmes. Besides, people in Myanmar are often not accustomed to participatory practices, and so there is a need for further outreach to encourage the involvement of women, youth, and marginalised people. Furthermore, Covid and military coup are the major challenges for implementing organization and local actors to move forward the project from now and the future. Due to the unfolding political and pandemic situations in Myanmar, the research could not generate the answers from different stakeholders, and it only formulated the answers from local residents. Thus, more knowledge is required how and to what extent those external factors influence in decision-making process which community plays a key role. For example, what kinds of Myanmar’s community culture and characteristics irritate or prevent women, youth, and minority groups in community-driven project? How the political and policy area in different levels in the context of Myanmar can generate and restrict opportunity for community initiative activities and progression in urban revitalization? And how the local actors consider for the sustainability (financial, technical or human resources) of the project for the long term? Likewise, the research focused and analysed on single case study in specific site which was hard to generalize to other conditions. Therefore, the recommendation of further study can be observing more in depth into situations of community initiative process in different cases with long term of changing within the country or international level in order to understand various forms of the factors facilitating participatory process and categorise which factor is the utmost important for bottom-up process and to what extent these factors obviously have an influence on the quality of urban revitalization programmes.