A Stakeholder Approach to Community Participation in a Rural Development Project

The present study investigates a rural community project (Nguni Cattle Project) that uses Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) as a tool for its operational focus. The main objective of the study is to identify how the stakeholders are reflecting the PRA goal of the project. The method used to categorize the stakeholders is reported. The participatory patterns of the stakeholders are then analyzed, with emphasis on the points of intersections where the stakeholders meet to make sure the beneficiaries are sufficiently informed about the project. The data used to discuss the stakeholder participatory method were collected through interviews, information gleaned from organizational documents, and observations of meetings. The analysis of the data revealed the promotion of mutual understanding through sustained collaborative relationships among the stakeholders. The study presents a perspective that is new to the literature and to rural development practice due to its focus on the type of stakeholder participation in rural development projects.