Participatory Local Planning in Ban Tao Subdistrict, Ban Thaen District, Chaiyaphum Province

Abstract

         The Objectives of the research article were to examine levels of understanding and participation of community leaders and citizens in local development planning and to propose guidelines for participatory planning in Ban Tao Subdistrict, Ban Thaen District, Chaiyaphum Province. The authors employed a survey design with a sample of 409 local citizens who were selected via a stratified random sampling technique, and 13 community leaders. The research instrument is questionnaires with open-ended questions. Statistics used in data analysis included percentages and means.

           Findings reveal that community leaders and citizens have a high level of understanding about local development planning. Both community leaders and citizens have a relatively similar level of understanding: they correctly answers most of the questions about local planning process, especially on such topics as timeframe to put local plans into effect, planning process, and village-level and subdistrict-level public meetings.  Most of the citizens participate in the village meetings to articulate their problems and concerns.  However, community leaders more actively participate in the subdistrict meetings, and serve in the committee for local planning promotion, the committee for local development, and the committee for local plan assessment. In order to improve local planning efficiency and effectiveness, local administrative organizations need to incentivize a wider range of citizens to participate in all aspects of the planning process.