Assessment Stage of a Participatory Workshop

Any good workshop starts with one simple question: is the workshop needed and would it be beneficial?

The “Enabling Inclusive Cities” toolkit developed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) provides an invaluable framework to explore the needs of specific populations or regions through two basic pillars: policy and planning, and a sectoral assessment on the other side, to determine needs, options, and priorities within a specific sector. It includes, for instance:

• • Institutional and governance assessment on institutional structures responsible for delivery of services, featuring:
    • Institutional mapping: identification and mapping of governance and institutional structures;
    • Capacity needs assessment: review of skills and capacity of project staff in city government offices, resulting in a training needs assessment;
    • Stakeholder analysis: identification and assessment of key stakeholders involved in the sector, and facilitation of a stakeholder workshop to gather their inputs on the needs and priorities of the communities;
    • Urban finance assessment: matrix and municipal finance health check.

• Inclusive needs assessment:

• • Sectoral assessment: focusing on thematic groups such as water and sanitation, solid waste management, energy, transport, land management, shelter, education, and health;
  • Inclusive infrastructure assessment: assessing the status of infrastructure, cost of upgrading, and future growth.
  • Inclusive service delivery assessment on service, access, quality, reliability, and affordability;
  • Pro-poor strategy: current status, backlog, policies, programs, resources, or lack thereof.
  • Inclusive economic analysis on local employment, income, and affordability.

Determining the necessity and potential benefits of a workshop is the first step in any successful participatory design initiative, ensuring that participatory design is not only inclusive but also targeted, addressing key institutional, infrastructural, and service delivery challenges.