Talbot and Verrinder (2005) in Kirianki (2015) are of the view that Community participation is a concept that attempts to bring different stakeholders together for problem solving and decision making. Participation occurs as a community organizes itself and takes responsibility for managing its problems which entails identifying the problems, developing actions, putting them into place, and following through (Cheetham, 2002).
In the context of development, Babu (2018) was of the view that it is the process through which members of a community or organization are involved in and have influence on decisions related to development activities that will affect them. Hence, the role of community participation in any development programme is very important. In fact, no meaningful, effective and sustainable development can take place where there is no participation by the beneficiary community. That is why Arora (1979) in Kirianki (2015) affirmed that participation promotes efficiency, effectiveness and equity in the total process of development.
Arnstein’s (1969) typology on ‘Ladder of Citizen Participation’ provides a framework to identify the types of community participation and its outcomes. According to her, citizen participation occurs on eight rungs ranging from manipulation to citizen power and stressed that the level of participation is determined by the extent to which power holders allow citizens to influence and take decisions on issues concerning them. Arnstein’s typology (fig. 1) is read from the bottom up with increasing degrees of community participation, empowerment and control along a continuum ranging from manipulation, therapy, informing, consultation, placation, partnership, delegated power and citizen power. In her theoretical approach, Arnstein classified the eight rungs into three broad categories, which are non-participation, tokenism and citizen power.
