GUIDELINES FOR PROMOTING PEOPLE’S PARTICIPATION IN THE PREPARATION OF LOCAL DEVELOPMENT PLANS: A CASE STUDY OF PAK NAM PRAN SUBDISTRICT ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZATION, THAILAND

Abstract

This mixed methods research aimed to study: (1) the level of people's participation of local development plans, (2) factors affecting people's participation with a causal relationship with the participation of people, and (3) guidelines for promoting people's participation in the preparation of local development plans. Samples used in this study were 372 representatives of households aged 18 years and over residing in Pak Nam Pran Subdistrict Administrative Organization and 8 key informants. Data were analyzed by using which were frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, chi-square and multiple regression analysis. Research results: (1) the level of people's participation in the preparation of local development plans was at a moderate level, (2) factors affecting people’s participation in terms of people’s knowledge and understanding, communication, and people’s way of life had causal relationships with people’s participation at the level of 0.001 statistical significance, and (3) guidelines for promoting people's participation in the preparation of local development plans were: to organize community meetings to prioritize problems, to publicize information in various channels, to encourage people’s awareness to participate on sharing resources, to put vocational training projects to the development plans, to follow up and to evaluate the development plans.