Barriers Affecting to the Development Plan in Security Areas: A Case Study of Pattani province

Abstract

Pattani is a province that has confronted the problem of conflict situations. It has also faced severe hidden dangers in terms of economic, social, and natural resources. Related public agencies applied several plans and projects to solve such problems. However, some challenges were influencing the implementation of those policies and plans. Thus, the objectives of the study were, firstly, to investigate barriers affecting the operation of development plans. The second objective was to propose suitable pathways to help support the operation to improve the quality of life of people in Pattani. The target groups of the study consisted of officials from public agencies, local entrepreneurs, and people in communities. The total number of research participants was 124 persons. Researchers utilized purposive sampling and snowball sampling techniques to select the participants. Focus groups and in-depth interviews were major methods for data collection.

The findings have found that the barriers affecting the implementation of development plan included vague information of the projects provided by public officials; lacking marketing sponsorship by related public agencies; some communities do not understand the project’s objectives; low level of community capabilities; local people's way of life; and especially security situations. On the other hand, the pathways supporting the implementation of development plans were providing knowledge to local entrepreneurs and communities; prioritizing the quality of participants who get involved with projects; providing explicit information of the project to the communities; providing more opportunity to the practitioner level officers participating in the policy development process; and implementing public relations campaign to create a good sense of security in the province.