Participation in Practice: The Community-based Planning Manual

The purpose of this Manual is to offer a common approach that can be applied across multiple disciplines to work together with affected populations to address the drivers of displacement and conflict in today’s world. This document draws on the expertise of IOM in applying community-based assessment, planning and recovery processes. It is based on a thorough review of the practices of 10 different IOM missions and represents the Organization’s best practices on participatory methods in transition and recovery, community stabilization, durable solutions, resilience-building, peacebuilding and disaster risk reduction.

The Community-Based Planning (CBP) Manual is broken into three components that represent the main phases of programme implementation. Component 1 involves all preparatory actions necessary to begin a truly community-driven process. Component 2 includes a series of assessments that can be completed by the community itself, offering various avenues to collect relevant information together with participants. Finally, Component 3 involves the planning, prioritization, and implementation phase of a typical CBP process.

The process codified in this universal guide is not limited to any type of programming or tied to any particular outcome. It is rather a tool that can be used by practitioners of all organizations working in a variety of contexts from humanitarian crises to development settings to countries dealing with the largescale return of migrants or risk of outward migration.