Mobilization, participation and partnership building in local development planning: Experience from local planning on women's conditions in six Norwegian communes

Six rural communes in Norway participated in a national project ‘Commune planning on women's conditions’ where participative methods were used to engage inhabitants in strategic planning for local development. The planning process was organized in stages, which corresponds with the basic stages of the strategic planning and management model. All six communes followed this process, which started with education and training in planning methods and processes in autumn 1989, both at national level (project leaders and project groups) and at bed level (local leaders: administrators, politicians, local organizations, etc.). This support was deemed to be significant for the planning process by approximately 50% of respondents who completed an evaluation questionaire. The training was followed by a broad mobilization of inhabitants where visions and strategies were formulated and selected. All projects produced a strategic plan on women's conditions and a 4‐year action programme, as expected. This process worked well in all communes, but the political and administrative engagement in mass meetings, in group work and in hearings was lower in Bremanger and Nesna than in the other four communes.