ABSTRACT

Working with people (WWP) is considered a conceptual approach for rural development projects in emerging countries and the EU. Projects have to be developed BY people with an active role instead of FOR people. The main objective is to involve people in the process of formulation, implementation, management and future success of the project. Participation does not only mean consulting with people, but in fact a "logical community action" (Cernea, 1991, 1999).

Planning to foster or to improve rural development involves more than just self organization in order to get people to work together in a community. Social Learning (Friedmann, 1993), as a planning approach, means learning from experiencing change, knowledge is validated and produces mutual learning enhancing expert knowledge of the planner and transfer of knowledge to people.

Rural Development projects are very efficient instruments to transform rural development processes, but do not work as a traditional engineering Project which goals and aims not always consider a clear and direct relation with local community during the management and project implementation. Rural development projects require from their conception and continuous, mutual learning approach to achieve its goals.

This paper summarizes a participatory model which integrates a social approach on different phases of a rural development project with the Aymaras Communities of Puno, Peru.

In this project a team work worked jointly with a local women Coordinator, which involves 320 partners organized in 21 rural communities. This experience have allowed to learn from experience of project managing and understanding the complex social realities, considering development as a product of learning (Ackoff, 1984) in a framework of continuous creative project management with flexible and informal approach (Chambers, 1993). At the same time, Local Woman Coordinator begins a self-learning process that gradually transforms its main productive activity into an efficient enterprise of success reinforcing its social organization and expanding its impact to other territories.

Keywords: Working With People, Rural Development, Social Learning