Principles to remember in CAP
About 50 principles relevant for CAP are given
on the communityplanning.net website. They are
simple and easy to understand. A few examples
include:
• Accept different agendas
• Be visionary yet realistic
• Go at the right pace
• Involve all sections of the community
• Process is as important as product
• Respect local knowledge
donors and government agencies, NGOs and local
authorities, as well as powerful local people. CAP
processes include some safeguards to reduce the
risks of this. However, the best safeguard is skilled
facilitation which ensures that these groups or
individuals are not able to exert undue influence.
How to apply CAP in reconstruction
contexts
In post-disaster contexts, it is expected that CAP
will follow a participatory assessment of needs and
damage (see Tool 4: Assessment of Reconstruction
Needs and Resources). It may lead to one or more
community contracts for reconstruction.
It can be used in the following contexts:
• Reconstruction on the same site, with the same
or similar plot sizes and boundaries as before
the disaster
• Reconstruction on the same site, but with
significant changes in layout to improve and
regularise plots and infrastructure
• Reconstruction where people are being relocated
to a new site
A first step in the process is to define the
boundaries of the community. A ‘community’ can
consist of anything from ten to a few hundred
households. Larger numbers can be included, but
then the process becomes more difficult to manage.
It helps if the people know each other and have
some social ties. Where these are weak (perhaps in
an urban context), it can still be used and can in
fact help to build social cohesion for the future.
A second step is the selection of community
representatives to participate in the CAP. There
should be at least 5 representatives. The upper
limit can be flexible, but it can be difficult to
run the workshop if there are more than about
30 community representatives. It is best if the
community selects their own representatives,
unless there are good reasons not to, for example
Community representatives are trained before carrying out
planning activities in Sri Lanka
if it is known that a particular person will be
disruptive. Care needs to be taken to achieve a
balance of age and gender. It is important to select
people who stand out as community leaders, but
also those who are less dominant but may have
important views. This could include, for example,
those who showed an in-depth knowledge of what
the settlement was like before the disaster during
the needs assessment exercise. Where leaders are
very dominant, it may be important to brief them
about their responsibility as representatives before
the main CAP workshop.
Organising the CAP workshop
Once these steps have been completed, the main
CAP workshop can be organised. This involves:
• Inviting participants. As well as the community
representatives, other stakeholders should be
invited. These will probably include staff from:
NGOs, local authorities, the government’s
reconstruction agency, and international
donor and aid agencies active in the area. It is
important that those who attend are not just
junior staff without decision-making authority.
There is a risk their managers will ignore or
overrule them once the plans have been made.
Professional town planners, engineers and
architects from the public or private sector can
also contribute usefully, especially in terms of
designs, specification and quality. However, they
need to be ready to listen: being ‘on tap’ rather
than ‘on top’.
• Pre-briefing of participants. If community
representatives are not confident, they could
observe another CAP workshop before taking
part in their own. This could be through
watching a DVD of a workshop if none is taking
place close to their area. For professional staff
not used to participatory methods, it is useful to
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