Building Capacity through Participation

For years, Nauru, a small Pacific island nation (population 10,000), benefited from the considerable wealth generated from its only major natural resource, phosphate. However, when that resource was almost exhausted and national assets held under the Nauru Phosphate Royalties Trust had been reduced to relatively minor holdings, the Government of Nauru sought and received assistance from the Asian Development Bank and the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) to prepare a National Sustainable Development Strategy to guide future development in the country. This case study examines innovative efforts to strengthen participatory capacity in Nauru to support development of the new strategy, focusing on the design and implementation of a participatory planning process which engendered wide community engagement and included communications with communities about the choices and trade-offs facing them moving forward.