POVERTY, PARTICIPATION AND SOCIAL EXCLUSION IN NORTH AND SOUTH

The rapid growth and acceptance of the concept of participation has be en a key feature of international development in the 1990s. Policies t o enhance and strengthen participation have long been used in the Nort h as a strategy for addressing issues of poverty and social exclusion. This article reviews the experience of three such programmes in the U nited States over the last three decades. Then it identifies key lesso ns and themes from this history which may be relevant and instructive to the current debates on participation and development in the South.