C O V E R  S T O R Y

  FLOUR, SUGAR, SALT, BUTTER, EGGS, MILK, POTATO, MEAT, TOMATO AND ONION. If these were the ingredients in your refrigerator, what would you cook? This was the question posed by NGO trainer Dana Nicolescu of Opportunity Associates to 20 environmental professionals in a workshop last June in Ploiesti, Romania. The participants, representing NGOs, businesses, local and national government agencies across Romania, were brought together by the REC, Milieukontakt Oost-Europa and the Training, Information and Mediation Center for Eco-Development (TIMCED) to design the framework for a curriculum on Public Participation in Environmental Decisionmaking in Romania. From gulyas soup to hamburgers, the participants proposed mixing ingredients into several combinations and flavors. The sessions resulted in equally varied suggestions for contents, cases and training methods for the curriculum. More important, but by no means perfect, the process itself represents a significant step forward in developing original training curricula in CEE.

Evolution of CEE Training Curricula

BOX 1: THE EVOLUTION

Generation I: "Fast Food" Curricula This "fast food" generation of curricula consisted of primarily Western trainers "parachuting" into the region offering short training workshops, using existing curricula to English-speaking participants or through translators. Materials were translated from English originals or somehow "adapted" to "reflect local realities" but the basic structure remained the same from country to country. Generation II: "Local Cuisine" Curricula The so-called "local cuisine" generation of curricula, although still quite rare, consists of local professional environmental trainers and local experts developing original training materials. While not "reinventing the wheel," i.e., incorporating valuable lessons from other countries, original materials reflect both the very obvious differences in content (i.e., legal, regulatory or political differences) and the social and cultural differences and learning styles of participants. In addition, priority is given to developing local capacity.

Starting from Scratch

1. Assess the Need

  The Public Participation Training Project was an outgrowth of several years of REC research and cooperation with environmental leaders to assess the status of public involvement in environmental decisionmaking in CEE. The REC increasingly recognized the importance of activities which develop skills and awareness, given that the main obstacles to public participation were not only a lack of opportunity but a lack of will, awareness or capability. Individuals and institutions either were uninterested, unaware of their rights or unable to exercise them.

  The REC team found no precedent in CEE for original curricula on the topic, and several local colleagues expressed interest in cooperating to develop one. Bulgaria and Romania, two countries with particularly low levels of public involvement, were chosen for an initial pilot project.

2. Establish Project Objectives

• prepare a public participation training module and trainersÕ guidelines for use by CEE trainers;
• prepare country-specific curricula and in-country training workshops for teams of trainers to increase their understanding and skills in participation training methods;
• disseminate training modules and materials (English and local-language versions) and offer on-going training in the region.

3. Establish Curriculum Goals

• to encourage multi-sector cooperation among citizens, NGOs, local and national governments and private businesses;
• to strengthen the awareness and competence of individuals and institutions from these sectors to integrate public participation practices into their daily work and decisionmaking.

4. Establish Curriculum Competencies

  The REC training materials were intended to provide recipients with the following core competencies:

• an understanding of the general guiding principles of public participation, and its benefits and costs;
• an understanding of the relevance and benefits of multi-sectoral collaboration in decisionmaking;
• an understanding of the current status of public participation in environmental decisionmaking in the region;
• an understanding of the local, national and international legal and judicial bases for public participation and informal public participation techniques.

5. Design Contents and Process

  Developing a curriculum is therefore a two-part process, including both the development of the contents of the materials and the process through which contents and information are transmitted. This distinction is not always clear nor recognized - often to the detriment of important information. A common mistake is to equate "training" with "teaching" or "lecturing." In fact, training is far different from such traditional approaches to education. Training is meant to be a mutual learning experience Ð for both trainer and participant - whereby the trainers' primary responsibility is to facilitate the creative thought and active involvement among participants. Developing training curricula therefore requires attention to the needs and knowledge of participants.

5.1 Who is the target audience?

  The REC training materials are intended for a variety of audiences, including individual citizens, staff of NGOs, local and national government officials, and business leaders. This multi-stakeholder approach is a big challenge since the motivations and perspectives may be different, and even contradictory. Assuring a balanced approach to reflect these needs is very difficult.

  An additional issue is the learning style of participants. First, for a sector what is the most appropriate style of presenting information? (what motivates them on an issue?). Secondly, for individual participants with varied experience, what style is most effective for relaying information? Some individuals learn better through experimental processes, while others through more intuitive ones.

5.2 What are participants' current knowledge of the topic?

  The REC module was intended for participants with mixed levels of experience in public participation concepts and techniques. Therefore, there was a need for a curriculum which provides both basic and advanced concepts. An assessment questionnaire was developed to determine participants' level of familiarity and to guide trainers in determining which combination of modules would best suit participants' needs.

5.3 What method is best to convey this information or build participants' skills?

  Since the REC training module was intended to encourage direct interaction among participants, a combination of training techniques was used: case study, role play and simulation, small groups and discussion, "expert" panels and individual consultation.

  In addition, the training was designed in a modular format to allow combinations of modules to meet various needs, including trainings on topics for specific audiences, and of various lengths and levels. Box 3 illustrates the modular design of the curriculum. "Core" modules serve as a basis for all trainings, and are matched with "selective" modules for more detailed trainings on certain public participation topics. "Optional" modules provide supplemental information putting issues in a broader context.

  For example, you would like to design a beginner-level training for NGOs related to the negative environmental effects of the construction of a new factory in a community. Modules 2, 3, 5 and 7 could be combined to form a beginner-level, two-day training that would introduce participants to a variety of methods for public participation (Module 2), and help them develop a public participation strategy (Module 3) using specific opportunities at the local level (Module 5) and through EIA processes (Module 7) to gain access to information and decisionmaking regarding the proposed factory.

  Trainers' guidelines identify a variety of such options and assist trainers to determine which combination of materials are most suited to their needs.

5.4 What is the most suitable venue?

  Even such basics as the training facilities can have a substantial influence on meeting training objectives. Trainers' guidelines address some of these very technical issues regarding the most appropriate number of participants, the best training setting, necessary equipment, timing of sessions and exercises, etc.

6. Test and Evaluate the Curriculum

  The REC curriculum was pre-tested in its entirety (and core modules individually) with participants in each country as well as with smaller groups. In addition, a professional evaluator was contracted to observe the test trainings and give an independent assessment and recommendations for improvement. The evaluations included the following four areas:

• training facilities/organization
• training process
• training content/materials
• participant expectations/acquired knowledge and skills

  Participant evaluations from initial tests were largely positive, although the REC team recognized several key problems that required adaptation:

6.1 Unbalanced Presentation

  The first test of the materials with a multi-sectorial group indicated that training materials were not balanced for all target audiences. Materials were clearly biased toward the needs and perspectives of NGOs. They did not appeal well enough to the needs of government and business representatives.

  In response to this problem, the curriculum now includes more information from the perspective governments and businesses on the benefits of public involvement; concrete information for governments and businesses on how to facilitate public involvement; and more exercises to encourage cooperation among participants of different sectors.

6.2 Too Long, Too Short, Too Too...

  Some participants felt that not enough time was given to developing ideas in adequate detail. Others felt sessions were too long and required more time to assimilate new information. Still others felt that information was too simplified, too complex, too basic, too advanced, too, too, too...

  Therefore, three elements were changed in the materials: the participant assessment was adapted to better determine participants's level of instruction prior to a training; the content and objectives of each module were clarified for trainers; an exercise was added at the beginning of the curriculum to establish participants' requirements and expectations.

6.3 More Case Material

  A recurring difficulty in developing the training curriculum was the provision of case material illustrating ways of using the information. This obstacle resulted from a general lack of environmental law cases and the difficulty of collecting information about the existing ones.

  To address these issues, the process was adapted so as to involve in the team more individuals with varied expertise and backgrounds; to include both existing and potential examples or role play exercises based on possible or typical issues; to include more opportunities for participants to cooperate.

Key lessons

Be clear and realistic in your objectives

Try, try and try again

Delegate responsibility wisely

Combine content with process

  The method of curricula development introduced in this article represents only one approach to facilitate the development of an original, locally-designed training curricula on public participation in environmental decisionmaking. The article is intended only to outline the primary questions that guided the development of the curricula and the key lessons learned by the REC in the process. There is a multitude of other potential approaches to curricula development, but I hope the observations of REC may be valuable for colleagues undertaking similar efforts in CEE.

For more information
  The Bulgarian and Romanian public participation training modules (in local- and English-language versions) will be complete in December 1996. For more information please contact: Magdolna Toth Nagy, Project Officer, Regional Environmental Center, Ady Endre ut 9-11, 2000 Szentendre, HUNGARY, Tel: (36-26) 504-000, Fax: (36-26) 311-294, E-mail: mtothnagy@rec.org