By: Steffon Evans
The Power of People in National Progress
In The Bahamas, the needs of people across our island communities are complex and multi-layered. This is evident as we observe continued development challenges despite ongoing work and investments from the government, civil society, and the private sector. While witnessing these challenges can be daunting, one key truth stands out: the citizens themselves are a vital component of success. Everyday, people are the layer of society that must be engaged in cross-sector work to drive accountability, effectiveness, efficiency, and innovation.
Ongoing national progress calls for technical expertise to work in tandem with the wisdom and lived experience of the people most affected by development challenges. Solutions designed in areas such as healthcare, education, infrastructure, housing, conservation and transport, without community input, often fail to meet the practical needs of those they are meant to serve.
This is where participatory leadership becomes the bridge between our islands and their individual and collective futures.
What Is Participatory Leadership?
Participatory leadership is a style of leadership that meaningfully engages community members in the planning, execution, and evaluation of development initiatives, community-based projects, and services to the community. It recognizes both principles to be followed and benchmarks to be adhered to across the board.
Without a broader adoption of community engagement principles, valuable citizen feedback and input can be missed, and that feedback is often the key to making developments workable for local communities.
The Importance of Local Knowledge
For example, in the public sector, a national public transportation system would look very different on a physically smaller island like New Providence than on Grand Bahama or Long Island. On islands such as the Abacos, the Exumas, South Andros & Mangrove Cay, Eleuthera, and others, ferrying between nearby islands and cays would also need to be factored into planning. Transport experts can create standard models, but residents would hold the simplest and most practical insights to strengthen the initiative.
Conservation initiatives, often run by both government and civil society players, are another key example. They represent the balance between the scientific knowledge of resource managers and scientists, and the local knowledge of local fishermen, tour guides, and other community members who use natural areas. Solutions require a meeting of the minds and a shared commitment to sustainability.
The same can be said for a community project run by a nonprofit, church, or local business. While generosity and charitable giving can never be knocked, the true pursuit of effective community programs requires that organizers have genuine relationships with the communities they seek to impact and a clear understanding of on-the-ground needs. Tailored programs ensure that corporate donations, grant funding, and volunteer initiatives carry maximum impact.
Building a Culture of Participation
Regardless of where efforts to strengthen our communities originate, much of the movement toward participatory leadership requires a shared understanding of community-oriented decision-making principles, followed by the implementation of standard benchmarks of participation.
Principles of Community-Oriented Decision-Making
A few key principles to bear in mind for adoption by any community practitioner include:
- Inclusivity: Ensure all voices, including Family Islanders and those most affected by an issue, have access to decision-making spaces.
- Transparency: Give communities clear, open access to information on decisions and initiatives.
- Respect for Local Knowledge & Needs: Acknowledge that the lived experience, cultural wisdom and needs of communities should carry equal weight with technical expertise and standard initiative plans.
- Shared Responsibility: Leaders and communities should co-own both successes and challenges, ensuring accountability is collective.
- Sustainability: Decisions and programs that consider long-term community well-being, and not just short-term outcomes, should be implemented.
Benchmarks of Participatory Leadership
These benchmarks represent tangible mechanisms that should be deployed, and include:
- Community Feedback Collection: Establish regular mechanisms for gathering input, whether through town hall meetings, surveys, or digital platforms. These should not be symbolic but genuinely shape policy priorities and community programs.
- Standard Public Consultation: Build a culture where consultation is a standard part of the process for any major initiative, not an option or exception. Public hearings should move beyond formality to meaningful dialogue, with feedback being transparently reported and incorporated.
- Balanced Initiatives: Encourage a mix of government-initiated programs and community-driven initiatives. This balance prevents over-centralization while ensuring that local energy and innovation are not stifled.
- Evaluating Together: Communities should not only help to plan and implement but also evaluate. Shared monitoring processes ensure accountability and foster ownership.
Local Application: The Eleuthera Example
These are not abstract ideals. The Bahamas can adapt these models in ways that reflect its own culture and realities. On Eleuthera, the One Eleuthera Foundation has affirmed its commitment to engaging with cross-sector partners to ensure our programming and projects meet the needs of locals across the island.
We have remained steadfast in efforts to identify local skills gaps and run relevant training programs at the Center for Training and Innovation; provide community grants to organizations serving local needs; and empower the next generation of community leaders through incorporating regular school outreach and youth into our latest projects.
Trust as the Foundation of Leadership
With all of this said, participatory leadership is about trust: trust that communities can identify their own priorities, trust that government and civil society can listen and act in partnership, and trust that together, Bahamians can craft long-term plans that reflect shared aspirations rather than imposed solutions.
The Bahamas has the people, the spirit, and the opportunity. The next step is for leaders, in government, NGOs, churches, and businesses, to embrace or strengthen participation, not as a token gesture, but as the very foundation of leadership for the future.
Forward, Upward, Onward, Together
In the end, development is not something done to communities, but it is something built with them. Vivian Moultrie and Melvern Bowe, 11-year-old students at the time, perfectly captured the essence of the future of The Bahamas when they coined our country’s motto, “Forward, Upward, Onward, Together.”
By: Steffon Evans
