The Right Participants
Finding the right participants is not only important to ensure that a process works well, it is also essential in creating legitimacy and credibility for the whole process. Issues to consider include:
Who decides who is involved
As the selection of participants can be such a politically charged responsibility, it is useful to make the selection process as transparent as possible. Ideally, the planning / design group for the whole process will make these decisions. It is wise to ensure that the reasons for selection are noted so that any questions about selection can be answered.
Resisting pressure on numbers
There is often internal and external pressure to expand or reduce the list of those involved. The number of people involved should not be arbitrary but based on a coherent understanding of the purpose and the context of the process.
Usual suspects
Organisations sometimes try to avoid involving the 'usual suspects', which has become a term of denigration for people who habitually give time and effort to what they see as their civic responsibilities. Describing someone as a 'usual suspect' should never be grounds to exclude them from a process any more than it is grounds for including them: people should be involved because they are the right people.
Opponents
It is equally wrong to exclude an individual or an organisation for being a known opponent of a given purpose or process. Indeed, there are often good reasons for keeping opponents 'inside the tent': these can be the people who most need to be involved so that they gain some ownership of the process and perhaps become more likely to support any final outcome (or at least less inclined or able to undermine it by having been excluded).
Everyone does not have to be involved in everything
With good planning, and the agreement of participants, different people can be effectively involved in the parts of the process most relevant to them.
Campaigning organisations
Many campaigning bodies, especially national NGOs, are constantly asked to be involved in participatory exercises. But they do not always see these as the most effective use of their limited resources. In addition, some see the compromise that can be inherent in some participatory processes as conflicting with their primary purposes. It can be useful to consider (and discuss with them) at which stage of the policy process NGOs are best suited to participate: agenda setting, policy development, policy implementation or policy review.
What's In It for Them (WIIFT)?
It is important to consider and discuss with participants what they want to get out of the process and what could prevent them from participating. If everyone's motivations can be clarified at the start, there will be less confusion and everyone is more likely to be satisfied with the outcomes. This is especially important in an area that is suffering from consultation fatigue.
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