Personal factors affecting rural settler's participation in Rural Guidance Plans (A Case Study: Khaf County)

1- Introduction Rural Guidance Plan has changed the physical landscape of Iranian rural settlements in the last two decades. However, without public participation in the preparation, implementation and maintenance this change will not reach the desired results. This study attempts to explore individual factors such as age, sex, education, occupation, assets, etc. affecting rural settler's participation in the implementation of Guidance Plan in rural settlements. In addition, the spatial distribution of the correlation between these two variables in the study area will be assessed. The results of this study can be used as a basis for further studies, planning and policy making in rural areas, especially in Khaf County. 2- Methodology In terms of the aim of the study, this study is an applied research and follows a descriptive- analytical methodology. Some parts of the data were collected through field studies and questionnaires and the other parts such as the theoretical-conceptual framework, documentations and the census were collected through library research method. According to the findings of census conducted in 2012, Khaf County includes 68 rural areas with a population of 65494 people. 63 of these villages had approved Guidance plan in 21 of which the plan has been carried out. The data population included the villages in which Guidance plan was carried out less than 10 years. From these villages, 10 with 4348 household were selected as sample villages for this study. To estimate the sample size, Cochran sampling method was applied with a confidence level of 95% and the error probability of 6.3%. A total of 233 people were questioned. In this study, simple random sampling method was applied. After data collection, they were processed by ArcGIS and SP. The main question in this study is “how effective are individual factors affecting rural settlers’ participation successful process of Guidance Plans performance in rural areas?” The study’s Hypothesis designed to answer the question is "individual factors affecting rural settler’ participation in the implementation process of Rural Guidance Plans have been considerably effective." 3- Discussion Among individual factors affecting rural settlers’ participation and implementation process of Rural Guidance Plans, there was a direct yet weak correlation with a value of 0.116 at a significance level of 95%. The findings revealed that there was a significant positive correlation for the spatial distribution of effective factors on the participation and the implementation of Guidance plans only in Chamanabad-Valiabad, Mehrabad, & Razdab. In addition, among individual factors affecting rural settlers’ participation and their participation rate in the procurement process and the implementation of Rural Guidance Plans there is a direct correlation with a value of 0.123 at 95% significance level. On the other hand, there is a direct and weak correlation between rural settlers’participation and implementation process of Rural Guidance Plans, with co-efficiency of 0.16 is at a significance level of 90%. The findings of the multivariate regression model reveals that only for marital status and number of children the P-Value is less than 0.05. The effect of these two variables is significant in the model. Other individual factors affecting rural settler’ participation in the success rate of Implement of Rural Guidance Plan projects do not have any direct impact. 4- Conclusion and Suggestions To examine the relationship between demographic factors (age, education, marital status and number of children, jobs and assets) affecting the rural settler's participation and success of rural projects on data obtained from the survey, Pearson correlation coefficient was used. Overall, the results showed that the process of implementing guidance projects in rural areas, the relationship between individual factors influencing participation of the rural settlers is weak. The results showed individual factors influencing rural settlers’' participation has a positive impact on the success rate of the Rural Plan. Recommended actions to increase of villager's participation in the implementation process of Rural Guidance Plans and achieve more success in this area include: Workshops in order to familiarize rural settlers with the process of preparation, implementation and maintenance of Rural Guidance Plan and how they can participate Legal and institutional capacity building in order to facilitate and enhance rural settlers’ public participation in the procurement process and implementation of Guidance Plan in rural areas which can increase the capacity of the rural population persistence. Taking advantage of local institutions and relying on their knowledge about the people and study area which can provide grounds for a better implementation of the project and facilitate the process of development in the region.