On the Study of Effective Factors on the Participation of Villagers in the Process of Preparation, Adoption and Implementation of the Rural Conduct Plans (Case Study: Dashtestan County)

Participation is considered as one the most important elements of successful implementation of rural development projects, including rural conduct plans. Since participation is not a process that could be imposed from the outside, it should be created through collective action and regular revision of popular ideas. The present study aims at investigating the factors affecting the participation of rural people in the preparation process of the rural conduct plans in rural settlements. In the present study, using the previous studies of universities, institutes and scientific journals, and scientific databases, the primary information about the factors influencing participation of villagers in the implementation of the rural guidance plan have been achieved. Moreover, required information was also obtained through questionnaires and observation in the field studies. The population included 12 rural settlements in Dashtestan County in which the participation of villagers in the implementation process of rural conduct plans has been remarkably significant. Based on Cochran formula, the sample size of the households which were interviewed included 257 households in which 136 households had participated in the rural conduct plans and 121 households had declined to participate in the plans. In addition, 28 people from the rural authorities (rural administrators known as Dehyar and members of the Islamic council) were also interviewed, so that we can compare the results. The findings show that, based on single sample t-test, the participation of the villagers in the preparation, adoption and implementation of the rural conduct plans was moderate. The review of the factors affecting the participation of rural people revealed that individual factors had the highest mean (3.67) in the level of participation, and the economic factors had the highest mean (4.01) in non-participation of the villagers. The villages of Nazar-aqa and Faryab had the highest and the lowest mean for the factors that can affect the level of participation respectively. In general, the factors influencing the participation explains 34.6% of changes in participation level of the villagers.