This paper assesses the efficacy and relevance of focus groups as participative tools for land use policy and planning.
The Zambézia malaria project has used participative educational tools, which are undoubtedly effective but, in themselves, these do not make it a CCD project.
The results show that focus groups can perform multiple roles as exploratory, explanatory, participative and deliberative tools.
Such an approach would serve to crowdsource data on how people collectively build their city under different types of planning rules, mimicking emergent development patterns but, currently, there is a lack of functioning participative outdoor MAR tools.
Starting from this fact, this paper proposes a participative planning and management tool, developed through a concrete case study: the city of Thiès, in Senegal.
Further research should focus on testing the effectiveness of the integrated visualisation tools in participative processes for the general public.
The potential and limitations of applying simple simulation tools in participative settings for analysis and discussion of the potential impacts of uncertainties and development of cooping strategies are discussed.
There are many tools available that can support this change in attitude, such as the REFLECT literacy method developed by the NGO "Action Aid", the SARAR methodology and various tools for participative health education.
The participative methodology used makes this tool very suitable for addressing issues related to community-led coastal development and Blue Growth.
Based on previous studies and experiences, we propose an integrated approach with the participative methods and decision-support tool for PES schemes, aiming to enhance the positive outcomes and to overcome some of the limitations described in the literature.
