Transnational NGDOS and participatory forms of rights‐based development: converging with the local politics of citizenship in Cameroon

Abstract The transmission of ‘participatory development’ by transnational non‐governmental development organizations (NGDOs) to local ‘partners’ in developing countries is today widely criticized, often because of an apparent failure to attain the essentially political goal of ‘empowerment’. This article argues that this problem relates closely to a failure amongst NGDOs to engage with the political context in which ‘citizenship participation’ is contested in developing countries. Case study material reveals how one participatory development intervention has converged with a particular moment in the trajectory of citizenship formation amongst the target group, and with the local politics of citizenship in Cameroon more broadly, in ways that have, at best, ambiguous implications for the ‘empowerment’ of the local participants. The paper concludes by discussing how ‘rights‐based’ approaches might overcome these problems, and the challenge that this poses for the transnational development community. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.