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)

Abstract
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.
Extended Abstract
1- Introduction
Recently concept of local participation has become a global concern for theorists and planners of rural development. Therefore, rural participation in decision-making and planning (identification of needs, prioritization of needs and decision-making), implementation, maintenance and evaluation are essential to achieve the goals of rural guide plans and other development projects in villages. Furthermore, both the role of the project implementation in relieving the needs of villagers and the role of villagers in recognizing the project determine the relationship and effect of rural participation in the process of project implementation. The present study, aiming at investigating the effective factors on the participation of villagers in the process of preparation, approval and implementation of rural guide plans, tends to explore the effective individual, social - cultural, organizational-legal and economic factors on rural participation in the process of conducting projects in rural settlements. In fact, the findings can be applied as a base for further investigation and planning in rural areas, especially in the study area, Dashtestan County.
2- Materials and Methods
This present study is a kind of applied one conducted in a descriptive-analytical method.A part of the data are gathered through field studies and questionnaires while the other part, like conceptual-theoretical framework and census documents, through library method. The population included 12 rural settlements in Dashtestan County in which the participation of the villagers in the implementation process of rural conduct plans has been remarkably significant. Based on Cochran formula, the sample size of the households interviewed included 257 households of which 136 households had participated in the rural conduct plans and 121 households that had declined to participate in the plans. Besides, the samples were selected randomly. When the data were collected and processed in software environments like SPSS, ArcGIS, the studying case was determined. The main question of the present study is, what factors do affect the participation of villagers in the process of preparation, approval and implementation of the projects? It is hypothesized that "individual, socio-cultural, organizational-legal and economic factors have a remarkable influence on rural participation in the preparation, approval and implementation of rural guide plans."
3- Results and Discussion
To investigate the role of rural participation in the implementation process of rural guide plan in Dashtestan County, 257 samples were studied including 70/6 male participants. Besides, more than 90 percent of the respondents have been living in the rural areas for more than 10 years. It turns out that there is a direct and inverse relationship among the individual characteristics, education level and the age of the villagers with their participation in the project implementation process respectively. Conducted in two groups of villagers, the effective factors on the villager participation in rural guide plans in 4 dimensions (personal, social-cultural, economic and organizational-legal) were investigated which revealed that  in individual dimension a sense of belonging to the village index (mean 4.14), in the social-Cultural dimension the index of medial influence to share participation by advertising (mean 3.14), in the economic dimension the index of utilization of facilities and funds for participation (average 2.49) and in the legal organizational the index of authorities request, the Council and the Dehyar request (respectively with the mean 3.38 and 3.29) had more impact on of rural participation of the villagers in the process of guide plan.
Moreover, 4 dimensions (preparation, approval, implementation, monitoring and maintenance) were studied to investigate the rural participation in the preparation and implementation of Guide Plan. It turns out that the level of the rural participation was generally average, although the plan implementation dimension has had the highest average, revealing more rural participation in this phase of the project. In general, the villages Bushkan and Roodfariyab had the highest and lowest rate of participation respectively.
4- Conclusion
According to the findings of the present study on factors influencing participation, the individual dimension with an average (67/3) has the greatest impact on rural participation and the economy dimension has the greatest impact on of disaffiliation rural of people. Moreover, in the following the individual dimension indicators (a sense of belonging to the village) the most important factor in rural participation in the project of Rural Guide Plan. Besides, the economic dimension index (fear of having a financial loss in the event of participation in the program guide) became known as an important factor in the disaffiliation of rural people. Among the villages, Nazaragha and Roodfariyab have the highest and lowest average on the factors influencing their participation.
Finally, Pearson correlation test and stepwise regression are used to check the research hypothesis. According to the findings of Pearson correlation, there is a significant relationship between the level of participation and these two dimensions. In general, there is a significant relationship between the level of partnership and factors affecting the participation, as factors influencing participation explains 34.6% of changes in participation level of the villagers, that accordingly the research hypothesis has been confirmed.