Dimensions and Challenges of Citizen Participation in Disaster Risk Management in Asunción, Metropolitan Area and South Western Region, Paraguay

Abstract

This study offers a review of the antecedents, dimensions, and challenges of citizen participation in risk management in the city of Asuncion in Paraguay and its surrounding municipalities. The applied methodology consisted of a systematized bibliographic review developed in four phases: search, evaluation, analysis, and synthesis. The analyzed data were grouped into four dimensions: historical, socio-demographic, environmental, and political. The obtained results highlight ‘citizenparticipation’ as a priority in documents referring to international and national public policies on risk management. In the selected case of study, however, this participation is mainly limited to only ‘formal’ aspects rather than observed in practice. The latter has left little power to citizens for the incidence and control of risk management at a national and local levels.

Keywords

• gestión local
• políticas públicas
• ciudadanía
• sociedad civil
• paraguay