Experiences of local development in Latin America · conference together provide a valuable insight into strategies for local development in Latin America and the Caribbean. The report

Experiences of localdevelopment in

Latin America

Reports from a conference in El Salvador,October 2002

© CIIR 2003

Published by the Catholic Institute forInternational RelationsUnit 3, 190a New North Road, London N1 7BJ, UKwww.ciir.org

ISBN 1 85287 301 9

British Library Catologuing in PublicationDataA catalogue record for this book isavailable from the British Library

In some countries, CIIR operates underthe name of International Cooperationfor Development (ICD)

This report was first published in ElSalvador by CIIR/ICD as ‘Desarrollo localdesde la sociedad civil: Intercambio deexperiencias en América Latina y elCaribe’. Spanish version edited byNoemy Anaya.

Translation into English by DinahLivingstone. English version edited byAlastair Whitson.

Design: Twenty-Five Educational

2 PrefaceCarmen Medina

3 Introduction: A Latin American approach to localdevelopmentAlberto Enríquez Villacorta

7 Experience in El SalvadorGladys Melara

9 A local development project in El SalvadorSamuel Novoa

11 Experience in NicaraguaLuis Antonio Sarantes

14 Experience in HondurasSuyapa Lopez

16 Experience in EcuadorJuan Pablo Martínez

20 Experience in PeruLucio Quiñonez

22 Experience in the Dominican RepublicSandra Lara

23 Conclusion: Challenges and opportunitiesAlberto Enríquez Villacorta

Map of Latin America and the Caribbean

Contents

Experiences of local developmentin Latin America

and local bodies on approaches that can have the biggestimpact on tackling poverty on the ground.

The publication of this book has been made possibleby funds from the ‘Reinforcing local development in ElSalvador’ project, financed by the European Commission.The two-year project (2000-2002) involved CIIR/ICD andtwo partner organisations, Asociación Salvadoreña deDesarrollo Integral (ASDI – the Salvadorean Associationfor Integral Development) and Agencia para el DesarrolloEconómico Local (ADEL – the Agency for Local EconomicDevelopment) in Chalatenango, El Salvador. TwoCIIR/ICD development workers took part in the project:Ismael Ortiz, a local development specialist with ASDI,and Juan Carlos Navarrete, a specialist in alternativebusiness management with ADEL Chalatenango.

For CIIR/ICD, giving practical support by sharing skillsat the level of communities, organisations and theirnetworks, and working for just policies at a local,national and international level, rely crucially ondialogue – between us and our partners and the peoplewe work with; between people, organisations,governments and international bodies. We hope thatpublication of this book will help give voice in thisdialogue to the views and agendas of our partners inLatin America and the Caribbean.

Preface

2 Experiences of local development in Latin America

This book presents contributions to a conference on localdevelopment by representatives from six countries in theLatin American and Caribbean region: El Salvador,Honduras, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Ecuadorand Peru. The conference, organised by CIIR/ICD andheld in San Salvador in October 2002, aimed to shareexperiences of the challenges facing civil societyorganisations in promoting and working for localdevelopment.

The ideas, concepts, and approaches discussed at theconference together provide a valuable insight intostrategies for local development in Latin America and theCaribbean. The report of the conference, originallypublished in Spanish, aimed to show some of thesuccesses and failures, some of the problems and some ofthe opportunities, and so enable organisations workingfor local development throughout the region to draw onand learn from each other’s experience.

By publishing an edited version of this material inEnglish, we hope also to increase understanding inBritain and Europe of the reality in our countries. Thiswill reinforce links and dialogue between North andSouth, enabling the former to listen more closely tovoices speaking from our experience. It will also help infocusing joint strategies between international, national

Preface

Carmen Medina

CIIR/ICD representative in El Salvador

Introduction

Experiences of local development in Latin America 3

Developing and broadening our knowledgeLocal development is now a key issue on many nationalagendas in Latin America. That is why the LatinAmerican Association of Private Organisations, to whichFUNDE belongs, has made local development, togetherwith decentralisation of the state, the focus of its effortsto influence public policy.

The association has set up a permanent working groupon both subjects. Its purpose is to encourage not onlyreflection and debate but also the exchange ofexperiences in Latin America. It aims to create linksbetween institutions involved in these issues and, aboveall, to generate proposals put forward by the relevantcommunities. These could help make local developmentand state decentralisation become factors that drawpeople together and increase integration at sub-regionallevel, in Central America and the Caribbean, and atcontinental level.

In 2001 we held an internet conference on localdevelopment, in which about 200 people from nearlyevery Latin American country took part. The conferenceproduced what could become a complex and rich agendafor promoting local development processes in thedifferent Latin American countries.

The common denominator between that initiative andthe present conference is that both are trying to deepenand broaden the subject, so that we can reinforce andstrengthen our understanding of local development.Local development can then become a route to help usread and transform the realities of our countries from anew viewpoint and with a new logic.

Towards a Latin American concept of local developmentThe first necessary step is to produce a concept of localdevelopment that will enable us to speak the samelanguage – to set up common codes to understand localdevelopment. Only by clearly establishing its maincomponents and characteristics can it guide our practiceand determine the design and implementation of policiesand strategies.

Various common characteristics of local developmentare already becoming apparent in the work of differentorganisations working in different contexts, such as theLatin American Centre for Human Economy in Uruguayand FUNDE in El Salvador. With these as our startingpoint, we can suggest that local development:• is a process of coordination between agents – sectors

and forces – who interact in a particular area topromote common development aims

• involves the permanent, creative and responsibleparticipation of citizens

• involves the generation of economic growth, justice,social and cultural exchange, ecologicalsustainability, and gender equality.

The aim of such local development is to:• increase the quality of life for each family, each

citizen living in the area• contribute to the country’s development• adequately confront the challenges of globalisation

and the changes brought about by internationaleconomics.

This implies:• A medium and long term vision, establishing the

goal and horizon that determine and make sense ofshort term actions, and making it possible to advancein a gradual way.

• Coordination of local agents with regional, nationaland international agents.

• The building of a new democratic, decentralisedstate.

• A new way of understanding and building thecountry. Regions, municipalities and communitiesare seen not as problems or sources of differentdemands but as the proponents and generators ofdemocracy and development.

• Recognition that reality is diverse. Local developmentbecomes a necessary instrument for the managementof difference – different identities, differentpotentials. Regional and local processes, with all theirdifferences, can and must become the driving force ofnational development.

Introduction: A Latin American approach to local development

Alberto Enríquez Villacorta

Director of Regional Local Development, Fundación Nacional de Desarrollo

(FUNDE – the National Foundation for Development), El Salvador

definition singular. This will ensure that the developmentprocess is really inhabited by human beings, by this orthat flesh-and-blood man, woman, boy, girl, old man orwoman, who live their lives in a particular place.

So we have to try to build a dynamic, creative andcomplementary relationship between the local and theglobal. They are joint creators of social, economic,political and cultural reality.

Creating a space for local developmentThis means that local development is not just decorativeor secondary for any country trying to consolidatedemocracy, build sustainable development andadequately confront the globalisation process.

Our Latin American countries urgently need a projectof national identity that indicates when and how theywill be incorporating themselves into the globalisationprocess, making best use of its opportunities andcreatively confronting its threats.

In this project, which must harmoniously includeeconomic, territorial, environmental, political, social andcultural factors, and be built with the broadestparticipation of diverse social agents and forces, localdevelopment is fundamental.

Local development requires a clearly defined territory,a physical space that generates and connects individualagents and economic, political, social and culturaldynamics.

Hence, the question arises of what is the minimumspace for local development? It would seem that localdevelopment begins where there are government andcitizenry, state and citizenry, that is, the municipality.However, although that is where the local begins, it isnot where it ends. It leads to the construction of micro-regions or regions, in which municipalities combine orassociate.

Local economic developmentLocal economic development is on its own insufficient,but nevertheless fundamental to local development. Itimplies, among other things:• Activation of the local economy.• An increase in employment and income, but breaking

the vicious circle of bad jobs or bad quality jobs thatspread because people are forced to accept them becausethe alternative is unemployment and extreme poverty.

• An increase in productivity and job quality.• An increase in municipal funding.• A clear definition of what municipal action can do

and, consequently, cannot do.• Institutional support, which is related to wide-ranging

relationships and legitimacy.• An understanding that economic development and

social development and action are not mutuallyexclusive. On the contrary, they are complementary.Therefore they should be promoted simultaneouslyand in a coordinated manner.

• Generating technical capacities at local level (eg,through education and training) and using themadequately.

• Building the municipality’s competitiveness.

Introduction


• The municipalities (ie, areas of local government) arethe originators of processes and resources which,given the appropriate conditions, can contribute tonational development.

Constructing a Latin American agenda for localdevelopmentAt present in Latin America, the concept of localdevelopment is used with different meanings. We need togive the term a common political and strategic content.

There is a danger that the term ‘local development’may turn out to be insufficient and too vague. Anotherdanger is that it may serve a policy of transferring centralgovernment responsibilities to regional or localgovernment bodies that amounts to offloading ordropping them, if they are not transferred together withthe required resources and within the framework of aplan to build up local and regional capacities.

In order to avoid such dangers, local agents must givepositive content to the type of development they arepursuing. This content must stress the multi-dimensionality of local development, ecologicalsustainability, solidarity, gender and age justice. Therecan be no doubt that this means identifying the basicprinciples of an alternative society, one that breaks withthe dominant economic order and the ideology – whichhas been gaining a lot of ground – of everyone forthemselves against everyone else.

What is needed is to initiate and develop, at locallevel, alternative forms and contents, both in the area ofdemocracy and of development. The local space must betransformed into a living source of innovative economic,political, social and cultural proposals, with the potentialto increase and multiply.

The relationship between the local and the globalWe enter the 21st century convinced that genuinedevelopment must connect the global and the local.Trying to abolish either of these dimensions meansneutering or abandoning real development.

Despite the differences in analyses and interpretationsof the phenomenon, it is indisputable that we are in themidst of a broad process of globalisation, based on thenew and changing technological infrastructure, which istransforming our ways of producing, consuming, acting,informing and thinking. Globalisation is not only ormainly economic. It is also social, political and cultural. Itis the transformation of time and space in our lives. Far-off events, which may or may not be economic, affect usmore directly and immediately than ever, whether we livein a US city or a European or Central American country.

Thus the global does not exclude the local, butpresupposes it and complements it. The local is neitheralien to the global nor can it ignore it. The co-existenceof a dynamic tending towards globalisation with anotherthat emphasises differences is stronger than ever today.

Local development is neither thinkable nor possibleunless it is set within the global framework of markets orthe worldwide logic of technological innovation.However, neither is local development viable unless itstarts from concrete local identities, which are by

Citizen participationAnother requirement of genuine local development isgenuine participation by the population, citizens, both inbuilding strategies for the future, and in day-to-daymanagement and decision-making about matters that areimportant for the municipality or region.

The participation of civil society in local developmentrequires the creation of spaces and mechanisms thatinstitutionalise, ensure and promote citizen participation.

The creation of these spaces and mechanisms means,literally, the emergence of citizenship, understood as menand women taking responsibility for the building andrunning of their society.

If democracy is a regime that guarantees the inclusionof citizens in the political, economic, social and culturalprocess, then local development processes are probablythe best, most accessible, way for citizens or civil societyto begin their participation in the building not only oftheir municipality or region but their country. A keyfeature of local development is therefore the existence ofa local space, whether municipal or micro-regional, asthe privileged place for the citizenry to participate in thedevelopment process.

Coordination and alliancesThere are many local development agents, but some areindispensable. It cannot happen without localgovernment, central government, civil society andprivate enterprise.

In other words, we cannot speak of a process of localdevelopment as long as there exists no coordination –however slight – between these four agents. The politicalimplications of this fact are enormous in a continent thathas been marked by intolerance, exclusion andconfrontation.

Participative strategic planningThis is a vital tool in the process of building the locality’sfuture in an uncertain and turbulent environment. Inorder to grasp its meaning fully, it must be seen as bothproduct and process.

As a process – which must contain a high pedagogiccontent – it enables the agents involved to acquire agrowing ability to understand their immediate realityand the environment in which this is set. Then they willbe able to manage flexibly the lack of certainty andcontinual disturbances, and coordinate the many voices,views and different dreams of the future into a futurethat is possible and therefore viable.

In our countries, coordination is as fundamental as itis difficult. It requires a process of openness andtransformation of old ways of thinking and planning,both of government and civil organisations. It meansovercoming and abandoning the culture of intolerance,exclusion and confrontation.

Strategic planning is an instrument which strengthenslocal identity. It gives agents the opportunity to knowbetter what they are and what they want to be as aterritory. It gives them a vision and a mission. It enablesthem to coordinate criteria, interests, and focuses inorder to move forward in one single direction.

Local governments, as part of the state, will necessarilyplay a key role in leading and carrying out localdevelopment processes and hence, the strategic planningof them. However, this in no way underestimates thevital role of civil society, which on many occasionsrealises more quickly the need to promote developmentinitiatives in their local contexts – perhaps because theyfeel the effects more directly on their daily lives.

Building development regionsIn most, if not all Latin American countries, the basicunit for local development is the municipality. It is theterritorial unit where state, society, government andcitizenry meet for the first time.

However, most municipalities, regardless of their size,do not have the scope to generate sustainabledevelopment. Hence the association of communitiesarises, as a way of transcending municipal frontierswithout destroying municipal identity.

There are other arguments for this, as Pierre Malénoted at the internet conference on decentralisation andlocal development in 2001: ‘The local, enclosed uponitself, is terribly dangerous, because it can generate allsorts of deviations of local egoism, particularism or lackof solidarity. Therefore, local development will have nolegitimacy unless it can put into practice elements ofsupra-municipal and supra-local solidarity in an effectiveand workable way.’

Local development processes should thereforecontribute to building a supra-local framework, withinwhich they can express and protect themselves.

Building or rebuilding our societies from below meansharmonising local strategies, so that they combine tobecome strategies with a broader scope for a larger area.These strategies must be planned in relation to a vision ofthe national, continental and global situation, not justthe local situation.

The grave territorial inequalities throughout LatinAmerica and each of its countries cannot be significantlyreduced, except through local development processesthat are linked to national development processes andenable countries to cope better with globalisation.

Reform and decentralisation of the stateWe may therefore conclude that a key factor forpromoting local development is the decentralisation ofthe state. But it must be a decentralisation of the statewhich is an orderly and progressive process oftransferring powers, responsibilities, decision-making andresources from the central government to sub-nationalstate bodies, as well as opening up the latter to the activeparticipation of civil society.

Essentially, the decentralisation of the state consists ofbringing the management of public affairs closer to thecitizenry. The validity of decentralisation policies in theworld at present is sustained by the need to strengthendemocratic government, through the establishment of amore direct, participative and transparent relationshipbetween the citizenry and its representatives.

It is also hoped that decentralisation will contribute tomaking the state more efficient, cutting the unnecessary

Introduction


Introduction


expenditure that is generated by excessive bureaucracy.Thus decentralisation means a democratic reform of

the state, directed towards overcoming the traditionalconcentration of power, and moving towards a complexsystem of inter-related bodies that cooperate andcomplement each other.

In a decentralised system, the power, responsibilitiesand resources that go with each of its bodies aredistributed in such a way that public decisions andactions are taken in a place which makes possible a moredirect and transparent relationship with the citizenry.

Sharing successful experiences of local developmentAs became clear from the 2001 internet conference,experiences of local development, including both thesuccessful and the unsuccessful, have been multiplyingthroughout the length and breadth of the continent.Some fertile areas for sharing experience are:• Responses to the challenges generated by globalisation

and its associated mega-processes.• The impact of organisational and economic shortages

in local development processes.• The agents, their nature and their roles: Who brought

them together? Who decided they should be includedin the process and how was this done? How was thisinclusion handled? What role was played by eachagent?

• The criteria and methodologies whereby the area inwhich to promote a local development process wasdefined.

• Institutional political relationships, which may bedecentralised (political decentralisation andpromotion of citizen participation or decentralisationof the management of social conflict), centralised, ormixed and in the process of transformation.

• Results of ongoing processes and experiences. Howmuch and how has the population’s quality of lifechanged in the area in question, with special referenceto improvement in the indicators of social inclusion?What are the new institutional bodies and presentrelationships? How and how far has territorial identitybeen consolidated?

The role of international bodiesFor international bodies, local development presents avast and challenging field in Latin America. They mustchannel their contribution towards the generation ofdemocratic conditions and the bases for sustainabledevelopment.

But this is only possible within an adequateconception of development. That is:• International cooperation is a complementary activity

that strengthens national and local capacities and isnever a substitute for them.

• International agencies are partners in this enterprise,whether their partners are communities, localdevelopment committees, municipal governments orcivil institutions.

• Being partners means taking on responsibility beyondthe merely financial to include: technical cooperation,

professional cooperation, links between municipalitiesand the exchange of experiences, and links betweencountries.

• Citizens of municipalities in both North and Southhave a responsibility to put pressure on global andinternational processes, so that these offer betteropportunities for local development as a meanstowards building a country.

This means that, in its broadest context, localdevelopment involves cooperation on a worldwidescale, between bodies and institutions who are trying,each under their own particular conditions, to advancein this way.

This cooperation must combine exchangingexperiences and building wider alternatives – meaningthat cooperation has a ‘political’ rather than a ‘charitable’character. We also have to plan, experiment and developprogressively, because we have many distortedexperiences of international involvement in development.

What we have learned, and continue to learn in localdevelopment, can be a good school to teach us how tobehave in the area of international cooperation too. Ithas taught us a way of functioning based on horizontal,interactive models and working as a network, rather thanon North-South relationships that are loaded withpaternalism, albeit often covert and in many subtle andsophisticated forms.

The more authentic local development is, the more itwill come into conflict with present policies, authoritiesand structures which impose a violent internationalorder and promote a one-dimensional economicglobalisation, seeking to favour exclusively or givepriority to big multinational businesses. This means thatwe who promote local development in the local, nationaland international field need to contribute towardsshaping and making possible an alternative society. Thatwill not happen without far-reaching change ininternational structures and mechanisms.

Learning and moving forwardAn exchange of ideas has meaning and will be productiveonly if we are really concerned to share our whole wealthof experiences. It is not a competition to decide on the‘winner’ or the one who has had the most success withthe fewest problems. We must share not only oursuccesses and advances but also our difficulties anddeficiencies. Listening to the experiences from othercountries can become a true apprenticeship if it gives usnew impetus to:• reinforce the vision of local development as a space

and a field for democratic transformation and aseedbed for sustainable development

• seek and establish strategic Latin American andinternational alliances as a permanent factor ofinnovation in local development

• seriously support this direction and keep to it in asystematic, determined and creative way

• broaden and strengthen our links, deepening whatshould be the basis of the relationship between ourcountries: respect, and the sense of justice andsolidarity.


ASDI’s approach to local developmentOur approach to local development focuses on:• efficient public management, focusing on services for

the poorest sections of society• protection, recovery and organisation of

environmental resources• sustainability of economic growth, by linking

organisations, communities, governments and thelocal private sector in production

• reclaiming and promoting local cultural, ethnic andhistorical values.

In order to understand and work within the social,economic, cultural and historical processes of aparticular area, we aim to:• ascertain the social, political and economic

characteristics of the local population in the givenarea

• respect, enable or contribute to raising levels oforganisation in the population in the given area

• ensure that strategic development plans areparticipative, so that the local population prioritisesand shares in the elements of the plan

• ensure that the main agents of development make useof specific local capacities

• ensure that the main agents of development respectand protect the environment.

Our approach relies on:• Economic, environmental and social sustainability.

Sustainability, in its broadest sense, means integratingeconomic, social and environmental aspects toguarantee that development benefits futuregenerations without damaging natural resources.

• Participation. Some mechanisms are: consultations bysector, council meetings, communal assemblies,information campaigns, political lobbying,coordination and linking of different agents incommon plans or agendas.

• Gender justice, through a process of making men andwomen aware of the need to allow women effectiveparticipation in access to and control of resources anddecision-making, through consultations and women’sinvolvement in community organisations.

The agents participating in the process are:• the population and its existing community

organisations• municipal governments• the local private sector

Experience in El Salvador

Gladys Melara

Executive Director, Asociación Salvadoreña de Desarrollo Integral

(ASDI – the Salvadorean Association for Integral Development), El Salvador

• non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working inthe area

• autonomous government bodies that are decentralisedfrom the national government and based in the area

• external agencies, eg international agencies.

Citizen participationOnce we have identified the existing levels of localcommunity organisation, we have to devise strategieswhich:• strengthen or legalise community organisation• link and coordinate with the local or regional public

and private sector• encourage inter-community alliances for management

and political lobbying of public and private bodies, topromote common agendas for the improvement ofliving conditions

• promote participation in consultations, open meetingsand community assemblies, and thereby incommunity and municipal plans

• raise awareness so that local people taking part canvisualise the interests of all those involved.

The role of the stateThe municipality is the state body nearest to thepopulation in a particular area, with responsibility for:• planning of municipal or micro-regional development• management and organisation of the area• drawing up regulations to govern the use of the

territory, resources, etc.However, municipalities are financially dependent on thecentral state, and if they are unable to generate sufficientincome may not be able to fulfil their responsibilities. Insuch cases, ASDI aims to strengthen their capacity, forexample through:• training and technical assistance in administrative

processes, to improve mechanisms for attending to thepopulation’s demands

• awareness raising within local governments, so thatthey play their part as agents and coordinators ofdevelopment and not just as administrative bodies.

At present, municipalities are in a transition stage of beingadministrators and suppliers of services to the population– services that are currently deficient and inadequate. Thechallenge facing them is to assume a proactive role inchanging the area from a place where people want toleave to a place where people want to live. One crucial

7




element in this is to promote local economic initiatives,for example by supporting the economic infrastructure –roads, markets (including second-hand markets and streetstalls), bus termini, tourist centres, etc.

The role of international agenciesDespite a number of positive contributions, there hasbeen a tendency to abandon medium to long termprocesses in order to react to emergencies. These arealways going to occur as long as there is no change inthe present situation of the population we are workingwith – those who are most excluded and impoverishedin society.

The present view of El Salvador as a macro-economically stable country has disguised the realsituation of the rural communities with whom we work.Cooperation by agencies with these sectors has decreasedand there has been a move away from donations to formsof multilateral and bilateral support, where in many casesthe funds are repayable.

El Triangulo micro-regionA lot depends on the level of interest and awarenessamong the various agents taking part. An example of thisis the micro-region El Triangulo in Sonsonate. Here thereis a high level of participation and coordination betweenthe three municipal governments, local developmentcommittees, water management committees, women’s

groups, NGOs and international agencies. Of the population of just over 50,000, 80 per cent of

those who are economically active are engaged inagriculture and farming. But the large livestock farmers,coffee producers and allotment holders have notparticipated in the first stage of planning and organisingjoint actions in the micro-region. It is of vitalimportance for this micro-region’s future that these keyagents should participate.

The problems are many: poor transport infrastructure,lack of community health clinics, lack of housing, lack ofschool for higher grades, environmental degradatation(high level of contamination of rivers and streams bysewage and solid waste, deforestation through growingurbanisation, lack of environmental regulations andenvironmental education), and low economicproductivity (due to lack of credit for traditional andnon-traditional production, lack of training for work,lack of technical assistance for businesses).

Yet the region has considerable potential, with itsenvironmental diversity providing natural resources fortourism, good quality land with access to water foragriculture, and the potential for trade and services (forexample, through craftwork traditions in clay and wood).Most of all, there is institutional potential: municipalcouncils open to new ideas, and communities withleaders wanting change. The challenge now for allconcerned is to begin to deliver that change.

A development organisationADEL Chalatenango is a private non-profit organisation,whose aim is to contribute to raising the quality of life,primarily of the poor population of the department ofChalatenango. Its particular sphere is stimulatingeconomic development. The economic developmentpromoted by ADEL has an entrepreneurial spirit,summed up in its mission statement: ‘To promotehuman development, with a gender perspective and inharmony with the environment, through the creationand reinforcement of sustainable, self-managingbusinesses, run by the population, mainly those withlower incomes in the department of Chalatenango.’

The agency is made up of 20 organisations comingfrom the following sectors: private enterprise, local non-governmental organisations (NGOs), producers’ guildsand communal fishing associations.

ADEL functions at two levels: micro-economic andmacro-economic. The micro-economic level isconcerned with the creation and development ofbusinesses in any sector of the Chalatenango economy.This is done by offering support services to businesspeople, such as credit services, consultancy, training andtechnical assistance in both production and businessmanagement.

The macro-economic level involves actions to createan economic, social and institutional environmentfavourable to the competitiveness and efficiency of thebusinesses. These actions include: area coordination andplanning, management of requests for technical andfinancial cooperation, administration of economicdevelopment programmes, and institutionalreinforcement of members and other key local agents.

An example of local developmentA concrete example of local development is a project todevelop fishing activity in the Cerrón Grande dam area,in which the main agents were the four communalfishing associations which are members of ADEL. It canbe described as an integral development project, as itscomponents embrace all the various elementsthroughout the chain of activities, from production ofyoung fish to the trading of fish on the market.

Other components linked to local development of the

riverside areas are reforestation, management of access tofluctuating lands, and investment to lighten the burdenof domestic work for women. The first of these involvescombating riverside soil erosion through reforestation, inorder to halt the dissolution of the aquiferous base of thedam. The second refers to the lands that arise from thebase of the dam when the waters are lying at a low level,which could be used productively by the fishermen, thusgiving them access to an alternative survival resourcewhen fishing production is low. The third involvesoffering women economic resources for the home and/ortime to attend technical education programmes.

The project has the following components:• setting up a fish nursery• setting up a credit fund to serve the fishermen’s needs

for finance• setting up plant nurseries and reforestation of riverside

areas at the dam• investment to relieve the burden of domestic work• promoting a bill to give access to fluctuating lands in

the Cerrón Grande dam area• setting up an ice factory • setting up a fish marketing business.Several other agents in addition to ADEL are involved inthe project, including:• The Centre for Fishing Development (CFD) – the

governing body for the fishing sector. It offerstechnical assistance for the productive management ofthe fish nurseries and sustainable techniques forcatching fish. It gives out fishing permits and alsogrants fish export permits.

• The National Civil Police, which implements decisionstaken by the CFD for the conservation of resources inthe dam area.

• Ministry of Education. This body gives access topremises for meetings of those taking part in theproject. It sends groups of students to work both inthe nurseries and the reforested areas.

• Legislative Assembly. Departmental assembly members(deputies) are putting forward a bill in the assemblyfor access by fishermen to fluctuating lands.

• The departmental governor has also supported andpromoted the bill for access to the fluctuating lands.

• The armed forces, which deploys detachments of

A local development project in El Salvador

Samuel Novoa

Executive Director, Agencia para el Desarrollo Económico Local (ADEL – the Agency for

Local Economic Development), Chalatenango, El Salvador





soldiers to support the reforestation activities andother measures to protect the environment.

• The municipal mayors’ offices, which have beeninvolved most in the ‘fluctuating lands’ component,via their attendance at meetings, as well as lobbyingmembers of the national assembly to promote the billfor access to fluctuating lands.

• International agencies, which have provided economicand technical support and training. This support hasbeen of key importance, because the sectors benefitingfrom the project have never had the necessaryresources to back their development efforts.

Achieving sustainabilitySome key elements in achieving sustainability are:• Only intervene in those problems where the range of

possible solutions is well identified. • Local development efforts should be compatible with

government intervention plans on the problems inquestion. This avoids possible obstacles and offers theopportunity to benefit from resources made availableby the government.

• Real interest of those involved in finding a solution tothe problems in question.

• Only those agents whose participation is necessary tothe project should be involved.

• As far as possible local development efforts should leadto financially self-sustaining results.

• There should be a coordinating body, preferably a localNGO, to coordinate intervention and be responsiblefor administering the products obtained.

The general level of support for the project has beenhigh. All those involved, without political or institutionaldistinction, have systematically supported variousintervention activities in the problems of theChalatenango fishing communities. This gives an idea ofthe positive will to make these communities’ localdevelopment efforts succeed.

In the case of this project, neither the party political northe institutional interests of those involved led them tobecome protagonists. They merely wanted to support aneffort which had high possibilities of success. There weretwo local agencies (one non-governmental and the othermunicipal) not involved in the project who at any givenmoment could have deflected the attention of certaingovernment bodies. However, to date the project continuesadvancing in a definite and coordinated direction.

Gender focusADEL Chalatenango deals mainly with the informalsector of the economy, which is mainly made up ofwomen. ADEL strives to ensure that all its efforts andservices take into account the participation of women asdirect beneficiaries. This has happened through the offerof micro-credits and the inclusion of women in businesstraining, as well as through projects to relieve the burdenof domestic work, affording women an income or time todo business training.

During a second stage of the fishing project, it isplanned to set up family ponds for the production offresh-water shrimps, which will mainly be used andlooked after by women.

Climbing out of povertyOur country has been engaged in a battle fordevelopment since the 1980s, when Nicaragua wentthrough a terrible and bloody period. Since then we havebeen undergoing an apprenticeship in social co-existenceand overcoming political sectarianism. We are learningevery day, so that the country is slowly consolidatingitself towards better times.

We must not forget that our country is the secondpoorest in Latin America and comes high among thepoor countries of the world. Our foreign debt exceeds$6,412 million. At birth every Nicaraguan owes $1,225.

Forty-three per cent of the economically activepopulation is sub-employed. Coffee prices are 53 per centlower than those obtained in 1999, with noimprovement in sight. Our trade deficit is $1,072 milliondollars. Our exports amount only to $605 million.

We have a fixed annual devaluation of six per cent,added to inflation of around three per cent a quarter. Theminimum wage for agricultural work is $41 per monthplus food; for other workers it is $72 per month. Nearlyhalf of all Nicaraguans live on less than a dollar a day.

Citizen participationThe population is generally not organised, or onlyincipiently organised. We lack strong base organisationsto lead the necessary processes for development. Thepopulation needs constant offers of assistance frominternational agencies and non-governmentalorganisations (NGOs). Even in the big urbanmunicipalities there is apathy among private investorsabout contributing to and participating in municipaldevelopment plans.

Nicaragua’s municipal law requires municipal councilsto set up municipal development committees and thatcitizens participate in public management. Althoughthere exists no strong popular organisation, thecommunities in the municipalities organise aroundspecific local needs. This gives rise to community leaders,who sit on these committees.

The municipal mayor is the president by law of themunicipal development committee. Mayor’s officespromote citizen participation and lead the process ofstrategic planning by calling meetings, providingresources for events, inviting key people and makingpremises available for meetings.

Additionally, mayors have power to nominate

auxiliaries in particular areas. They nominate ‘mini-mayors’. These usually have a party-political character,and are typically rejected by the community or dislikedbecause they are not considered representative.

Representation of women is still precarious,although there have been some advances in this area,such as the women of the municipality of Dipilto, whoengage vigorously with the local government, withmunicipal help.

Local governments are making efforts to ensure allsectors of the population participate and thus arerepresented in local processes. For local development towork we need to build a culture of men and women whoare not just voters at election time but are aware of andexercise their rights and obligations

Decentralisation and privatisationWith international agreements, the regulatory rolehistorically belonging to the state has receded. Thismeans that privatised companies control the prices ofpublic services. The municipality is the base unit ofterritorial and political organisation in Nicaragua,according to the constitution. Yet the division of powersbetween the state and the municipalities no longer makessense since the privatisation of public services. The publicservices that the state was traditionally obliged to offer itspopulation are now run as a business by these privatecompanies.

Consultation is taking place on a decentralisationpolicy by which municipalities lose autonomy, as poweris transferred to intermediate collegiate bodies (which arenot provided for in the constitution). This is more likeadministrative reorganisation than real decentralisation,in which resources and capacities are transferred as wellas responsibilities.

A number of state institutions have specific functionsto fulfil in the municipalities. There is a regulatory bodyto promote municipal development, but in practice itsfunction is more often policing than promoting. It is abureaucratic body and because it is so inefficient themunicipal associations like AMUNSE have to do its job,spending their own technical, economic and humanresources, even though it is the government body thatgets the budget. Other state institutions boost theirrevenue with the natural and human resources belongingto the municipalities but do not repay them by fulfillingtheir responsibilities to develop the municipality.

Experience in Nicaragua

Luis Antonio Sarantes

Mayor of El Jícaro and member of Asociación de Municipios de Nueva Segovia (AMUNSE

– the Association of Municipalities of Nueva Segovia), Nicaragua





Economic factorsThe national state has transferred responsibilities to themunicipalities without the necessary resources to fulfilthem. Funding for municipalities is only 1.4 per cent ofthe national budget (the universities are assigned six percent, according to the constitution). As a result themunicipalities are undergoing a severe economic andsocial crisis, exacerbated by:• the drop in international coffee prices, one of the

country’s most important exports• the loss of harvests through drought and the El Niño/

La Niña phenomena• environmental disasters• territorial marginalities in rural municipalities: there

are no communication routes and some municipalitieshave only one telephone, which is privately owned.

Local development, which should be based on localresources, has been focused more on public investmentthan on generating proper development plans that makeuse of the municipalities’ natural resources.

AMUNSE thinks that if a municipality has animalfarming as a resource, its development should behorizontal in this area. If another municipality only hasclay, its development should be on the basis of thisresource, that is, encouraging the best potters, producingthe best pottery, the best tiles, the best materials formaking things with clay (bricks, terrazo flooring, etc).

The role of NGOsMany NGOs, working in the areas of education, health,food security, formal and informal training, theenvironment and gender and age justice, have taken overthe role abandoned by the state, particularly in remoterural municipalities.

These NGOs provide temporary relief for thepopulation’s many difficulties. However, because theydepend on foreign cooperation, their work is temporary.Their main function is the project. When the projectends, the NGO retires – although there are valuable, butunfortunately isolated contributions, when the NGObecomes involved in facilitating and promotingmunicipal development processes. In general, the effortsof civil society (NGOs) in contributing to the formulationof strategic plans is sometimes praiseworthy but generallyinsufficient.

The role of international agenciesThese have a very important role in accompanyingmunicipal development, but because of lack ofcoordination, many projects are not carried out inaccordance with strategic municipal development plans.This means that many organisations are doing the samething in one area, and few or none in othermunicipalities, who perhaps have greater need.

International agencies adapt their activity to their owninterests and not necessarily to the interests of thepopulation and the area. This means that the projects arenot sustainable over time, because they are not adoptedas their own by the target groups. The assignation ofresources is decided by what is in fashion. Today this isgender, tomorrow vulnerability, another day it could be

environment, masculinity, building of citizenship. Thismeans that the resources are likewise temporary and theirimpact is diluted.

There is a need to reduce bilateral cooperationbetween governments and assign more resources todecentralised cooperation with the municipalities,because the latter manage the resources more efficiently,as well as knowing close at hand the needs and prioritiesof the communities and municipalities.

In Nueva Segovia AMUNSE is working to coordinatethe contribution of international agencies, some ofwhich have already joined in the coordinated work onthe strategic plans for municipal development.

Key elements for sustainable local developmentIn the long term:• Encourage citizens to be aware and think strategically,

and to adopt, participate in, promote and leadprocesses that are also strategic.

• Realise that development does not necessarily meanhaving big hotels, beaches, buildings and newtechnologies. Initially, development must enablepeople to live with dignity, improve their quality oflife and generate opportunities for all the inhabitantsof the municipalities. The reason for developmentmust be the human person, treated as a participantand not just as an object generating an infrastructurewhich often cannot be used (eg, hospitals withoutmedicines, schools without pupils).

• Redefine development processes based on localresources.

• Rethink development, adapting it to our realities,abandoning models imposed by external agencies.

• Work for the political, administrative and fiscaldecentralisation of the municipalities, so that they arestrongly autonomous.

In the medium term:• Lobby for fiscal reform, so that municipalities have

financial autonomy, acquiring resources byautonomously imposing their own taxes.

• Reverse the net payment of funds by the municipalityto the central state, rather than from the state to themunicipalities.

Immediately:• Set up a broad network of agents interested in

contributing their skills, incorporating communityleaders, who can present agreed proposals and increasethe capacity to lobby and negotiate for actions togenerate development.

• Reinforce existing municipal bodies such as municipaldevelopment committees and local associations ofmunicipalities.

• Continue with the processes of strategic planning,trying to incorporate the private ethical investmentsector to contribute to development.

• Coordinate the work of the NGOs, so that theirprojects are framed within the needs of localdevelopment and the population.

• Identify local resources and local potential – drawingwhere possible on studies already done by consultants.

• Promote a new kind of cooperation with international

agencies, where resources are budgeted for the longterm and the ‘project’ culture is adapted accordingly.

• Make use of legal mechanisms to avoid the abuses ofsocially unacceptable investments (‘maquilas’ orsweat-shops).

• Lobby the authorities through the municipaldevelopment committees for a greater transfer ofresources from central government to themunicipalities.

• Generate a broad social movement which leads tomoral negotiation on the foreign debt.

The desire for changeEvidence exists that all the agents are interested incoordination:• The population wants coordination and to overcome

political divisions. However, this desire is linked moreto the satisfaction of people’s immediate needs than totheir civic awareness.

• The municipal movement is clear about the need forcoordination. It negotiates flexibly and has overcomepolitical sectarianism.

• So-called civil society, which generally represents non-traditional or leftist positions, takes part incoordination efforts with the other agents ofdevelopment at national level. However, centralism isprevalent in its actions and results.

• International agencies, mainly European, are aware thattheir model has not been effective and are seeking toincorporate other elements that will have more impact.

The political parties still continue with an incoherentdiscourse and practice. The centralisation of the state isreflected in the activity of the political parties. Thus partypolitical decisions about local development find little orno echo in the communities themselves. At local levelpeople do not react in party political terms, meaning thatthe significance of political parties in the local sphere isminimal. However, political activity during electionperiods politicises the local population and hinders thebuilding of strategic plans for municipal development.

We must understand that development is a longprocess, and that we who work for it can do no morethan contribute to the long term aims. In doing so,however, we will not lose our peace and our hope.

13



Experience in Honduras


Developing peopleASONOG’s starting point is the premise that peoplethemselves are the principal agents of their owndevelopment. Based on an awareness of the causes ofpoverty, every citizen must accept the unavoidableresponsibility of becoming involved in the process ofchanging society. Therefore, our approach is centred onbuilding citizens’ capacities and skills, in order to build afighting citizenry, capable of constructing their owndevelopment.

A key element is therefore awareness raising andtraining. Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) havecontributed to local skills training for communityleaders, municipal mayors and departmental managers,for example on the legal framework, from theconstitution to the laws at present in force, withemphasis on municipal law; and in political lobbying,which reinforces management capabilities.

NGOs have also offered direct support for the peoplein their communities through technical assistance inagriculture, forestry, etc. This is backed up by training inthe drafting of consultation documents, and in theconsequent process of designing, managing, carrying out,evaluating and following up programmes and projects.Community management teams, trained and assisted byNGOs, today manage community projects with highertotal funding than those managed by the NGOsthemselves.

We also aim to promote women’s participation indecision-making processes, mainly in structures of civilsociety. However, when we speak of work with a genderfocus, we go beyond men and women. We also considerit important to promote inter-generational participation,of children, young people, adults and older people in allour development processes, and also in local andnational affairs.

Building organisational capacityNGOs have given advice at a municipal level on buildinginter-municipal councils, which can manageinfrastructure and regional resources more efficiently.They have offered technical support, such as in theprotection of hydrographic basins and micro-basins.

They have contributed to increasing municipal andinter-municipal capacity for strategic planning. In thelast two years they have succeeded in linking theirorganisational work in the communities with the

municipality, and incorporating the theme of citizenparticipation and municipal reinforcement into theirtraining programmes at a municipal level. These nowinclude technical training, land registry, local taxation,and citizen participation and its mechanisms (opencouncil meetings, consultation meetings, plebiscites, etc).

The state continues to be centralist, inefficient andmore interested in satisfying the demands of politicalcronies. Its relation with the municipalities is weak,despite recent decentralisation efforts in which the focusis essentially on decentralising services in order toprivatise them (such as water and sewage services,community schools, health services).

One of the great weaknesses of local developmentprogrammes is the lack of money. In Honduras, fourmillion people are considered to be poor, of whom threemillion are considered to be extremely poor.

Therefore the possibility of local developmentprogrammes generating their own resources is slight.Resources come mainly from payments by centralgovernment, which must by law assign five per cent ofthe general budget of the Republic to municipalities.However, in the year up to December 2001, they onlyreceived 1.8 per cent.

Promoting coordinationOne of the greatest problems is in state investment,where up till now there has been a total lack ofcoordination and every secretariat of state does as it seesfit, without taking the actions of the others into account.The same thing has happened with private non-government investment, especially from politically andeconomically strong organisations, who eitherconsciously or unconsciously appear to believe they areself-sufficient.

Development organisations and the government toooften carry out programmes and projects withoutconsidering how these might be coordinated to ensure apositive impact for the poor population. There are evenmany cases, especially with macro-projects (more than$10 million), where, instead of reinforcing existingprojects, they ride roughshod over them and make themunsustainable (such as through the application of‘incentive’ policies – payment for attending meetings,food for work, etc).

A number of international agencies maintain policiesof humanitarian aid with a ‘charitable’ focus.


Suyapa Lopez

Member of Asociación de Organizaciones No Gubernamentales (ASONOG – the

Association of Non-Governmental Organisations), Honduras

Increasingly, in the context of the extreme poverty of ourcommunities, this is going to become more attractivethan our focus on generating capacities, on developingbeing as well as having.

The fact is, families need to eat today and eating todayis their priority. Some international agencies areconcerned mainly with material support projects, foodsecurity, housing, and communal infrastructure,combining this with gifts of food and other householdneeds.

An example is the approach of organisations, mainlyfrom southern Europe, that have become involved in thewake of Hurricane Mitch. These organisations arrive anddirectly set up programmes and projects, usually with a‘charitable’ focus (food security, emergency relief), eventhough there is no need for such projects. In fact, theybecome an obstacle to local production, as they are adisincentive to the production of basic cereals and otherfoods, because local producers cannot compete with thedonated food.

Without coordination of these various programmes, itwill be very difficult to combat poverty at a local level.However, the new government claims it is trying togenerate a municipal coordination process. To do this, itis setting up a protocol for community intervention,

which aims to organise municipal investment,coordinating all the agents involved in the area of themunicipality.

Transcending political interestsPolitical interests have historically been very harmful tothe success of local development, because politicalsectarianism has damaged society, and given rise toindividualism, divisionism and irrational investment.

However, this situation has been changing and thesescourges seem to be diminishing. It would appear thatthere is a stream of political young people who are tryingto do politics in a different way.

Thus there are deputies, ministers, mayors who overthe last five years have shown relative impartiality intaking decisions, especially in the allocation of resources.A practical example of this is the massive achievement ofinter-municipal associations or councils, where differentmayors belonging to different political parties (mainlynationalists and liberals) have come together andachieved a real unity. Today they plan together, manageand even carry out joint programmes and projects. Itgives a taste of what can be achieved if localdevelopment is coordinated, mutually supportive, andaims to meet people’s rather than organisations’ needs.



Experience in Ecuador


The debate on local development and participationmust be set within the reality of globalisation. Theinfluence of globalisation filters downwards, from thestate and its institutions, to local areas. Despite the factthat globalisation aims to homogenise and consolidateone approach, it actually generates and increasesinequalities and exclusions. In addressing theseinequalities and exclusions, people must react bydrawing on their own diversity, their own strengths, tofind solutions to their problems. Tackling the negativeimpacts of globalisation, in other words, requires thatpeople place their emphasis on the small, the microand the local.

Whenever we use the term ‘local’, we immediatelygive it a geographical and territorial connotation. In fact,‘locality’ is a conjunction of a geographical area with therange of relationships or social dynamics – economic,cultural, political – that define a society at a givenmoment. We must not fall into the trap of restrictingourselves to a merely geographical analysis, or omittingkey aspects or characteristics when we are definingstrategies. We have to define not just where, but how,why, and who (the agents).

When we speak of the ‘local’, neither should we forgetthat this notion will always be connected with otherspatial levels, which may be regional, national,international, or global. We must not forget to considerthe external dynamics that also influence and form thelocal panorama.

Before incorporating the notion of locality or localinto the notion of development, we need to point outthe factors or guidelines that define development. Themost relevant are:• the resources and potentialities available to the region

or locality – not only the tangible and material butalso all the cultural resources

• the nature of the institutions, their strength,legitimacy and efficiency

• the local culture• the human resources.Development is also a cultural process, which must takeinto account the socialisation mechanisms of individualsand groups.

Thus local development could be understood, in thewords of Barrera and Unda, as ‘a sustained process ofsocio-economic, political and cultural change; a processthat is territorially localised, and whose ultimate aim is


Juan Pablo Martínez

Director, Servicios para un Desarrollo Alternativo del Sur (SENDAS – Services for

Alternative Development of the South), Ecuador

A conceptual framework

the progress of the local region, the regional or localcommunity and, of course, every person belonging to it.This means: economic growth, wealth distribution,improvement of living conditions, gender justice, andcare and management of the environment orenvironmental resources. It also means the appropriationof the local space and its development possibilities,involving the development of political and institutionalconditions to facilitate social participation in differentareas of local life, democratisation of government bodies,and reinforcement of the social fabric and the culturesliving there.’ (Barrera A and Unda M, ‘Participación ysociedad en el Ecuador’ in Participación, Descentralizacióny Gestión Municipal: Elementos para una reformademocrática, Centro de Investigaciones Ciudad, Quito,1998, p6.)

In short, a local development process can only takeshape and become a reality when it is thought out interms of the locality, as a socially constructed process,that must unfold via the available technical, political andalso human resources. Additionally, we have the idea ofintegrality or wholeness – that is to say, the process mustembrace all the dimensions of everyday life and its inter-relationships – and the idea of continuity, meaning aprocess in a permanent state of construction and change,as well as itself being a historical continuum.

An approach to developmentThus our approach to development must cover thefollowing dimensions of reality:• Economic: ensure sustained economic growth,

developing the capacity and potential for localproduction, and procuring the integration of sub-sectors of the local economy within the region, thecountry and the world.

• Political: enable processes of local democratisation,developing appropriate forms and mechanisms thatguarantee the processes’ sustainability.

• Social: improve the population’s living conditions(access to basic services, health, education),incorporating criteria for gender, ethnic andgenerational justice; and reinforce the social fabric andcontribute to the building of active citizenship.

• Environmental: ensure management (conservationand reproduction, appropriation, distribution,regulation) of environmental resources (naturalresources, ecosystems, environmental services).

• Cultural: build and/or strengthen collective identities,the sense of belonging, creative cultures, and establishinter-cultural dialogue.

The agents of local processesWhen we speak of agents, we usually mention all thepeople or institutions that carry out a particular action.However, we also need to consider the relationships –usually power relationships – between the agents, andtheir logic and mechanisms for action.

The logic of agents or protagonists has a diverse andautonomous character. Despite this, it is constitutedthrough social networks, involving some degree ofinteraction. On the one hand, there are vertical networks,that reproduce hierarchical patterns of social behaviour,which is a way of maintaining the existing powers andunequal social order. On the other hand, there arehorizontal social networks.

Agents, defined by their history, their logic, theiridentity and their own reality, are multiple entities,complex and often contradictory in their actions.Likewise their inter-relations with other agents developin scenarios that are equally complex and characterisedby conflicts and power relationships. Nevertheless,however complicated the panorama, no action or activityseeking to improve the living conditions of a particulargroup or to generate development in a particular region,can do so without the management and participation ofthese agents. So now the question is: how to channel theenergies and potentialities of the agents to build acommon project? One answer is the coordination offorces to achieve a more equitable development.

Examples of coordinationLocal development processes are not carried outexclusively by a single agent, but through the interactionof various protagonists and agents.

At a local level, there are various agents working forlocal development – that is, projects attempting togenerate development programmes. These includemunicipalities, parish councils, local civil society andnon-governmental organisations (NGOs). These inter-relate in various ways: the Centre for DevelopmentEducation, for example, has an explicit strategy toreinforce agents through education, exchange ofexperiences, accompaniment of leaders, coordinationwith other bodies and the generation of proposals. Thereis also participation in regional development plans,which are normally led by local governments. The equalopportunities plan for men and women, for example, atpresent is led by the Cuenca deputy mayor’s office. Thisarose from social movements, particularly the women’smovement, and was supported by SENDAS (the deputymayor was formerly director of SENDAS).

At regional level – in the provinces of Azuay and Cañar– the Cántaro network is a network of regional NGOswhich exchange development experiences, and aim toinfluence regional opinion on development matters.Cántaro acts through working groups on communication;citizen participation and local development; andenvironmental management and agro-ecology.

The Regional Water Forum is also a space forexchanging experiences, generating proposals andexercising regional influence over the management ofwater resources. Involved are NGOs, universities, waterboards, representatives of local governments (provincialcouncils, municipalities), and state representatives(regional development organisations, water agencies).

At national level, seven NGOs have joined in theDemocracy and Local Development Group with threeareas of work:• Support for the coordination of alternative

governments. A total of 30 municipalities and fiveprefectures have set up this coordination, with the aimof exchanging experiences, reflecting on theimplementation of proposals and influencing thenational public agenda through suggestions andconcrete demands.

• A national system of training local agents, with theaim of supporting activity by civil society. We arecarrying out a training process in 10 provinces out ofthe country total of 22. These are closely linked toconcrete processes of local management andreinforcing existing social movements. The Centre forDevelopment Training is involved in this nationalinitiative.

• Investigation and lobbying on various issues:decentralisation, reform of the state, citizenparticipation processes.

Another recent initiative is the National Forum for WaterResources, in which representatives from NGOs, nationalpeasant organisations, universities, and localgovernments seek a broad, permanent democratic spaceto work together to analyse problems, make proposalsand engage in national and regional political debateabout water. The national arena is fed into by theregional and/or provincial forums and at present thereare 10 active working groups.

Citizen participationCunill and González (quoted in Barrera A and Unda M, asabove, pp42-44) pose four types of participation:• Community participation means those actions

carried out collectively by citizens in the search forsolutions to the needs of daily life.

• Social participation is the process of individualsgrouping together in different organisations of civilsociety to defend and represent their respectiveinterests. Through this a social fabric can beprogressively woven, which could become theinstrument for the development of other forms ofparticipation, especially in the public sphere.

• Citizen participation gathers citizens together tointervene in the public sphere in matters concerningtheir particular social interests.

• Political participation is the involvement of citizensin politics as voters or activists.

These types of participation are densely interwoven,because the exercise of participation is an active anddynamic process and must be directed towardsinfluencing decision-making in matters concerning ourdaily lives. This also means that the role of participation





should also be to question the power relations and formsof domination that repress citizens’ means of expression.Participation should enable all social sectors to beactively involved in the legal, political, cultural,economic, social and environmental life of the country.This requires the building up of democracy andcitizenship.

However, the meaning of participation can varyaccording to the viewpoint – whether that of the peopleor agents who participate, or that of the institutions,organisations or projects in which they participate. Ingeneral terms, the definition proposed by supra-nationalorganisations, the dominant political classes, stateinstitutions, the economic rulers and their circles ofinfluence, will not be the same as that proposed by socialgroups at the base, communities, popular organisations,who focus on participation from the point of view ofsocial pressures and demands.

Two concepts are combined in citizen participation:participation and citizenship. Citizenship may includefeatures such as formal equality of rights and obligations,membership of a political community, the guarantee ofcitizens’ rights, the existence of a more or less developedpublic space (Vargas V, ‘Ciudadanía’, Lima, 1997;document taken from the internet). But because of thedifferent socio-economic contexts and characteristicswhere it is developed, it may also contain features ofinclusion and exclusion. Then, although participation isincreasingly aimed at acquiring the former features, infact a gap still exists between discourse and practice.

We should not forget that participation is a type ofpower relationship, in which certain agents will finallysucceed in imposing their rationale on others.

One of the ways in which participation can become areality is in the carrying out of projects. However, thisinstrument – the project – may be subject to questioningand difference of opinion and can acquire differentmeanings and interpretations. The project in itself has itsown rationality and is often proposed by agents who arenot those living in the locality where the project’sbeneficiaries live. Nevertheless, for the project to succeedover time and really benefit the locality, it is vital thatlocal agents are involved and want to continue it. This isone of the greatest challenges.

Local development plansLocal municipalities have the task of planning localdevelopment through the decentralisation and de-concentration of responsibilities that the state ispromoting.

In general, we could say that most of thesedevelopment plans are seen as a sort of end inthemselves, because while they are being worked out,spaces are created for interaction between citizens andthe municipality: there are coordination meetings,regional assemblies, development committees. But oncethe plan has been determined, it ‘deactivates’ itself, orelse activity dies down considerably .

This shows the present limits of the acting parties.Municipalities, especially rural ones, have limitedcapacity for political and technical leadership to manage

development in this new context. Likewise, it shows thelimitations of social agents’ capacity to assume greaterresponsibilities in this re-definition of local relationships.

Nevertheless, development plans provide a debatingarea in which to work out possibilities for participationand the building up or reinforcement of active citizens.In some cases, there has been an attempt to establish amore permanent dynamic, such as using bylaws to set uprecognised local bodies, such as development committeesor regional assemblies. Where the political will exists,these are spaces to discuss and put together proposals orto implement development plans.

In other cases, after the plans have been drawn up, theparticular issue groups or committees are the ones thatcontinue to function. Here they are activated by NGOs,in agreement with interested local organisations, andfocus on particular issues and/or the need to reinforceactive participants.

None of these participative processes, from theminimal to the most advanced, are exempt fromconflicts. Agents change and evolve, and so do contexts.However, one of the ways in which these processes canbe consolidated is by learning to overcomeconfrontational positions, which means coming toagreements, discussing them, fulfilling them andwatching over them. Likewise, institutionalisation of thespaces created, by means of legal frameworks thatguarantee and legitimise them, is important. Thisrequires the existence or building of a local fabric that issufficiently creative, active and responsible. It requires alocal government that thinks of itself as a politicalmanager of its locality and not merely an administratorof services – one that gives clear indications that it isworking for the democratisation of local relationships.

The equal opportunities planThis initiative arose out of the women’s movement withNGO support, and has since been promoted by localgovernment. Its aim is to become a public policyinitiative that works to have an impact on theinequalities and exclusions suffered by women at locallevel.

The initiative has meant gaining spaces for diagnosis,political dialogue and drafting of the plan itself. Nowsome of the plan’s proposed activities are beginning to beimplemented (training for women, training of municipalofficers).

At its different stages, coordination, reachingagreement and consolidating political will have beengreat challenges. Consolidating the plan as public policymakes different demands on women’s groups, on theinstitutions supporting them and on the localmunicipality. During this, there have been conflicts ofinterest. The plan’s future level of consolidation andinstitutionalisation will be a good measure of how far therelationship between local government and a sector ofcivil society has been modified.

Ultimately, like the plans for local development, theequal opportunities plan’s chances of consolidation willdepend on the way conflicts are managed and the extentto which this initiative really becomes institutionalised.

It will also depend on how actively the social fabricparticipates, and the extent to which local government isprepared to give a clear signal to go ahead with thedemocratising of local relationships.

Decentralisation and the role of the stateEcuador began the process of constitutional reform in themid-1990s. In 1996 the 15 per cent law was passed,which increased the transfer of central governmentfunding to sectional organisations. In 1997 the law ofstate decentralisation and social participation was passed.This law favours administrative decentralisation and thedelegation of state functions and responsibilities toautonomous sectional authorities, especially education,health and housing. Lately, there has also between atransfer of authority over the environment towards themunicipalities and of irrigation and agriculture toprovincial councils.

The decentralisation process has two facets. As afundamental component of the reform of the state(reducing its size, disinvestment, reorganisation of theprovision of services), what is being decentralised isfundamentally the functioning of services (the neoliberalagenda). An alternative meaning of decentralisation isconnected with the demand for social democratisation,the search for justice and the reversal of processes thatnot only seek centralisation but above all concentrationof economic and political power. This is a process ofbringing the state and civil society closer together (thedemocratic agenda).

In practice the debate on these two positions does notgo very far. The state, as such, has not contributed to thecreation of a pragmatic or rational public debate onspecific aspects of decentralisation. It has approached theproblem by appealing in general terms to principles, thatoperate in any process of state reform: de-bureaucratisation, fiscal austerity, administrativeefficiency.

For their part, municipalities and provincial councilspursue the funds owed to them to consolidate theirexisting budgets. To do this they make decentralisationdemands. Likewise, various social and political agents useit as a mechanism to support and defend their ownparticular interests.

In short, the relation between the state and localgovernments revolves round this type of administrativedecentralisation. However, the municipalities’ capacity torespond differs widely. Small rural municipalities havethe least capacity for decentralised management, whereaslarge municipalities like Quito, Guayaquil and Cuenca –the country’s three largest cities – are the ones that copebest with the central state in this process.

The issue of finance for local development processesand initiatives also limits the actions that municipalitiescan undertake beyond providing services orinfrastructure. Because of their financial dependence onthe state and their limited capacity to generate their ownresources, clearly the resources available to them will belimited. This is complicated by management weaknesses,which make them less able to seek stronger cooperationwith development bodies, such as international agencies,NGOs, and other state bodies.

Political will for changeLocal development and participation are not simplymethodological problems, but refer to a political proposalseeking to democratise the relation between the state andsociety, transferring more power to civil society. Thisrequires the explicit political will of the local authorities,social organisations and the citizenry in general tosustain a process of this kind.

Local governments view local development andparticipation primarily in an administrative andfunctional way, whereby instruments (such asdevelopment plans) and mechanisms (such as councilmeetings) reflect agreements between different agents.What they can actually achieve depends on the quality ofthe mechanisms that have been set up and on theircapacity to make decisions. It also depends on theusefulness of development plans as an instrumentguiding annual planning by municipalities, irrespectiveof electoral political vicissitudes.

For civil society, however, local development processesprovide an important coordination of the social fabric,through discussion-spaces for different local agentsseeking consensus. Making it work requires a seriouscapacity to make proposals and the explicit will to turnthe plans into action.



improving the decision-making process in urbanmanagement. It is a process of people to-ing and fro-ing between, or engaging with, each other at differentlevels.

• Whole vision: All the city’s inhabitants are concernedwith its whole space. Changes in one area of city lifewill have an effect on other aspects, and therefore onthe improvement or worsening of the citizens’ overallquality of life. So in our intervention strategies, wemust never lose sight of the criterion of wholeness orintegral vision. For efficient urban management, theremust be entry points that are acceptable to people andtheir representatives, but these must not be isolatedfrom the overall perspective.

• Use of appropriate technologies: Technology togenerate infrastructure and basic services should bebased on: affordability and ease of use (a balancebetween technologies that require abundant labourand those that require abundant capital); ease ofoperation and maintenance; methods that respond todemand; methods that provide opportunities for skilldevelopment.

• Sustainability: Any activity, project or action carriedout for the benefit of citizens must foresee from thestart how it can be maintained. Sustainability must beguaranteed at the social, economic, ecological andinstitutional level.

• Justice: Our work will always seek justice and equalityof opportunities for all agents, and pay specialattention to agents who have had no voice for manycenturies. For example, local development shouldmeet the practical needs of women (water, drains,housing, education) and their strategic needs(elimination of institutionalised forms ofdiscrimination, measures to tackle domestic violence,quotas for access to public office). Recognising andgiving positive value to women’s contributions leadsto the breakdown of prejudices and paradigms, andgives women greater interest in becoming involved inthe public sphere.

The above criteria are to create better conditions of lifefor people.

The coordination process in the South Valley Since 1996 the Guamán Poma Centre has assumed thecommitment (at the invitation of the mayors) tofacilitate and advise on the coordination and citizenparticipation process for local development in the SouthValley – the name used by the population to refer to the

Experience in Peru


The democratisation of societyWe work, together with other agents, for change towardsthe democratisation of society. By democratisation, wemean a process that eliminates extreme inequalities anddifferent forms of political, economic, cultural andgender exclusion. Our aims can be summarised as:• personal development and empowerment of human

capacities• improvement of living standards• recovery, conservation and boosting the potential of

natural, technological and cultural resources• reinforcement of social organisations (groups

structured around particular interests, such asneighbourhood, community, economic/productive,cultural, educational, sporting) and local institutions

• democratisation and citizen participation.Our approach is to facilitate coordination betweendifferent agents and participants; help to formulateintegral development plans; and help to carry these plansout in strategic projects, whose ultimate aim is toimprove people’s living standards.

By coordinating the interests of all the agents – publicinstitutions, private enterprise, communityorganisations, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) –we hope to make local development sustainable.Concentrating the capacities and resources of the variousagents through support and cooperation leads to moreefficient and effective management and a greaterpossibility of success. The participation of all the agentsshould also improve continuity of local developmentplans in possibly adverse political situations.

Criteria for local developmentThe principles or criteria implicit in our approach arethose that have proved successful in urban managementin different places around the world. These include:• Participation of civil society: All the inhabitants of a

town should feel responsible for and committed toproviding a healthy habitat and an environment thatcan offer good quality of life for all. So theparticipation of all the citizens’ institutions andorganisations is necessary to gain this humandevelopment we all aspire to.

• Reinforcement of local institutions: We rely oninstitutions for the technical, legal and executiveframework for urban management. Institutions in turnrely on qualified staff, therefore training of humanresources becomes a key element in our activity.

• Interactive participation: This is a key element in

Experience in Peru

Lucio Quiñonez

Director, Guamán Poma de Ayala Centre for Education and Communication, Peru

government can facilitate legal and operationalmechanisms directed towards promoting citizenparticipation – for example, by providing spaces foreducation and training, such as municipal trainingschools and other spaces aimed at developingcompetence, skills and ideas.

A number of places have been set up where citizenscan democratically express their needs. These placesinclude inter-district forums, where different bodiespresent plans, projects and proposals. However, there stillremains the need to promote more democratic practicesas part of the vision for the future. A key element inensuring the sustainability of local developmentprocesses is the institutionalisation of places for citizencoordination and participation.

NGOs also contribute to developing capacities throughthe training of leaders to sustain the process. Indeed, aspart of civil society, they fulfil the role of engaging onbehalf of civil society with the state. Their activity isfrequently directed towards a vision of the futureexpressed by the population.

It is hoped, through education, training andopportunities to participate, that a citizen will become aperson capable of acting freely, with democratic attitudesthat are inclusive and not exclusive, and with thecapacity for leadership and generating proposals.

Strategic projectsIn principle, strategies used to promote the localdevelopment process imply very significant costs. Forlocal development to be sustained, the municipalitiesand the population must be prepared to take on the costsof the process.

By adding together resources from the state, themunicipalities’ own funds and funds from internationalagencies, the ICCD has been able to invest in strategicprojects and actions to keep the local developmentprocess going. In these strategic projects, the differentagents participate in a coordinated way and make acollective contribution.

International agencies can be partners to promotelocal development processes. They contribute to thinkingabout these processes, together with economic supportfor institutional reinforcement. They also contribute towhole projects, given priority by the population withinthe framework of local development plans. They helpmake these plans come to life and the population see itsneeds fulfilled.

Such tangible achievements are crucial to thesustainability of the process: to gain the continuedsupport and participation of citizens, local developmentprocesses must strive not just to set up frameworks forenabling development, but also to begin to satisfycitizens’ most pressing needs.

four districts in the southern Cusco valley (San Jerónimoand Saylla districts in the province of Cusco, and Oropesaand Lucre districts in the province of Quispicanchi).

Although this organisation arose through the politicalwill of the municipal authorities as part of the state,today civil society plays the role of protagonist in thebodies which were later set up at district and inter-districtlevel to take forward the local development plan. Chiefamong these is the Inter-District CoordinationCommittee for Development (ICCD) whose mission is toachieve the harmonious, balanced and sustainabledevelopment of the districts covered in order to improvethe citizens’ quality of life.

The committee’s role is to analyse and tackle theproblems and solutions common to the four districts in acoordinated way, and to set up a pilot model formanagement of local development and democraticcitizen participation in the context of weakened localinstitutions and break-up of the social fabric.

This involves devising an integral plan for strategicand sustainable development. This planning process hasattempted to be participative by seeking to mobilise andinvolve the population through gathering their opinions,wishes and resources. It is not simply the drafting of aplan document, but is in itself a method for engagingwith and involving the citizens.

Principal agents in development planningThe principal agents who have become involved in thisprocess are:• Administrative political agents or public institutions:

these include the municipality as the localgovernment elected by the citizens, health services,education, governors, national police, among others.

• Economic agents: some national and regional privatebusinesses, small and micro local businesses.

• Social agents from the whole network of organisationscomprising civil society: peasant communities, humansettlements or popular urban districts, women’sorganisations, cultural organisations, producers’ andtraders’ organisations, the political parties, amongothers.

• Other institutional agents such as the university,church, NGOs, etc.

As organised groups, these agents can represent andexpress the capacities, needs, interests and expectationsof their members or constituents. As such they seek andcontribute to citizen participation.

Citizen participationLocal government can play a key role in leading theprocess. The ICCD, for example, was set up and is led bythe mayors of the four districts, who have been popularlyelected to represent the people. At the same time, local

Experience in Peru


Experience in the Dominican Republic


A ‘political’ processOur concept or vision of local development is a responseto the global economic, cultural and political processesthat frame our lives. For us, local development startsfrom a political view of the living conditions of many ofthe inhabitants of our country.

From our standpoint as an organisation working withexcluded groups and supporting citizen participation,local development is seen as a methodological focus forour work. For us it is an organising process in the areas inwhich we work to obtain a better quality of life andhuman development for the community. As such it hasvarious dimensions:• social and political growth and development of leaders• spiritual: building of history and identity• material: economic growth, better wealth distribution

and better services.The main agent of this process must be the communityitself. Participation is an integral part of the process. Theorganised community is involved in diagnosis, planning,implementation, monitoring and evaluation: in otherwords, as a social protagonist of initiatives and change,with the power and ability to make contributions. Non-organised citizens – including those sectors of thepopulation living in extreme poverty – are involvedthrough information and awareness-raising. Participationmust become an ongoing educational process, in whichthe community transforms its environment at the sametime as transforming itself.

Outside the community, non-governmentalorganisations have a technical role (providing expertise)and a political role in supporting the community in thenegotiation processes. This might involve carrying outinvestigations of neighbourhood problems, mediatingamong different community opinions about where tobegin, facilitating the joint drafting of plans andformulation of proposals, identifying sources of funding,and assisting with management of projects.

The role of the stateIn our country there is still a centralising state and barely4.5 per cent of the national budget is managed by townhalls (local governments).

Our local governments have little real connection withthe population and its organisations. They aretechnically weak in the management of social processesand have a political culture that limits a permanent,sincere relationship with other civil sectors.

In the Dominican Republic, many of the advances incitizen participation and local development processeshave been driven and promoted more by civil societythan by the political parties. These adopt many of theproposals as political rhetoric, but in concrete initiativestheir political will is relegated to a spectator-role orinvolvement merely to obtain some party politicalbenefit.

In the case of the Neighbourhood DevelopmentAgendas (NDAs), which are being carried out in fivemarginal neighbourhoods in the capital, political will hasmaterialised in the provision of resources, but not ininvolvement in the process. Nevertheless, these NDAsmay become an apprenticeship of sorts, leading to newkinds of relationships between the state and thepopulation and its organisations.

Aims of the local development processThe local development process should contribute to:• building a collective identity, which stimulates

potential for initiatives• institutional reinforcement of the participating

community organisations and their networks• changing the political culture: more democracy, more

solidarity.The outcome will be social protagonists with morecapacity to formulate proposals, more social awareness,and better negotiation and management skills.

Experience in the Dominican Republic

Sandra Lara

Representative of the Father Juan Montalvo Centre for Social Studies,

Dominican Republic

A broad frontLocal development processes are necessarily set withinthe context of each single country. There are commonelements, such as poverty, social exclusion, territorialimbalances and high levels of state centralism. But eachcountry also has its own particular characteristics. Everycountry also operates under the impacts and challengesof globalisation. This requires ongoing diagnosis, whichmust be carried out by local development agents.

Local development is a battle on a broad front. It isnot just an effort by municipalities but by countries. Itmust be fought from below and from above,simultaneously. It includes neighbourhoods andcommunities, but it is coordinated at the level ofmunicipalities and micro-regions and must then linkwith national and international processes. Thus localdevelopment confers a new dimension and value onmunicipal spaces, because this is where society meets thestate, citizen meets government for the first time.

The local development processes in the six countriescovered in this report are emergent, new and thereforestill fragile. But they are gathering strength andbecoming factors for change for all those who areinvolved in them.

Contributing to the local development processrequires preparation. Although they are fundamental,good will and commitment are not enough. It isnecessary to have capacities, knowledge and skills tocontribute.

Local development must continue to deepen itsconcept and focus. These are dynamic processes and stillunder construction. They are enriched through practiceand debate. Therefore, they must be continually revised,on the basis of practice and experience. The debates mustbe broadened: local, national, international. This requiresgreater levels of reflection, analysis, debate and exchange.

Local development is a political and technical affair. Onthe one hand, it involves political interests and wills, andon the other, it requires knowledge, capacities and skills.

A very important factor is the construction ofadequate methodologies, based on a clear idea and theconcrete reality of the local, national and internationalenvironment.

Collective and coordinatedAll the contributors to this report agree that leadership oflocal development must be collective and coordinated.Some differentiate between actors and agents, othersbetween passive and active agents. What must be stressedis that being an agent of local development meansshaking off passivity and becoming consciously involved.As long as there is no coordinated action, there is nogenuine local development process.

Although there is agreement about who are thefundamental agents in local development, more workneeds to be done on the role of each one of these. It iscrucial for non-governmental organisations (NGOs) toidentify these local agents in the area, to understandtheir weight and power. The power map can be a usefultool for this.

The contributors also agree that in promoting theinclusion of all the agents (both male and female), it isnecessary explicitly to favour those who aredisadvantaged. This gives rise to the question of how toimprove the condition of those who are disadvantaged.

In the six experiences, the external agents (nationaland international) play a complementary and importantrole in local development processes. Therefore it isnecessary to reinforce their participation. But it mustalways be remembered that these should not take overthe role of the fundamental agents.

Principal agents of changeThere can be no doubt that in the experiences presented,two agents have priority, and see themselves as theprincipal agents of change. This is where efforts must beconcentrated: they are the citizenry or civil society andthe municipal governments.

We must deepen the concept of citizen participation,through methodologies, spaces and mechanisms to makeit effective. This means promoting citizenship-buildingbased on a vision of duties and rights. It meansreinforcing communities and social sectors throughorganisation, education and training. This couldcontribute to a new broad social movement thatparticipates fully – with proposals and actualimplementation – in local development processes.

Conclusion: Challenges and opportunities

Alberto Enríquez Villacorta

Director of Regional Local Development, Fundación Nacional de Desarrollo

(FUNDE – the National Foundation for Development), El Salvador

Conclusion


Conclusion


We must also recognise the key role that localgovernments play. It is important that they move onfrom being administrators of services to becomingmanagers of local development. They have to lead thelocal development process. In order to do this well, theyhave to go through a process of transformation.

Therefore it is crucial to contribute to thereinforcement of municipalities, through awareness-raising and support for institutional transformationprocesses, including the financial autonomy ofmunicipalities. In this context there is a need to reviewthe responsibilities of local and national government.

The decentralisation of the state is necessary topromote local development. All the countries havecentralised states and weak municipalities.Decentralisation is crucial to bring about a redistributionof power from central government to the localgovernments and citizenry.

Tools for local developmentEducation and training is crucial for local development.But it must be appropriate, pertinent, opportune andhigh quality.

Participative planning emerges as a very importanttool. Participative planning processes require an effort tobuild institutions to carry through the plans, processesand agreements in a participative way. Here localgovernments and civil society work together, as well asother actors.

The funding of local development is another keytheme which emerges to a greater or lesser degree in thedifferent experiences. This involves working on aspectssuch as tax, the transfer of central government funds tolocal governments, and the generation of conditions thatmake public and private investment possible.

Local economic development involves the creation ofwealth, employment and income. It involves identifyingthe competitive potentialities of municipalities andregions. Competitiveness is something that is being builtup (for example, fishing in Chalatenango) but strategiesare also needed to reach new levels of competitiveness.

Local development must include a focus on justice(ethnic, gender, age and disadvantaged groups). Thisrequires great creativity, so that it is not just paying lipservice. Such inclusion must operate in the processesthemselves, among all the agents, both male and female:governors, citizens, business people.

Lobbying from the local level over national decisionsrequires that local agents are organised, informed andmotivated. They should be seeking political,administrative and fiscal decentralisation, lobbying forharmonisation of laws governing municipal activity, andpressing for new legal frameworks for local development.

Local development leads to new ways of doingpolitics. It introduces civil society into the area of publicpolicy, but from a citizen’s perspective – a perspectivethat challenges the political parties. Agents for localdevelopment can push for the transformation of politicalparties and their role in countries and governments.

Encouraging and setting up inter-municipalassociations and development micro-regions and regions

can also assist local development. In the same way,international agencies can provide a positivecontribution from beyond municipal frontiers. A goodrelationship will ensure a balance between aid foremergencies and long term local development processes,and promote a new kind of international cooperation forlocal development: one that is long term and notconfined to single projects.

The challenge for civil societyThe exchange of these six experiences presents localdevelopment as a route towards alternative development,which demands and contributes to a broad, deepdemocracy and requires the transformation of the agentswho want to participate actively in it.

Local development challenges civil society to play anew part in development policies and processes, andtherefore in the building of democracy. All NGOs whodescribed part of their experience noted that theythemselves are also ‘changing’. This change obligesthem to:• Define or re-define their nature, mission and role with a

long term vision as agents of transformation or change.• Situate themselves correctly within a system of agents:

they are not a social organisation or a political party.They are civil institutions, that must reinforce theirnon-profit character (solidarity) and their professionalcapacity.

• Concentrate their role and efforts on reinforcing thefundamental actors, to facilitate and support localdevelopment processes.

• Prioritise work with disadvantaged groups, but do notconfine themselves to these. Local developmentrequires them to build a relationship with all thoseinvolved in it.

• Play a part in facilitating coordination: links andbridges.

• Build indicators to show whether and how much theyare contributing to local development.

• Leave behind the logic of projects and adopt the logicof processes. This must be reflected in all areas of work.

• Seek participation – with clear institutional criteria –in spaces, networks, alliances for local development atlocal, national and international level. This enrichesthe theory and practice of local development.

• Assume that their legitimacy as institutions will comefrom the quality of their work and their efficient andtransparent management of resources.

Given all the above, the results of the exchange ofexperiences described in this report can be summed up intwo final thoughts:• Local development is a new route to building

democratic countries, with solid bases to promotesustainable development. Hence it is a worthwhilecommitment, that challenges and summons all ourinstitutional and personal, political and technicalcapabilities.

• Given the complexity, exchanging experiences is anelement or factor that can contribute to thereinforcement of institutional work and of theprocesses of local development themselves.

Map of Latin America and the Caribbean

Experiences of localdevelopment in LatinAmericaMany countries in Latin America and the Caribbean are taking alead in exploring new ways of promoting development that meetslocal needs and involves local people. This report, based oncontributions to a conference on local development held in ElSalvador in October 2002, features experiences from six countries– El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic,Ecuador and Peru. It shows some of the challenges facingorganisations working for local development, and describes someof the strategies and approaches that have been used in theregion. Together, the contributions from the six countriesdemonstrate a Latin American approach to local development thatoffers the potential for real improvements in the lives of localpeople and local communities.

CIIR is an international charity working for sustainable developmentand the eradication of poverty

9 781852 873011

ISBN 1-85287-301-9

Documents

Experiences of local development in Latin America · conference together provide a valuable insight into strategies for local development in Latin America and the Caribbean. The report