Bolívar Human Development Plan

July 2005-July 2006

In July 2005 UDENOR (Unidad de Desarrollo del Norte)—the government office in charge of managing UNDP and USAID funds in three Northern provinces of Ecuador— signed a contract with Pact Ecuador for the realization of a development plan through a participatory process in the county of Bolívar in the province of El Carchi.

The main objective of the program is to design a development plan that will be used in the municipal council's budget for the 2006 fiscal year. A secondary information document will also be produced with updated information about the country to be used by UDENOR and the municipal government. In addition, a plan for the development of the capacities of local actors for the creation of the "Comité de Gestión Local"—a citizen's organization that will oversee development work in the county—will be made to help ensure continued success.

Pact's approach

The methodology for the creation of the development plan consists of facilitating three workshops where the people will determine the development priorities of the municipality. Throughout the process the methodology will focus on (a) motivating and generating a sense of empowerment in participants (b) making the entire process a learning opportunity where participants will be able to discover the ways in which other communities have dealt with problems similar to the ones they're facing, and (c) changing people's notion of development from a passive one into a proactive one in which they see the success of these efforts as their own responsibility.

The methodology for creating the secondary information report will consist of researching the municipality's archives and gathering infor,atopm from SIISE and INFOPLAN (government sources of social, economic, productive, ethnic, environmental, geographic and other information). The findings will be combined with the results of the anthropological study to create the final product.

The methodology for creating a capacity building plan for the formation of a "Comité de Gestion Local" will consist of facilitating the democratic election of members who will present their candidacy to the public. Subsequently Pact Ecuador will evaluate the skills that are needed on the team and create the capacity building plan.

Interim results

Three important steps in the start up of this project have been successfully completed:

• An anthropological survey was undertaken to provide primary and secondary data that allows Pact to reflect the diversity of the communities involved
• The same survey helped the local population to believe that the people should lead the development process and that they are extremely willing to participate. All of the data from this survey has been used to determine the ways in which Pact tools and methodologies must be adapted to the particular context
• The integration of the results of the first two steps in order to design three participatory workshops where the people will determine the development priorities through an empowering learning process focused on proactively finding solutions to community problems.
• Essay on "How to Deal with Leaders and to their Political Commitments when Implementing Participatory Processes" by Francisco Estrázulas