The Local Agenda 21 Planning Guide - Democrats Against UN ...

The Local Agenda 21 Planning Guide
and does not have legal recognition within the municipal government.
The six Theme Boards focus on the following areas of development:
• education;
• natural resources and agricultural production;
• production and employment;
• cultural heritage and tourism;
• urban environment; and
• women’s issues/family and population.
Each Theme Board is responsible for formulating a strategic plan containing policies and proposals for inclusion in the Sustainable
Development Plan. The Theme Board’s members include municipal experts and the councillors responsible for local jurisdictions, as
well as representatives from relevant public and private institutions. The Theme Boards help facilitate environmental considerations
that cross jurisdictional and sectoral boundaries. A larger Inter-Institutional Forum provides an opportunity for discussing proposals
among all the Theme Boards.
The Committee reports to the Provincial Council, which is responsible for drawing up policy guidelines and approving the specific
policy proposals submitted by the Theme Boards. It also publishes a bulletin about the activities and status of the Theme Board’s
consensus-building process, which is distributed to members of institutions involved in the process and to the heads of all the local
government authorities.
A key feature of the consensus-building process is a series of training workshops that the Committee has organized as forums for
discussion between the Theme Boards and the various local authorities. These workshops are organized by the technical
representatives on each of the Theme Boards and are presided over by the respective local authorities. The workshops are intended
to assist the mayors of the local jurisdictions with the new planning process and to provide them with methods and materials that
enable them to take subject-specific Theme Board proposals to their constituents for discussion and approval. This workshop process
helps the local mayors coordinate the statutory planning processes at the district and provincial levels, and provides a mechanism for
direct community input into the Provincial Sustainable Development Plan.
The proposals and strategic plans, which are submitted by the Theme Boards and gain approval from local and provincial authorities,
comprise a preliminary plan that must be debated by Council and approved in a citizens’ referendum. The Inter-Institutional
Consensus-Building Committee approved a preliminary version of a Sustainable Development Plan in August 1994. This version
was debated by the Council and submitted for approval through a citizens’ referendum, supported by a series of public educational
seminars. The plan is now in its last draft and is undergoing final adjustments. The Sustainable Development Plan, envisioned as a
dynamic plan that will be continually updated and improved, will direct development in Cajamarca when it is finally approved.
Several initiatives aimed at promoting sustainable agriculture and urban settlements and improving environmental and health
conditions are already being implemented. The Environment and Urban Development Board, for example, created a permanent
health package for Cajamarca City, a refuse collection program, and a parks and gardens improvement program responsible for the
sowing of more than 80,000 seedlings along streets and in parks.
The agencies that are responsible for implementing the initiatives outlined in the Sustainable Development Plan include: municipal
departments; other public sector agencies; NGOs; and more than 60 public and private institutions. These institutions are required to
sign inter-institutional agreements concerning their respective roles for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Plan.
The municipality is devoting one-third of its budget to financing the Sustainable Development Plan; approximately 10 percent of the
plan is being borne by other public and private institutions. Three people working on the plan are being paid by an NGO known as
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