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

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The Local Agenda 21 Planning Guide 3.3.2 CASE #6 THE METROPOLITAN DISTRICT OF QUITO, ECUADOR COMMUNITY-BASED PRIORITY SETTING Program Name Community Development Planning by the Martha Bucaram Cooperative Background Quito, Ecuador, is located in the Andean mountains at 2,800 meters above sea-level. With a population of 1.4 million, Quito is the second largest urban center in Ecuador and the national capital. Of the total surface area of the Metropolitan District, only 15 percent constitutes the urban zone. Martha Bucaram is a poor neighborhood in the low-income South Zone of Quito. As with many neighborhoods in the South Zone, there are few, if any, services for most of the residents. The Martha Bucaram Cooperative is a neighborhood-level cooperative of 850 residents. Its members were brought together by the Municipal Administration of the South Zone in a pilot project to create a community development plan. The process of creating a community development plan has greatly facilitated the self-organization of the neighborhood into a cooperative, which provided a means for the generation of solutions in an area severely lacking in basic services. Program Description The members of the Martha Bucaram Cooperative jointly identified problems and their causes, and with the Zonal Administration identified the means to their solution. The list of the cooperative’s identified problems and causes follows: PROBLEMS CAUSES • contamination • poor water quality • lack of water • newness of the neighborhood • insecurity • delinquency and lack of faith • lack of mobility • distance • lack of services and supplies• inadequate access to the neighborhood • difficulty in uniting people • lack of a collective meeting place • impassable roads • climate and lack of maintenance • contamination • abandoned lots, garbage, lack of education, and stray animals • lack of education • lack of infrastructure • unoccupied youth • lack of services for youth Solutions were developed by identifying concrete projects ideas that would alleviate the problem causes. These projects were then ranked and prioritized. The prioritized list of projects of the Martha Bucaram Cooperative follows: 1. sewerage system 2. potable water 3. police 4. a church 5. public transport 6. a bridge 7. a neighborhood house 8. pavement of roads 9. garbage collection 10. education 11. extermination of animals http://www.idrc.ca/openebooks/448-2/ (74 of 180)18/10/2010 12:47:23 AM
The Local Agenda 21 Planning Guide 12. solidarity 13. telephones 14. educational centers 15. parks and recreational grounds 16. cultural spaces Many of these projects are now being realized with the involvement of the community and the assistance of the NGOs and Zonal Administration. The community usually invests in these projects by providing labor. The following planning steps were implemented to develop the community plan for Martha Bucaram. The Planning Process STEP 1. The first step involves informing the community about the idea of a community plan. This is done through the neighborhood committee and an assembly of all interested residents. The assemblies provide a forum where residents can speak about their experiences of living in the neighborhood, their living conditions, and the state of services. The steps of the planning process and the objectives are explained. Dates are set for capacity-building workshops, information gathering, and analysis of data. A team is selected to carry out a household-level survey of the residents and a survey of the state of the neighborhood as a whole. STEP 2. The collection of information constitutes the second step of the process. A selected team of residents is trained and conducts the neighborhood survey. Municipal staff assist in formulating the survey and analyzing the results. The survey results are presented to the community assembly. STEP 3. The third step is a consultation process, which uses a visioning exercise. Visions of the future of the community are developed by women, youth, and children. The men in the community have never united to create their own vision. STEP 4. The fourth step involves consolidating all the visions into one, and identifying the factors that are preventing the realization of that vision. A list of problems is generated through a voting process, and objectives and goals are then set for solving these problems. Project ideas are generated for each of the problems before ranking. This makes the ranking exercise more concrete and practical. Ten projects are prioritized and chosen for the action plan. Project prioritization is achieved through a ranking system which uses weighted numbers. People give the highest number to the project that they feel is the most urgent. Those projects with the highest numbers become the first ones to be dealt with. The projects are further divided into short- and long-term projects. STEP 5. Once the projects have been prioritized, the residents try to identify how to overcome barriers to implementing these projects. For this purpose, a distinct committee of residents is created to consider each project. The committees meet each week and define planning activities with the Zonal Administration. The committees, with the assistance of the Zonal Administration, try to identify other individuals, groups, NGOs, etc., that can help develop the projects. Following a process of resource identification, contracts with assisting parties formalize the partnership between the community and other actors. STEP 6. Once the project contracts have been negotiated, the implementation stage involves a much larger section of the community, as well as relevant municipal departments and other organizations. STEP 7. The process is broadly monitored by both project-specific committees and residents. Specific indicators to monitor progress have yet to be generated by this planning process. The participatory process, the development of solutions addressing the lack of services, and the spirit of solidarity that the process http://www.idrc.ca/openebooks/448-2/ (75 of 180)18/10/2010 12:47:23 AM
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