La sociedad civil organizada en Nicaragua, composición y ... - Kepa.fi

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Anexo 3 THE PRSP PROCESS IN NICA- RAGUA PARTICIPATION OF CIVIL SOCIETY Ana Quirós Víquez May 25, 2002 After the meeting of June 1999 in Cologne, where the G 7 decided to reinforce HIPC with the Poverty Reduction perspective, the Nicaraguan Government started to work on the definition of a strategy to reduce poverty in the country. The first thing done was a diagnosis supported by the World Bank based on the method of the consumption and places the line of poverty in around $1 of daily expenditure per capita and the one on extreme poverty on less than $0.50. Based on that study, they prepared a map of poverty to orient the actions to reduce poverty. This Diagnosis was presented in November 1999 to the Council of Economic and Social Planning (CONPES) of dialog between the government and civil society. One of the first reactions coming from the Coordinadora Civil was to criticize that fact that poverty being so complex, the government only used the method of consumption to measure it. The other aspect that was strongly criticized was the figure of less $1 per day to cover all basic needs. Despite their constant declarations that they had the data of how they got to that figure, they never showed them. The response was that poverty was so vast in Nicaragua, that there was no need to fight over 5 - 10 % more poor people, that the real issue will be around the decisions of the principles and pillars of the Strategy. There was no change made to the diagnosis. At the same time, the Coordinadora Civil emphasized the need to broaden the consultation process to the people that were going to be affected by the Strategy, to the organizations outside Managua and to the local governments in the municipalities. Artículo preparado para presentaciones organizadas por CIIR en Londres en el mes de Mayo del 2002. A couple months later, at the beginning of the year 2000, the government presented the principles and the pillars of the Strategy. They included three: Economic Growth, Social Protection Network and Vulnerable Sectors. At that moment, the main criticisms where around the lack of visibility of efforts dedicated to Good Governance, decentralization, environment and gender among other. The presentation was done to CON- PES and to the International Community. There was no consultation beyond these presentations. When questioned, the government officials declared that there was a major time pressure to present the Interim Document to the Directory of the World Bank and that there would be time when they would present the Programs and Projects. This time, some changes where made, especially to include a fourth pillar of Good Governance, an a few transversal axis, decentralization, environment and gender. Although these changes where proposed by civil organizations, the main pressure - and the one the government responded to - was from the international community at a time when the government of Alemán was under heavy criticisms both nationally and internationally because of corruption, lack of transparency, authoritarism and other. In May 2000, the government presented for the first time the matrix of programs and projects to CONPES. The analysis showed that most of the projects and programs where not new, but already in progress. Some of them had been in place for several years already, as was the case of the Reform to the Health Sector financed with a series of loans from the World Bank that started in the early 90´s. This particular program has not been evaluated to conclude if it reduces poverty or makes it deeper with the privatization of public health services, as some organizations believe. The Matrix was evaluated by a group of experts but did not take into account the opinions of civil society organizations. The Coordinadora Civil - once again - insisted in the urgency to consult the document beyond CONPES. In June a group of organizations with the government discussed and defined a methodology and a plan to consult the Strategy out of Managua. In July 2000, the government secretly sent the Interim Document to the Board of the World Bank. And we say, secretly because in Nicaragua nobody apart from the government knew that 28
the interim document was already in Washington. When the Coordinadora demanded the document, they said it was been translated to Spanish, since it was written in English. It took the government three months to finally make it public in Nicaragua. At that time, following the pressure promoted by the Coordinadora Civil and the international community, a joint effort from the government, CONPES and some of the donors to define a methodology and a procedure to present the PRSP and to consult the organizations and local governments in the departments started. It concluded with an agreement to carry on what was called PROCONSULTA (Project of Consultation) to be started in the following months. At the Board of the World Bank, the Interim Document was approved with a few comments and a lot of support saying that it was very good and it didn’t need changes. The original plan after that was that the Final Document would be approved in March 2001 without further consultation. The Civil Coordination started its own evaluation and to organize its consultation process. At the same time, the CC communicated with some international NGO´s and donors to let them know their concerns related to the PRSP process. Simultaneously, the local governments and organizations of the León Norte area that includes 5 municipalities carried on a local discussion process to established what were the needs identified by the population. Finally in January 2001, several organizations sent a letter to the Boards of the World Bank, the Interamerican Development Bank, the IMF, the G 6 in Nicaragua (Sweden, Germany, Spain, Canada, United States and Japan) stating that the document that was going to be approved did not have the consent from local governments and social organizations. As a result of this letter, the approval was delayed and the Nicaraguan government was forced to start a process of consultation in several of the departments of the country. The Coordinadora Civil had already started its own process that included forums in all the regions and departments of the country as well as with specialist in each of the main pillars of the Strategy. The results of this process were presented to the government in May 2001 and the officials promised to incorporate the main issues. They finished their process at the end of May and they included focus groups with so called ”poor people”. Later that year, there was a joint presentation of the three consultation process developed: the Coordinadora Civil´s, the national government’s and Leon Norte´s. Some of the proposals and concerns were very similar. The government accepted to form a joint commission to identify the common concerns and proposals. Nonetheless, later that year government officials in a National Forum on PRSP accepted that they did not incorporated any of the results of the consultation processes, not even their own. They said that there was no time to do it and that the PRSP was an alive document, that the important part would be when they would make the decisions about the implementation. Some of the main concerns expressed during the consultations where: • • • • • • • • The weakness of the Economic growth pillar The emphasis in asistencialism The incoherence between the text of the document and the list of programs and projects to be developed, that include programs that have been in place for up to eight years as the Reform of the Health Sector supported by the World Bank that has not been evaluated to see if it really addresses poverty issues or it is just more privatization and further endebtment. The emphasis on infrastructure versus investment and support to the producers. The ridiculous support to small and medium producers that has a single project of $2 million dollars for five years out of the $1,400 that totaled the PRSP, when everybody - including the PRSP document - accepts that that they are the engine of the national economy. The complete absence of the transversal axis like decentralization, gender perspective and environment. The lack of clear mechanisms of monitoring and evaluation of the strategy. The implementation of the projects exclusively by the central government, with out taking into account the municipalities or the social organizations. The Coordinadora Civil prior to the final approval by the Board of the Bank expressed these concerns to the World Bank. In the letter of response from Donna Dowsett-Coizolo, responsible for Central America in the WB, she declared that they shared most of our concerns and that 29
Page 1 and 2: kepan taustaselvitykset n:o 9 kepa
Page 3 and 4: Contenido Introducción Breve Histo
Page 5 and 6: Breve Historia o antecedentes de la
Page 7 and 8: en las Cumbres y Conferencias Inter
Page 9 and 10: gama de fines, temáticas, alcances
Page 11 and 12: siguen teniendo un peso muy importa
Page 13 and 14: (como las mujeres con discapacidad)
Page 15 and 16: Y el hecho más relevante de la Coo
Page 17 and 18: Los tres grupos coinciden que ni el
Page 19 and 20: se da con más facilidad con los go
Page 21 and 22: importantes. Una de ellas es la edu
Page 23 and 24: Anexo 1 Inquiry on the civil societ
Page 25 and 26: Anexo 2 RÁPIDA REVISIÓN DE LA HIS
Page 27: parte de sus acciones y recursos, h
Page 31: One of the main weakness identified

La sociedad civil organizada en Nicaragua, composición y ... - Kepa.fi

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?