La Jagua the Ibirico municipality is located in the north east region of Colombia, in the central sub-region of Cesar department.
In the 1980s La Jagua was mainly an agricultural town where livestock was the predominant economic activity; however, currently only 15% of the population lives in rural areas, therefore the relevance of agricultural activities to the town´s economy is minimal.
The provision of public services (water, sewer, and electricity) has been inadequate and infrequent. According to the Colombian Federation of Municipalities, in 2010, the percentage of people with unmet basic needs (public services that the local government should provide) was about 71.8%.
The Sororia River which is used as a source of supply of the municipality has deteriorated over the years, further risking the quality and provision of water that is already insufficient.
Sewage service has a coverage rate of 95% in urban areas and only 20% in rural areas, making the infrastructure and quality of service very poor. Also, due to lack of treatment processes and proper disposal, sewage and waste pollute water sources in the municipality.
La Jagua de Ibirico has lived in violence for years because of armed conflict and demobilization processes, which has caused fear and a lack of interest by citizens to engage with political and development issues of the municipality. Many mayors left office because of problems corruption and links to illegal groups. The guerrillas and other criminal groups have maintained a presence in the territory for decades because of its strategic geographical location that connects the northeast of the country with the Atlantic coast, the center of the country, Catatumbo and Venezuela. Los Rastrojos, Los UrabeĂąos and Black Eagles are criminal gangs that are present in the region. Their current activity is minimal and is aimed at ensuring the flow of illegal goods such as cocaine and weapons between the different regions of the country. They have been known to be involved in some extortion.
Over the past 15 years, the municipality of La Jagua de Ibirico has seen mayors removed from office because of mismanagement and links to armed groups operating in the region. Despite this, the municipal administration during the period 2008 - 2011, managed to get the municipality out of the fiscal crisis by investigating and restructuring tax issues of the municipality in accordance with the Law of Bankruptcy (Act 550 of 1999).
The process of fiscal cleaning helped the 2012 - 2015 administration to use public resources through the New General System of Royalties (NSGR) to obtain the approval for several infrastructure projects such as playgrounds, libraries, and the improvement of different roads of the municipality.
Political activity in the municipality of La Jagua is witnessed only at election time and although there are some political leaders in the region, they are active only at election time. Local elections were held in October 2015. An alliance between the U Party and Citizens Option Party won with 51.39% of the votes.
The constant mismanagement of the revenues’ resources in previous periods had been evident with unnecessary or incomplete works in the municipality. The 2011-2015 administration managed to finish projects and thanks to this was recognized positively by the local population. According to the National Planning Department (DNP), La Jagua had a budget of 37,510,639 million pesos for the period 2015 - 2016. By February 2016 the municipality implemented 34 projects, with another 27 already contracted and 5 very unclear, for a total of 66 projects.
Many sectors of the population still question the poor delivery of basic public services, lack of investment in social issues and the absence of productive projects that could stimulate the development of agriculture as an economic alternative to the mining sector. There are several instances of citizen participation in the municipality. These organizations can represent an opportunity to bring the community together and work on economic, political and social development within the municipality. It is crucial that their initiatives succeed even though they do not follow local government and private sector interests, and work together so that their efforts have a significant role in the planning and development of the municipality.
La Jagua de Ibirico is the mining epicenter of Cesar, which leads coal production in the country, and represents an important source of revenues for development in Colombia. However, this activity brings concrete challenges for the territory such adverse impacts on the environment, economic dependence on mining, limited development and weakened governance.
Dependence on mining has led the municipality to ignore alternative economic initiatives in the medium and long term. Since the arrival of mining, agricultural activities have been marginalized. Given that the coal reserves left in the municipality are projected to last for no more than 20 years, there is a need to think about the recovery of agriculture and investment in other sectors, and to create a parallel economy to the extractive industry that can lead to a prosperous and thriving municipality in the future.
The mayor for the 2012 - 2015 period was the first in the last 15 years to finish his mandate without being dismissed or jailed for mismanagement of resources or conducting relationships with groups outsaw the law. This reality has and contributed to the distant relationship maintained by mining companies with local governments, which unfortunately has affected the wider population, making it difficult to build trusting relationships that would allow for continuous dialogue in the municipality. The mantle of doubt and corruption that has accompanied the administrations over the past years has also hindered the relationships between mining companies, local institutions and residents. Although mining is today the main activity in the municipality, there is no social connection that makes the jagĂźeros feel proud of this activity. Also, mismanagement of environmental issues and pollution caused by the mining operation only worsens the situation.
Improving the future for the citizens of la Jagua depends on the proper use of the resource revenues on projects that allow the municipality and its residents to have a sustainable economic future, a civil society that works and participates in the planning of the development of the city, transparent management of resources, mechanisms of accountability, and access to information. Alongside this is the need to ensure good interagency coordination that fosters joint efforts with mining companies and the recovery and care of the natural resources.
For IRI, democratic governance is a system in which citizens participate in planning and decision making of the government. Meanwhile the government responds to the needs of citizens with accountability and transparency. With the program “Strengthening Democratic Governance in areas of extractive industry,� IRI seeks to improve the capacity of the national government and as local authorities to incorporate citizen demand on (public-social) policies relating to land use and natural resources, open a dialogue with industry leaders, and develop a transparent process for municipal use of taxes and revenues from these industries, while building and strengthening the capacity of civil society to understand these issues and advocate for the implementation of best practices. IRI works to help the different groups from different sectors and with different interests, that coexist in the municipality, to understand that they can and should depend on each other, work together and follow the law.