UCLG Position Paper v_2 (eng)
22/12/09
18:13
Página 54
A Compilation of Case Studies
eventually allow indigenous communities to directly manage development funds earmarked to their communities, which take into account their own cultural identity and traditional values.
The Nimlaha’kok and Nimlasa’chal micro-regions requested support from and collaboration with Herent in order to strengthen their governance, local capacity and autonomy. Herent has been very positive about its proven commitment and motivation regarding the partnership and the agreements made.
This legislation exists alongside a local governance structure that was developed following the 1996 Peace Agreements in Guatemala, designed to stimulate the participation of local communities in municipal development plans. Through their participation in COCODEs (Community Committees for Development, that exist on different levels) and COMUDEs (Municipal Committees for Development), communities are given the opportunity to establish local priorities for community development, voice their concerns regarding municipal plans and even participate in the consultation and budgeting process.
Analysis The micro-region coordinators or community mayors need help identifying local needs and solutions; they coordinate programs and projects aimed at the integral development of the local communities and supervise the protection and development of the natural resources within their area. The coordinators are assisted by the community councils. These are directly elected and in charge of the design and development of local plans and programs based on local priorities. All of these plans need to be presented to the central municipal council in order to be integrated into the municipal development plan for the whole area. This ensures the link between the micro-regions and the central municipal government in Cobán and the exchange of information and communication. The community councils of the micro-regions are entitled to manage technical and financial resources that they have received from the central municipal council though they can acquire financial resources on their own as well.
In this system, each micro-region proposes coordinators as candidates to the main municipality on the basis of an election in the local communities. The municipality, in this case Cobán, appoints these candidates. Micro-region coordinators participate in the municipal committee (COMUDE) of the Cobán region, whose mandate is to advise on developmental plans and budgets. The Nimlaha’kok and Nimlasa’chal micro-regions have a community council of second degree (COCODE of the second level). These councils consist of representatives of the coordination teams of all the local community councils (COCODE of first level). The coordination team of the second level COCODE, chaired and lead by the micro-region coordinator, takes care of the daily running of the region, of coordination and execution of projects in line with the priorities put forward by the community council and it looks after financial control.
Initially, the partnership between Herent and the central municipality of Cobán focused on several of the microregions as beneficiary communities, but some of the technical and financial support for the strengthening of the administrative capacities was directed through the central municipality of Cobán. Still, the implementation of the partnership agreements proved to cause unnecessary delays and was not at all inclusive towards the microregions. There were no provisions made in the central budget for the micro-regions in spite of former and formal agreements made beforehand.
In practice, however, the central authorities have not yet fully applied the promising possibilities of the legal framework regarding indigenous communities’ selfgovernance, and the micro-regions receive very little technical and financial support from the municipal authority in Cobán. About 99% of the population is indigenous, namely Q’eqchi’, and they are often forgotten or left behind by the central municipality, which is run mainly by the Ladino population (nonindigenous population of Guatemala). In fact, the Indian elderly councils are also seeking integration in these relatively new governance structures. In this way, their voice can be heard in the COCODE of the first and second level.
Gradually, the micro-regions started receiving financial resources from Herent to contract the necessary technical assistance within the area directly. The ongoing process of strengthening the community organisation, and the administrative and political capacities of the leaders, has been strongly facilitated by the fact that the civil servants from the municipality in Herent who are directly involved in the partnership, have lived in the Q’eqchi’ region for several years. They fully understand the Q’eqchi’ language and the indigenous cultural identity. This has been crucial 54