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This document has been elaborated by the UNDP-ART Bolivia Programme, in concert with the ART Programmes of Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Dominican Republic and Uruguay.
Katherine Grigsby Resident Coordinator of the United Nations System in Bolivia and Resident Representative of the UNDP Bolivia Claudio Providas Deputy Resident Representative UNDP Bolivia Giovanni Camilleri International Coordinator UNDP ART Initiative Enrique Gallicchio Chief Technical Adviser UNDP ART Bolivia Programme
Author of the publication Olivier Hidalgo Guillot Strategic Planning Expert UNDP ART Bolivia Programme
Translation Zeina Mogharbel Vallès
Design and edition Oihane Beñaran Muñoz Communications Technician UNDP ART Bolivia Programme
Acknowledgment The active collaboration of the Global ART Initiative and the ART Programmes of Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Dominican Republic and Uruguay is appreciated.
ISBN: 978-99954-819-8-8 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Bolivia, 2014 The contents of this publication can be reproduced as long as the source is acknowledged. The criteria expressed do not necessarily represent the views of the United Nations or UNDP. La Paz, Bolivia - 2014
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Acronyms ADELCO National Network of Local Development Agencies (Colombia) ADELDOM Network of Dominican LEDAs ADELMOPLA LEDA of Monte Plata (Dominican Republic) ADET Territorial Economic Development Agency APROLECHE Association of Milk Producers in the Dominican Republic ART Articulation of Territorial Networks for Sustainable Human Development AWP Annual Work Plan CAT Committee for Territorial Articulation in Carchi (Ecuador) CENSA Center of Farming Health (Cuba) CIADEL Inter-Institutional Committee for Local Development (El Salvador) CONALECHE National Council for the Regulation and Development of the Milk Industry (Dominican Republic) DECADA Project of Capacity Development for an Efficient Planning and Territorial Development Management in the Province of Dajab贸n (Dominican Republic) DGODT Directorate for Territorial Management and Development (Ecuador) DINAE National Directorate for Employment (Uruguay) FAMSI Andalusian Fund of Municipalities for International Solidarity FOGAR Regions United GADOR Autonomous Departmental Government of Oruro (Bolivia) HLF-4 Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness ILO International Labor Organization JMD Joint Migration and Development Initiative LED Local Economic Development LEDA Local Economic Development Agency MDGs Millennium Development Goals META Technical Committee of Territorial Articulation and Management (Ecuador) MIC Ministry of Industry and Commerce (Dominican Republic) MIEM Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mining (Uruguay) MSMEs Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises NCC National Coordination Committee NGOs Non-governmental Organizations PDLT Programme of Local and Cross-border Development
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PET MAN Project of Territorial Productive Economic Planning in Oruro’s Department — Commonwealth Of Municipalities PROCAL Integral Programme to Improve Milk Production and Quality PRODEM Programme for Municipal Modernization (Ecuador) PWG Provincial Working Group RADEL Network of Local Economic Agencies (Uruguay) RED ORMET Network of Labour Market’s Regional Observatories (Colombia) SDC Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation SEBRAE Brazilian Service in Support to Micro and Small Enterprises SENPLADES National Secretariat for Planning and Development (Ecuador) SETECI Technical Secretariat of International Cooperation (Ecuador) SHD Sustainable Human Development UCLG United Cities and Local Governments UNDP United Nations Development Programme UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees UNICEF United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund
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Foreword We are pleased to present this document, which compiles and synthesizes the main achievements in Local Economic Development attained in the last years by several UNDP ART Programmes in Latin America. By analyzing the successful experiences and good practices in the region, the document aims at stimulating debate on the key mechanisms and tools to promote a sustainable development that brings about real change to the living conditions of people. Development is a complex process that requires the active and coordinated participation of all actors, from governmental and sub-national institutions to civil society, the private sector and cooperation agencies. From this perspective, UNDP considers ART an instrument that facilitates the coordination and articulation of actors through the promotion of multilevel and multi-actor governance for inclusive economic development. In this sense, the ART initiative complements the new UNDP Local Governance and Local Development (LGLD) strategy, which focuses on the consolidation of decentralization and local governance processes. This document, which puts forward the methodological and strategic elements that characterize ART, calls for reflecting on how to foster exchanges and innovations between countries under the South-South cooperation modality. In this context, the UNDP ART Programme puts its experience and extensive network of partners at the disposal of the countries to disseminate successful experiences in local development, under a new paradigm that sheds the traditional donor-beneficiary relationship in favor of a more horizontal relation between “partner countries”. As the focal point for the Local Economic Development component of the ART Programmes in Latin America, UNDP ART Bolivia has spearheaded the elaboration process of this document. This systematization is the product of an extensive participative process that incorporates the contributions of countries such as Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay, in addition to Bolivia. The publication of this document grants me the opportunity to sincerely thank these countries and their respective ART Programmes for their unwavering collaboration and for their quality contributions, which have made this document an indispensable consultation tool. The document does not aim at being exhaustive or at determining a “one fits all” solution to the challenges posed by economic development in our countries. Rather, it seeks to outline leads for reflection that are based on the concrete experiences of several countries at the local level. We hope these provide a deeper insight into UNDP ART Initiative, facilitate decision-making and further exchanges between these countries. Katherine Grigsby United Nations Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Bolivia 7
With their diverse natural resources, cultures and traditions, multiple social and economic actors with varying interests and relations, and with different spatial and administrative divisions, territories are local systems where people live in relation to their surroundings. Geographically speaking, the territory where communities live corresponds to a radius of roughly 500 kilometers. Within this space, the community grows, studies, works, has a family, produces, consumes, spends its leisure time, and generates —and in many cases resolves— conflicts. To a large extent, the opportunity to undertake vital projects depends on the relationship between the territory and its inhabitants, and on the capacity of public and private institutions to organize and offer accessible, highquality and sustainable services to respond to the populations’ needs. When this is not the case, citizens feel compelled to compete for basic needs such as water, housing and work, and abandon their territories due to the lack of opportunities, or discrimination, persecution and insecurity. The level of cohesion established between multiple territorial actors is directly linked to good governance, accountability, transparency, and less corruption and illegality, and therefore, to better democracy. The territorial approach to development has proven to be one of the most realistic, pragmatic and effective strategies to stimulate and consolidate governance and sustainable development on the medium and long term. It is also a determining variable to “localize” results, that is, to make the objectives agreed upon at the global level by the international community felt in the daily lives of citizens and elected local administrations; such is the case with the future sustainable development goals within the global post-2015 agenda. The ART Initiative (Articulation of Territorial Networks for Sustainable Human Development) aims at contributing to UNDP’s global strategy, by stimulating dialogue between territories as a strategy to face the global development challenges. It also seeks to increase the opportunities of the world’s citizens (from the North and the South) to voice their “common interests” on issues such as health, human and food security, work, rights, water and climate; that is, on all the inherent, necessary elements to human development. The challenge lies in linking the result of this dialogue between territories with the local, national and global strategies to generate higher impact and concrete improvements in people’s lives. To this end, the ART Initiative offers a programming and operational framework endowed with specific instruments that generate concrete practices and are able to translate technical, technological, management and organizational innovations in proposals and references that the countries can adapt and exchange, to strengthen local human development processes. The World Forums of Local Economic Development (LED), promoted and co-organized by UNDP in Seville (Spain, 2011) and Foz do Iguazú (Brazil, 2013), clearly showed how local and regional authorities, in collaboration with the territories’ socioeconomic actors, such as LED agencies, Universities, civil society organizations and the private sector, can
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share their respective experiences as a “resource”, while taking into account the different social, political, economic, cultural and religious contexts. This publication aims to facilitate harnessing and sharing the territories’ immense economic and productive potential, to respond to local needs and to compete in the national and global market. This work showcases practices and innovations in LED that have been generated by multiple actors who operate within ART framework programmes in Latin America. With the concrete experiences of six countries and wide participation of public and private actors, we hope that this document will offer new perspectives and facilitate exchanges between countries for an inclusive economic development.
Giovanni Camilleri UNDP ART Initiative International Coordinator
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1. The ART Initiative: Approach and methodology towards 2015
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improve the living conditions of people. In this sense, the LED experience of ART Programmes in the Latin American region represents a valuable and concrete conceptual contribution to support UNDP’s new strategy.
UNDP and the Strategy of Local Governance and Local Development The 2014 – 2017 Strategic Plan of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) focuses on promoting Sustainable Human Development (SHD), strengthening democratic and inclusive governance, and building resilience. The strategy for Local Governance and Local Development (LGLD) fits this framework, since decentralization and local governance are fundamental aspects of LGLD that need to be developed. Indeed, the strategy underscores the importance of supporting subnational governments to achieve better, high-quality public service delivery, of promoting the active participation of civil society in development processes and of prioritizing local economic development (LED). This strategy will start in 2014 in a number of countries in Latin America; it aims at harmonizing the interventions of UNDP, UNCDF and UNV in the area of local development and is understood as a means to facilitate territorial development processes that empower local actors through active social participation and inclusive economic growth. In this regard, the ART Country Programmes seek to put their experience in multilevel and multi-actor articulation at the disposal of UNDP, through a territorial approach and the participation of decentralized cooperation networks in concertation with other UNDP intervention areas. The challenge is that of establishing effective synergies under a rationale of joint work that allows reaching concrete objectives in democratic governance, to
How did ART start? What is it? The ART Initiative (Articulation of Territorial and Thematic Networks for Human Development) started in 2004, when UNDP and several other United Nations agencies signed an agreement to officially launch the Initiative. ART aims at promoting a new multilateralism that facilitates articulation among actors and policies in the territories. It supports national and local governments in implementing its decentralization and territorial development policies, through the establishment of an operational, programming framework (ART Framework Programmes) in the countries that request it. The initiative is currently active in 22 countries, nine of which are in Latin America.
How does ART work? What is its methodology? The ART Initiative is characterized by a specific methodology that combines the creation of local, national and global spaces and networks for articulation, with the promotion of the strategic and operational participation of multiple international cooperation actors. The Initiative fosters the implementation of 1
the principles of development effectiveness and improves the positive impact of human development processes.
In a context of economic crisis, what are the challenges of development effectiveness?
Beyond these general considerations, the ART methodology is flexible enough to adapt to the territories’ political and social particularities and their particular economic contexts. Moreover, the programme adapts to the strategic orientations of the UNDP offices where it operates. ART is able to mobilize and articulate a large number of actors representing the territories’ different interests and sensitivities: regional and local governments, the private sector, academia, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and civil society. The Programmes’ adaptability is the result of practices developed in the field over the years, in various countries and continents, as the need grew to join efforts with all actors to overcome the structural challenges of development.
The current economic and financial crisis unfolds an uncertain scenario in the field of cooperation and development. A new architecture for aid is being defined, with the incorporation of new actors (such as emerging countries) who assume a greater leading role vis-à-vis “traditional donors”. The UNDP and particularly ART programmes actively participated in the Fourth High Level meeting (HLF-4) on Aid Effectiveness in Busan in December 2011, advocating the significance of local development to achieve aid effectiveness. Various conferences were organized in Latin America (Colombia), Africa (Senegal) and Europe (Spain, Italy) to dwell on the importance of measuring aid effectiveness at the local level. These meetings were crucial to appraise the contributions of decentralized cooperation and local governments to improving development indicators. The complementary role of individual actors and the specific contributions of subnational actors, networks of local governments and organizations such as UNDP ART were seen as an opportunity for development effectiveness. The experience of ART in Ecuador, with the development of a tool for measuring the effectiveness of cooperation at the local level, is also worth noting.
Modern international cooperation is characterized by the high number of development actors who intervene in the countries. They often have common objectives; however, these are channeled through different administrative mechanisms and individual approaches. This generates an important dispersion that might jeopardize the interventions’ effectiveness. This is why one of the priorities of the ART Initiative is to facilitate a framework through which all support is aligned to local and national development strategies.
The UNDP is still very active in the post-Busan reflection and in the various consultative processes that take place at different levels in relation to the 2
future global post-2015 development agenda, the year the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) should be achieved. The objectives emerging from these participatory consultations will necessarily have to take into account the need for better coordination between actors and the importance of the local and regional levels in fulfilling people’s needs. The Initiative is supporting the debates on development effectiveness and following up on the agreements made during the Rio+20 conference.
ART and the World Forum of Local Economic Development 2013 The UNDP ART Initiative was one of the organizers of the second World Forum on Local Economic Development, with FAMSI (Andalusian Fund of Municipalities for International Solidarity), Itaipu Bi-national, SEBRAE (the Brazilian Service in Support to Micro and Small Enterprises), PTI (the technological park of Itaipu), FOGAR (Regions United) and UCLG (United Cities and Local Governments). For this Forum, the UNDP ART Programmes of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Dominican Republic and Uruguay elaborated a document explaining the main results in multilevel governance and local economic development in Latin America. It is hoped that this document will showcase the Programmes’ achievements and successful experiences in various Latin American countries and will contribute to stimulate reflection and learning. 3
2. The Programme’s Conceptual Framework: Local economic development and multilevel governance for the promotion of Sustainable Human Development
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The UNDP ART Initiative focuses its efforts on promoting local economic development and multilevel governance, seen as prerequisites to SHD. The human development approach promoted by UNDP gives people a central role in development processes. It seeks to expand their options and opportunities, improving their capacities to lead decent lives and have access to education, health, housing, technology, social inclusion and gender equality. This approach also strives to ensure the necessary conditions for the active and genuine participation of communities in daily matters, by giving them a say in the decisions that affect their lives.
of interventions and increasing their impact.
Decentralization processes As of late, there have been numerous examples of Latin American countries that have chosen to progressively adopt de-concentration o decentralization processes to give the territories a greater role in defining public policies and service provision modalities. It is undoubtedly a challenge to shift from policies that are defined at the central level and implemented by local institutions, to territorial policies where the national and territorial policies converge thanks to the articulation generated by local actors themselves.
In relation to multilevel governance, ART Programmes seek to foster efficient articulation between the three levels of action (local, national and international), based on the territory’s endogenous potentialities. These Programmes also facilitate mechanisms for dialogue and concertation among the various actors and institutional levels that operate in a given territory. This allows aligning development interventions to the priorities expressed by the territories through local development planning1. At the same time, this promotes effective articulation with national strategies of development, facilitating dialogue between various line ministries and local governments, therefore avoiding the potential fragmentation and overlap
ART Programmes are directly involved in consolidating the processes of competency and resource transfer from the central level to the territory, by providing technical support to local governments so they are able to better fulfill their new responsibilities, and to the central state, to help it avoid disproportionate and unbalanced territorial development. In this sense, the articulation between ART Programmes and the global strategy of governance promoted by UNDP is an ongoing process that constitutes one of the key factors of the Initiative’s success.
Local Development Planning is a participatory process where local authorities and stakeholders discuss and prioritize their long-term vision of local development. The process results in a development plan with associated interventions, often at the municipal level. 1
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Dialogue and participation of actors
Concertation platforms The working groups established at the local and regional levels with the support of the ART Programmes become concertation spaces where members are able to decide on the territory’s orientations from a strategic and investment perspective, through, for instance, the prioritization of productive development. These are multilevel and cross-sectorial structures that seek to respond to the territory’s needs and priorities. They are usually led by officials from local or regional administrations and have the objective of boosting complementarity between the interventions of National Governments and those of international cooperation actors. The articulation between national development policies and local development also allows strengthening national strategic planning and priorities at the local level.
From multilevel governance perspective, it is paramount to promote adequate spaces for effective concertation between public institutions and the private sector, as these two are not always accustomed to communicate in order to coordinate actions and join efforts. It is equally important to reinforce the presence of academia in the decision making process, taking advantage of its theoretical knowledge and innovation capacity, and of civil society, to legitimize the process while addressing the most pressing concerns of the population as a whole.
Local democracy The promotion of good local governance improves people’s capacity to participate in development processes and significantly improves public service provision by local institutions. Both aspects have very positive repercussions on human development.
Articulation between territorial levels The importance of articulation between the local level (for instance, municipalities) and the intermediate level (regions, departments or unions of municipalities) should not be underestimated. Working on these two fronts allows reaching more sustainable development, for interventions then take place through territorial and national policies alike. In this sense, the intermediate level appears to be the ideal platform to foster articulation between local and national development dynamics, to influence public policies and to ensure people’s
Multilevel and multi-actor articulation allows improving public policies and bringing them closer to citizens. This, in turn, reinforces the relationship between decision makers and citizens, as the latter become participants and leading figures of the processes undertaken in their territory. Indeed, the process is about overcoming the logic of “passive recipients of public services” and replacing it with “active, forthcoming players in public policy making”.
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democratic participation. Developing this intermediate sphere requires specific governance mechanisms that involve all local actors and national institutions, an element that UNDP has consistently promoted. The challenge of cooperation is to progressively abandon the approach of backing specific projects and bet instead on supporting integrated development processes. Working on defining and implementing local economic development public policies is a common objective of all UNDP ART Programmes, to generate dynamics of inclusive and sustainable economic growth in the territories that allow the gradual transformation of people’s daily lives.
individual progress achieved by the community’s members.
LED strategies UNDP ART Programmes support the territories in the definition of economic development strategies. These are elaborated in a participatory way and are based on the endogenous potentialities and resources, taking into account the territories’ political, economic, social and cultural particularities as well as national policies. The aim is to endow the territories with local capacities, and to generate decent employment opportunities and social equality, hence securing the welfare of the population.
Local Economic Development (LED) is one of ART’s main sectors of intervention. The Initiative has adopted an innovative approach to promote and support a sustainable and inclusive LED, based on years of learning in many countries and territories. The ART Initiative experiments with practical and alternative solutions at the local level, while their results in the field can feed into the theoretical debate at the global level.
Gender approach Despite the efforts made to date and the significant progress achieved, women still represent 60% of the poorest groups at the global level. UNDP considers that achieving gender equality should be an absolute priority, not only as a moral imperative but also because it is convinced that this is the best way to promote the prosperity and welfare of everyone.
LED approach The ART Initiative does not view LED as an objective or an end in itself but as a means to achieve a SHD whose effects are felt at the local level; however, this SHD is constantly articulated with the national and international levels. In the eyes of UNDP, people’s opportunities increase through local and community development, which grows with the
It is considered that inequalities related to gender are an obstacle to local human development. In this sense, the Initiative adopts a transversal approach to include gender in development processes, ensuring that the interventions it supports do not contain any discriminatory gaps. Concrete actions to empower and strengthen 7
women’s capacities are simultaneously carried out to allow them to renegotiate gender relationships in the professional and personal spheres.
economies, and a political focus, by strengthening the leadership of women as the foundation for an active citizenship and for participation in political and economic governance.
The active participation of women in economic activities has been emphasized, whether through actions in support of local economic development agencies or through the promotion of specific public policies.
Tools to strengthen a sustainable LED It is particularly important to set in motion instruments and tools such as Local Economic Development Agencies (LEDAs). The Agencies’ objective is to establish a public-private system of technical and financial services to promote the territory’s economic and social development, addressing the population’s needs but also those of local businesses and institutions. In short, LEDAs aim at ensuring that each and every actor is able to play a role in the territory’s economic development, bolstering synergies and joining efforts towards a common objective based on the territory’s characteristics and factors of opportunity.
All the Working Groups supported by ART’s Programmes place a special emphasis on gender balance in terms of representation. It is of outmost importance, particularly at the local level, to facilitate women’s true participation in these discussion and articulation spaces. This ensures that their concerns are taken into account and that projects and initiatives promote a gender equality approach that allows women to be empowered, particularly in the economic sector. Although gender issues are not always considered a priority by local authorities, UNDP ART seeks to position this aspect by involving all population groups in the territories.
ART reinforces local partnerships, gathering the territory’s actors (from the public and private sector, civil society, etc.) so they define a joint vision of the future and establish common development objectives through territorial marketing, among others.
The work carried out in the last years by the MyDEL programme in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua is worth noting, for it has laid the foundation for a strategy for the economic empowerment of women at the sub-regional level in Central America, through an innovative territorial and gender approach. The joint initiative between UN Women and the UNDP-ART Initiative had an economic focus, by empowering women economically so they be acknowledged as “stimulators” of local
A successful example of such a mechanism is the creation of chain values, which gather micro and small enterprises, cooperatives and other social economy modalities. The Initiative also endeavors to empower local actors and develop 8
specific capacities, in order to form agents of local development who foster participatory processes that invigorate the economic activity of a given territory.
can be uniformly applied to all countries. Although the Initiative started in Latin American countries, it is nowadays active in Asia and Africa (among others), where realities are vastly different. UNDP-ART has been able to adapt its methodology to the specificities of each and every case. This capacity for adaptation reveals the pertinence of ART’s methodology to development from a territorial perspective.
Exchanges and good practices The UNDP also facilitates international exchanges of experiences and good practices, to take stock of those lessons learned that are replicable to other countries once they are contextualized. This facet of ART’s work explains its active participation in international forums such as Foz do Iguacu on LED. On the one hand, it allows raising the awareness of local actors in relation to these events; on the other, the Initiative can generate a multiplier effect, for local actors who are not able to attend these events can, through ART’s Programmes, have access to the good practices presented in these forums.
To conclude, the specific added value of ART is the articulation between the local, regional and national levels (vertical articulation), and among the territories (horizontal articulation) through decentralized, South-South and triangular cooperation.
Nonetheless, the ART Initiative not only seeks to promote exchanges at the international level, but also at the national and regional levels, between territories, and within each territory. In short, ART promotes innovation and the dissemination of those lessons learned in LED that have the potential of being replicated to other territories.
Adaptability of the Initiative One of the main characteristics of ART is its adaptability to the territory’s realities and particularities. In this sense, there is no “magical recipe” that 9
3. Results Achieved By the UNDP ART Programmes in Latin America
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What follows are the main results achieved in various Latin American ART Programmes of the UNDP in the last years. To achieve a simpler and more dynamic document, information is organized along several main themes where the Programmes have had a significant impact.
Colombia Seventeen discussion platforms have been supported, where civil society proposals in relation to the Law of Land and Rural Development are presented. Concretely, in coordination with the National Network of Local Development Agencies (ADELCO) seven territorial forums allowed 1,100 persons from 150 organizations to actively participate in the discussion of the bill, which is currently a regulation in the process of implementation.
A specific section is devoted to the countries in the annexes, in synthetic fast facts that highlight the good practices of each country.
Impact on national public policies
Likewise, in close collaboration with ADELCO and with the National Directorate for Planning, discussion spaces were organized in ten cities; these allowed 1,600 persons to debate and present proposals to formulate the National Policy on Local Development. ADELCO continues working with National Planning on positioning of the policy, and has achieved recognition from this body for local development agency processes in the territory, looking for joint projects such as the Rural Mission, whose objective is to improve the profitability of Colombian agriculture. Through advocacy efforts on public policy, ADELCO is positioning itself nationally on the subject of local development and has made significant contributions to influence public initiatives such as: Rural Associativity, Transitional Justice and Income Generation and the rural development public policy, among others.
Bolivia The Programme participated in the design of the strategy of the Ministry of Productive Development and Plural Economy through the Council of Sectorial Coordination in Productive Development. This collaboration involved six of the country’s departments, facilitating better articulation between the sectorial policies promoted by the Ministry and the territory’s priorities. The Council is part of the technical team in charge of the coordination of the Bicentenary Patriotic Agenda 2025 organized by the National Government, whose aim is to design national policies in support of the country’s development. Moreover, in collaboration with the Ministry of Planning, the Programme has incorporated a territorial vision to the State’s Integral Planning System, through a database that improves articulation between national and territorial planning.
Ecuador The ART Programme has supported the decentralization process of competencies in productive 11
development and development planning. To do so, the Programme has worked closely with the National Secretariat for Planning and Development (SENPLADES) to elaborate the National Strategy for the Territories, which allows articulating public policies to the territory’s conditions and particularities.
point to articulate the strategy of public policies in the territories and to strengthen and create LEDAs as operational mechanisms that contribute to economic governance. The presidential programme “City for Women”, aimed at promoting the economic autonomy of women, has been incorporated to ART’s territorial methodology. Likewise, four national policies (centers for entrepreneurial development, touristic promotion of “populations alive”, centers for the promotion of investments and family agriculture) are implemented through the LEDAs.
With SENPLADES as well, and in concertation with the national associations of the three subnational governmental levels, good practices in decentralized and national management have been systemized; this constitutes a valuable input for public policy decision-making concerning LED in the medium term.
Dominican Republic
El Salvador
In 2012, the ART Programme supported the Government’s transition process in three sectors: small and medium enterprises, agriculture, and tourism, taking into account the need to invigorate the Government’s actions at the local level.
With the Presidency’s Technical Secretariat, the Ministry of Economy, the National Commission for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Tourism and the Vice Ministry of Salvadorians Abroad, the ART Programme has promoted the creation of the Inter-institutional Committee for Local Economic Development (CIADEL). This is a mechanism for the articulation of national policies of economic and productive development, with a special focus on the territories and the promotion of LEDAs as key management tools.
After negotiations between the LEDAs and the Vice Minister of Small and Medium Enterprises, and through the LEDAs network, it was agreed to implement a programme of support to medium and small enterprises with a territorial development approach. The creation of new LEDAs was also encouraged throughout the country, to offer entrepreneurial services at the local level. Moreover, an ADELDOM network was also promoted at the local level, for the management and localization of public policies on small and medium enterprises. Thanks to these alliances, more than fifteen agreements with national entities have
In the framework of the National Strategy for the Development of Marina’s Coastal Strip and of the National System for Productive Development, the Programme has become the Government’s reference 12
been made for the implementation of local economic development projects in the territories.
enterprises. There are currently three ongoing such inter-ministerial projects. Through the National Directorate for Employment (DINAE), the first territorial agenda for employment has been designed with the subnational level, companies, guilds, civil associations and the International Labor Organization (ILO). This agenda allows designing policies on employment training, in line with the territorial value chains prioritized in the country’s northern area, with a special focus on the timber value chain. There is an ongoing systematization of the experience to evaluate its replicability in other parts of the country.
Since 2008, the ART Programme has been implementing a pilot project for the integrated management of sectorial policies on the dairy value chain. The dairy chain has been organized in six Dominican provinces through local articulation groups active in this sector. In October 2013, the LEDA network organized, with all the sector’s authorities, the International Congress on Dairy Products, which will allow gaining and sharing experience in the management of the dairy chain. UNDP chose this experience as a good practice in South-South cooperation in Latin America.
For the first time, the gender perspective has been included in the marketing studies undertaken for the design of employment policies aimed at the Government’s third tier (i.e. municipalities), together with the Ministries of Industry, Work and Social Development, and Academia.
Processes for the territorial planning of the bee value chain were also promoted with the support of the “Milano Polytechnic University”, using georeferencing methods in Monte Plata and Dajabon. This exercise allowed the LEDAs of these territories to manage credit funds with the FEDA for a total value of USD 700,000, which has prompted a nationwide reviewing of this sector’s laws.
Support to strategies on territorial economic development
Uruguay Bolivia In collaboration with the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mining (MIEM), the ART Initiative has designed and coimplemented the Inter-institutional Committee of Local Development.
In some of the territories, strategic documents have been elaborated with a high participation of the territory’s actors and the ownership of the process by local institutions. This is the case of Tarija’s department, where UNDP ART Bolivia has supported the elaboration of a Departmental Plan for
The committee’s first objective is to generate a space for coordination between the institutions involved in supporting Micro, Small and Medium 13
Water and a productive-socioeconomic diagnosis.
Ecuador UNDP ART Ecuador is supporting the implementation of the national transformation policy for the productive sector at the territorial level, through the creation, with a zonal approach, of an agro-industrial eco-park in the province of El Oro.
Throughout 2013, strategic plans such as the Development and Peace Plan or the Strategic Guidelines for Local Development of El Alto Municipality have been published, disseminated and socialized. The productive competencies of 1,158 indigenous families have been reinforced through a stockbreeding project in the province of Ingavi.
The Programme is also coordinating the platform for the implementation of the joint project “Youth, Employment and Migration”, which has contributed to inclusive development through the generation of 1,134 entrepreneurship opportunities for youth (570 of which led by women) and financial and nonfinancial assistance to 1,479 youth (of which 1,142 are young women). Eighteen local financial entities and three LEDAs were strengthened as part of this process so they can offer their services to local youth in the provinces of Carchi, El Oro and Loja. Moreover, a system to support entrepreneurship and LED was developed. A key result of this strategy is the change from the National Programme of Popular Finances to the National Corporation of Popular and Solidary Finances.
Colombia LED issues have been included in various National, Departmental and Municipal Plans where ART is active and even in other regions. There have also been interesting initiatives to design a public policy of rural economic development from a territorial perspective. An example of the outreach of this process is the elaboration of the Competitiveness Regional Plan of Nariño. In the past two years, ADELCO has been working with the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, creating means for strengthening the construction of public, private and social consensus spaces that influence regional local development, such as: regional commissions on competitiveness, sectorial agricultural councils and municipal committees for rural development. These spaces seek to promote joint strategies where the government and civil society plan and execute actions for rural, local and territorial development.
El Salvador The Programme has lent its technical support to the Inter-institutional Committee on LED to implement the National Strategy for the development of Marina’s Coastal Strip in the five seashore departments. The Programme has supported the elaboration of LED departmental platforms, emphasizing on the promotion of women’s financial autonomy, on the insertion of youth at risk (violence, maras –gangs-) to the 14
economic and technological fabric at the territorial level, and on articulation with the diaspora (migration and development). In this case, the Programme also articulates the initiatives of the second phase of the programme “Joint Migration and Development Initiative” (JMDI) financed in nine countries by the European Union and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).
services in entrepreneurial development, in line with regional dynamics.
Uruguay The Departmental Strategic Plan of Artigas (2012 – 2025) has been elaborated; it represents a novel initiative in the country and has counted with the active participation of the political and private sectors and civil society. In this framework, a Council for Departmental Cooperation was created, representing the interests of multiple sectors and territories, to ensure an even participation in decision-making throughout the Plan’s elaboration.
Dominican Republic The ART Programme has lent its support to the provinces of Dajabon, Monte Plata, Valverde, Bahoruco, El Seibo and Sanchez Ramirez to design and initiate Strategic Frameworks on Local Economic Development. The territories’ potentialities have been identified, and value chains and entrepreneurial development services been identified and prioritized in a participatory way. This action has set the structural base for the localization of more than 15 national projects and programmes aimed at small and medium production at the local level, taking advantage of the platforms initiated by UNDP.
More than ten sectorial public plans oversee the implementation of the various prioritized actions, from infrastructure to the development of the various departmental value chains. The elaboration of the Climate Plan for the metropolitan region represents a pioneering experience in developing a strategy at the subnational and regional level on climate change, aimed at reducing carbon emissions and implementing adaptation measures within national priorities. There has been a high level of articulation between the Department and the Presidency’s Programme to mobilize resources and support the initiatives put forward in the plan. The latter has been elaborated in coordination with the national system against climate change, and its strategic guidelines contribute to the national policy in this regard. Some of these measures were incorporated in the national portfolio of projects on climate mitigation.
Likewise, the individual and collective capacities of the territorial institutions to put in place territorial strategies have been substantially improved with the financial involvement of the area’s actors, incorporating a gender perspective in LED strategies. The Ministry of Industry and Commerce has incorporated territorial development planning processes in LED and has started to identify the country’s potentialities based on local assets, local value chains and the demand for 15
management model through a strategy of social responsibility, and the GAL Valletenzano Task Force in Boyacá is specializing in issues of micro-financing, community tourism, and rural associativity, where it has achieved important results. Finally, Casa del Agua LEDA has stood out for its local development work with a differential approach emphasizing income generation work with indigenous populations and women.
Local Economic Development Agencies Bolivia Together with the LEDA of La Paz, the ART Initiative in Bolivia has supported the elaboration of a strategy designed to create a territorial trademark for the metropolitan area of La Paz. Moreover, the Programme lends its technical and methodological support to position La Paz as a point of reference in relation to public-private articulation.
Ecuador Several agencies for local/territorial development have been strengthened in three provinces (Carchi, El Oro and Esmeraldas) through specialized technical assistance and their inclusion within the Documents of Priorities, to promote the public-private articulation around territorial development priorities and achieve sustainable, equal and integral human development.
Colombia The Programme has supported the consolidation of the LEDAs and ADELCO’s Network, as a useful tool to generate employment and influence local public policies on LED in ten territories. Various LEDAs have been strengthened technically throughout the territory, and one of the major impacts has been the successful involvement of more than 9,000 families in programmes for the improvement of productive capacities and income generation, through the LEDAs of Boyaca, Adeproa, Nariño and Casa del Agua.
El Salvador CIADEL has institutionalized LEDAs as a mechanism for territorial economic stimulation and for the implementation of public national public policies; these are currently covered in the five coastal departments in the framework of the National System for Productive Development (Ministry of Economy).
The work on rural development policy should also be highlighted, which is being led by the Dinosaurios LEDA in Boyacá, as well as the new Norte del Valle LEDA which is championing a regional local development policy and four production chains for generating employment and competitiveness in the sub-region. The Zapatoza LEDA in the department of Cesar has in turn been very successful in its business
The LEDAs’ headquarters are offered by one of their members (whether local governments or private actors), showing the initiative’s involvement and empowerment. Local resources and members of the CIADEL cover the
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yearly running costs for the manager and equipment.
LEDAs have developed an evaluation that has allowed to improve their technical and managerial skills, push forward micro-finance, saving and investment mechanisms, and incorporate them to LED strategies through the creation of a Microfinance Network. The ART Programme technically supports the network of Dominican LEDAs (ADELDOM), to mange projects and implement various initiatives such as the OVOP Programme (one people, one product) of the Japanese Cooperation, the creation of a degree in project formulation and management and other specialized courses on productive value chains in the territories through the programme + Small and Medium Enterprises financed by the European Union.
The Programme provides technical assistance to CIADEL to create new LEDAs in the coastal area. In 2012, the LEDAs of La Union and La Libertad were created; Sonsonate’s was strengthened and those of La Paz and Usulutan are currently being constituted. The key strategies of these LEDAs will be the articulation with the national strategy for the development of the coastal strip and for the development of technological assets (seaports of La Union, Acajutla, international airport of Comalapa) and with the strategy of inclusive economy, as opposed to the big projects of national and foreign investment.
Dominican Republic Uruguay There are six fully functioning LEDAs in the Dominican Republic, supported by the Ministry of Economy, Planning and Development, and the Ministry of Industry and Commerce. The LEDAs are part of the Territorial Development Councils, which are mechanisms foreseen by the Law of Planning to channel the territories’ demands into the National System of Public Investment. These councils manage an average yearly portfolio of over USD 2,5 million and have channeled projects to the territories with more than 15 national institutions. The LEDAs of Monte Plata and Dajabon receive more than USD 1,250.000 from the Special Fund for livestock development. In 2013, the LEDA of Valverde received the “Quality Award” by ILS-LEDA.
There is a process of articulation between ten LEDAs, the national and departmental governments and the international level to promote Local Economic Development. LEDAs have assumed a leading role in generating dialogue with national programmes and in promoting active participation in implementing territorial policies. Likewise, the Network of Local Economic Agencies (RADEL) was reinforced in relation to knowledge management, local capacity strengthening, network construction, and articulation of the territory’s public and private actors. Over 2,400 persons have been trained in the framework of the RADEL, and there are ten national programmes and 75 programmes directly implemented by the agencies. 17
participatory management, helping to drive public policy and democratic governance tools in the medium and long term. The Nariño Experience was rated as one of 10 best development practices in Colombia, and the Government is currently in a process of appropriating the methodology to deploy it in different areas where working groups of articulators for territorial dynamics are being created around various Cooperation Committees. Local Economic Development Agencies will play a key role in the revitalization of these areas.
Working Groups Bolivia The experience of Oruro’s Department in Bolivia is worth noting, within the project PET-MAN (territorial productive economic planning in Oruro’s unions of municipalities). Four multi-actor working groups have been created; they are operational in four unions of municipalities in Oruro’s Department, where strategies and actions of social and economic development have been articulated with the territory’s private and public actors, the Directorate for Municipal Strengthening and the department’s secretariat of planning.
Ecuador Ten programming cycles (participatory, community processes) in seven provinces and two cantons have been carried out to articulate among sectors and public and private actors. Priorities for the territory’s integral development have been identified, as reflected in the Documents of Priorities. These documents are management tools for territorial development and are aligned with the National Development Plan.
Colombia Colombia developed the comprehensive ART methodology in the region of Nariño and in the town of Pasto, facilitating the creation of multi-actor and multi-level working groups that allowed implementation of international cooperation strategies where issues of local development with a territorial approach were prioritized as an essential element for peacebuilding. Support for the work on local programming cycles - and the revitalization of Nariño in this LEDA framework - allowed coordination of public institutions, the private sector, civil society, academia and international cooperation around a set of prioritized and aligned Documents that permitted effective management of territorial development. This allowed coordination of the different actors not only in participatory planning processes but also in processes of regional
Dominican Republic As a result of the establishment of territorial working groups in the provinces of Dajabon and Monte Plata, Territorial Development Councils have been created as consultative tools. These bodies are actually contemplated by the Law to channel the main demands of citizens and local institutions within the National System of Public Investment. The Councils of the Dajabon province, with the support of UNDP’s ART and PDLT (Programme 18
of Local and cross-border Development) and JICA’s DECADA, have pushed forward several thematic groups, allowing the linking of national institutions to local dynamics in relation to the territory’s main projects.
other, therefore overcoming traditional political differences.
Colombia The online teaching methodology "Course in Local Human Development with Emphasis on ART Practices and Methodologies" is available; it has been executed on two occasions and strengthened the capabilities of 50 members in regional cooperation committees.
Within the group on competitiveness and productivity, the ADET of Dajabon actively participates in the process and supports the design and implementation of projects at the provincial level to achieve coordination and articulation that benefits the local population, with the participation of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce.
Currently, there is an ongoing strengthening process for the different LEDAs through an assistance and qualification strategy under the international EURADA- ILS LEDA, which seeks to improve the local LEDAs network as well as strengthening the capabilities of the ADELCO NETWORK as a guarantor for the international certification.
Monte Plata’s LEDA supports the formulation of municipal Development Plans, with the support of PRODEM (Programme for Municipal Modernization) and in coordination with the DGODT (Directorate for Territorial Management and Development).
The LEDAs are also at the forefront of trends in national development by strengthening capabilities in areas such as access to resources through royalty programs and projects supporting innovation systems for MSMEs.
Capacity strengthening Bolivia
Ecuador
During 2012, the in-person class phase of the master in International Cooperation and Local Economic Development was developed in concertation with the University of Pablo de Olavide. This allowed gathering 40 participants who represented ten public and private institutions and four Bolivian departments. The initiative was a success in creating a space for exchange between institutions that would normally not engage with each
National and territorial capacities in LED were reinforced through multiple exchanges of experiences and good practices, in-country and with international experts. These exchanges led to the creation of an agro-industrial eco-park in el Oro and a conceptual framework to anchor decentralization of productive development within the productive model established in the Constitution and the “Good Living” National Plan.
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out with the participation of 605 persons in five provinces. Likewise, alliances have been established with local and international universities, for territorial strategic planning through GIS (Geographical Information System) methodologies and visual maps.
El Salvador The ART Programme has provided advisory services to establish territorial working groups in six departments: La Union, Usulutan, La Libertad, Sonsonate, La Paz and Morazan. There are also three Platforms for Human Development, whose projects have been financed up to 65 percent with local, national and international resources.
Through various international cooperation exchanges, the ART Initiative has boosted capacities at all management levels. The selection and presentation of good practices in SouthSouth cooperation between LEDA’s network and Cuba’s CENSA in the 2012 Knowledge Forum of South Panama, on the development of the dairy chain, reflects the important results achieved in this respect.
As to economic development, the working group of Morazan’s Department has become the national model for the implementation of the “Management of Water Resources and Sustainable Local Economic Development” strategy, which has allowed five national institutions to coordinate their respective public policies. This experience is being implemented and systemized; the Ministry of Environment and National Resources will replicate it at the national level. With the ART methodology, an economic governance model has also been applied to water governance.
The alliances with the Milanese Provincial Fund and the Polytechnic University of Milan have generated innovative experiences in territorial planning with visual maps. These have been replicated in the province of Monte Plata and used by national and local institutions to focus and improve their interventions.
Aid effectiveness
Dominican Republic Bolivia
The ART Programme has promoted governance mechanisms such as unions of municipalities, development councils and local economic development agencies, which have created capacities to mobilize funds and to articulate with national institutions and international cooperation organizations.
Ownership The working groups supported by the PET-MAN project have been institutionalized in the Oruro Department as statutory organs of the unions of municipalities. This allows ensuring the actions’ sustainability, given the level of leadership shown by local authorities. It is an example that
A total of 24 capacity building activities on the methodologies of saving and investment groups have been carried 20
will be taken into account for the working groups supported by the Programme in other departments. In this sense, the creation of a Strategy and Development Instruments Unit by Tarija’s department shows real ownership of the processes started by ART.
is incorporating the ART methodology approach into strengthening the National System of International Cooperation, seeking to decentralize the management of cooperation through Committees for Cooperation and Harmonization of Aid. It provides a baseline in 14 states on the effectiveness of cooperation on development, which is the basis for annual monitoring of progress in strengthening the National System of International Cooperation. Several regional Cooperation Committees are in a strengthening process to incorporate the ART methodology into their prioritization processes, capacity development and aid management.
Alignment Actions have been undertaken with the Ministry of Productive Development to improve its guidelines’ complementarity with territorial policies, through the establishment of six departmental agencies within the Sectorial Coordination Council in Productive Development, among others.
Harmonization
It is also worth noting that the LEDA strategy was recognized and appropriated in the National Development Plan for 2010-2014, a great achievement for the sustainability of LEDA work in Colombia. Local Economic Development policies were in turn incorporated into regional and municipal development plans, with emphasis on territories with the presence of LEDAs.
The presence of national actors (such as ministries) in the territorial working groups ensures that there is dialogue between actors that traditionally would not engage with each other. The participation of various cooperation agencies (Swiss cooperation, Dutch cooperation, UNDP, etc.) in elaborating the Water Plan for the Tarija Department is a clear example of harmonization among actors of international cooperation, and of their alignment with the regional government’s priorities. This concrete experience shows the importance of ART’s endeavor in promoting meeting spaces where the priorities of cooperation actors converge with the needs expressed by the territories.
Alignment The transfer of ART methodology appropriated by the Presidential Agency on Cooperation (APC) to strengthen the National System of Cooperation has created an Annual Operational Plan aligned with the priorities established in the country’s International Cooperation Strategy. APC and UNDP have jointly prioritized a number of territories, where they will implement a strategy to strengthen Cooperation Committees, through mainstreaming the ART methodology at the regional level, to
Colombia Ownership The Presidential Agency for International Cooperation in Colombia 21
facilitate preparation of Prioritization Documents that meet the needs of the region in the current context of peace negotiations. Also in process is a systematization of good local development practices with the ADELCO NETWORK and other networks, to capitalize on economic development experiences in conflict and post-conflict contexts relevant to the country’s new situation.
responsibility shown by local institutions. There are ongoing institutionalization and transfer processes in relation to the methodology proposed by ART, such as in Loja (technical committee for territorial articulation and management –META-), Carchi (committee of territorial articulation -CAT-, which is in the final phases of institutionalization through a decree), Playas (Management, Dialogue and Cantonal Council, institutionalized through a decree in 2013), and El Oro (Provincial Working Group –PWG- in the process of institutionalization). Over time, these processes will ensure the sustainability of the work done and its methodological transfer.
Harmonization The work done regarding coordination of actors in the context of the Cooperation Committees, currently in the process of defining priority agendas, will allow cooperation to be harmonized with the priorities established for the regions, and identification of the area’s needs in order to arrive at a combination of actions and multilevel cooperation.
Alignment The Programme’s Annual Work Plans, approved by the National Coordination Committee, are aligned and respond to the country’s work guidelines. Likewise, the ten Documents of Priorities (for Azuay, Bolívar, Carchi (2), El Oro, Esmeraldas, Loja, Los Ríos, Aguarico and Playas) respond to the needs and priorities established in the Development Plans and Territorial Management of the Subnational Governments within the regions of intervention. These documents are tools for managing territorial development, and allow for all investments, whether national or international, to be aligned to territorial priorities.
It is noteworthy that in the context of the work facilitated by the ADELCO NETWORK, other working relationships have been strengthened with strategic partners such as UN Habitat, the EU, and various embassies, to delve into issues such as territorial marketing, policy dialogue and strengthening rural associativity and microenterprises.
Ecuador Ownership Local and national Ecuadorian actors, whether public or private, have led the Programme’s project actions and activities; UNDP and the ART Programme have assumed a supporting role. In the territories, there has been strong local leadership thanks to the delegation, identification and
Harmonization Actions aimed at sharing information among donors, promoting complementarity among donors and simplifying procedures have been 22
supported, such as in the FOCAD projects in Carchi.
management in the territories, providing valuable information for the elaboration and implementation of institutional strengthening plans in this sector.
In addition, led by the Technical Secretariat of International Cooperation (SETECI), the Programme undertook a study on the division of labor and complementarity of cooperation, at the request of the Council of Global Dialogue of Cooperation. Good practices in the province of Carchi were identified, such as working groups and the Document of Priorities, whose implementation is recommended for the whole country.
El Salvador Ownership ART’s methodology has been assumed by CIADEL to implement the National Strategy of Marina’s Coastal Strip and the National System of Productive Development. All the methodological tools produced, such as the methodological guide for the promotion of LED, the methodological guide to establish LEDAs and CIADEL’s operational and political structure have also been taken over by the Commission.
Moreover, the ART Programme in Ecuador has elaborated an instrument for the measuring of Development Cooperation Effectiveness at the local level, and has implemented it at the national level. This experience has been carried out in alliance with SETECI and national associations of the subnational governments (i.e. municipal, provincial, rural parochial governments). The tool was implemented in 24 provincial governments, 216 municipal governments, 24 provincial associations of parochial governments, 32 civil society actors and 32 cooperation actors present in the territory. This exercise allowed following up on the current process of decentralization and competency transfer of international cooperation in the territories. It also showed its capacity to strengthen the capacities of subnational governments in decision-making and management of international cooperation. The final report offers an insight on development effectiveness at the local level in the country and on the institutional capacities of subnational governments in relation to international cooperation
The ART Programme has worked closely with UNDP’s Regional Center in Panama assist in the formulation of the National Strategy for Decentralized Cooperation. In light of this experience, the Vice Ministry of Development Cooperation (through the directorates of non-official, decentralized, SouthSouth and Triangular cooperation) has set the standard in public policy making, and El Salvador has become a pioneer in the formulation of public policies with a territorial development approach. The advice and support ART has provided, together with UNDP’s Regional Center in Panama, to the ViceMinistry in response to the Aid Effectiveness commitment, has facilitated the systematization of the “Integrated National System for Development Cooperation”, 23
documenting the experience in El Salvador to institutionalize the national bodies that are in charge of this public policy.
pushed forward the creation of LEDAs as an instrument for local economic development.
Alignment Alignment
ART’s promotion of LED is aligned with national policies in relation to planning and development and to the territorial implementation of the National Strategy for Development 2010 – 20130. The Programme has promoted articulation between the sectorial policies of three ministries, (Ministry of Economy, Planning and Development, Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Industry and Commerce).
Seven national policies (observatory of water resources management, promotion of development centers for micro, small and medium enterprises, rural tourism, women’s financial autonomy, prevention of violence and incorporation of youth at risk to the productive network, migration and development, national strategy of productive development) are incorporated to the territorial planning promoted by the Programme, financing local initiatives and transferring institutional technical assistance.
Harmonization The ART programme has supported the coordination and harmonization spaces for national bodies and donors in three different sectors. As a result, three agencies now use the territorial approach to development: FAO, UNICEF and UNHCR. Furthermore, there is an alliance with UN Women to mainstream gender issues in LED strategies. The Programme has 23 decentralized cooperation partners; they are all participating in the construction of strategic frameworks for territorial action, by implementing prioritized actions, exchanging experiences and strengthening capacities. The programme has also facilitated ten agreements with decentralized cooperation partners, in line with territorial priorities.
Harmonization Through the Vice Ministry of Cooperation, the Programme’s tools are presented to donors in order to improve territorial articulation.
Dominican Republic Ownership The ART Programme has supported the strategic planning of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce (MIC), particularly in relation to public policies on small and medium enterprises (which originated during the governmental transition), incorporating the territorial approach, localizing projects on small and medium enterprises and supporting the technical and operational design and startup of the new Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises. The MIC has included ART’s territorial approach in its planning and has
Uruguay Ownership The Programme “Salto Emprende” is fully funded by local and national programmes, whereas programmes and 24
national ministries finance socioeconomic studies. The local agenda for employment in Maldonado is a priority for the National Directorate of Employment, who funds it.
Alignment The working groups of Artigas, Bella Unión, Tomás Gomensoro and Baltasar Brum were the starting point of the first calls to elaborate the plan and of the creation of the Departmental Planning Team 2012 – 2025.
Harmonization The methodological implementation of the Programme has yielded successes such as Proyecto Franquia in Artigas. Initially proposed by the working group, the project was articulated at the local level with civil society and with national and local authorities, obtaining the support of the Spanish municipality of Huelva (decentralized cooperation). The project “Strengthening Environmental Protection in Franquia” aims at designing a plan of integral protection for the triple-border area through decentralized cooperation (Huelva municipality and Doñana municipality). The project has managed to include Rincon de Franquia in the National System of Protected Areas (within the National Advising Commission), in line with the Manjeo Plan guidelines, and with the approval of national, departmental and local authorities. Likewise, members of Argentinian and Brazilian NGOs, representatives of neighbors’ commissions and the general population have been included in the process.
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4. Challenges and Pending Issues
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This section offers a general reflection on the challenges facing the ART Initiative, by analyzing the lessons learned throughout many years of implementation. The ideas revolve around the current international context of cooperation, the need to establish a new strategy of alliances, the work carried out in the territories and the adaptability of the methodology to the territory’s particularities.
In this sense, it is necessary to systemize the experiences accumulated by the ART Programmes, underscoring the good practices that would allow a better exposure of the achievements and learning processes, to benefit the local and national actors who work with ART.
Work strategy in the territories One of the major learning elements stems from the adaptability of ART’s methodology to the territories’ specificities and idiosyncrasies. This means that ART is capable of adapting itself to changing environments and different institutional contexts. This way, it has been able to achieve high participation and the political leadership of the territories’ actors. Another key to its success has been its ability to generate inclusive spaces of negotiation that ensure the participation of the territory’s actors in decision-making, and its prioritization of interventions based on demand (at the local and national levels) rather than on the offer of international cooperation actors.
Resource mobilization strategy and alliances with new partners In response to the dwindling resources of international cooperation, a fact that could jeopardize the consolidation of ongoing territorial processes and their subsequent national ownership, it is necessary to promote a strategy of resource mobilization that seeks new alliances with decentralized, bilateral and multilateral cooperation actors. Such a strategy should also promote a wider role for national and local institutions, encouraging a higher level of ownership of the processes set in motion. In the framework of the Initiative’s current and future financial sustainability, South-South cooperation constitutes one of the most interesting paths towards financial and technical resource mobilization. Several countries that are not traditional donors have shown interest in the accumulated experience of the UNDP ART Programme in the last years, particularly in relation to its exhaustive knowledge of articulation processes in the territories.
It is essential to identify the optimal territorial scales to develop the UNDPART methodology, in order to ensure results and impact at the local level. In this sense, the work undertaken by Oruro’s department in Bolivia has demonstrated that working at the territorial level was the right choice. This has allowed working with several municipalities that had scarce resources in order to achieve a higher
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The kickoff and design of methodological tools that stimulate these spaces/working groups in the territory’s municipalities must generate participatory, inclusive and local planning processes on issues of human development.
impact on the population’s quality of life. All work proposals in relation to development effectiveness and to cooperation at the local level ought to be designed around the territories’ assets and endogenous potential. Acknowledging, appraising and building on this potential do not exclude a realistic approach to existing challenges, but they facilitate concertation and linking a wide range of actors towards a positive prospective.
It is vital to reinforce the linkages between the LEDAs and the working groups, in order to generate more synergies and to stimulate an inclusive and sustainable LED. This also requires more influence of the National Government in the territories, to promote the LEDAs’ political, social and economic sustainability. These should be brought closer to the Departments, as tools for LED differentiated from other financial institutions or consulting firms. It is also important to systemize the good practices and learning accumulated by the LEDAs, disseminate them and promote the exchange of good practices between them.
The institutionalized processes and articulation spaces promoted by the Programme allow approving and implementing projects in an effective and articulated way. Moreover, these processes and spaces promote a better division of labor and the complementariness of international cooperation actors. Working groups are a useful mechanism to strengthen institutional capacities in the framework of competency decentralization such as international cooperation management and productive development, and to promote their acknowledgement as useful tools for cooperation management. There are various examples of the institutionalization of these articulation mechanisms in different countries. This is achieved through a long dialogue process with all relevant actors in a climate of trust and mutual responsibility. The issue of institutionalizing working groups needs to be understood in terms of the intervention’s sustainability.
One of the challenges facing ART Programmes is the constant rotation of civil servants, both at the territorial and national levels. This has entailed the renegotiation of agreements in the best of cases and the temporary halt of activities and in worst-case scenarios. In this sense, it seems reasonable to try and work with those technical officers or civil servants who will remain longer in their posts. To mitigate the effects of these rotations, it is necessary to devote enough time to contextualize and explain the planned or initiated activities to the new authorities. The change in governmental positions through regional and local elections each four to five years, coupled with the lack of continuity policies, pose a 28
real threat to the advancement of regional processes.
mechanisms set in motion in the country and within LED policies. To do so, it is important to reinforce the capacities of ART staff members and of the territory’s interlocutors in this specific area.
It is also important to have strong inter-institutional alliances, consolidated political frameworks for ownership and alignment, developed capacities, spaces of participation and community involvement, and strategic sectorial, territorial or demographic projects. All these elements facilitate the continuity and sustainability of development processes and social transformation, which, as an example, aim at peace in Nariño, Colombia. The latter is characterized by its inclusiveness of traditionally vulnerable groups and their capacity development.
Developing local capacities to improve local human development will require a pedagogic approach and an ambitious capacity building strategy. It is necessary to develop capacities on ART’s local programming cycle to foster a higher degree of ownership of the proposed methodology by local institutions. The National Coordination Committee (NCC) is a coordination body that gathers the different actors of the National Government, territorial authorities and community of donors who participate in the implementation or financing of ART Programmes. The NCC, the working groups, Local Development Planning and the Documents of Priorities (or Territory’s Guidelines) have shown that they are valuable tools and spaces to facilitate dialogue and articulation between actors and governmental levels to plan and manage the territory, reach integral development and strengthen national decentralized processes (such as participatory planning, heritage management, etc.)
Alliances and inter-institutional networks should be territory-based (local actors and cooperation actors who have a presence in the field), and multilevel (the territory’s actors with national and international actors). This double dimension is fundamental to ensure the effectiveness of development cooperation at the local level.
Implementation and adaptation of the methodology One of the major challenges for ART Programmes is how to adequately transfer methodologies and tools to formulate and implement LED policies that are linked to territorial and national development priorities and that allow achieving SHD.
An instrument to measure the added value of the complementariness between actors and of the articulation of thematic and territorial networks that operate in the framework of the Initiative has been developed. The implementation of this Instrument of Added Value and its adaptation to
Likewise, it is key to effectively mainstream the gender approach within the articulation processes and 29
multilevel articulation and development cooperation effectiveness at the local level has become a strategic tool and a baseline within this new process. This will enable implementing the process from a perspective of development effectiveness in the future. These starting points will facilitate undertaking future evaluations and comparing the progress between regions, in order to have a better insight of development cooperation effectiveness and multilevel articulation.
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5. Annex: Good practices in Local Economic Development per Countries.
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ART Bolivia PROGRAMME IN SUPPORT OF PUBLIC POLICIES ON PRODUCTIVE DEVELOPMENT TO STRENGTHEN AND PROMOTE MICRO AND SMALL ENTERPRISES November 2012 - June 2014
Region: Departments of La Paz, Cochabamba, Chuquisaca, Pando, Beni and Tarija.
Objectives pursued: Strengthen articulation between the Autonomous Territorial Entities and Bolivia’s Central Government in relation to policies, plans, programmes and projects in productive development. Achieved results: Plans and productive development policies are harmonized and articulated through inter-institutional spaces that facilitate planning and prioritization in the territories. Planning and implementation productive investments have increased. Real distribution of competencies among the autonomous entities in relation to productive development and effective implementation of the Framework Law on Autonomies. Four productive projects in Pando’s Department, for an approximate investment of 61.116.827 bolivianos, have been elaborated. Marketing studies (TESA level, i.e. Integral technical, economic and environmental 32
studies) of five productive projects have been carried out. It is estimated that the investment will be around 100 million bolivianos. In the Department of Potosi, pledges for 13 projects from the 2013 Annual Work Plan (AWP) and draft 2014 AWP have been coordinated. The estimated investment will be of 142.354.969,47 bolivianos.
Success factors and good practices: Methodology implemented with strong national leadership. Coordination, dialogue and agreements with the actors involved. Approach oriented to solving local issues. The methodology is adapted to the advice of the territories’ actors, taking into account the socioeconomic reality of each department. Clear distribution of the actors’ roles in the process. Local empowerment. Replicability: The Initiative, based on the implementation of Sectorial Coordination Committees in Productive Development, has been successful. This had led other actors to request the initiative’s methodological support for other sectorial committees and productive platforms, for various thematic areas and geographical regions. Challenges / Sustainability: The commitments of all parts need to be closely followed up to achieve results. Likewise, to avoid duplications it is important to work on coordination strategies between the various sectorial councils. Finally, sustainability will be achieved by shifting departmental technical officers to internal positions within the Ministry of Productive Development and Plural Economy, and by generating setting new objectives for the future Council.
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PROJECT OF TERRITORIAL PRODUCTIVE ECONOMIC PLANNING IN ORURO’S DEPARTMENT —COMMONWEALTH OF MUNICIPALITIES (PET MAN) December 2011 - February 2014
Region: Department of Oruro, Bolivia (six unions of municipalities that tally 86 percent of the department’s municipalities). Objectives Pursued: The project seeks to consolidate and strengthen LED processes in Oruro’s Commonwealth of Municipalities of and their partner municipalities, strengthening them as strategic territorial spaces to plan the development of the Departmental Autonomous Government. Specifically, the project seeks the following results: Support the economic development processes of the Commonwealth of Municipalities of Aymaras Without Borders, Azanake, Litoral and Minera, strengthening their regional working groups, offering support, facilitating technical exchanges and implementing projects in the framework of the strategic guidelines prioritized by the working groups. Replicate the learning elements of the first phase of the Project “Territorial Productive Economic Planning Project in the Commonwealth of Municipalities” in the commonwealths of Frontera con Chile and Rio Desaguadero, by structuring the regional working groups, formulating the Territorial Economic Development Plan and elaborating profiles for the prioritized projects. 34
Systemize the experience of PET MAN in Oruro to consolidate a territorial local economic development that stems in the Commonwealth of Municipalities. Achieved results: An institutional strategic plan has been designed and implemented in each Commonwealth of Municipalities. An articulation space of territorial actors for productive development has been created and is operational in each Commonwealth of Municipalities. A private-public Plan of Territorial Economic Development has been designed and is operational in each Commonwealth of Municipalities. Two projects have been implemented. Six projects have been included in the 2014 AWP of the Department and of the Municipalities within the Commonwealths, with the participation of external actors (national and/or international). Others are being negotiated. Gradual ownership of the regional planning methodology, facilitating a higher execution of productive public expenditure. UNDP contributed with 80 percent of the funds in the first phase of the project, whereas it now finances 15 percent of the ongoing second phase. Success factors and good practices: The project lies within the Department’s political priorities to regionalize its planning / intervention and meets the needs of the small municipalities to partner with each other in order to generate higher impact projects. The Territorial Strategic Development Plan is a tool that guides: The organization of the Commonwealth of Municipalities, producers’ groups and support organizations. Public expenditure, based to the strategic guidelines of productive development agreed to in each territory. The gradual elaboration of strategies and processes (the project is in its second phase) facilitates higher ownership and leadership by the Autonomous Departmental Government of Oruro (GADOR) and the other actors. Replicability: The initial intervention was planned in four of the Department’s Commonwealth of Municipalities. Thanks to the success of the first phase, the Department and the Commonwealth of Municipalities requested UNDP to implement a second phase, to strengthen the ongoing processes and replicate the experience to other Commonwealths of Municipalities. The objective of the Department is to cover all its municipalities, to facilitate localdepartmental-national planning and create a departmental working group. Challenges / Sustainability: Continue supporting GADOR’s efforts to cover the whole territory. Transfer the methodology and financial responsibilities to GADOR and the Commonwealth of Municipalities.
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ART Colombia INCLUSIVE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN NARIÑO AS A PEACEBUILDING PROPOSAL –EVEN AMIDST CONFLICT 2008 - 2013
Photo: Borja Paladini Adell ©
Region: Department of Nariño. Objectives pursued and results achieved: In partnership with UNDP, Nariño’s Government, the municipalities of Pasto and Tumaco, Nariño’s LEDA and a wide range of actors are pushing forward innovative local and territorial development dynamics in the region, incorporating elements of good governance and democratic governance. These efforts have become an innovative modality for peacebuilding and sustainable development that stems from the local sphere, even amidst a tough armed conflict. Nariño’s actors are spearheading development processes through cooperation between various territorial, local, regional, national and international actors in a multilevel rationale. They count on the coordinated support of the Territorial Office of various UNDP programmes (ART REDES, DEI, RED ORMET, Growing up together, Window of Peace of the Spanish Fund for the MDGs, among others) as well as other initiatives by several United Nations agencies. In the economic sector, several concrete actions for inclusive economic development are carried out through innovative instruments for employment generation, 36
entrepreneurship, rural development, economic development of the territory, analysis of economic opportunities in the region and sustainable development Success factors and good practices: UNDP’s support has extended to a wide range of pilot initiatives that offer possibilities and ways to generate income and inclusiveness for the most vulnerable and excluded population; through various policies, local actors are taking ownership of these activities. A total of 6,933 families (i.e. 36.050 persons) participate and directly benefit from the various economic initiatives. Their participation is consistent (it is not one-off) and is carried out through various strategies: They are owners or providers of inclusive businesses. These persons are involved in livelihood projects ˆof living that have a technical support of at least two years. They have accessed seed capital (or credit) to finance their business and entrepreneurship plans. They are involved in training and capacity building processes (for instance with SENA –Pasto) on the design, implementation and financing of business plans. They own farms where diversified productive systems have been developed (such as the Shagra or peasant farms) that not only generate alternatives for a licit life but also protect and develop biodiversity, fight against climate change and protect cultures and traditional practices that stimulate biodiversity. Of these persons, 65 percent are women; 75 per cent of the families adopt an environmental approach in their economic entrepreneurship. All of them are excluded, highly vulnerable families (victims, rural youth, women, peasants, indigenous persons, afro-Colombians, among others). In addition to the economic aspect, the project tackles elements of governance and democratic governance, which enrich the overall experience: Transformative citizen participation has been consolidated, particularly in local and territorial development processes. Territorial, sectorial and demographic policies have been pushed forward on the short, medium and long term, incorporating the visions and guidelines for development elaborated by local institutions and actors. A strong locally-based ownership and leadership feeling has developed, which harnesses and convinces national and international actors to support the local proposals expressed in the above mentioned agendas.
The territory has several political guidelines that gather and develop the territory’s planning, with an emphasis on economic planning: The last two departmental and municipal development plans of Pasto incorporate inclusive economic development as a priority. 37
Sectorial and demographic policies that were formulated between 2008 and 2013 incorporate inclusive economic development as a main focus (gender equality and youth policies as well, among others). Territorial guidelines such as the “Plans for Living” of the indigenous, afroColombian or peasant communities enrich the inclusive development approach with rationales of “good living” and decent life. The Pacific side of Nariño has developed its Territorial Rural Development Plans, where its main economic choices and focus areas for economic development are well defined.
This process has allowed strengthening various local institutions (Nariño’s LEDA, Economic Development Secretariat of Pasto, Management Unit of Tumaco’s municipality), which are leading local economic processes. It is worth nothing the consolidation of Nariño’s LEDA as: A leader and coordinator of various processes for the formulation of strategic plans in Nariño: policies, competitiveness plans, integral rural development plans, and productive chain plans. A leader in processes that link lawful economic dynamics with territorial governance ones. A partner and main ally of various strategic plans on economic and territorial development in Nariño: Support to agreements on competitiveness and business plans for value chains (coffee, fique -a vegetable fiber-, dairy products, vegetables, cacao, tourism). Regional leader for the stimulation of inclusive businesses: Al Sur (marketing business of vegetables), support to the bi-national inclusive business Colenap SAS, direct support to the project Nariño’s Food, customs-free zone, among others). Regional leader in processes of economic and political analyses: elaborating studies on the active labor market, productive profiles for Tumaco’s municipality with an emphasis on the vulnerable and victim groups, productive profiles in five other municipalities, studies on the bi-national economic dynamics, studies on the strategies and good practices of rural development, diagnoses to stimulate development and peace programmes and strategies, design of a development and peace geo-referenced information system for Nariño, among others. Leader and promoter of knowledge and good practices exchanges: for instance, through the “DIRENA Programme: development with a regional identity between Spain and Nariño”. Support to regional dynamics that contribute to achieve development and peace conditions for Nariño; member of the Development and Peace Programmes Network of Colombia. Leader in advocacy for the formulation of public policies for regional development with an economic emphasis.
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Replicability: The process is being systemized and is at the disposal of interested actors.
Challenges / sustainability: The recent mobilizations of the farmer sector in Colombia have put the issues of rural development and peasant economy at the forefront of the Colombian political agenda for 2014. This situation has generated a major challenge: to consolidate the process described, developing it more intensely at the programming level, in order to access new resources that have been put at the disposal of rural development in Colombia for the year 2014. It implies, among others, to continue pushing forward the current process to guide the design of programmes and rural development interventions, and to avoid fragmenting available resources in multiple little projects of scarce impact. In 2014, a policy for the rural development of Nariño (CONPES) will be formulated, and it will incorporate many of the learning processes of this experience.
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ART Ecuador SUPPORTING DECENT EMPLOYMENT AND YOUTH ENTREPRENEURSHIP PROGRAMMES June 2009 - February 2013
Region: The provinces of Azuay, el Oro and Loja Objectives Pursued: Benefit the micro and small entrepreneurs who have been traditionally excluded from the formal finance system and need economic resources to acquire fixed assets or finance their working capital. Generate specific processes to improve the work and economic conditions of youth, through sustainable processes and public policies for youth. Achieved results: The Institutional Management Model for Entrepreneurship has been created, offering specific services for youth; it is based on a public policy that supports young 40
entrepreneurs through two financing lines for businesses and access to Guarantee Fund services (depending on territorial demand, production characteristics, gender considerations, payment capacity, and other externalities or market flaws). These new financial services have generated 1,134 new youth businesses and provided financial assistance to 1,479 businesses led by youth. Within this result, women’s economic empowerment and strengthening ought to be highlighted; their opportunities have improved, as reflected in the 570 businesses led by women. Eighteen organizations from the Popular and Solidary Financing Sector now offer credit for youth in the three target provinces. The National Programme of Popular Finances, Entrepreneurship and Solidary Economy has had its capacity strengthened and has been endowed with technical tools, contributing to its transformation into “The National Corporation of Popular and Solidary Finances” As an institutional policy, the National Corporation of Popular and Solidary Finances has allowed leveraging the Entrepreneurship Fund generated by this project (initially worth USD 424,710.00), with a funding of its own of USD 2,553,340.17 and a total funding of USD 2,977,050.17, generating 2,115 credit transactions for youth between 15 and 19 years of age.
Success factors and good practices:
Directly working with local financial entities. A methodology for the qualification of local financial entities and their strengthening. The creation of new financial products for youth. The joint work and coordination between the National Corporation of Popular and Solidary Finances, local financial entities and the implementing agendas of local development strategies (LEDAs, local governments, etc.).
Replicability: The intervention was originally foreseen in three provinces, but owing to the project’s success, the intervention’s area has been expanded to all the provinces in the country. The National Corporation of Popular and Solidary Finances has been invited to several international forums to present its experience as a good practice. Challenges / Sustainability: A permanent challenge is that of increasing the relationship between local financial entities and local governments, and motivating a higher number of young entrepreneurs to use the new financial services.
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“ZONAL AGRO-INDUSTRIAL ECO-PARK, FROM A PERSPECTIVE OF TRANSFORMING THE PRODUCTIVE MATRIX IN EL ORO PROVINCE” PROJECT June 2012 - December 2013
*DRAFT Region: El Oro province Objectives pursued: Undertake feasibility studies and the final design of the zonal agro-industrial ecopark of el Oro with a 100-year horizon. Diversify production, focusing on adding value to agriculture, fishery, aquaculture, biotechnological and research products, generating employment opportunities. Achieved results: Articulation between local and national authorities on the territory’s proposal for the transformation of the productive matrix has been achieved. The project is an emblematic strategy pushed forward by the National Government. Studies that can be directly implemented to transform the territorial productive matrix in the country’s south have been undertaken. Local capacities to assume the decentralized competency of productive development have been strengthened. The project has been positioned at the national and international levels, attracting international talent to support the project’s implementation.
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Success factors and good practices: Articulation between local governments and the National Government for the territorial implementation of a national strategy based on a territorial proposal. A solid positioning of the project thanks to a strategic partnership with UNDP. Replicability: Many regions are interested in replicating the project. UNDP is at their disposal to facilitate implementing similar projects, promoting local-territorial-national articulation and strengthening territorial capacities for the management of the decentralized competency on productive development. Challenges / Sustainability: The implementation of the project itself is the main challenge on the short-term, for it requires a higher positioning at the national and international levels in order to harness the necessary investments. For a better sustainability of the project and similar initiatives, the National Government should assume a strategy of national-territorial articulation for the implementation, execution and follow up of this kind of projects, adopting the project’s good practices.
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ART El Salvador IMPLEMENTATION OF THE NATIONAL POLICY OF THE MINISTRY OF ECONOMY/CONAMYPE TO DEVELOP BUSINESS CENTERS FOR MICRO, SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES BY THE LEDAS OF LA UNION January 2013 - December 2014
Region: Department of La Unión. Objectives pursued: Strengthen the linkages between national policies and territorial focus. Acknowledge LEDAs as implementing agents of national public policies. Channel public investments towards territorial needs. Promote the development of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the territory, ensuring capacities, technical assistance and financing through public resources. Motivate the development and competitiveness of fishing associations in La Union, generating employment and increasing performance.
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Results achieved: A cooperation agreement between two national public entities and the LEDA for the implementation of the national policy on the promotion of micro and small enterprises as well as a desk service for the promotion of investments. The LEDA’s capacity to serve national entities has been established as a sustainable model. LEDAs are territorial reference points for a more efficient and effective policy implementation, thanks to their knowledge and diagnosis capacity in relation to territorial productive units (specifically, fishery) and project design. Six technical officers from the National Government are now based in La Union to provide technical assistance to enterprises. Fourteen projects to support MSMEs in fishery have been financed from February to June 2013, benefiting 11 fishing associations, five of which are run by women. Almost 200 jobs have been supported; an increase of 10 percent in new jobs is foreseen. LEDAs have been able to recover costs (service provision, space renting and equipment for institutional technical officers). The experience has been replicated to other LEDAs (Morazan, Sonsonate) and expanded to other national entities (Ministry of Tourism for the implementation of the policy “populations alive”). Success factors and good practices: Articulation with national public policies thanks to the establishment of CIADEL at the national level and its linkages with the territorial level through the LEDAs, based on local needs. LEDA: Mechanism to stimulate public-private and national-local partnerships. Replicability: The experience is replicable to other LEDAs. The LEDA’s experience is an attractive option to operate other public policies, such as on Tourism, Agriculture and environment. Challenges / Sustainability: The LEDA mechanism, which integrates the national/local level in the implementation of public policies in the territories, can be consolidated; this would influence the elaboration and implementation of public policies that are based on the territories’ realities.
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ART Dominican Republic PROMOTION OF THE DAIRY CHAIN IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC WITH THE SUPPORT OF CUBA’S NATIONAL CENTER OF FARMING HEALTH 2008 - 2013
Region: Provinces of Dajabón, Monte Plata, El Seibo, Sanchez Ramírez, Bahoruco and Valverde.
Objectives pursued: With the overall objective of supporting a territorial development public policy, the ART Programme has facilitated an agreement between Cuba’s Center of Farming Health (CENSA) and the Dominican LEDA networks to promote the dairy chain in the Dominican Republic through ADELMOPLA (Monte Plata’s LEDA). To strengthen the LEDA’s work in the dairy sector, an integral programme of technical support to the dairy chain was established with CENSA, including national and local actors in the technical, organizational and structural aspects of the project. The national level worked with public health organizations (on the practical implementation of regulations on quality and innocuousness, good manufacturing practices, good practices in milk production, risk evaluation), with the General Directorate of Regulations and Quality Standards (to support those aspects of the 46
norms and regulations related to milk and dairy products, quality specifications, testing methods), with the Animal Health Organism (on programs to control transmittable diseases to human beings such as brucellosis, tuberculosis, mastitis, etc.). CONALECHE (National Council for the Regulation and Development of the Milk Industry) and APROLECHE (Association of Milk Producers in the Dominican Republic) played a decisive role at this level, and so did other organisms concerned with the chain’s technical and normative aspects. At the local level, the programme implemented concrete actions integrated in the chain, aimed at strengthening the economic process of LEDAs. These interventions were aimed at direct actors (milk producers, farmers, processors, distributors and eventually, consumers).
Success factors and good practices: Strategies that encourage growth and integration in the milk chains have been designed, and the foundations have been set to articulate national and local instances. Local produce has been brought closer to the country’s regulatory bodies; the latter has, for the first time, an exchange platform with representatives of a productive sector. The mentality in relation to organizational approaches has changed, which was a necessary step to integrate between producers at the chain level and producers at the economic level, within a fragmented sector crippled with a history of failed actions that led to mistrust between actors. National integration between the various LEDAs, with the constitution of an advising technical team composed of members of the Agencies in various provinces. It was recommended to establish organizational frameworks for the agencies, in the provinces and within the Network itself. The capacities of local actors have been improved in technical, organizational and normative aspects, contributing to initiate a process of empowerment that should continue to evolve favorably. Furthermore, the capacities of national technical officers, i.e. the producers’ permanent advisors such as those of Megaleche (improvement of dairy farms in the Dominican Republic), have been strengthened. Experts from other countries have been identified, to channel the contributions of international cooperation. A contract between ADELMOPLA, as the representative of the country’s LEDAs, and CENSA has been signed to market the Stabilak (a chemical to keep milk fresh as it awaits pasteurizing). The dairy chain has been fully integrated in three of the six LEDAs (Dajabon, 47
Bahoruco, Monte Plata), and articulated with national bodies; significant progress in the three other LEDAs has been made (El Seibo, Valverde and Sanchez Ramirez). A business with all the chain’s partners will be created and could become a model for the country. The rapprochement and participative exchange between producers and national institutions has endowed the dairy chain organizations with legal instruments to improve their actions and the quality of their products. The dairy issue has been inserted in local and national programmes, institutionalizing the process and empowering local and national partners. A number of good practices for primary producers were adopted within PROCAL (Integral Programme to Improve Milk Production and Quality) as well as a programme of good practices in manufacturing. A technology transfer took place as a first step for future endogenous production in the Dominican Republic. The complementarity between the various cooperation modalities managed by the LEDAs led to a common effort to improve the dairy chain. Collaboration with the Haitian partners of the dairy chain took place in Dajabon’s LEDA.
Replicability: The process initiated in the six provinces where LEDAs are present is used as a nationwide model to replicate and implement public policies on the dairy sector.
Challenges / Sustainability: Thanks to the integration of the dairy chain, more than 15 businesses and cooperatives have been created in the last year alone. This has contributed to increase employment and the income of small and medium producers. The National Association of Dairy Transformers was created In August 2013. In 2013 as well, USD 500,000 from the Presidency’s Special Fund for farming development were assigned to Dajabon’s LEDA, to support the dairy chain. In October 2013, the International Dairy Congress the was held in Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic, organized by the LEDA’s Network and the relevant national entities, with the participation of the Dominican Republic’s Presidency.
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ART Uruguay SALTO EMPRENDE (SALTO UNDERTAKES) PROGRAMME TO SUPPORT THE COMPETITIVENESS OF SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES 2009-2013
Region: El Salto Department Objectives pursued: Promote the competitiveness and development of MSMEs in El Salto by strengthening local services for entrepreneurial development. The strategy contemplates strengthening local services of entrepreneurial development aimed at improving the competitiveness of those MSMEs associated to three prioritized value chains (fruit farming, tourism and timber), to contribute to generate more a competitive environment through a public-private strategies and strong local-national articulation.
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Achieved results: Initial funds have been multiplied by ten; ten national programmes participate in executing them. Over 250 visits for promotion and advice have been organized, out of the 144 planned ones. The first advising center on 5 S technology has been created. Two microcredit funds have been implemented; this has allowed granting credits for USD 700,000. Over 2,500 persons have been capacitated thanks to the training programmes. Sixty business incubators were created in 2012. Creation and invigoration of associations in the fruit farming chain, with pledges of over USD 950,000. Success factors and good practices: Design of institutional incentives to allow local-national and local-local articulation to implement national programmes in the territory, ensuring high levels of quality and execution. A strong association with the private sector, who is involved in decision-making and co-executes the initiative. The private sector has consolidated its position as a strategic actor in the prioritization of the associated MSMEs. Ongoing training of human resources and consolidation of a technical team within the programme to achieve a higher impact. Raising awareness and advocacy with the department’s socioeconomic and political actors to highlight the initiative’s relevance and stimulate strategies that promote MSMEs. Replicability: The initiative has a high degree of replicability. It is possible to identify areas of replicability in the following areas: design of institutional incentives to allow national programmes achieving high levels of execution; agreements that guarantee mutual responsibility in the implementation of activities; methodological replicability in relation to the model of business services, the format of trainings and inter-institutional articulation; and the balance between strategic and operational planning. Challenges / Sustainability: Expand the network of partners who are able to influence the strategic decisions of the programme from a flexible, institutional public-private structure. Diversify the budgetary structure, incorporating new partners and programmes. Strengthen the technical team and encourage a more active role of academia in the programme.
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