I found this article in el Prensa Libre and thought it so aptly exemplifies the complexities and problems of development in Guatemala. In Escuintla, which is a big city not far from Antigua, the Consejo Municipal de Desarrollo, a branch of government, met to discuss what had been done by the community development organization Codode*. They found that after Cocode’s projects, there was still an absence of potable water, a proliferation of garbage, and incomplete projects. The mayor of Escuintla, some of the people of Cocode and El Consejo, who were charged with carrying out the projects, all said they weren’t responsible for the incomplete work. The head of Cocode was worried because the people were demanding an explanation, while another Cocode representative blamed the municipal government for being ineffectual, pointing out that few municipal representatives showed up for the projects and that no municipal representatives showed up at the meeting. One high ranking-municipal representative said that the problem was that his colleagues who are actually responsible were absent. He explained that it is difficult to create laws to make municipal employees attend meeting such as these, because these are where they are kept accountable.
If all that seemed confusing, it definitely is. It seems to me like a whole lot of inflated and faltering bureaucracy and blame throwing from all parties. It is too bad because Cocode, from the small amount I read about it, looks like it is a great initiative to make development more local and effective. Unfortunately, in reality it is clearly fraught with problems and ineffectuality. From the perspective of Cocode and this article it appears that the local government responsible for the projects did a poor job and then just avoided facing responsibility by disappearing. Looking in from the outside, it’s impossible to tell what the real cause of the failed development projects is. It could be that the responsible government is just not that good at their job, perhaps an effect of poor education? Or maybe it could all be contributed to funding distribution problems. All we know for sure from this article is that while development plans may look brilliant on paper, unfortunately in Guatemala when it comes to implementing them it can be unimaginably difficult.
- Elise Dueck
*Cocode (Consejos Comunitarios de Desarrollo) es una organización comunitaria cuyos representantes trabajan “ad honoren” por un año para la comunidad. Ellos se ocupan de fomentar el desarrollo de la comunidad a través de proyectos de infraestructura, mejoras de accesos, servicio de aguas, etc / Cocode is a commuity development organization, an attempt at decentralizing the governement and involving local citizens and goverment to make development more effective . You can learn more about it at http://www.monografias.com/trabajos24/consejos-comunitarios-nicaragua/consejos-comunitarios-nicaragua.shtml#consej
Hurania Melgar Making a comment
ReplyDeleteThis article goes to show exactly how much organization, time, and management any sort of development project really needs. The really unfortunate thing is that it is the people that really needed these services that are really feeling the impact of such disorganzation (among other things of course). This article reminds me of the lecture we had last week where in we discussed the infrastructural problems of Guatemala. Especially within the impossibility of being able to actually raise taxes in order to generate more income for the country due to the high rate of corruption. With a project such as Cocode, which tries to involve local people and the government to work together it is bound to have it's problems with corruption (among other issues of mangement). I would like to know who is funding Cocodec, and perhaps from there we can understand why the project did not get completed. As well what is the structural bases Cocodec is working with? Who is in charge? Was it the mayor of Escuintla, or perhaps the head of Cocodec? An overwhelming theme in this article is responsibility or lack there of. No one wants to be responsible for the unfinished projects yet from what I am getting from the article no one wants to take charge to actually finish the projects. Like Elise stated this article gives a very real example of the development problems in Guatemala. Perhaps by reading about these types of examples we can begin to understand the magnitude of implementing a development project in Guatemala.