• Over 3,000 families benefit from the project.
• The initiative brings together efforts from the civil society, local governments, and the private sector.
Paraguay, March 17, 2008 -- “Having the opportunity to work has renewed our hopes for a better life,” affirms Alfia Brizuela, one of the members of the Artisans’ Workshop in the city of Pilar, in southern Paraguay. This workshop is one of the productive initiatives supported by the Community Development Pilot Project (PRODECO, as per its name in Spanish). The project is supported by the Secretary of Social Action of the Office of the Presidency and has been granted US$ 9 million by the World Bank. Since its launch, the project has directly benefited at least 3,700 marginalized rural and urban homes. One of its main achievements is promoting synergetic action among civil organizations, local governments, and the private sector. The PRODECO program benefits the most vulnerable urban and rural populations in the Departments of Itapúa, Misiones, and Neembucú and is carried out under the National Poverty Alleviation Strategy. Prodeco aims to help finance productive projects developed by civil society organizations organized in Production Committees. Support is guided by community participation mechanisms in agricultural diversification, small businesses, micro-enterprises, handicraft workshops, and ecotourism, among other initiatives. Partnerships
Estela Chena is the corporate social responsibility manager for Textiles Pilar, one of the country’s leading manufacturers. She asserts that Prodeco’s actions have facilitated coordination with the private sector, stating that “This initiative is a big gamble; we plan to incorporate this production into our linens exportation line and create an exclusive and differentiated product.” As for the artisans, they are being trained by Prodeco, “which responded quickly to the program approach, also providing training, technical assistance, financing, and operational capital.” Chena highlights that a key aspect of the project is local capacity building, both among production committees and departmental and municipal institutions which help identify, define, and implement sub-projects. The creation of Departmental Development Committees and Local Development Committees has produced a common space for civil society and local and departmental authorities regarding decision-making and follow-up on sub-projects that directly benefit communities located in their territories. Silverio Romero, Superintendent of the Isla Umbú community in the Ñeembucú Department, comments that, to them, this program “has been very useful, allowing us to organize our work better. Our communities have so many needs that everyone’s support is required to provide answers.” Community Empowerment
The Paso Naranja neighborhood, located to the south of the city of San Juan Bautista, is a town in which most families’ work is oriented on washing laundry, tending gardens, and as domestic employees. One of the neighborhood’s residents and member of the Y’Pau Committee, Leonor Romero Amarilla, says, “I’m a single mother with six children; this job opportunity changed all of our lives.” She adds that seven months following the project launch, her committee had a community garden and 100 egg-laying hens. “This great work was accomplished by working together – neighbors, fathers, mothers, grandchildren, nieces, and nephews,” she comments. Secundino Velásquez Céspedes is a beekeeper in the General Díaz District, Ñeembucú Department. “In order to support my family, I took on many different jobs, I lived from occasional jobs until I ran into one of the Prodeco technicians who explained the project to me. At the beginning, we were a bit wary, but now my wife and I are very happy to have had this opportunity. Today I can say that I have a real job: I’m a beekeeper,” he says. Additional Achievements
It is encouraging that several local governments are requesting resources in their annual budgets to include municipal counterparts in the program, thereby showing confidence, commitment, and greater responsibility for the problems affecting their communities, based on a new mechanism that includes participation and transparency. The government strategy states the need for a new public economic and social management model, which is precisely the area in which the project has begun to yield its benefits. The project’s influence, as indicated above, has resulted in greater participation on both a local and departmental level. By creating spaces of institutional trust, this initiative has been able to replicate its participatory decision-making structure in all its spheres of influence. |
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