May 4, 2006—Latin America and the Caribbean region is home to nearly 40 million indigenous people, many of whom live in Argentina, a country that is not widely known to have a sizable indigenous population. “Not many Argentineans are aware of how many indigenous people there are in the country,” ventured Dorte Verner, Senior Economist in LAC working on an indigenous people project in Argentina. “In practice, they are thought to number anywhere between 600,000 and 2 million,” she said.
Indigenous people in Argentina are beginning to make their presence felt thanks in part to Bank‘s Learning and Innovation Loan program (LIL) that, as its name implies, uses novel methods to promote development initiatives in the communities.
Communities live in harsh conditions
Verner, a veteran of many regions at the Bank and known for her work with the very poorest of them, began working on the indigenous people project in Argentina last year and she becomes positively rhapsodic when describing the changes the project has triggered among the indigenous people living high in the Andes in Salta province in northern Argentina.
“These communities did not have any services to speak of before the Bank intervened. Now they have running water in their homes and they have constructed a health clinic and seriously increased their social capital,” she said. “The beauty of it is that they run the show themselves––they develop and implement the community projects themselves in addition to managing the funds.”
Building in Remote Communities
It is not easy to reach the communities up in the Andes in Salta. It takes at least 12 hours walking up to 5,200 meters above sea level to get to them.
Verner described the turnaround and awakening of the communities as nothing short of amazing. “It is not easy to reach the communities up in the Andes in Salta. It takes at least 12 hours walking up to 5,200 meters above sea level to get to them. Despite the inaccessibility and transport hurdles, the communities managed to haul 120 bags of cement for a water project. They had to get all the building material from the capital of the province, have it delivered at the foot of the mountains and organize support from various communities to haul the bags up using donkeys, and then of course build the water system. The conditions are really harsh, I tell you, it gets pretty cold up there.”
Participating in Development
Ability to overcome daunting challenges is just one aspect of transformation that has arrested Verner’s interest. The indigenous people have quickly learned to write proposals and to insist that politicians—who appear to have been taken by surprise by the newly developed shrewdness of this long ignored constituency—listen to them.
“The indigenous people of Salta feel empowered and they are now aware of what public services they are entitled to. They approach provincial public officials armed with specific demands based on what they were promised and refuse to budge until and unless they receive satisfactory answers to questions,” says Verner, who is clearly on their side.
Faithfulness to Traditions
What further amazes Verner, a macro-economist, is the deftness with which the indigenous people navigate the modern world while retaining fidelity to their traditions and customs. “Yes, many indigenous peoples are poor materially; some even face food insecurity and malnourishment is a serious problem,” she observes, “however, working with them has convinced me that poverty cannot be measured purely in terms of income levels, as culture and traditions matters too.
The indigenous people are not the poorest of the poor in non-monetary terms.” Still, Verner does not underplay the litany of problems that the community faces ranging from isolation, illiteracy, unemployment, lack of basic services, to all too frequent discrimination and exploitation.
Empowered Communities
Dorte Verner, a veteran of many regions at the Bank and known for her work with the very poorest of them.
Implementing this first indigenous community project by the Bank in Argentina has not been easy, as it has involved a new development approach in which the communities are being empowered to make decisions and do the work although traditionally the rural poor and indigenous people have been marginalized and had quite limited access to public goods.
Verner ascribed much of the success of the project to the dedicated team of local level facilitators who work directly with the communities to build capacity and the increasing openness by the state to consider new ways of approaching the needs of indigenous communities. The project will officially close in December this year benefiting 53 communities in six provinces in Argentina. “Of course, this is just the beginning. Much more needs to be done,” says Verner. Lessons Learned
Many lessons can be learned from this project says Verner, especially the lesson that sometimes all it takes is a little initiative, understanding, and seed money to get an isolated and marginalized community to organize and tap into knowledge and resources so that it can take charge of its destiny and to participate in the affairs of the wider society.
RSS