Planning and community development: case studies

2005

En los años 80 comenzó a generalizarse la opinión de que la Unión Europea (UE) requería estrategias de desarrollo rural más efectivas, fundamentadas en un desarrollo endógeno y en la creación de nuevas estructuras de organización a nivel local. En este contexto nace, en 1991, la iniciativa comunitaria LEADER 1 como una forma experimental de abordar el desarrollo rural en la UE, basada en un enfoque territorial, la creación de estructuras de gobierno locales participativas y una gestión descentralizada. En este trabajo se analiza los fundamentos de la iniciativa, y se describe su aplicación en la región capital de España (Madrid), a través de un modelo de planificación basado en el aprendizaje social. Se le presenta también como un ejemplo de cómo el programa, a más de diez años de su inicio, se ha convertido en un buen vehículo para articular eficazmente el desarrollo rural en Europa. Palabras clave: Aprendizaje, desarrollo endógeno, gestión local, partenariado, políticas públicas. L a unión Europea (UE) requiere estrategias más efectivas para el desarrollo rural, estrategias fundamentadas en un desarrollo endógeno Garofoli, 1992; Haan y van der Ploeg, 1992). El término ha originado numerosos debates y definiciones, pero sobre él existe un consenso más o menos generalizado al reconocer la importancia de los procesos sociales y la participación local y fundamentar este tipo de desarrollo. No se puede desarrollar a las personas, las que sólo pueden hacerlo por sí mismas participando en la toma de decisiones y actividades que afectan su bienestar .

2003

Participatory rural community development projects have become increasingly popular in the last 40 years. These types of projects promise to improve efficiency, sustainability, and democratization. Nonetheless, they are complicated to implement because, many times they involve a number of different sectors and a wide variety of actors who must collaborate and coordinate efforts effectively for a successful outcome. This paper, prepared by the Danish consulting firm, COWI Engineers and Planners AS, reviews community-driven rural development projects in Mexico and Central America supported by different donor agencies. The purpose is to extract lessons learned that could be applied to improve the project design of a new generation of community-driven projects sponsored by the Inter-American Development Bank. The particular focus of the paper is how to enhance participatory mechanisms and how to better assure the sustainable flow of benefits after externally provided project funds have been exhausted.

2007

Latin America attends currently to the construction of a paradigm of rural development based on the potentiality of the territory to encourage processes of rural wellbeing. Some international studies relating rural development to territory from an institutional perspective have recently come out, greatly contributing to the construction of a territorially based rural development in the region. The paradigm is mainly centred in a monetary approach, stressing the need to increase incomes at local level through new agricultural or non-agricultural production and/or increases in productivity as well as through education for migrating to urban areas. Development policies and projects that promote social and institutional transformation have to deal with the confrontation of those who oppose changing the status quo, particularly the local elites, and the resistance of those communities that consider that their identities may be lost as a result of that transformation. Therefore, a critical approach to territory (understood as an arena where different local and non local actors try to realize their projects) should be build up in order to comprehend the process generating rural poverty and development. The purpose of this paper is to present the main ideas and concepts of an analytical framework under construction that may allow us to understand rural development from a critical territorial approach. The hypothesis is that social mobilization of local actors is a main issue when approaching and promoting development in poor rural regions of Latin American countries, especially the organization of peasants and farmers as they constitute the majority of the inhabitants and are largely excluded from the socioeconomic and political system. 1 This paper is part of my doctorate thesis project conducted from 2006 and as a proposal these ideas may need further exploration. I will be very much grateful for receiving comments, critics and opinions.

2005