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MDGF-1917: Capacity-Building amongst the MAM People in Economic Water and Sanitation Governance [rd 2]

PLEASE NOTE THIS CONCEPT NOTE IS THE ORIGINAL SUBMISSION TO THE FUND. IN MANY CASES INDICATIVE BUDGET AMOUNTS APPROVED BY THE STEERING COMMITTEE ARE CONSIDERABLY LOWER THAN THAT REQUESTED AND INDICATED HERE-IN. FINAL BUDGET AMOUNTS WILL ONLY BE AVAILABLE AFTER APPROVAL OF THE FINALIZED DETAILED JOINT PROGRAMME DOCUMENT.
Wed, 2008/01/30 - 11:42pm — catalina.sobera...
Thu, 2008/01/31 - 3:44pm
Mon, 2008/02/25 - 1:46pm
catalina.soberanis@undp.org
English  (current), Spanish 

ID: MDGF-1917

Democratic Economic Governance
Round 2
(10/12/2007 - 31/12/2009)
Guatemala
$6,014,898
36 Months
Capacity-Building amongst the MAM People in Economic Water and Sanitation Governance [rd 2]

Attached Documents:

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A. Applicant Information

Latin America and the Caribbean
  • Lower Middle Income Country
  • Medium HDI, according to UNDP's 2006 Human Development Report
  • Rene Mauricio Valdes
  • rene.mauricio.valdes@undp.org
  • Carmen Aida Gonzalez
  • carmen.gonzalez@undp.org.gt
  • Rodolfo Cardona Mansilla
  • UNDP - United Nations Development Programme
  • Oficial de Programa
  • rodolfo.cardona@undp.org
  • Hilda Leal de Molina
  • WHO - World Health Organization
  • Coordinadora Unidad de Análisis y Planificación
  • hildam@gut.ops-oms.org
  • UNDP - United Nations Development Programme ($1,015,965)
  • UNICEF - United Nations Children's Fund ($1,473,390)
  • UNFPA - United Nations Population Fund ($528,045)
  • WHO - World Health Organization ($1,578,678)
  • FAO - Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations ($1,418,820)
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B. Concept Note

The Joint Programme is working towards the fulfillment of the Millennium Development Goals through its involvement in integrated water management in urban and rural areas of the Mam Region, Guatemala. It is looking to reassess the role and contribution of the Mam communities in the design and implementation of Government public initiatives, through improved dialogue and the promotion of a public services management system that will help guarantee wider provision and access to water and sanitation, in addition to promoting the availability of this resource and its eventual effective distribution. Furthermore, it seeks to strengthen Local Government, especially jointly-constituted bodies, in order to achieve effective economic management. Functioning on three levels – local, national and international – it also aims to achieve results in three areas, in line with the agreements reached by Governments in the Millennium Declaration of the year 2000: productive rural development, good governance and the fight against social exclusion.

Armed conflict throughout the 80’s deepened the economic crisis and led to an economic recession, lasting from 1981 to 1986, during which GDP fell annually by almost 1%. The greatest impact of these crises and subsequent economic stagnation has been the increase in poverty and inequality in rural areas, above all amongst indigenous communities. The lack of coordination between Government and the Municipalities in the affected areas meant that responsibility for providing basic public services and the construction and maintenance of infrastructure was ignored, and some areas of the country were largely neglected by the state. This polarization of the country contributed to a tendency whereby the meagre social investment that existed was focussed on territories where there was the least conflict and those suffering conditions of greatest poverty and isolation were overlooked. All of this, when added to racism and a culture of indigenous exclusion, has brought about a situation where some regions of the country, such as the Rio Naranjo basin in the Mam Region, have become a prime example of social exclusion. Situated on the border with Mexico, it has a population of around 400,000 inhabitants, more than 50% of whom are poor and 30% live in extreme poverty. The indigenous population represents approximately 80% of the total and more than 45% suffer extreme poverty. The Mam Indigenous People who inhabit the area have some of the lowest human development indices: 0.496 (as opposed to 0.64 for the whole country and 0.83 in the capital), with those for health at 0.541, education at 0.428 and income at 0.518. The majority of its communities are made up of workers from the informal economy and landless peasants, who migrate with their wives and family at harvest times from the highlands to the south coast, which makes them particularly vulnerable. Conditions of exclusion from access to basic public services give rise to very poor health indicators, which in turn have a bearing on the scarce attention afforded to women’s sexual and reproductive health needs. The region stands out as one of the most vulnerable regarding drinking water and sanitation. More than 200,000 people have no access to a safe water supply or basic sanitation. These deficiencies translate into poverty and precarious health conditions for the population living in the rural and peri-urban areas: 4 out of every 10 inhabitants annually suffer from diseases caused by water contamination, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene practices. Gastrointestinal diseases caused by water and food contamination are the second greatest cause of general mortality, to which may be added those related to irregular and inadequate distribution and deficient health and hygiene conditions, such as skin complaints, dengue fever, and other infections, which are at the heart of malnutrition and poor food safety, and subsequent human under-development. This situation has repercussions on the present and future productivity of the population. The time invested in gathering, transporting and supplying water to homes is one of the factors that explain the gender gap reflected in school absence. In villages where there is no water supply in the home or nearby, it is usual for children, especially young girls, to fetch water, a task that can take them up to three or four hours, time equivalent to an average schoolday. Another example is that most of the schools in rural areas lack individual water and sanitation facilities for young girls, a factor that inhibits them from attending or even going to school, since culturally they do not feel free or at ease to use them. If, in addition, these services are inadequate or non-existent, then the schools become a focus for the transmission of gastrointestinal infections. And when added to the fact that conditions in the home are also inadequate and water is unsafe, gastrointestinal diseases are one of the principal causes of non-attendance and even giving up school altogether. According to the 2006 UNDP Human Development Report, the educational disparities caused by a lack of water and sanitation facilities have a lifelong impact that is transmitted from generation to generation, and the Second Report on Fulfillment of the Millennium Goals in Guatemala (2006) warns of the seriousness of this issue for the country, concluding that the lack of basic water and sanitation facilities is closely associated with malnutrition and maternal and infant mortality. The report estimates that an increase of 10% of homes with adequate services of drinking water could reduce infant malnutrition by 8.2%. The Mam Region of Río Naranjo is situated in Guatemala’s volcano belt at the head of the river basin, with mountain soils characterized by steep slopes and sheer cliffs, with valleys, planes and uplands rising from 1,600 masl to more than 3,000 masl. It comprises the municipalities of: San Marcos, San Pedro, San Antonio, San Cristóbal Cucho and Esquipulas Palo Gordo, in the District of San Marcos, and those of Palestina de los Altos, San Juan Ostuncalco and San Martín in Quetzaltenango. All of these are organized into a Mancomunidad (Grouping of Associated Municipalities) entitled MANCUERNA. This organization represents a significant advance demonstrating a political will on the part of local authorities to work together in pooling their strengths and resources. They share a Strategic Development Plan and Water policy, but their activities are nascent and require technical and financial support. The area produces annual below-subsistence crops of maize and, to a lesser extent, wheat and vegetables, taking up 13% of the total catchment area, but this is where the largest part of the land surface is covered by conifer forests, representing 21% of the total area. There is also soil erosion and leeching of nutrients due to agricultural practices in areas unsuitable for cultivation, exacerbated by excess humidity and/or prolonged periods of rain (water erosion). The principal threats relating to water management due to human activity are the felling of natural forests and their structural degradation, the application of traditional methods of hillside cultivation without the appropriate techniques, the reduction of ground and surface water sources putting water supplies at risk (technically these can be considered to be exhausted, taking into account the slopes, population and conflicts of use) and the contamination of water resources by waste water, solid waste and chemicals. The causes of deterioration in water quality, in addition to contamination by sediments, pesticides and honey waters, is the lack of treatment of domestic waste water in most villages and the inadequate collection, treatment and final disposal of rubbish. The natural phenomenon of Tropical Storm Stan highlighted the extreme vulnerability of poor and extremely poor rural families. The precariousness of life for these families meant that they lost their farming plots and vegetable gardens which represented a source of food diversity. This has hindered and slowed development, with a drastic reduction in the availability of food for home-consumption and the loss of productive assets. Government Policies Within the framework of the “Firm and Lasting Peace Agreements” of 1996, ILO Convention No. 169 and the Millennium Declaration, the State initiated a transformation of public policy, prioritizing the reduction of poverty and promotion of rural development. Since 2002, it has promoted a process of economic and administrative decentralization, implemented through the Ley de Consejos de Desarrollo (Development Councils Law, Decree 11-2002), the Ley General de Descentralización (General Law on Decentralization, Decree 14-2002) and the Código Municipal (Municipal Law, Decree 12-2002), which establish a structure for the formulation, implementation and assessment of public policies, whereby: a) the central Government transfers the functions of developmental planning to the Municipalities, which already had competence for regulating services, b) the System of Local Councils serves as the framework for participatory planning, social auditing, transparency and good governance, especially at the level of Municipal Development Councils – COMUDEs – and c) encourages the grouping together of Municipalities in order to build their management and implementation capacities, by freely forming “Groupings”, which will allow them to achieve better territorial coordination and economies of scale in their joint projects. At local level, this “decentralized administration” requires an immense effort in order to make it more operationally effective. In the medium term, three aspects have been identified that need to be worked upon in order to bolster the System: a) linking participatory planning to the process of local budgetary allocation, b) forming political and social covenants, in which civil society and the Government assume joint responsibility for integrated water management (sources, use and treatment) with an emphasis on systems for supplying drinking water and sanitation, as well as water for irrigation, and c) achieving greater and improved participation on the part of the people, especially women (it should be mentioned that their participation in the areas of local decision making has not increased and continues at levels of no more than 2%). Adopting these aspects as its starting point, the Programme is aimed towards strengthening the processes initiated in the COMUDEs, in order to encourage citizen participation and social auditing in the negotiation, design and implementation of projects and in the provision of basic public services to the area of influence of the Río Naranjo Municipal Grouping, MANCUERNA, as well as to achieve good governance in their delivery. The United Nations System (UNS) The Programme is included within the strategy of the United Nations System, seeking to accelerate the achievements of the MDGs for indigenous peoples. In particular, it aims to have a direct impact on improving maternal and infant health (MDG4 and MDG5) amongst the Mam people, promoting access to safe drinking water and sanitation (MDG7), and the productive use of water in the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger (MDG1), as well as having a bearing on the promotion of gender equality and women’s autonomy (MDG3). Within the Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF), the Programme supports the local indigenous population’s right to effective social and political participation, along with cultural relevance, gender perspective and the elimination of discrimination in areas of dialogue between Government and Civil Society, in order to have an influence on increasing the range, access and quality of basic public services for water and sanitation, as well as encouraging their own human development.

The programme anticipates activities in 8 of the MANCUERNA municipalities that aim to strengthen the cooperation between communities, developed in the region over the past 5 years. The direct beneficiaries of the programme will be not only the poor and deprived communities, but also the municipal capitals and outlying neighborhoods requiring water and sanitation services. The promotion of good governance at the municipal and community level, making good use of the lessons learned in the integrated management of river basins, community empowerment and facilitation measures from the central committees of Ministries, are all being proposed to guarantee sustainability and replicability and to boost the results of the programme’s activities. Important initiatives planned for development in the outlying neighborhoods of municipal capitals where urban poverty is seen to be acute, and the semi-concentrated and scattered communities in rural areas, will support the application of regulations to improve the quality of water and effluents in municipal capitals and strengthen Municipal Management under the theme of water and sanitation governance. The results can be summarized as follows: RESULT 1 The sector Policies and Guidelines for the use of surface water for human and agricultural consumption, including sanitation, have been jointly defined and promoted by SEGEPLAN, the governing institutions and the Local Authorities in MANCUERNA. Outputs at national level: a. Administrative Institutionality at national level on the issue of water and sanitation, developed with supplies made available at local level through participatory development mechanisms; b. Policies, indicators and plans jointly developed between Government/Civil Society to increase access and provision of public water services (human and productive use) and sanitation, defined and promoted in the country’s municipalities and districts, with special emphasis on the region of MANCUERNA; c. Policies regarding payment for public services that guarantee economic and social sustainability, defined and promoted in the country’s municipalities and districts, with special emphasis on the region of MANCUERNA; d. Regulations regarding water quality for human consumption and sanitation as defined for national implementation with an emphasis on the programme area. e. Regulations regarding water quality for productive use as defined for national implementation with an emphasis on the programme area; f. Collaboration between Municipalities in integrated water cycle management in river catchment areas promoted at national level and based on the MANCUERNA model. Outputs at local level: g. Local organization and participation promoted by the municipalities, with an emphasis on the formation of Domestic Consumer Organizations and Agricultural Consumer Organizations for planning and policy making in the COMUDEs; h. The definition and implementation of municipal policies agreed with Civil Society in the COMUDEs to ensure the quality of supply of customer services; i. Municipal Social Communication policies which disseminate municipal plans for water and sanitation amongst the local population; j. Upper catchment area water sources protected by public/community partnerships in order to maintain ecological water flows; k. Regulations on the quality of water for human and productive consumption as defined and applied in the MANCUERNA municipalities; l. Waste water treatment promoted and budgeted for in the municipalities; m. The treatment of solid waste promoted and budgeted for in the municipalities. RESULT 2 Improved capacity-building in the MANCUERNA municipal authorities as well as amongst the Civil Society of the Mam People is providing effective technical and financial administration of water services for drinking, irrigation and sanitation. Planning capacity: a. Basic information on water and sanitation managed by the municipalities and shared amongst the COMUDES for planning and monitoring access, range and quality; b. Participatory planning of basic public water and sanitation services promoted by the COMUDEs, with an emphasis on male and female Mam consumer groups; c. Improved capacity-building and organization of OMPs (Municipal Planning Offices) towards the planning and management of public services. Funding capacity: d. The definition and implementation of municipal social budgeting for water and sanitation as a product of participatory consensus planning; e. The definition of a project portfolio through the participatory activities of the COMUDE and with the technical support of the OMPs; f. Governance and management of external funding for the project portfolio supported by the programme, especially through the national development bank. Capacities for administering the provision of services: g. Public service markets (supply and demand) developed with a public/community focus and public/community administration and co-administration systems institutionalized in MANCUERNA; h. Payment systems for basic public services defined in participation with, and put into operation by MANCUERNA. Capacities for infrastructure construction and maintenance: i. The capacities of OMPs for infrastructure building strengthened and put into practice; j. Increased access and range of basic public water and sanitation services, including water services for agricultural use, and quality improved; k. The operation and maintenance of infrastructure planned and programmed at budgetary level by the municipalities and MANCUERNA, together with social auditing. Capacities for risk management: l. A participatory focus on risk management applied to the design and implementation of projects, as well as to the supply of services; m. The regulations for risk prevention applied to municipal planning and operations; n. Alert systems organized and initiated jointly by the Mam People and the local authorities. Capacities for monitoring and evaluation: o. Monitoring of Social Participation is carried out by the Mam organizations and local authorities; p. Systems for monitoring the quality of human drinking water, water for productive use and for sanitation are institutionalized in the municipalities and audited by the COMUDEs; q. Systems for monitoring the population’s health are institutionalized in the municipalities and audited by the COMUDEs; r. Social auditing is a customary practice in the COMUDEs. RESULT 3 The experiences and lessons learned from private, public and public/private management of water and sanitation have been compiled and documented for the purposes of knowledge transfer and replicability as well as feeding into public policy-making. a. Experiences (locally and in the rest of the country) in the integrated handling of water and sanitation management have been documented, with an emphasis on those carried out in rural and peri-urban areas; b. The knowledge generated in the compilation of experiences and lessons learned has been disseminated at national and regional (Central American) encounters to initiate the horizontal transfer of south-south cooperation; c. The monitoring of the programme itself brings together the experiences gained and systematizes them, together with information from other partners and programmes in order to form the basis for future actions of the United Nations System.

As can be seen from the results, the implementation plan is centered upon three levels of action: local, national and international. Local Level At local level, the programme will be drawn up with civil society organizations and local authorities with a focus on rights. The participation of the Mam People in the COMUDES, especially their womenfolk, will be sought through their social organizations regarding the planning and monitoring of the programme’s implementation, particularly those whose members are consumers of the water resource. National Level National activity is based on the legal and political framework which has already been mentioned above. Apart from the laws already mentioned, the national action will follow the Policies for Integrated Water Management of the Presidential Secretariat for Planning and Programming – SEGEPLAN – and the sector plans subsequently defined by the Government. The Programme aims to strengthen the national levels of institutionality for water which were defined by SEGEPLAN’s Water Policy Unit and will promote cooperation with the central theme of “Natural Resources, Land and Housing” of the National Policy for the Integrated Promotion and Development of Women 2008-2023 of the Presidential Secretariat for Women – SEPREM. During the drafting process, work will proceed in cooperation with SEGEPLAN as a coordinating body. International Level On an international scale, the Programme seeks to internationalize experiences in local development in Guatemala. In order to draft and implement the Programme, coordination will also be sought with regional programmes with similar aims, such as for example the work being developed by the Federation of Central American Municipalities – FEMICA – in the integrated use of water, together with the programmes of other UN agencies regarding the economic activities of women, for example, UNIFEM’s Women’s Economic Agenda Programme. To this end, the organization of regional activities is anticipated aimed at exchanging experiences with close neighboring countries. Implementation Plan The Programme will last for 3 years. During the first year, the Programme will focus on activities in the initial stages that ensure local participation in the COMUDES already present within the region, especially through the experience of MANCUERNA, of those groups who are most disadvantaged by problems of water and sanitation so that a start can be made on the activities of joint organization, planning, training and implementation. In the course of this preliminary year, resources will also be directed towards compiling and documenting the experiences and lessons already learned. The idea behind this first phase is to prepare the groundwork for citizen participation at local level, as well as compiling information and feedback on experiences and lessons learned, with the eventual aim of formulating local and national policies and guidelines. Likewise, it will seek to facilitate the design of projects on a participatory basis, together with the budgetary preparation for their implementation. At national level, the aim is for the first phase to systematically feed the generation of policies, guidelines and the institutionalization of the competences relating to water management. During the second phase, lasting from the second year until the end of the programme, efforts will be mainly directed towards reinforcing good municipal governance at local level, in order to guarantee the administrative and financial implementation and sustainability of the supply of basic public water and sanitation services. This is considered to be the main phase of the Programme, in that it will provide local capacity-building for both the municipalities and the Mam People aimed at achieving a significant increase in the levels of provision along with improved access to basic public services, as well as a strengthened capacity for delivering these to citizens. It is worth pointing out that the programme does not seek to become a builder of infrastructures, nor a provider of services, because it is the municipalities in Guatemala who are expected to provide the financial and technical resources for improving both these elements. Therefore, the programme focuses on capacity-building, from an analysis of the underlying problems to the delivery of quality services. A third phase of the programme, running partly in parallel to the second, will be developed over the last six months with an emphasis on horizontal south-to-south transfer of experiences and lessons learned. The programme will strengthen regional institutionality through the increased contracting of local Mam personnel, as well as the promotion of gender equity, to ensure the cultural relevance and representation of women. For all three results, five agencies from the United Nations System will be responsible for supporting Central Government, the local authorities and the Mam People’s organizations: FAO, WHO/OPS, UNICEF, UNFPA and UNDP. Other organizations from the System may participate with the aim of obtaining information and the necessary technical and methodological support, as well as local partners who may be subcontracted as action implementers. The body in charge of the General Coordination of Results 1 and 2 will be SEGEPLAN on behalf of the Guatemalan Government. For Result 3, it will be UNDP who will coordinate the compilation of experiences and lessons learned, as well as their dissemination and transfer. This, however, will be an inter-agency task involving staff from the other four agencies. For each of the three results, all the agencies will contribute towards the implementation of the programme through the transfer of knowledge and methodologies to both the Mam People and the Municipalities and other institutions, in respect of policies, guidelines and other capacities. It is worth highlighting the special role of each: OPS/WHO in terms of health inequality, its determining factors, its repercussions and the means by which it is tackled; the FAO, in terms of food security, the development of water usage in the agricultural sector, and the management of natural resources; UNICEF in everything related to the use of domestic water supply and the proper disposal of waste; and UNFPA in the focus on gender, on communication and social participation. In order to ensure the sustainability of these actions, the Programme anticipates an emphasis to be placed on the following aspects: • Better coordination between municipal policies and the corresponding national policies, promoted by Central Government. The programme has a “bottom-up” design which aims to foster the growth of national public policies from the local level upwards, and envisages the dissemination of experiences and achievements amongst local actors from other COMUDEs in the country, which will allow the exchange of cultural customs involved in economic governance. • The strengthening of municipalities and their groupings, as legitimately elected authorities within the country’s democratic processes, entrusted with the provision of basic local services. • Support for the plans and programmes of the new Guatemalan government (which came to power in January 2008) aimed at developing the institutionality of water, exactly as it appears in their Plan for Government. • Improved harmonization between the promotion of land development under the Government’s technical procedures and municipal budget provisions, especially in terms of investment and maintenance. • And perhaps most importantly, the involvement of the Mam People’s organizations in integrated water resource management, with the aim of empowering civil society and local small business entrepreneurs in their activities.

Each of the participating agencies and their implementation partners will carry out the monitoring and evaluation of their corresponding activities, using harmonized instruments backed up by the Management Support Unit. At the operational level, monitoring and follow-up evaluation of programme actions will be shared jointly with the COMUDEs. The aim of this is to involve the highest proportion of the population. Given that the COMUDEs are made up of leaders, representatives, authorities and Government delegates, the idea is to carry out a socially audited monitoring process. Monitoring in the field will be supervised by a Monitoring Committee, formed by the Director of MANCUERNA, as representative of the municipalities involved, plus a group of no more than 4 people from Civil Society (at least 2 of them being women) chosen by the COMUDEs, as well as a representative from each of the System agencies. This committee will meet each time the production of monitoring reports is scheduled for the corresponding planning process and their due delivery. The technical side of Programme monitoring will be in the hands of UNDP who will use specific methods for monitoring the results based on the indicators proposed. It will be UNDP who have responsibility for coordinating the reports with the municipalities involved, and these will be responsible for writing them up and supplying information to members of the COMUDEs. There will be at least three Programme progress reports, one for each year of implementation, and the final report will also contain a report to the Secretary of SEGEPLAN and the Central Government Secretary for Rural Development. Finally, once the Programme is concluded, an evaluation report will be produced identifying and analyzing the achievements and difficulties encountered, as well as gathering contributions and recommendations for a follow-up programme. Indicators The following outputs and indicators have been chosen as central to the monitoring and evaluation of the anticipated Programme outcomes: Result 1: On policies and guidelines MARKERS: • Implementation of institutional reviews; • Definition and harmonization of the competences of governing institutions; • Agreement and implementation of internal institutional regulations; • Implementation of a national plan for increased access and supply of basic public water and sanitation services; • Approval of municipal water and sanitation plans; • Policy on payment for services made available to the country’s municipalities; • Agreement and implementation of basic standards for water quality; • Implementation of a Code of good practice in the supply of public services by municipalities and their groupings. INDICATORS • # of groupings who budget on the basis of the plan for increased access and supply; • # of COMUDES in MANCUERNA who plan on the basis of the plan for increased access and supply; • # of municipalities with policies on the payment of services at joint rates; • # of municipalities with customer service policies in operation; • # of municipalities with communication policies in operation; • # of municipalities with water quality standards in operation; • # of municipalities with risk management guidelines; • # of municipalities who apply the municipal code of good practice regarding water, sanitation and productive use. Result 2. In local capacity-building MARKERS • Implementation of a review of citizen participation amongst the Mam People with an emphasis on women; • Implementation of a review on the progress made in access and supply achieved in previous projects; • The strengthening of the organization of Community Groups; • An inventory of water resources and ecological water flows in use in the COMUDEs; • Establishment of a baseline for citizen participation with the emphasis on a social appraisal of the men and women of the Mam People; • Establishment of a baseline for the access and provision of drinking water service systems in MANCUERNA now used in the planning process; • Establishment of a baseline for the access and provision of water service systems for agricultural use in MANCUERNA now used in the planning process; • Establishment of a baseline for the access and provision of sanitation systems in MANCUERNA now used in the planning process; • An Information System providing availability indicators for ecological water flows, the supply of drinking water and water used for productive uses, access to sanitation and healthcare, functioning within MANCUERNA and now used in the planning process; • Implementation of the MANCUERNA plan to increase the access and supply of water and sanitation; • The application of knowledge by OMPs for developing the sector within the region; • Implementation of a portfolio of water and sanitation projects in the region; • The drafting of a regional fund proposal for the treatment of raw sewage; • Promotion of the participation of women in the Municipalities through Women’s Workshops. INDICATORS • # of female and male representatives from civil society on the Development Councils who are trained in the subjects of water and sanitation; • # of women’s workshops and women’s commissions trained in the provision of basic public services; • # of water consumer organizations with basic arrangements and agreements in the COMUDEs; • # of municipal employees trained in providing quality customer services; • # of municipal employees trained in the provision of basic public services; • # of protected water sources with improvements in the ecological environment based on communal agreements; • # of communal water access systems strengthened and in operation; • # of external fund management processes with positive results; • # of infrastructure projects for increased access and supply of water and sanitation in operation with risk management plans attached; • # of water infrastructure projects for productive use in operation and with risk management plans attached; • # of wastewater treatment projects in operation and with risk management plans attached; • # of refuse treatment projects in operation and with risk management plans attached; • # of public Service Supply Systems in operation with maintenance budgets; • # of municipal service supply companies formed and/or strengthened, and up and running; • # of community enterprises involved in the provision of services; • # of community enterprises run by women; • # of early warning systems against threats in operation • Trend and percentage variation in the frequency and rate of diseases transmitted through, or related to, water and sanitation services; • Trend and percentage variation in the rate of infant mortality and that of children under five years old, due to diarrhea; • # of cases of social auditing carried out in the COMUDEs; • # and percentage of schools, COCODES (Community Development Councils) and organized women’s groups trained in the “five golden rules” of food safety. Result 3. In experiences and lessons learned MARKERS: • Two regional encounters jointly arranged with FEMICA (Federation of Central American Municipalities) and CCAD (Central American Commission for Environment and Development); • The editing and publication of national and local experiences and lessons learned in Guatemala. • The organization of exchanges of experiences between groups and organizations promoting women’s participation. INDICATORS: • # of national and local experiences compiled and systematized; • # of exchanges between Municipal Authorities in Guatemala and Central America; • # of participants in regional encounters; • # of exchanges between Mam women’s organizations and institutions.

The UNS in Guatemala and its Experience in Joint Programmes The UNS in Guatemala is made up of thirteen agencies, funds and programmes already represented in the country. A clear example of the advantages of joint working practices was seen in 2005 in the response to events during the national emergency declared in the wake of Tropical Storm Stan. On this occasion, the UNS initiated an immediate response by reassigning regular programme resources and redirecting them to assist in the emergency. By launching a “Flash Appeal”, the UNS raised US$30 million made up as follows: WFP: US$14m, UNICEF: US$5m, OPS/WHO: US$3m, UNFPA: US$3m, UNDP: US$7m. (of which US$4m went towards shelters, and US$3m to logistic support and emergency programme coordination). This programme implemented important actions in the MANCUERNA region. Some of the lessons learned were: a) it is advantageous to complement the capabilities of UNS agencies by establishing permanent bonds with government and other actors such as NGOs; b) it is necessary to clarify the assignment of institutional and sectorial roles in order to avoid confusion over individual functions at central and local level; c) it was extremely useful to support the development of an information system focused on risk management in order to generate a platform on which to centralize and share information aimed at timely and effective decision-making; d) there is a need to incorporate Gender and Multicultural emphases in order to generate strategies towards risk awareness, reconstruction processes, rehabilitation and development, so as not to undermine the community’s own sense of initiative within the organization system, including their own style of leadership and their own mechanisms for survival. Principal Implementation Partners The principal implementation partners will be the Mam People’s organizations and local authorities in the upper catchment area of Río Naranjo, in the Districts of San Marcos and Quetzaltenango, organized into the municipal COMUDEs and MANCUERNA. National NGOs working in the area also have an important role to play and they have proven experience in providing water and sanitation services (capacity-building). Especially for Outcome 1, the key players will be representatives from Central Government responsible for water management: the Ministries for Environment, Agriculture and Health; bodies responsible for development planning: the Secretariats for Planning (water management unit), Rural Development and the Executive Coordination Secretariat of the Presidency; and lastly the bodies responsible for decentralization, municipal development, and the instruction and training of public administrators: the Executive Coordination Secretariat of the Presidency, the Institutes for Municipal Economic Development, Technical Training and Public Administration. Governance in the Evaluation of the Programme The Programme is based on the following implementation agreements: National institutions assume: a) responsibility for the project objectives, the achievement of results and the use of resources; b) operational control of the project, in the hands of a National Director, appointed by mutual agreement and according to UNDP procedures, responsible for the smooth running of the project. The UNS fulfils the following roles: a) providing technical assistance as and when required by the initiatives; b) support in identifying partners who can contribute additional resources, knowledge (good practices) and implementation skills; c) collaboration in the provision of operational support for contracting goods and services necessary to achieve the objectives set; d) codifying/systematizing good practices and evaluating or recommending their further improvement. Programme governance and evaluation will be ensured through initiatives established on two levels: Local level: The Programme’s Local Authority Body will be the Board of Directors of MANCUERNA, assisted if necessary by representatives from other municipalities in the region. This committee and its municipal organization will form the technical basis for the Programme. The Technical Planning Workshops will be charged with capacity building and the uptake by local authorities will be a key factor in this process. According to law, the COMUDEs have a mandate for acting as the forum for consensus-building in the exercise of Democratic Governance and will be the body through which the Programme will promote itself to organized Civil Society, with a large emphasis on the Mam People, as has already been mentioned. The programme will promote services through the COCODEs, the community councils, and facilitate the processes for participation. Social monitoring for the programme will be entrusted to the Consumer Committees which will be established or enlarged. Follow-up activities over the long term will be coordinated within these organizations. As concerns the UNS, a Programme Technical Committee will be formed with the participation of the FAO, OPS/WHO, UNFPA, UNICEF and UNDP. This Committee will be coordinated by UNDP. Its role will be to advise the Programme Coordination Committee (see below) and be a party to it, in order to hold regular meetings and oversee the progress made by the Programme. The Office of the Resident Coordinator will supervise the Programme through regular meetings with the Technical Committee. National level: General management will be in the hands of a Programme Coordination Committee, chaired by the Secretary of SEGEPLAN and comprising technical representatives from the Central Government bodies involved, the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation (AECI), the Officer for Inter-Agency Programmes, on behalf of the Office of the Resident Coordinator and the UNS Technical Committee. This Committee will have the task of monitoring the progress of the programme and defining its priorities, as well as issuing directives towards its implementation. The executive officer acting on behalf of the committee will be the Programme Director.
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C. MDG-Related Indicators

  • Goal 0: Millennium Declaration: an enabling environment (human rights, democracy and good governance)
  • Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
  • Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
  • Goal 4: Reduce child mortality
  • Goal 5: Improve maternal health
  • Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
  • 5. Proportion of population below minimum level of dietary energy consumption
  • 11. Share of women in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector
  • 13. Under-five mortality rate
  • 16. Maternal mortality ratio
  • 30. Proportion of population with sustainable access to an improved water source, urban and rural
  • 31. Proportion of population with access to improved sanitation, urban and rural
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D. Formulation Advance

Yes
$20,000
UNDP - United Nations Development Programme
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E. Resident Coordinator's Undertakings

  • The Concept Note has been reviewed by the national government and the UN Country Team.
  • If approved by the MDG-F Steering Committee, the UN Participating Organizations undertake to submit a draft Joint Programme Document within eight weeks of notification.
  • All UN Participating Organizations have or will sign the global Memorandum of Understanding with the Multi-Donor Trust Fund Office.