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MDGF-1829: Intercultural Policies for social inclusion and generation of opportunities

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.
Fri, 2007/06/22 - 7:02pm — kryssia.brade@u...
Fri, 2007/06/22 - 8:48pm
Mon, 2007/11/12 - 10:05am
kryssia.brade@undp.org
English  (current), Spanish 

ID: MDGF-1829

Culture and Development
Round 1
(26/04/2007 - 31/12/2009)
Costa Rica
$4,767,788
24 Months
Intercultural Policies for social inclusion and generation of opportunities

Attached Documents:

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A. Applicant Information

Latin America and the Caribbean
  • Upper Middle Income Country
  • High HDI, according to UNDP's 2006 Human Development Report
  • Luiza Carvalho
  • luiza.carvalho@undp.org
  • Leonardo Moreira
  • leonardo.moreira@undp.org
  • Kryssia Brade Jimenez
  • UNDP - United Nations Development Programme
  • Oficial de Coordinacion
  • kryssia.brade@undp.org
  • Silvie Duran
  • UNESCO - United Nations Educational and Scientific Organization
  • Asistente principal sector Cultura San José
  • s.duran@unesco-cr.org
  • UNDP - United Nations Development Programme ($2,090,113)
  • UNICEF - United Nations Children's Fund ($214,000)
  • WHO - World Health Organization ($238,610)
  • UNESCO - United Nations Educational and Scientific Organization ($1,572,365)
  • FAO - Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations ($652,700)
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B. Concept Note

The Programme promotes the cultural and social inclusion of marginalised groups and the potential for production of the creative sector and takes as a starting point La Libertad Park, a space for artistic, ecological and cultural-production related projects, which will serve 15 marginalised districts in the country’s largest built-up urban area; comprising 700,000 inhabitants (29% of the Greater Metropolitan Area and 16.5% of the country). It seeks to foster cultural policies in specific communities in order to prove the relevance of culture in supporting the achievement of the MDGs and to strengthen institutional capacity by means of lessons learned. It is based on 35 years of public programmes which have successfully included minorities and whose coverage can be extrapolated to a wide and diverse population with the necessary co-ordination and resources. It will provide strategic support to the development of institutional competences and of inter-sectoral co-ordination in intercultural policies, based on previous experiences which can be disseminated on a larger scale, managing adjustments and reforms to improve them.

The programme takes as its starting point the link between culture and development as a key element for social mobility, respect for human rights and consolidation of a democratic culture of peace, coexistence and creativity. Moreover, it promotes a vision of the country which includes its diverse constituent groups. The programme is in line with policies designed to support the productive capacity of the cultural sector (promotion of cultural MISMEs, artisanal and audiovisual consortia, creative experimentation with technology, etc.), and is the first of its kind in the country. Moreover, the following have been embraced by the policy: recognising “marginal“ urban-youth; rural and ethnic forms of expression such as: swing criollo, hip hop, garage music; and recognising indigenous and peasant knowledge of food and agriculture. In the education sector, it is linked to the current curriculum reform and incorporates aspects of indigenous rurality and population into the health and agriculture sectors, allowing inter-institutional learning for the strengthening of public policies within interculturalism and creative industries. It is also a response to the issue of the widening of the country’s social division. In 1988 the income per person in wealthy households was 11 times that of homes with fewer resources; in 2004 this gap expanded by 20 times. Poverty levels have remained unchanged in 20% of households since the mid-1990s. Those most affected are ethnic groups, migrants and refugees, women and young people and residents of outlying areas (see Annexes). In this context, the essential problem which this programme seeks to address is the deterioration in living conditions of different population groups whose economic exclusion is determined by sociocultural factors. Specifically, it is acknowledged that the younger generations are affected by a lack of institutional co-ordination. They do not receive the tools needed to incorporate themselves creatively in the current cultural climate and in the knowledge society, in order to become visible generators of cultural content. This problem affects urban youth and youth from ethnic minorities and various nationalities, all of whom are relegated to dilapidated environments and lack access to integral development opportunities. The set up of a Centre for the Promotion of Interculturalism and Creative Industries in the Park is proposed to address this sector of the population. Its beneficiaries will be: boys and girls, young people and adults from the populations of 9 districts immediately next to La Libertad Park; primary and secondary schools (12), Cantonal Councils for Food and Nutritional Safety, Cantonal Boards for Agricultural Fairs and corresponding municipalities; social and cultural networks and leaders, creative associations and groups from these communities; cultural and culture-tourism enterprises with the corresponding young people, women and men who generate revenue with them; cultural management, public cultural, education, health and production service professionals; institutions managing the country’s statistical information; companies with social corporate responsibility programmes; updated public employees. On an urban level, the intervention area includes: San Antonio de Desamparados, Lomas de Gobierno, Linda Vista, Río Azul, Patarrá, Tirrases, Guatuso. San Lorenzo and Fátima are included as areas of immediate influence and Desamparados Centro, Gravilias, Calle Falas, San Francisco, Curridabat and Zapote, as areas of lesser influence. In the rural area: Talamanca, Coto Brus and Aranjuez de Sardinal. Most of them are towns with conditions of particular social exclusion (general or focused), whereby the Programme is relevant in relation to the achievement of MDGs on the national level. It meets completely the aims of the sectors involved, indicated in the current 2006-2010 Jorge Manuel Dengo National Development Plan (NDP) and the International Sectoral Cooperation Agenda. It complements and brings innovation to the activities of the System’s institutions and agencies (See Annexes) and is consistent with the vision contained in the UNDAF, dealing in a localised manner with the intervention areas therein indicated: strengthening of social networks, promotion of expression for diversity, participation. The UNS country team contributes to the programme its integral and inter-sectoral perspective, which has facilitated the convergence of four sectors in the search for coordination and improvement of the approach to human rights as the framework to the problem of plural expression and creativity.

Comprehensively: 1. Institutional and inter-sectoral co-ordination competencies developed by the cultural sector in the management of intercultural policies for inclusion and generation of opportunities, together with three sectors: education, health and production. 2. Processes of dynamic decentralisation of services, shared institutional learning and systematisation in order to increase, renew and strengthen the public policy on interculturalism and creative industries. These processes have been implemented. 3. A vision of the country which is inclusive of the diverse groups which make up its planned and strengthened society. For each component, the achievement of the following is proposed: 1. 9 marginal urban communities in the most populous and critical area of the Greater Metropolitan Area and 3 rural communities (2 with a predominantly indigenous population and 1 whose population are mostly peasants), empowered in terms of their expressions of identity, their social capital, exercise of cultural rights and the sustainable exploitation of their cultural resources. The specific results which will allow this process of empowerment are: - Creation of the resource Centre for promoting interculturalism and creative industries: “La Libertad Park Cultural-Ecological and Commercial Complex”, from which a consistent programme of cultural research and action will be carried out for the training of social capital through art and development of creative industries. (Output 1.1) - Recognition of expressions of popular urban culture as part of the country’s multicultural character. - Recovery and revitalisation of traditional knowledge in indigenous and rural populations for its incorporation into rural and community tourism, into the agricultural fairs system and into schoolchildren’s diets, and the development of capabilities for intercultural negotiation. (Output 1.2) 2. Institutional competences for the management of strengthened intercultural policies in the culture, education, health and agriculture sectors on 3 levels: - Strengthening of the following policies (Output 2.1): • Promotion of the presence of popular urban culture in the Costa Rican image • Promotion of experimentation for the expression of manifestations of popular urban culture • Strengthening of the policy of incubation of cultural MISMEs • Strengthening of cultural displays to bring access to art with technology • Preparation of curriculum reform plans to adapt arts training to the local situation • The strategy of interculturalism and the Programme for the Creation of Ethnic, Aesthetic and Civic Competences • Health policies for Indigenous Peoples (particularly those relating to Food and Nutritional Safety) • Institutional modernisation of the Agricultural Fairs Programme, in relation to health and as a cultural offering linked to intangible heritage • Design of a system of certification of origin for agricultural and artisanal products associated with intangible heritage • Employees and strategic partners of institutions trained in work methodologies which respect cultural diversity and are favourable to the promotion of interculturalism (Output 2.2) • 100 artists and cultural managers (community employees and leaders) trained in local development and interculturalism to Technical Diploma level • 150 teachers of special subjects (music, plastic art, industrial art, education for the home, civic education, philosophy, guidance) and social studies from the educational centres of the 9 communities next to La Libertad Park, brought up-to-date by means of a competences update Programme designed specifically for this end • 1000 public employees of the culture, health, agriculture and community development sector, trained at interculturalism and ethno-science Workshops • Cultural indicators and statistics which are sensitive to cultural diversity, developed through local diagnoses, subsector studies, measurement of culture’s contribution to the GDP and a survey of cultural consumption, practices and basic needs (Output 2.3). • Social communication campaigns against discrimination (Output 2.4).

The design of the Joint Programme was led by the Ministry of Culture and Youth, in collaboration with the Ministry of Public Education and the Department for Food and Nutritional Policy (SEPAN). The latter is attached to the Ministry of Health, and is made up of the Ministry of Production, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Public Education and the Ministry of Work. It was supported by five agencies from the United Nations System: UNESCO, FAO, PAHO, UNICEF and UNDP. The request for support was channelled into the System with the support of the Ministry of National Planning and Economic Policy, which approved the drawing up of the proposal in a meeting of the Spanish Fund Steering Committee. An inter-agency and inter-institutional Technical Team worked on the drawing up of the Concept Note, with the support of the Cultural sector of the UNESCO Office in San José. The design of the Joint Programme emerged from the priorities of the Ministry of Culture and Youth and other very similar ones expressed by the Ministry of Public Education and the Ministry of Health and Production through the SEPAN. The proposal integrates the indicated priority surrounding the creation of La Libertad Park, into that which was boosted by this focal point, the incorporation of interculturalism as a focus of public policies - a global challenge recognised by all sectors as a shortcoming of Costa Rican public policy, not exclusive to the culture sector. This co-ordination was due to the needs and opportunities for synergy surrounding the social recognition and sustainable exploitation of the cultural expressions indicated as priorities by the Ministry of Culture in the target communities. Moreover, the creation of social capital was considered an essential process of shared responsibility for La Libertad Park’s general local development and for its appropriation by the local population. In this way, the Programme’s participative and inter-sectoral outline has been reinforced, as has the knowledge base and the institutional services which will be mobilised in an attempt to contribute to improving the sectoral policy for culture and to strengthening its mainstreaming effect. The Programme – which counts amongst its results the empowerment of communities representing the country’s cultural diversity and the strengthening of institutional competences for the public interculturalism policy – is linked to one of the direct outcomes of the UNDAF in the sphere of socio-cultural practices: “Socio-cultural practices have been adopted and promoted which transmit and legitimise equitable, non-discriminatory relationships, oriented towards respect and exercise of Human Rights and diversity (of gender, sexual orientation, age, national origin, ethnicity, culture and socioeconomic status), in areas of everyday social interaction, use of public space and communications media”. For its achievement, the UNDAF proposed working on the following outcomes: 1. Established and strengthened social networks which work on the principles of solidarity and respect for human rights. 2. Reduced discriminatory practices and social permissiveness, with emphasis on vulnerable groups. 3. Recognised and plurally- and democratically-developed expressions, spaces and actors linked to the cultural diversity which makes up national society. 4. Developed capacities for information creation and analysis in the sphere of sociocultural practices in key actors. • The first outcome of strengthening social networks as promoters of cultural diversity is linked to the creation and strengthening of inter-institutional and community meeting spaces in La Libertad Park. • The second outcome, focussed on the reduction of discriminatory practices and social permissiveness, particularly in the treatment of disadvantaged groups, is linked to the recovery, revitalisation, transformation and generation of knowledge and creativity in the setting of La Libertad Park as Centre for the Promotion of Interculturalism and Creative Industries. In this sense, its geographical location is of fundamental importance. • The third outcome of UNDAF-CR – dedicated to the recognition and pluralistic and democratic development of expressions, spaces and actors linked to cultural diversity and which make up national society – is linked to the whole concept of the Park programme and, in a more generalised way, to the review and design of public programmes and policies relating to culture, education, health and agriculture, proposed in the Joint Programme. The distribution of the agency work during the Programme’s execution is defined as follows: UNESCO, FAO and PAHO will offer assistance and support in activities within their areas of competence: • In the case of UNESCO, enhancing heritage, development of creative industries and artisanal activities, intercultural dialogue and promotion of creativity and cultural rights. • In the case of FAO and PAHO, expansion of the production base, and food safety in peasant and indigenous settlements. • PAHO will also contribute to the strengthening and integration of health services as a social output. • The UNDP will operate as an agency responsible for everything relating to purchases of equipment and supplies. • UNICEF will contribute its expertise in social communication to the effort to generate the campaigns against discrimination included in the Programme. The project will be led by the Ministry of Culture, responsible for the Programme as a whole and for the main outcomes and outputs: the process of assembling and equipping the Park’s cultural services, the Park being the Programme’s central component. This involves various existing institutions and their 35 years of expertise in artistic programmes: the National System of Music, National Theatre and Dance Workshops, the Department of Bands and Regional Management, amongst others. The Ministry will co-ordinate the cultural indicators component, in which links must be established with the different authorities responsible for the country’s statistical information. Links have already been proposed with these authorities in order to investigate the challenges facing the country in terms of establishing a Satellite Account, an appropriate accounting system for the impact of culture on the GDP and, in a wider sense, the monitoring of sociocultural policies and dynamics. The Ministries of Health and Production will support the Ministry in ecological and commercial aspects of the Park, with actions relating to MISMEs, to the enhancement of the origin of productions and creative capital in order to add value to local and indigenous productions. This will happen whilst they are working in parallel on their related policies and on issues relating to the indigenous population and the rural environment in key towns which they will incorporate as part of their social recognition strategies, the possibilities for visibility offered by La Libertad Park. As the main partner of this proposal, the Ministry of Education will focus the pilot of its curriculum reform process to be carried out in 2008, in the area which will receive the cultural revitalisation from the Park as a strategic contrast. At the same time, it will create a group of “intelligent users” of the Park made up of teachers of special subjects in the area, who will receive to this end a specific Update Programme for Creativity and Interculturalism. To complement this effort, and in response to the growing problem of under-age school-leaving in the area bordering the Park, the Ministry will create specific actions to form links with the population excluded from the formal system, through offering spaces for current youth cultural practices and the more traditional ones, for young people who are at risk. The update programme for teachers, training for public employees and strategic partners from the four institutional sectors involved in the Programme will be linked together in such a way as to create a substantial critical entity which will contribute significantly to the sustainability of the Park and to giving a qualitative boost to State interventions in this area. Finally, and always under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture, the systematisation of the experience will serve as a model for efforts in other regions of the country, using lessons learned.

The Office of the Resident Co-ordinator (ORC) will monitor the implementation of the Programme, in order to ensure that the goals and objectives are met within the timeframes eventually committed to. Likewise, this will identify problems and solutions, by promoting, whenever appropriate, the expertise and capacity as a team of the System’s agencies. A formal monitoring and evaluation (M & E) plan will be developed at the start of the programme, including precise indicators of management or of impact by outcome, output and activity, as appropriate. Also, the methodologies and tools which will be applied to measure the Joint Programme’s outputs and impact, will be established by agreement between the agencies and national partners. Taking into account the lack of experience within the country of cultural indicators, special emphasis will be placed on the systematisation of this aspect. Without prejudice to the design of the final M&E plan, the following indicators are initially proposed: General indicators o Cantonal Human Development index o Coverage rate of Secondary Education in the target communities o Percentage of underage school-leaving in the primary and secondary schools involved in the Programme o Number of participants and contributors in the Programme’s artistic and cultural expressions Component 1 Indicators o # of beneficiaries of the Programme’s activities, segregated by age, gender, ethnic group, nationality and place of residence o % of people living in each community who are participating in the Programme o % of the investment that the neighbouring Municipalities assign to the social and cultural field o Satisfaction of the user population with the services offered by the Programme o Primary and secondary schools, Cantonal Councils for Food and Nutritional Safety, Cantonal Boards for Agricultural Fairs, municipalities, NGOs and companies associated with the Programme o Traditional, popular and/or youth cultural expressions which have been recovered or enhanced by the community or focus of intervention (artistic expressions, under-utilised crPAHO, trades, knowledge, etc.) o Micro enterprises supported in the incubation stage o Jobs created with micro-entrepreneurial initiatives within the framework of the Programme Component 2 Indicators o Strengthened public policy guidelines (final target: 6) o # of public employees and key actors who have been trained (artists, managers, teachers and various professionals from the culture, health, production and development sector) o Institutionalise cultural indicators with periodic and disaggregated collection

The Country Team is made up of fourteen agencies from the United Nations System with a presence in the country: the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Population Fund, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, the United Nations Latin American Institute for the Prevention of Crime, the International Organisation for Migration, the International Labour Organisation, the International Meteorological Organisation, the World Health Organisation and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, the University for Peace and the Universal Postal Union. The team of representatives (UNCT) from the agencies acts as an authority charged with representing the interests and commitments of the UNS in Costa Rica, before the national authorities and other social, national and international actors. This authority is the highest body responsible for the co-ordination, execution, monitoring and evaluation of the activities driven by the System. On the technical level, a Joint Programming Technical Team is operating, made up of officials from the different UNS agencies in Costa Rica and partner organisations. It is co-ordinated by the Co-ordination Officer. From this team, an agency representative is nominated for each area of co-operation, so that these agencies are responsible for co-ordinating the planning for the execution of outputs in the corresponding co-operation area. The Joint Programming Group is in charge of providing technical monitoring for the United Nations co-operation in the country. Within this group there are ad-hoc subgroups according to the speciality and requirements of the co-ordination for the particular MDG, which function as permanent ad-hoc groups to provide monitoring and to support the report on the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals in the country. Seven thematic groups have been structured to facilitate dealing with specific issues of interest: the Common Services Group, the Emergencies and Disasters Group, UNAIDS, the Communications Group, the Learning Strategies Group, the Inter-Agency Gender Group. The Ministry of Culture and Youth will be the institution leading the joint programme, organising as a whole the public institutions, organisations and actors from civil society which will participate in the different results and activities. Five agencies came together to create this initiative: UNESCO, FAO, PAHO, UNICEF and UNDP. Budget execution in the last two years (2005, 2006), expressed in US $ per agency participating in the work of the Programme, is summarised as follows: o UNDP: 502,100 o UNICEF: 200,000 o PAHO/WHO: 550,000 o UNESCO: 60,000 o FAO: 900,000 Generally, activities are led by one single national institution or UNS agency. In those cases, management will be planned by the body in charge. Co-ordination will be carried out on the level of outputs and results, whereby a co-ordination strategy will be established between the Country Team and whichever national institution has the most responsibility for the output. The Office of the Resident Co-ordinator will be in charge of the monitoring and evaluation of the responsibilities assumed by the Agencies.

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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 2: Achieve universal primary education
  • Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
  • Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
  • 1. Proportion of population below $1 (PPP) per day
  • 2. Poverty gap ratio [incidence x depth of poverty]
  • 4. Prevalence of underweight children under-five years of age
  • 5. Proportion of population below minimum level of dietary energy consumption
  • 6. Net enrolment ratio in primary education
  • 7. Proportion of pupils starting grade 1 who reach grade 5
  • 8. Literacy rate of 15-24 year-olds
  • 9. Ratios of girls to boys in primary, secondary and tertiary education
  • 10. Ratio of literate women to men, 15-24 years old
  • 45. Unemployment rate of young people aged 15-24 years, each sex and total
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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.