A Dream of Green and Water

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Environment and Urbanization

DOI: 10.1177/095624789901100203

1999; 11; 11Environment and Urbanization

Michaela HordijkA dream of green and water: community based formulation of a Local Agenda 21 in peri-urban Lim

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Environm ent& Urbanizat ion Vol 11 No 2 Oc tob er 1999 11

A d ream o f g reen and w a te r:

co m m unity based fo rm u la t ion

o f a Loc al Ag e nd a 2 1 inpe r i-urba n L im a

Michaela Hordijk

SUMMARY: This paper describes how an in tegrated environmental plan was

developed by the inhabitants of informal settlements on the edge of Lima, Peru –

and how this formed the basis both for local action and for negotiating support from external agencies. It discusses the measures taken to ensure real community

participation and to avoid the imposition of professionally-driven “solutions”. It

describes the different internal and external groups that were involved and consid-

ers the limitations of most international donor funding for such Local Agenda 21s

because such funding is too “project cycle” oriented and too concerned with

“outputs” that have to be ident ified at the outset to be able to support such partic-

ipatory processes.

I. THE CONTEXT

a. Introduct ion

IN BOTH THE Habitat Agenda, which resulted from the second UN

Conference on H um an Settlements in Istanbu l in 1996, and in guidelines

for preparing a Local Agenda 21,(1) strong emphasis is put on the “local

level” and on the imp ortance of local government in taking the lead in the

search for sustainable urban development. Many problems and solutions

that Agenda 21 is meant to address(2) have their roots in local activities,

and local government is the entity constructing, operating and maintain-

ing economic, social and environmental infrastructure at the local level,

and is the government level closest to the people.(3)

The reali ty in most low-income u rban n eighbourhood s in Latin

America, Asia and Africa is that governm ent – both at the local and higher

levels – takes a reactive rather than a pro-active role. The initiative of

founding an d d eveloping a neighbourhood often does not lie with local

governm ent bu t stems from people’s own actions. Once an area is

invaded , people start to bu ild houses, construct provisional roads and

drainage and open shops; local government and public entities do react to

these developments. Most investments m ade to improve the u rban habitat

in low-income neighbourhood s, both in terms of hu man and financial

resources, come from the inhabitants.

This pap er argues that strengthening commun ity(4) initiatives by offer-

ing technical assistance to the inhabitants of low-income neighbourhood s

in their quest for improving their living environment shou ld be an integral

Michaela Hordijk is ageographer specializing in

urban environmentalmanagement and is externalassessor of the Cities for Life

Forum in Peru. She is currentlyfinalizing a PhD study on therole of local initiatives inurban environmentalmanagement in a low incomearea in Lima, Peru (Universityof Amsterdam, Department of Human Geography, Centre of Latin American Studies andDocumentation, and theInstitute for Housing andUrban Development Studies –IHS – in Rotterdam). The PhDresearch has been funded b ythe Du tch Foundation

WOTRO.

Address: University of Amsterdam, NieuwePrinsengracht 130, 1018 VZAmsterdam, Netherlands,e-mail [email protected]

An earlier version of this paperwas presented at the UNCHSexpert group meeting

Implementing the Habitat Agenda, w ith Special Emphasis on Local Agenda 21 held inTurku, Finland, September1998. Special thanks toWarmolt Lameris and VeronicaRondón who provided

important inputs to this paper.

1. See, for instance, ICLEI(1996), Manual de planificación

para la Agenda 21 Local, unaintrodución a la planificaciónsostenible, ICLEI, Toronto.

2. Agend a 21 is the m aindocumen t coming out of theUN Conference on








part of the formulation and implementation of a Local Agenda 21. It p res-

ents a case stud y of a small-scale project in Pam pas d e San Juan , a squat-

ter settlement in southern Lima, which analyzes the role of the different

actors in the process and which indicates the possibilities and limitations

of this community based app roach. The paper d escribes the developmentof a Local Agenda 21 “the other w ay round”, starting at neighbourhood

level and finally leading to the involvement of local governmen t and other

institutions in formulating a more coherent plan based on the principles

of a Local Agenda 21.

Before presenting the case study, some theoretical considerations w ill be

introdu ced on the nature of u rban environmental problems in low-income

neighbourhoods, and on the art of neighbourhood based environmental

management. Eight prop ositions are advanced:

• Both the H abitat Agenda an d Local Agend a 21 are pow erful policy

instruments for governm ents. However, most city inhabitants know

little if anything abou t Local Agenda 21 or the Habitat Agenda and find

it difficult to relate these texts to their existing initiatives and struggles.

• If a Local Agenda 21 is meant to includ e the sustainable development of

low-income settlements, its development has to be based on existinginitiatives. Since internationally endorsed documents lay considerable

stress on supp orting participation and community action, these agendas

can legitimize commu nity initiatives and struggles. However, develop-

ing an Agenda 21 from the bottom up requires a much longer process

than is usually taken for the formulation of a Local Agend a 21.

• A Local Agenda 21 is often interpreted as an environmental agend a. This

is not correct. A Local Agend a 21 should combine social, economic and

environmental goals. In low-income neighbourhoods, improving the

urban h abitat should be understood not only as a strategy for improv-

ing health and well-being but also as a strategy for local economic devel-

opment. The cleaner and better developed the neighbourhood, the more

attractive it is for economic activities.(5)

• A “comm unity” is not a homogeneous and even less a harmonious

un ity. Within virtua lly all comm un ities, there are conflicting interests –

for instance, between the elected leaders and particular sections of the

pop ulation, between the p oorest and th ose a little better off, between

women an d m en and between younger and older people. Thus, the

participation of comm unity leaders in formulating and implementing

agendas or projects does not guarantee that the commu nity as a whole

is represented. Community leaders often represent limited interests, if

not only th eir own interests. Reaching agreement w ith commun ity

leaders does not guarantee that the information about the agreement

reaches the commun ity or that the commun ity identifies with the Local

Agenda 21 – or that they w ill contribute to its imp lementation.

• The inhabitants of the low-income neighbourhood s share a responsibil-

ity with government an d other agencies for improving environmental

conditions of their neighbourhood. It is a household responsibility to

maintain the imm ediate living environment in a clean and healthy state

without simp ly transferring household p roblems to the neighbourhood

or city (for instance, by du mp ing liquid or solid w astes outside the

house). The higher the capital investment required for neighbourhood

improvem ent, the more v ital the involvement of external actors. Sustain-

able development goals can, how ever, only be reached w hen inhabitants

share the responsibility for long-term investments and maintenance.

• The inhabitants of low-income neighbourhoods are capable of defining

Environment and Developmentin 1992 (also known as theEarth Sum mit) that wasformally endorsed by allgovernments attending andwhich is meant to providegovernments with guidelineson achieving sustainabledevelopment.

3. United Nat ions (1992), EarthSummit, A genda 21: The United

Nations Programme of Action from Rio, New York, page 20.

4. “Comm unity” is an elusiveconcept w hich can be used inmany senses and w hich hasvarious meanings. Often, it doesnot define who does or does notbelong to the commu nity norwhere community boundarieslie. “Community participation”supp oses that communityinterests are represented. Butwhose interests? In this paper,the word “comm unity” is onlyused to refer to concepts such as“commun ity basedorganizations” and “commun ityparticipation”. Whereverpossible, more precise conceptsare used su ch as “settlement”,“neighbourhood”,“neighbourhood organization”,“neighbourhood leader” and“inhabitant”.

5. See, for instan ce, Ard-Am, O(Orothai) and others (1994),“Household economy andenvironmental management:the cases of Wat Chonglom andYen-ar-kard ” in Asian Journal of

Environmental Management,Vol.2, No.1., Hong KongUniversity, Hong Kong, pages37-48.

12 Environm ent& Urbanizat ion Vol 11 No 2 O cto ber 199 9

LOCAL AGENDA 21








the factors that inhibit the sustainable development of their settlement

and of identifying viable solutions. From common sense and life expe-

rience, they develop know ledge rooted in the social, economic and phys-

ical reality of their neighbourhood which complements the technical

knowledge of any trained external p rofessional.• Developing a shared vision of the future(6) and assigning responsibili-

ties to each actor provides the neighbourhood with a powerful manage-

ment tool in the struggle for improvement. Even m ore important is that

it puts the responsibility for the quality of the living environment back

into the hand s of the inhabitants by defining wh at can be dealt with by

community action and w here outside assistance should be sought.

• The current structure of developm ent cooperation is contrad ictory.

(Local) NGOs are thou ght to be the actors closest to poor people and to

represent their interests. But the tight bu dgets and result-oriented p roject

finan ce inhibit NGOs from fulfilling their role.

b. Urban Environm enta l Problem s and the Transfer ofConsequences

Urban environmental problems in Africa, Asia and Latin America are now

well-know n on a general level owing to intensive work of many agencies

and institutes over the last decade. The causes of urban environmental

problems are often sought in poverty, poor management practices and

inadequate technologies. Leitmann mentions the following causes:

• lack of pu blic and political interest

• governance problems

• inadequate and inefficient legal and economic policies

• lack of knowledge and information(7)

Although these factors are of great impor tance in actual urban envi-

ronmental p roblems, they d o not tou ch the societal roots of the p roblem.

The roots of many environmental problems, both urban and general, are

to be found in the ways that individuals, households or businesses can

transfer their environmen tal costs. Instead of taking responsibility for the

environmental costs we generate, we evade this and transfer the conse-

quences to others.(8) The environm ental consequences of certain activities

can be transferred w ithin three d imensions:

• transfer to a higher geograp hical level of scale (e.g. household to neigh-

bourhood);

• transfer through time, drawing down non-renewable resources so that

there is less available for futu re generat ions; and

• transfer from the ind ividual to the collective level: the sum of all ind i-

vidual rational actions leads to collective unacceptable consequences.(9)

The most visible and well-known is the transfer of consequences to

other sp atial levels. Transferring environm ental costs can almost become

a policy as, for examp le, wh en chimney heights are increased to ensu re

that th e air p ollution created will have effect further away. Another

example is the way in wh ich man y companies in Europe and North

America sough t to cheapen th e costs of disposal by simply shipping

un treated hazardou s w astes to countries in Latin Am erica, Asia or Africa.

Transfer through time occurs wh en consequences are transferred to

future generations. Examples includ e the use or degrad ation of resources

or the generation of wastes with dangerous ecological consequences

wh ich h ave the effect of “compromising th e needs of future generations”.

Transfer over time is most often related to the d egrada tion of natural

6. Different guidelines andmanu als give different names tothis step in the p rocess of formulating a Local Agenda 21– for instance, long-term vision(UNCHS), or commoncommun ity vision (visióncommunitaria común) (ICLEI).The term “sha red vision of thefuture” stems from thePeruvian National Campaign of Local Agenda 21 (visióncompartida del futuro).

7. Leitmann , J. (1994), Rapid Urban Environmental Assessment;

Lessons from Cities in the Developing World; Volume 1: Methodology and PreliminaryFindings, Urban ManagementProgramme, N airobi.

8. Gore, A . (1992), Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the HumanSpirit, Houghton MifflinComp any, New York.

9. NAR (1994), Urban Poverty Alleviation and Development Cooperation Policy Advice,National Advisory Council forDevelopment Cooperation(NAR), DGIS, The Ha gue.


LOCAL AGENDA 21








resources (includ ing soils and forests) and the genera tion of wastes w hich

may cau se long-term ecological damage or destabilize the world’s climate

(as in the generation of greenhouse gases).

Examples of transfer from the ind ividual to the collective level, where

the sum of all individual rational actions leads to collective unacceptableconsequences, are more d ifficult to iden tify. It can be seen wh en it comes

to the d ischarge of biodegradable wastes. From the point of view of one

private enterprise, the discharge of a limited amou nt of waste w ater into

a river might be environmentally sound, bu t the sum of all discharges

from all ind ustries using the sam e river might exceed the self-cleaning

capacity of the water and will lead to a decrease in water quality. One

inadequate latrine in a rural area may cause problems for the family using

it but will have no environmental consequences. Many inad equate latrines

in a d ensely popu lated area can convert a household-level problem into a

neighbourhood problem.

Transfer mechanisms are more obvious in u rban areas d ue to the high

concentration of pop ulation, production and consumption. This holds true

especially for transfer over the geographical dimension. When households

du mp their wastes onto the street or in a nearby open space – for instance,because of a lack of proper collection – they literally transfer the p roblem

to their neighbours. Sometimes, waste is dum ped in neighbouring areas

or on open land between neighbourhood s or in dra inage ditches, which

reduces their effectiveness. Waste dumped in rivers similarly goes some-

where else, causing problems for neighbourhood s dow nstream.

The cumu lative effects of these pollution and transfer mechanisms

manifest themselves at the global scale through a loss in biodiversity, the

dep letion of the stratospheric ozone layer and atm ospheric warming from

increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases.

Figure 1 shows the transfer mechanisms that can be identified when clas-

sifying the environmental problems at d ifferent geographical levels. There

is an important difference between the urban environmental problems in

high-income countries and those in low and most middle-income countries

(and , especially, within these in the poor districts within cities). Urban resi-

dents in the poorer districts in the South have to live with the d irect conse-

quences of environmental problems and the related health risks.

As cities get larger and their inhabitants w ealthier, they can transfer

their environmental problems away from their homes and neighbour-

hoods to other peop le and regions. “Many environmen tal services such

as piped water, sewerage connections, electricity and door to d oor garbage

collection not only export pollution (from the household to the city) but

also shift both the intellectual and practical burd ens of environmental

management from the h ousehold to the governmen t or u tility.”(10)

Taking the transfer mechanisms into accoun t broaden s the task of each

actor when it comes to urban environmental managem ent. When trying

to manage the urban environment, one should not only search for solu-

tions within a certain locality but also take into account the effects of any

solution on other p laces, at a global level or in term s of consequ ences for

future generations. This holds true for actors at all levels, starting at the

household and the neighbourhood level.

The project described below is based on the principle of both ind ivid-

ual and collective responsibility for the living environment. Taking as a

point of depa rture the u rgent need that the inhabitants felt for improving

their living environmen t, the project worked tow ards broad ening the

circle of responsibilities assum ed by the inhabitants. This mean t broad -

10. McGranahan, Gordon, JacobSongsore and Marianne Kjellén(1996), “Sustainability, povertyand the urban environmentaltransitions” in Pugh, Cedric(editor) Sustainability, the

Environment and Urbanization,Earthscan, London, pages 103-134.


LOCAL AGENDA 21








ening the responsibility from the level of the household and the house

toward s responsibility for the street and the privately assigned sm all green

areas and, finally, responsibility for the settlement as a w hole. This process

was partly one of recovering the p reviously felt shared responsibility that

characterized the first years of settlement consolidation in Peru. It was also

partly a search for new social forms that w ould op en up spaces for those

willing to take respo nsibility for their settlement. Most inh abitants

responded to this out of the strongly felt need to prevent the health risks

that stemm ed from environmen tal cond itions, as well as the strong desire

to beau tify th eir living environment.

II. INTRODU CING PAM PAS DE SAN J UAN

a. Physica l and Soc ial Char ac ter ist ics

THE PROJECT WAS imp lemented in the youngest settlements in Pam pas

de San Juan, one of the more recently settled zon es in the urban periphery

of southern Lima Metropolitana. Lima is characterized by an extended flat

desert p lain delimited by the Pacific Ocean to the west and by steep slopes

(the foothills of the And es moun tains) to the east. Since the 1950s, Lima's

physical growth has taken p lace mainly through invasions or the steady

occup ation of vacant desert land along the m ajor exit routes to the north,

south and east. As each successive invasion or occup ation of land m oved

further away from the city centre, for some it became more attractive to

settle on the steep slopes w hich were not so distant from the centre despite


LOCAL AGENDA 21

Transfer M ec hanism s over D if fere nt Geogra phic Sc alesF ig u re 1








all the difficulties this implies in terms of accessibility, the provision of

basic services an d (self-help) bu ilding. The youn gest settlements in

Pamp as are an examp le of this steady occup ation of steep slopes.

Pampas d e San Juan is one of the six zones in the d istrict of San Juan d e

Miraflores. As a district, San Juan de Miraflores has its roots in an inva-sion in the 1950s, but the zone of Pampas de San Juan remained u ntouched

for a long time.(11) The first invasions took p lace in 1979, with massive inva-

sions starting in 1983. By 1986, Lima metropolitan governm ent had imple-

mented an extensive programme legalizing land ownership in the area,

in order to pu t a halt to widely spread corrup tion and land speculation. In

the years thereafter, invasions continued both on the steep hills and in

areas which in the original neighbourhoods had been reserved as “pu blic

space”. This process resulted in a heterogeneous mix of consolidated and

unconsolidated settlements.

It is astonishing to see what peop le can create through their own efforts.

Careful commun al work has resulted in roads being opened up on the

steep slopes. Staircases have been bu ilt into the rock and small Andean-

like terraces have been constructed w ith stones. Although every d rop of

water had to be carried u phill in the first years, several people managedto bring some green to the desert because “a hou se is not a hou se if there

are no plants”. Communal spaces were created providing a crèche, a

commu nal kitchen where cheap meals are produced and a space for

community meetings.

But th is process of building a city through self-help also has its limita-

tions. Once land is invaded, the long process of getting official approval

to stay begins. During this p rocess, the inhabitants have to d epend on

professionals. They must contract architects, urban p lanners and engineers

to draw their urban plans, plan their future neighbourhoods and make

provision for electricity, water and sewerage. Each small neighbourhood

follows its own cycle through all the steps that are necessary to obtain offi-

cial approval. But the m aps and p lans draw n by the professionals are often

of very low qu ality w ith the result that the wh ole consolidation p rocess is

based on plans and pap ers that d o not reflect the reality. Badly d esigned

maps lead to badly designed urban development plans, which makes it

difficult, at a later stage, to build road s or install water and sewage pipes.

In summary, the Limenean reality in the shanty towns on the urban

fringe shows an amazing force of poor people building a city from the

bottom u p, a process often called “sp ontaneou s”. If “spontaneou s” is

taken as m eaning “un planned ,” this is not correct because people try to

organize their living environment as well as they can.(12) But the existing

forces of urban planning, starting with the first urban p lans that have to

be designed, have no adequ ate responses to this process. The lack of good

qua lity technical assistance in both the planning an d th e building

processes results in a chaotic urban weaving where each error in the first

stages leads to more p roblems in later stages. The building p rocess

prod uces an urba n landscape tha t neither follows the original natural

landscape nor offers a coherent urban environment and contributes to all

environmental, health and economic problems.

b. The Or ig in of the Pro jec t on Par t ic ipatoryEnvironm enta l D iagno sis

The roots of this project lie in severa l meetings held in the different zones

of Pampas de San Juan where, in a participatory way, a self-diagnosis of

11. Aconsiderable par t of it wasknown to be private property.In Peru, invasions on privateland tend to be far lesssuccessful than invasions onpublic land. When the land of Pamp as fell back into the hand sof the state, invasions started.

12. Riofrío, G. (1991), Producir laCiudad Popular de los ‘90; Entre el

M ercado y el Estado, DESCO,Lima.


LOCAL AGENDA 21








the environmental conditions was mad e. The neighbourhood workshops

led to several conclusions:

• The strongest felt needs w ere paved road s and sidewalks, imp roving

solid waste collection and greening the area (parks, gardens and forest-

ing the h illsides).• Several of the problems identified were the result of the settlement-by-

settlement ap proach which led to roads with no connections, other infra-

structure withou t connection and isolated areas of green land w hich had

become garbage dumps. It showed the need for overall planning of the

zone that still had no legal title.

• An overall improvement p rogramme for the area was inhibited by the

fact that the zone w as so heterogeneous in terms of land tenure. An inte-

grated p lan for the area as a w hole would not be possible until all prop-

erty rights were resolved, since the inhabitants would never know what

government agencies wou ld (or would not) do to remod el the settle-

ment and install the planned infrastructure. A first step had to be help

in legalizing land property in the informal settlements.

• A strong desire for greening the area was expressed. Greening requires

water, which is a very scarce resource in the d esert city of Lima. It isimpossible for people to water and maintain a park when there is no

adequate w ater provision. Inhabitants saw n o problem in w atering

parks w ith potable water bu t solutions to the city’s water p roblems had

to be sought.

• An integrated n eighbourhood imp rovement p rogramme, taking the

inhabitants’ expressed en vironmental and health needs as a p oint of

departure, required outside assistance, both in professional and financial

terms, and alliances with other actors.

These conclusions led to the formulation of a small-scale experimental

project. From the very beginning it sough t the incremental involvement of

the relevant external actors, gradua lly w idening its scope to em brace the

formulation of a commun ity based Local Agenda 21.

c. Set t ing Up the Pro ject

The project was conceived as an effort to combine four d ifferent kinds of

activities wh ich w ere to be closely linked an d mu tually supp ortive:

• Setting up a small-scale office in the intervention area called the “neigh -

bourhood doctors” where technical assistance would be p rovided both

for settlement improvement and for individu al home improvement. The

office would also manage a very m odest community development fund.

• Developing a Local Agenda 21 from the bottom up .

• Training you ng Peruvian professionals (architects and engineers) to

work w ith people in a d ifferent way.

• Reflection and debate: action research investigating the work as it devel-

oped an d d rawing conclusions from the results that wou ld help support

similar initiatives elsewhere an d help gen erate discussion both w ith

other groups striving for similar ap proaches and with p olicy makers

and the donor commun ity.

As a symbol of this four-fold ap proach, the figure of a kite was chosen,

one of the toys that the kids in Pamp as make them selves out of old plastic

bags and bamboo. To get the p roject going, it was necessary to w ork simul-

taneously on all four comp onents, as none could function w ithout the

others. The sections below d escribe the activities of each of these compo-

nents and the results.


LOCAL AGENDA 21








III. THE N EIGH BO URHO OD D OCTORS

a. Me thodo log y and Pr inc ip les

THE PROJECT BEGAN in eight settlements and invad ed green areas

wh ere the inhabitants still did not hav e legal land title. The plan w as

conceived on a long-term basis, taking account of the inhabitants’ existing

initiatives, needs and aspirations. The short-term objective was to assure

land title as the basis for enabling future neighbourhood improvement.

The basic pr inciple of the project was to work as much as possible with

the resources available within the commu nities, adding techn ical assis-

tance as a tool and the very limited financial resources of the community

developm ent fund as a catalyst.

The first step w as to improve the existing u rban d evelopm ent plans for

each settlement and to convert them into one integrated p lan for all the

settlements, reserving space for the inhabitants’ futu re plans and aspira-

tions. In ord er to d o this, neighbourhood representatives from d ifferent

commun ity based organizations – includ ing neighbourhood leaders,

wom en pa rticipating in the comm un al kitchens, the “glass of milk”

committees and the h ealth p romoter programmes, and young people, plus

anyone else who w as interested – were invited to a w orkshop in one of

the commu nal kitchens. Instead of talking, use w as mad e of drawings

prepared by the people.

Although each workshop ’s way of working w as slightly different, as

they were ad apted to the particular circum stances and people present,

there were several common elements. First, peop le were asked to d raw

their childhood environment. Then, they were asked to draw their current

situation, and their vision and aspirations for the future. The drawings

were pasted onto the wall, making a sm all exhibition, and each participan t

gave an explanation of her or his draw ing. Subsequ ently, all individu al

elements w ere brought together in neighbourhood p lans developed by

small groups. Each group developed two plans. The first showed the

current situation, with the good and the bad sites marked, and the strengths


LOCAL AGENDA 21

The Four-fold Approa chF ig u re 2








and weaknesses, problems and opportun ities in the neighbourhood. The

second showed a possible future for the neighbourhood, strengthening the

positive points and possible solutions for the problems encountered. Wher-

ever useful, a “guided tour” w as organized, where the inhabitants

prepared a w alk through the neighbourhood , familiarizing the technicalteam with it and explaining in the field what p reviously had been d rawn.

Drawing instead of talking has several advantages:

• It can avoid long (and often p olitically oriented) monologues.

• When d rawing, people start to reflect on their situation, not only with

their head bu t also with their heart. The d rawings reflect a wider and

richer perspective on w hat they wan t and what they d ream of than

spoken statements on what should be improved. Working differently

also has a kind of “surprise” element which encourages people to think

beyond the much used p hrases about what they need.

• Allowing everybody – includ ing young p eople and even children – to

explain their draw ing helps to give more equal weight to the opinions

of each p articipant. People who u sually do not talk in meetings – espe-

cially wom en and youn g peop le – have a form of expressing their

thou ghts. Of equal impor tance is the fact that participants had anamazing capacity to listen atten tively to the d ifferent, short explanations.

All opinions were heard .

• Starting from the individual perspective and then w orking towards a

shared perspective enables people to first express their personal (some-

times pressing) concerns. Once these personal concerns had been

expressed and taken into account, it was easier for participants to w ork

towards a common prop osal.

• Working together on a joint p lan for the neighbourhood gave rise to

many discussions on possible solutions to comm on p roblems.

The workshops produced two outcomes that neither the participants

nor the professionals had expected. The first was the similarity in partic-

ipants’ dreams for the future. Discussions u sually reveal disagreements

but the draw ings revealed th e agreements. The “shared vision of the

future” was much closer than anyone had thought. The most important

elements of this vision were a far greener and cleaner environment. Both

for the technical team and for the participants, it was a surp rise to see how

much emphasis was placed on the importance of greening the neigh-

bourhood, even in those areas where people still lacked all basic services

such as p iped w ater to the house and electricity. When asked ind ividu-

ally, people obviously pu t priority on water and sewerage as the m ost

urgent needs but even in the youngest settlements, the importance of a

green, clean and therefore healthy environm ent was repeated ly empha-

sized. This made clear that the bind ing element of the Agenda 21 that was

to be developed should be the greening and cleaning of the area.

The second surp rise outcome was the d iscovery of the inter-linkages

between various p roblems, such as the consequences of waste being

collected in one settlement but being dumped in a neighbouring settle-

ment, or of the p ublic space being covered w ith construction w aste.

After this first set of workshop s two activities were started :

• In many neighbourhoods, the inhabitants began to clean up the garbage

du mps and to level out and p repare areas identified for parks or other

services, without any outside a ssistance.

• The project team started to prepare an integral environmental plan for

a set of settlements. This plan w as based on the outcomes of the work-

shops and on the identified need for an ecological infrastructure. The


LOCAL AGENDA 21








plans can be characterized as “planning for the future” and aim at incre-

mental improvement. They include the following basic elements for

settlement developm ent:

• individual plots and blocks;

• reserving areas for public spaces such as green areas and space foredu cation and health services;

• road infrastructure and , where the characteristics of the area (steep hills)

make it necessary, pu blic staircases. Special attention was pa id to the

connection between the d ifferent settlements, something w hich had not

always been noted in existing settlement p lans;

• an emp hasis on “strong elements” such as the special view, an element

strengthened by introdu cing a look out.

The plans developed by the technical team were first discussed in meet-

ings with neighbourhood leaders and it was here that most of the negoti-

ations took place. Introdu cing roads, staircases and inter-settlement

connections meant that each neighbourhood h ad to sacrifice some of their

area for the benefit of all, and th ese kinds of issues had to be discussed

with neighbourhood leaders first. Once the changes and agreements

proposed by the neighbourhood leaders had been processed, plans werepresented at neighbourhood m eet ings and once the changes were

accepted by the n eighbourhood as a w hole, the d efinite plans w ere

designed. The neighbourhood leaders then presented the plans to the

land -titling agency COFOPRI.

b. Pilo t Pro jects and the Co m m unity Developm ent Fund

Once the tenure issues had been resolved (July 1999), the next step in the

improvem ent process could be mad e, namely, the imp lementation of small

pilot projects such as a p ark, a commu nity hall and the first staircase in

the settlement. The implementation of these p ilot projects follows a similar

ph ilosophy to that d eveloped in the southern Peruvian city of Ilo.(13) Once

the neighbourhood h as developed a p roject proposal and generated some

funds, the mu nicipality assists with m achinery, skilled labour and some

materials. The neighbourhood provides the unskilled labour, and skilled

labour from the construction workers living there. Most importantly, the

commu nity decides on the priorities for neighbourhood improvem ent and

makes itself responsible for implementation and maintenance. Decisions

are generally made in the general assembly of the settlement, wh ich then

forms a sp ecial comm ittee to look after all the details. Boxes 1 and 2

describe initiatives in tw o different settlements.

In the coming months, the neighbourhood doctors will take on several

other pilot projects in other settlements. The way of working in a settle-

ment depends on the internal dynamics and the team has to constantly

ad apt. For instance, the p rocess in Los Pinos d escribed in Box 1 only

required the neighbourhood d octors to be there when called u pon, but the

process in 20 de Ma yo d escribed in Box 2 required far more conflict-

solving skills. In other settlements, there will be other issues. One of the

limitations already identified is that a complete team of neighbourhood

doctors should includ e a lawyer to help solve legal conflicts surroun ding

property rights.

Neighbourhood doctors also take on individual requests to design

houses and home imp rovements. Agreement is reached with the state

fund that provides credits in the form of building materials (Banco de

Materiales) that houses can be designed according to the wishes of the

13. Balvín Díaz, D., J.L. LopezFollegatti and M.A. Hordijk (1996), “Innovative ur banmana gement in Ilo, Peru” in

Environment and UrbanizationVol.8, No.1, p ages 21-34.

2 0 Environm ent& Urbanizat ion Vol 11 No 2 O cto ber 199 9

LOCAL AGENDA 21








inhabitants and the p lot characteristics, as long as they remain w ithin the

bud get lines. This individual help cannot be p rovided free of charge bu t,

thanks to private funds from Europe, it can be offered at a low price. In

the longer run , the office of the neighbourhood doctors aims to w ork w ith

completely transparent budgeting whereby the inhabitants can see that

the fund s they generate through their activities are used to ensure the

continuity of the office.

III. A DREAM OF GREEN AN D W ATER

a. From Ne ighbourhood P lann ing to a Loca l Agenda 21

ONE OF THE most impressive features of the work w as the long-term

Environm ent& Urbanizat ion Vol 11 No 2 Oc tob er 1999 2 1

LOCAL AGENDA 21

The Loca l Co m m unal and P ublic Spa ce in Los Pinos

The neighbourhood of Los Pinos originally had a brick building for community meetings which also houseda community managed day-care centre and a small room for religious services; there were difficulties in

paying the communal centre’s electricity and water bills. To the front of the building was a concrete play-ground and a parcel of waste land used by the neighbouring settlements to dump their waste. In a generalassembly, the community decided on a clear set of priorities to improve the existing services and to convertthe dump into a park.

As a first step, the area was to be cleared, then a small gallery (or stand) erected around the playgroundand a very small chapel built to house the statue of the Virgin, who protects the settlement. In a next step,an extension of the community hall and a park were to be designed simultaneously. A more long-term planincluded the conversion of the small chapel into an altar in a real church. All efforts were considered as stepby step improvements.The municipality provided materials to construct the gallery and the small chapel.Theneighbourhood doctors were called upon to provide construction plans for the chapel and the gallery and todevelop the proposal for the community hall and the park. The neighbourhood appointed a committee thatincluded two construction workers, four women and some youngsters.While the committee worked on Satur-day afternoons to design the proposal, the neighbourhood as a whole gathered on Sundays to clear the areaand start constructing the gallery. In a first design, the committee indicated that the future community hallshould house the following:

• a community day care centre;• two rooms for small workshops, one housing the several sewing machines in the neighbourhood whichcannot be used because of a lack of space, the other for another workshop.Both rooms should also be usedfor training, for instance, women with special skills in sewing, knitting, making jewellery, etc. could train otherwomen;

• a communal kitchen and a bakery. The communal kitchen should provide cheap meals and the bakerycheaper bread;

• a community hall that could also be used as a cinema;• an open air barbecue for the many fund-raising barbecues that are held in the settlement;• a playground enclosed by a fence.

With its galleries, new goalposts, enclosing fence and barbecue, the hall and surrounding area could berented to other settlements for their activities.The playground could be rented out at night as a parking lot toprotect the neighbours’ cars and moto-rikshas. All functions are thought of as having some income-gener-ating component that could also create some employment and which would allow mothers to have moretime available for income-generating activities. Some of the income generated should be used to pay thewater and electricity bills.

The most important features of the design are that each of the rooms should be able to perform differentfunctions and that the design should allow for the “self-help building” concept which involves room by roomconstruction.

The committee organized the project – including all necessary meetings, fund-raising activities andcontacts with external agents who are meant to help with materials, machinery and “food for work” assistance.Each committee member contributed five soles (US$ 1.80) to an investment fund for fund-raising activities.The first communal barbecue held raised the equivalent of US$ 30.

B o x 1








vision of neighbourhood improvement expressed by the inhabitants –

including the wish to green the environm ent. The professionals translated

this into an “ecological infrastructure”, combining the ind ividual elements

of green into a chain of green woven through the area.

The largest area of “no-man’s land” identified w as that u nder the elec-

tricity pylons wh ich divides the area into two sectors. This area is also the

biggest local garbage dum p. In one of the first workshop s held w ith the

youth group in 20 de Mayo, this area was included as “the worst” and

identified for greening in their plans for the future. They dream t of a green

area un der th e pylons, giving it both recreational and prod uctive use,

making it part of their living environment instead of the hostile desert that

nobody dared to cross at night. This dream of greening the pylons became

the binding element in the “shared vision of the futu re” for the wh ole area.

For the technical team, it was clear that th is required mu ch more w ater

than w as available for the area and that using p otable water w ould be irre-

sponsible in Lima's desert climate, drawing too heavily on limited fresh-

water resources that future generations would need .

Fortunately, the area includes Lima’s first complex of stabilization

pon ds bu ilt in the early 1960s. These are mean t to treat the dom estic waste

water from of all San Juan – an d part of the w ater is used to irrigate a

neighbouring recreational park and an eucalyptu s forest. The ponds are

not well-maintained an d current discharge far exceeds the original design

capacities. Both the p ark and agricultural land are irrigated with raw

waste water. But in May 1998, the Ministry of the Presidency launched a


LOCAL AGENDA 21

T he Park in 20 d e M ayo

The settlement 20 de Mayo counts on a very special resource, namely a group of well-organized teenagerswho call themselves the New Generation. The group manages a community library where children can do

their homework under the supervision of the teenagers and they are always intent on bringing new activitiesto their library. Drawing upon existing resources, the work in 20 de Mayo started with the youth group andwas backed by the educational committee of the neighbourhood association. In a first workshop, theteenagers expressed two strong desires: to expand their library to have room for workshops and to convertthe long strip of wasteland that divides their neighbourhood in two into a park. During several workshops, theoutlines for the park were developed to combine three functions: a quiet area in front of the library where“you can sit with a book and drink a juice”; a long lane with small seats and dimmed lights “where you canstroll at night”; and a sports place that combines playgrounds for adolescents with places where the smallchildren can play”.

After the first sketches were made, the teenagers were trained in simple land survey techniques anddeveloped a topographical map of the area.This was used as a basis for building a model of the park whichwas presented first to the neighbourhood committee and thereafter to the general assembly. After approval,the neighbourhood doctors converted the teenagers’ designs into proper technical plans.

The design phase of the project was very successful but problems arose during implementation.Both theeducational committee and the youth group put in a tremendous amount of effort. They managed to get the

funds to build a second room for the library and the neighbourhood doctors were asked only to supervise theconstruction. After an enthusiastic start, plans for the park got stuck in political fights: the secretary generalof the settlement belongs to a different party to the members of the educational committee and he subvertedthe work in several assemblies. To try and resolve the tensions, a park committee was formed in which theeducational committee, the youth group and the neighbourhood leader participated. With careful manoeu-vring between conflicting interests, a clear agreement was reached. The mayor promised machinery andmaterials, and the neighbourhood doctors promised additional funding from the community fund and tech-nical assistance for the park, if the community organized itself and generated the initial funds. The youthgroup designed tickets for a lottery and have organized a theatre play and music for a festive raffle where themayor will draw the winners (food basket prizes). Its success will depend on the willingness of the neigh-bours to sell the tickets; if enough funds are raised, work can begin on building the park in October 1999.

B o x 2








large-scale project to improve Lima's waste water treatment, financed by

credit from the Japanese government. Phase one of this project includes

the recuperation and improvement of the p onds in San Juan . If imple-

mentation takes p lace, from the year 2000 treated waste w ater will be

available for irrigating green areas in the district. “Turning the pylonsgreen” became the basis on wh ich cooperation was sou ght w ith external

actors.

b. The Dif ferent Ac tors Involved

i. The Intern al Acto rsThe internal actors include the p opu lation as a w hole and the organiza-

tions representing them. In the squatter settlements of Lima, the p opu la-

tion is organized and represented by neighbourhood organizations and

wom en’s organizations. The formation of neighbourhood organizations

is required by law. Governmen ts and government related bod ies (such as

the electricity and water comp anies) only deal with elected n eighbour-

hood leaders. Settlements have a neighbourhood comm ittee ( junta vecinal)

with three to 12 neighbourhood leaders (male and female) and a generalassembly where the pop ulation discusses and d ecides. Generally speak-

ing, each plot has one vote in the general assem bly. Women's organ iza-

tions include the commu nal kitchens, the vaso de leche (“glass of milk”

committees), mothers’ clubs and committees of health promoters. Other

organizations su ch as you th clubs, sports clubs, religious and cultural

organizations and so on m ay also exist.(14)

When working in a neighbourhood, it becomes clear which of these

organizations has the strongest m obilizing force – and this differs between

neighbou rhoods. Working at the comm unity level always involves careful

manoeu vring between vested leaders and up-and -coming new actors. As

stated in Proposition 4, a neighbourhood is not an harmonious community

and neighbourhood leaders do not necessarily represent the neighbour-

hood's interests. But bypassing those leaders known to be corrupt or

unrep resentative can lead to serious complications in the long ru n. So one

has to work with the leaders – corrup t or not, subversive, as in 20 de Mayo,

or not – p referably working in pa rallel with the w omen's organizations or

the committees formed for the implementation of the pilot projects.

The strongest weap on is the trad ition of neighbourhood democracy

and social control; the more the neighbourhood as a wh ole is involved,

the better the chances of success. To enable the inh abitants to control the

activities of their leaders, it is important to ensu re a varied and continual

stream of information to all inhabitants, thus allowing them to exercise

“social control”. As long as the project team provides adequate informa-

tion to all, most of the problem-solving can be h and led by the inhabitants

themselves.

ii. The Extern al Acto rsSome of the external actors had already been ap proached by th e neigh-

bourhood doctors wh en the project started, namely, the district mu nici-

pality of San Juan de Miraflores, the land-titling agency COFOPRI and th e

NGO IPES. Others were contacted after the first outlines of a commu nity

Local Agend a 21 had been d eveloped , including the w ater comp any

SEDAPAL, the waste w ater treatm ent p rogram me PROMAR, the elec-

tricity comp any Luz del Sur and the Ministry of Transport, Comm unica-

tion, Construction an d Hou sing. On their side, the neighbourh ood

14. There exist many otherforms of organization as well,especially thematicorganizations (for example,street vendors, small-scaleenterprises, carpenters, etc.),political organizations, tradeunions, etc. These organizationsdo not have a neighbourhoodfocus an d th erefore were notrelevant for this project.


LOCAL AGENDA 21








committees contacted several national governm ent entities for support for

the implementation of the pilot projects, namely, the army, the food for

work p rogramme PRONAA and the development fund FONCODES. This

mad e the range of external actors involved in the p rocess quite diverse

and it included three levels of governmen t:• National government. The Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of

the Presidency, the arm y, the food for w ork p rogramme PRONAA, the

developm ent fund FONCODES, the Banco de Materiales and the waste

water p rogramme PROMAR fall directly u nd er the n ational govern-

ment. Although th e water company SEDAPAL is being p rivatized, it is

still a public enterprise with h igh central government involvement.

• The municipality of Lima Metropolitana. Although rather marginal in

this project, it has a role since major land use decisions are made at the

metropolitan level.

• The district municipality of San Juan de Miraflores. This is involved

in both th e pilot projects as well as in the developm ent of the Local

Agend a 21. Although d eveloped bottom-up , ideally leadership of the

Local Agenda 21 should be taken on by the m unicipal government.

The project fur ther involves the private sector, including both the elec-tricity comp any (Luz d el Sur) and enterprises that are app roached for

donations of materials. Finally, there is an important link with profes-

sionals, the NGOs and the don or agencies. The p roject is unusual in that

most of the international fund ing comes from private initiatives in Europe

– although some funding d oes come from more traditional donors such as

the Dutch embassy and the NGO N ovib. When the settlements organize

their lotteries and other fund-raising initiatives, these are simultaneously

organized in Europe to supplement the money raised in the neighbour-

hood s. An overview of the actors involved is given in Figure 3 and the

roles of the major actors are discussed in more detail below.

The di strict municipality. In legal terms, municipalities play an impor-

tant role in urban developmen t in Peru. Mun icipalities that use the sp ace

allowed by the legal framework could be leaders in formulating and

implementing a Local Agenda 21.(15) Unfortunately, most Peruvian local

governments don't; they lack the vision and the financial and human

capacity to do so. The district mun icipa lity of San Juan de Miraflores is no

exception and, furtherm ore, over the last two years, it has concentrated

its efforts on relocating street vend ors and paving the ma in roads. There

is a clear rationale behind this. Relocating street vend ors is the fashion in

Lima and is hap pening in m any d istricts, and investments in improving

roads are facilitated by the national governmen t which has made it a prior-

ity. Mun icipa lities have a very sm all share of the national budget (around

4 per cent over the last decade) to spend according to their ow n p riorities.

On average, between 60 and 80 per cent of this small budget goes to

paying salaries. National government created an add itional funding

mechanism for mu nicipal investments. For mayors and mu nicipal staff,

it is most practical to spend this bud get on road imp rovements because

these are easy to implement; the necessary skills are available at the m unic-

ipality, the army p rovides help and the results lead to many more votes.

Pamp as has benefited from these programm es, since more than eight kilo-

metres of interconnecting roads have been paved over the last two years.

But there was no tim e or money for other priorities – and even less for

developing a coherent urban d evelopment plan.

The project always meant to interest local government in the d evelop-

ment proposals of Pampas. But the municipality’s inefficiency made this

15. See Miranda , Liliana andMichaela Hord ijk (1998), “Letus bu ild cities for life: thenational campaign for LocalAgenda 21 in Peru”,

Environment and UrbanizationVol.10, No.2, p ages 69-102.


LOCAL AGENDA 21








a time-consum ing business. Making u se of the election campaigns wh ich

started in May 1998, the mayor w as finally reached and expressed an inter-

est. This led to the signing of a covenan t in wh ich th e mu nicipality

commits itself to providing materials and h eavy machinery to implement

some elements of the integrated developm ent p lan as “p ilot projects”. It

also commits itself to developing the outlines of an Agend a 21 for the area

of Pampas d e San Juan a lthough the concept of a Local Agenda 21 was

un know n to th e mu nicipality. They saw no p roblem in labelling th eir

efforts “working for a Local Agenda 21” if this mad e it easier to get outside

assistance. In the sam e covenant, the technical team of the p roject comm its

itself to training mu nicipal officers in the most imp ortant elements and

strategies of formulating a Local Agend a 21.

Interestingly enou gh, once the covenant w as signed, real interest grew

within th e mu nicipality, especially with regard to how efforts could be

linked, and the project is now considered “an actor” in Pamp as. The

mayor informs the team on actions he has und ertaken which might have

an effect on the project area and the message to the population has been

synchronized. It has been mad e very clear from both the p roject side and

the mayor tha t the initiative and the first fund -raising activities came from

the pop ulation. The m ayor is supp orting the population’s ideas for their

Local Agenda 21 and one of the key questions is whether the implemen-

tation of the Agenda, which still has a long w ay to go, will be realized

within his governing period.

COFOPRI. The Comm ission on the Formalization of Informal Land

Property is a national government entity created in March 1996 to legal-

ize informal property in urban areas, starting in Lima. It has a far-reach-


LOCAL AGENDA 21

The Various Actors InvolvedF ig u re 3








ing man date enabling it to solve property conflicts and is curren tly imple-

menting a large-scale program me formalizing p roperty in the new est

settlemen ts (found ed before 31st October, 1996). COFOPRI started to w ork

in San Juan de Miraflores in early 1998, at about the same time that the

project started.COFOPRI has a clear policy of only working w ith neighbou rhood

leaders. These have to present all their docum ents to COFOPRI, includ ing

the urban d evelopment p lans as designed by the professionals they

contracted . Given the pressu re on it to deliver and its limited staff capac-

ity, COFOPRI is forced to simply legalize these bad ly designed plans. Only

in the worst cases – when people invade very disaster prone areas, for

instance – does COFOPRI take on the remodelling or relocation of a settle-

ment. It has show n a clear interest in sup porting the p roject because it has

eased th eir work in the zone. It also has a long-term in terest as, in the long

run, COFOPRI is mean t to coordinate pu blic and private investments in

the zones where land titles are issued; it considered the project as a possi-

ble “pilot project” for this. Although cooperation with COFOPRI turned

out to be successful – the land titles were issued in 1999, respecting the

plans developed w ith the population – coordination was hindered by thefact that, officially, COFOPRI cannot w ork w ith agents other than n eigh-

bourh ood leaders, hence, there is no formal working covenan t with

COFOPRI. As long as the staff with w hom the informal commitment w as

mad e remain in office, the p rospects for future cooperation are encourag-

ing. It is a weakness, however, since this depend s on comm itted individ-

uals.

The NGO IPES and the Ministry of the President. During the first

ph ase of the project, a Peruvian N GO (IPES) und ertook a p articipatory

diagnosis on th e need for improved basic physical and social infrastruc-

ture. This led to profiles and projects being implemented by the Ministry

of the Presiden cy wi thin the f ramew ork of a pover ty a l leviat ion

programme. Technical staff from IPES participated in several of the

Pamp as project workshops an d m embers of the project team took p art in

IPES workshops. The results of the Pampas project are included in the

profiles presented at the Ministry of the Presidency. For the first time in

this program me, the introduction of staircases in inaccessible areas w as

proposed as a result of the workshops in Pamp as. So far, the ministry had

only considered staircases in ru ral areas. Elements from the IPES diag-

nostic were included in the integral plan for Pampas, includ ing the need

for schools (especially kind ergartens an d creches) and health centres. IPES

also provided the institutional framework required by the Dutch Embassy

to contribute funds to the project.

The w ater company S EDA PAL and the w aste water treatmentprogramme PROMAR. Both these comp anies are of key importance to

the imp lementation of the Local Agenda 21 and both received its first

outline with enthusiasm. The waste water treatment programme of the

Ministry of the Presidency committed itself to reserve waste water for the

project while strongly emphasizing that the p roposed infrastructure that

wou ld be needed w ould serve a wider area than that foreseen in the

project. This will require further coordination in the futu re, especially for

monitoring the improvemen ts reached in the stabilization p ond s once

PROMAR finalizes its programme. The water company Sedapal, who will

operate th e system on ce the PROMAR project is finished , immed iately

reacted positively to the proposals:

“Fifty litres a second a re reserved for the p roject, we will not charge


LOCAL AGENDA 21








them. But send us a letter on the project. We need that to convince the

Japanese consultants implementing the project PROMAR. They are not

that easy on the subject and please elaborate the maintenance of the

system in coordination with the municipality.”

The Minis try o f Transport. This ministry has responsibility for theareas adjacent to the stabilization p onds and it has to give permission to

install the infrastructure needed for the project. It too received the project

with great enthusiasm and will not only provide the land for the neces-

sary infrastructure but also comm itted itself to don ating a million trees to

be planted . The d onation of the trees comes on th e condition that the

project ensures training in the maintenance of the green area, in coordi-

nation w ith technical staff from the tree nursery.

IV. CA PAC ITY-B UILDING

a. Changing At t i tudes

ONE OF THE weaknesses identified du ring the elaboration of the projectwas the distance between the p rofessionals and the pop ulation. This can

be viewed as both a geograph ical and a mental d istance. The popu lation

dep ends on the professionals to elaborate their plans but there are very

few professionals willing to spend enough time in the squatter settlements

in order to develop ad equate plans. The mental distance is caused by the

fact that m any p rofessionals present themselves as the peop le who kn ow

and they think the p opu lation is ignorant. Professionals imp ose their ideas

and proposals on the popu lation, and the latter, dazzled by very learned

presentations, accept them. There are few professionals who und erstand

that man y inhabitants know – through life experience – more about wh at

is possible and w hat is not in informal settlement p lanning than they do.

Universities train “experts”, they d o not train professionals willing to pu t

their professional capacities at the service of the needs and ideas of poor

people. A capacity-building effort should close that gap.

It is for this reason that the p roject includ ed a cap acity-building

element. At the outset, a course w as offered for und ergraduates and grad-

uates in architecture and urban planning. This course included some

unu sual fieldwork, whereby participants w ere brought to Pam pas, lodged

there, and the course was g iven in a small Catholic chu rch there. For many

students, this was a first confrontation with extreme poverty; after the

course, most said that their first days were d espairing: “What can I, with

my sop histicated design education, offer these people?” but ended with

satisfaction: “When listening and looking attentively at the realities of the

site, in economic, social and physical terms, even such an en vironment

can be beau tified u sing simple d esign principles.”

This course can be seen as an attem pt at awareness-raising; steering

young people towards a different working attitude requires more time.

How ever, the project worked as m uch as p ossible with young Peruvian

professionals and the perman ent team was formed of two recent gradu-

ates whose work includ ed mu ch “learning by doing”.

b. Br ing ing the Profess ionals Closer

To reduce the mental and geographical distance between professionals

and the inhabitants, the office where all professional work was d one w as


LOCAL AGENDA 21








placed in the centre of Pampas. The more people found their own sugges-

tions and solutions being incorporated into the plans, the more they dared

work with the team . The fact that the office was close and easy accessible

– a simple room rented on the third floor of a hostel they all knew –

brought them m ore often to the office to see how w ork was d eveloping.As a result, the leaders at least – with wh om contacts have been m ost

intensive – consider the office and the p rofessionals working th ere as

“theirs”. The trust gained is gradu ally spread ing through the population

as a whole although there is still a lot of mistrust as a result of previous

experiences. Most imp ortant for the popu lation is that the team respect

their working plans and be open to suggestions for finding solutions.

V. REFLECTION AN D D EBATE

THE EXPERIENCE OF d eveloping a Local Agend a 21 the other wa y

round , starting w ith the pop ulation and their initiatives, led to a series of

considera tions on the d ynam ics of the Local Agenda 21 process. As noted

earlier, the causes of many environmental problems are to be found in thetransfer mechanisms underlying the current developm ent pattern both at

the very local scale of the home and the neighbourhood and on a larger

scale. This proposal for a Local Agenda 21 addresses several of these trans-

fer mechanisms at the most intimate scale – the home and th e neighbour-

hood . As a result of the process, neighbours speak to one another about

any waste or construction waste that has been inadequately dumped or

commu nity properties that have been dam aged. Responsibil ity for

keeping the parks green is assumed as a neighbourhood responsibility.

Each hou sehold has to provide w ater for the park a s long as there is no

irrigation water. The Agenda is seeking to reuse the waste water created

in the n eighbourhoods. Although not yet p ossible, an add itional activity

might includ e using the organic waste in the neighbourhood to p roduce

compost. The underlying assumption is that people are willing to take

responsibility for their home and n eighbourhood imp rovement – respon-

sibility in the sense that the m echanisms by w hich environmen tal costs

are transferred are ad dressed – on condition that it is clear that their efforts

will lead to concrete results.

The experience to d ate shows that this assum ption is generally correct

but that in the field, there are many distorting factors which include

mistrust, neighbourh ood quar rels, conflicting interests and political influ-

ences. These p roblems can be ov ercome – basically by focusing on th e

common interests – but that requ ires a lot of time an d patience. If the

process of developing a Local Agend a 21 on th is scale – one meant to also

reach the low-income groups – is to be really participatory, it is a multi-

year p roject.

Such a participatory process requires the combination of three differ-

ent time scales:

• social time: that needed by the commu nity to reach a lasting agreement;

• political time: the political lifecycle of local and n ational governm ent;

and

• project time: that w hich externally financed technical assistance has

available.(16)

If a project is meant to serve the other partners – the inhabitants living

within their social time cycle and the political actors determined by elec-

tion interests – it should be flexible in ad justing its project time-plann ing.

16. Classification taken from MsC. Carlos Grey, internal N GOmeeting, February 1998.


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Unfortunately, the possibilities for ad apting the p roject time are highly

dependent upon the willingness of the donor. All donors are driven by

their own internal agendas w hich tend to focus on the d ate “the money

has to be spen t”. The current strategies of international cooperation are

generally coun ter-productive. There is an ever-growing tend ency towardsproject finance instead of institutional finance and towards short-term

results instead of long-term processes. The n eed for “accoun tability”

makes bud gets more and more rigid.

Local NGOs are seen as the institutions closest to the poor population

and therefore important m ediators for their needs and possible catalysts

in a Local Agend a 21 process. In theory they are, but the short term, d irect,

result oriented p rojects on often tight budgets do not allow them to m ake

time for defining project prop osals in coordination with all actors

involved . The current N GO strategy – presented as caricature – inevitably

has to be, “first score the p roject, then find the target group”. While preach-

ing “consultation”, “developing together a long-term vision” and “part-

nerships of actors”, project finance forces NGOs to work the other way

round . Project budgets stipulate that the results in the end are known at

the beginning of the p rocess – which contradicts the requirement of “consultation and agreements reached du ring a process”. As a Peruvian

mayor once stated: “When I practised consultation of the population, I

had to learn to allow the p opu lation to change m y plans. If a process of

participation does not include changes in your plans, it is no real partici-

pation and people will lose their interest.”(17) Project finan ce so often makes

it difficult to change p lans.

There is a need for longer-term op en end ed finance; not open ended in

the sense of uncontrollable or unaccountable but op en end ed in the sense

that, at the beginning of the p rocess of formu lating an Agenda 21, funds

should be reserved for some components of its imp lementation w ithout

defining the precise activities these funds will be spent on. Of course,

donors could also be partners in the d ecision-making p rocess on p riori-

ties for implementation. But, if the search for financial assistance starts

only after the formulation of the Agenda 21, implementation will be

hug ely delayed as it takes so long for most don ors to process fun ding

requests. Delays mean that the w orking spirit generated in the commu -

nity is lost. Also, if a community based development of an Agenda 21 is

to be taken seriously, it must be possible for professionals to work with

the community for a longer period of time. This needs to be reflected in

bud gets – yet donors so often object to supp orting such staff time.

The neighbourhood d octors are not an NGO. The team is formed of inde-

penden t professionals comm itted to the process. The office is meant to grow

and subsist on a combination of resources generated in the comm unity and

of private solidarity fund s raised in Europe. This shou ld allow them to

deliver good qu ality wor k at affordable prices. The developm ent of the

Local Agenda 21 and, especially, its implementation will require fund ing

from traditional donors. This is why we seek to share the experiences and

lessons learned not only in Peru and other Latin American cities but also in

the d onor commu nity. If the “kite” of the Local Agenda 21 process (see

Figure 2) is to lift off and gain height, the donor community should be called

up on to become a partn er in the p rocess, not just in term s of financial

resources but also in terms of being a committed p artner in a challenging

process. That would op en the w ay for making the Local Agenda 21 a power-

ful instrum ent not only for governments bu t also for the people that are

meant to contribute to its formu lation and implementation.

17. Dr. Julio Díaz Palacios, ex-mayor of the city of Ilo, Peru.


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Documents

A Dream of Green and Water