Moreno Engl (2)

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MorenoProvince ofBuenos Aires

ARGENTINA

This brief presents the progress of the Moreno Project , an integral partof the Focus Cities Research Initiative sponsored by Canadas InternationalDevelopment Research Centre (IDRC). Moreno was the first city where theprogram was implemented.

From Diagnosis to Collaborative Action in the Municipality of Moreno

Easing the Environmental Burden

MorenoFocus City

The Focus City Research Initiative (FCRI) is a series of eight action research projects funded by the InternationalDevelopment Research Centre (IDRC) in Canada. In the Focus Cities approach, multistakeholder city teamsworked in partnership over four years, to research and test innovative solutions to alleviate poverty. Theparticipating researchers worked in the following cities : Lima (Peru), Cochabamba (Bolivia), Moreno (Argentina),La Soukra (Tunisia), Dakar (Senegal), Kampala (Uganda), Colombo (Sri Lanka) and Jakarta (Indonesia).

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The aim of the Focus City project in Moreno is to in-crease community involvement in capacity building pro-cesses as to ensure the best possible use of valuable localknowledge in community planning.

Community involvement is conceived and used as a toolfor generating social networks that enable active cit-izens participation, consolidating governance actionsand community organization through the process of se-lection, design, and implementation of pilot projects.

The objective of the project is to reduce the environment-al burdens affecting vulnerable residents in Moreno thatcontribute to their poverty. The first purpose is to adaptand test a multi-stakeholder management model for a)the provision of water and sanitation to other urban ser-

vices sectors, such as solid waste management; b) map-ping vulnerability and c) promoting urban agriculture.The second purpose is to share experiences, lessonslearned, and principles that could help inform such in-itiatives in other municipalities.

The aims of the project arose from the common interestsand shared visions of a great number of organizationsthat, as partners, have provided sustainability to the

working agreement reached between the local organ-izations and the municipality of Moreno.

Improvementandrecove

ryofadegraded

sectoronthebanksofV

illanuevaandLosPerros

streams

SanJorgeNeighborhoodThematicSquare

Morenois located 37 km west of the city of BuenosAires and covers an area of 186 km2. I t is com-prised of approximately 156 neighborhoods divided withinsix urban districts . Moreno is considered one of the poorestmunicipalit ies in the Greater Buenos Aires Area. Twenty sixpercent (26%) of the population, comprised of 380 530 in-dividuals1, have their basic needs unmet, compared to 16%for the Greater Buenos Aires Area.

Between the 1940s and the 1980s, Moreno experienced ahigh ra te of population growth due mainly to the infl ux ofrural populations at tracted by the growth of i ts industrialsector. Overwhelmed by this rate of population growth, themunicipal government was unable to adequately administerthe use of the land. As a result , human set t lements were es-tablished under limited regulation and independent of anyinfrastructure networks. Moreno is st i l l at tracting immigrants :i ts populati on increased by 41 % between 1 980 and 1991,and by about 32 % between 1 991 and 2001, a value thatst i l l great ly exceeded the average for the Greater Buenos

Aires Area.

1 Census 2001

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Stage1. Diagnosis and Participatory Planning :

Outcome mapping1

Public awareness and call for participatorydiagnosis

Zonal mapping of environmental problems

Municipal environmental diagnosis

Design of an administrative procedures manual

Stage2. Participatory Management :

Establishment of zonal, inter-zonal andsupervision committees

Determination of roles and responsibilities ofzonal representatives

1 Outcome Mapping establishes a vision of the human, social, andenvironmental betterment to which the program hopes to contributeand then focuses monitoring and evaluation on factors and actorswithin that programs direct sphere of influence.

Stage 3. Participatory Implementationof the Pilot Projects :

Design of neighborhood projects

Establishment of a portfolio of projects

Selection of pilot projects (6)

Implementation of the environmentaleducation campaign

Selection of final participatory designs

Call for tenders for pilot projects

Allocation of contracts to selectedconstruction companies

Implementation of pilot projects

Gaining written agreements with neighborhoodorganizations

Monitoring and evaluation of pilot projects

IIED-AL (International Institute or Environment andDevelopment Latin America) : The working team iscomprised o a multidisciplinary group including archi-

tects, an anthropologist, a sociologist, a geographer,and a graphic designer and communicator.

Local grassroots organizations : The participa-tion o community organizations o which manywomen where actively involved has taken place atboth institutional and individual levels. More than 100organizations have been involved over the three yearso the project. These include cooperatives, schools,community organizations such as neighborhood kitch-ens, neighborhood councils, civil associations, andneighborhood committees.

Local Government : The Moreno municipal gov-ernment was engaged through the establishment o aPlanning Consultative Council (PCC), composed o theMunicipality General Secretary, the Public Works De-partment, the Social Action Sub-department, as wellas the Executive Managers rom IDUAR (Instituto deDesarrollo Urbano Ambiental y Regional), and IMDEL(Instituto Municipal de Desarrollo Econmico Local).The IDUAR Executive Manager was the municipal rep-resentative to the Planning Consultative Council dur-ing the diagnosis stage o the project, and the Public

Works Secretary served or the third stage (Participa-tory Implementation o the Pilot Projects).

The main methodological strategy implemented by theresearch team rom IIED-AL has been the participatorymanagement model. This involves a multi-stakeholderprocess that promotes open dialogue, increasing theaccess and transparency o inormation amongst part-

ners and acilitating agreement on the management opolicy-influencing projects. These dialogues are imple-mented at both the zonal and inter-zonal levels, and

are coordinated through the zonal committees (or thispurpose, Moreno was divided into our zones) and ageneral inter-zonal committee.

The inter-zonal committee provides an opportunity orall project partners to interact. It is composed o repre-sentatives rom the our zonal committees, IIED-AL andthe local municipal technical team. They manage theproject and make the decisions. Each partner in theproject has a say and a vote.

Building a joint working platorm implies not only ahigher level o interdependency among the actors, but

also a positive relationship or overcoming obstaclesthat typically arise in other types o relationships. Thesepartnering approaches are based on the understand-ing that the actors involved are linked to each other bycommon interests in asymmetric relationships based onthe position that each o them occupies in the socialstructure in matters o economic resources, organiza-tional resources, social capital, and power.

The Moreno Focus City inter-zonal committee is rec-ognized as a platorm to connect with other munici-pal, provincial and national programs and projects

that seek to operate in the region. The opportunitiesor cooperation oered by the inter-zonal committeeis not only recognized by the municipality but also bythe organizations that have been in contact with theproject.

The actors involved in this project are the ollowing :

Stages and Main Activities

Recycling plant forreceiving, storing andcompacting cardboard,plastics, and othermaterials


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Moreno Environmental Education Program ;Develop an environmental education and communi-cation program that builds the capacity o residentsthrough training in speciic environmental issues.

Recycling plant for receiving, storing and compactingcardboard, plastics, and other materials ; Within thenew integrated management o urban solid waste: toreduce the tons o waste sent to the sanitary landfll, andimprove the quality o lie o those working in the sectorand o residents.

Optimization of the potable water network for theAlem neighborhood ; To increase the availability andquality o the neighborhoods potable water service andto train, promote, and improve the technical and admin-istrative management o the system.

Improvement and recovery of a degraded sectoron the banks of Villanueva and Los Perros streams ;To improve and reurbish a highly degraded stretch othe two streams, and provide these areas with inrastruc-

ture to be used as a recreational area or the residents. San Jorge Neighborhood Thematic Square ;To transorm a degraded site into a public square to beused or both recreational activities and as a venue orcarrying out activities and initiatives to raise environ-mental awareness and responsibility or the commongood.

Achievements

The main achievement o the Moreno FocusCity project is the establishment o strongpartnerships between the local govern-

ment and several community organizationsachieved through the joint development andimplementation o the pilot projects. Althoughprevious relationships and joint work had oc-curred between the local government andsome o the community organizations, thesepartnerships have been urther consolidatedover the three years o the project and are inthe process o being institutionalized.

Zonal committees were established in-volving the three actors in the our zones into

which the Moreno municipality was divided.An inter-zonal committee is also in operation,comprised o representatives rom the zonalcommittees, the municipality and IIED-AL. Asupervision committee is also operating withone representative per zone and IIED-AL.Each o these committees are regulated byagreements in which the roles o each o theparties are set out.

Approaches and tools have been de-veloped or achieving such goals as 1) the

production o participatory diagnosis; 2) theelaboration o environmental maps or eachneighborhood; 3) a drat portolio o projectsto help with the establishment o priorities;4) the participatory design o interventions;and 5) establishing and ormalizing a super-vision committee or the monitoring o pilotprojects. Permanent tools have also been de-veloped or monitoring and evaluating activ-

ities (workshops, meetings, etc.), or decisionmaking and or generating collective know-ledge. Finally, training activities took placeat several stages o the project in order tostrengthen the capacity o the partners.

Challenges

The most difcult challenge was trying tosimultaneously address the diverseset o represented interests. The prob-lem arose because partners had dierentagendas. The important thing or IIED-AL wasproviding the opportunity or dialogue andthe eective participation o the community.For the municipality, the goal was to com-plete concrete actions and avoid generating

demands that would be impossible to meet.For the community, the goal was to completethe work that would legitimize its role as rep-resentative and be considered as equal in thepartnership. o these

Another challenge was conciliating therole o IIED-ALas both acilitator andpartner. According to the projects ofcialdocuments, all three partners are directlyresponsible or implementing the project, al-though each having a dierent role. While

IIED-ALs role as a partner was to manageand implement the project proposal, thererole as a acilitator was to work with boththe municipal and community organizationpartners to coordinate eorts and ensure acommon direction.

Pilot Projects and their Objectives :

Outcomes and Refections

InternatIonalDevelopment research centre (IDrc)www.crdi.ca

www.iied-al.org.ar/c_focales/home.htm

Documents

Moreno Engl (2)