Democracy gets close and personal

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From dependency to autonomy. For nearly 300 years, the Atlantic Coast has been administered as a protectorate by outsiders, first by the British, and then by officials in the distant capital of Managua. They did things to the local people, and for the local people. But they didn't ask the local people what they wanted and what they needed. The outsiders viewed the region principally as a source of natural resources–timber, minerals, and fisheries–for the benefit of distant consumers.

But now this long history of paternalism is ending. As part of the agreement to end Nicaragua’s decade-long civil conflict at the end of the 1980s, the central government pledged to grant regional autonomy to the Atlantic Coast.

In 1987, the government adopted the Autonomy Statutes and created the North Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAN) and the South Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAS). These regional governments, and their locally elected regional councils, were intended to give the local people a strong participation in development programs as well as a strong voice in managing the region's natural resources. From now on, the relationship between the capital and the Atlantic Coast would be negotiated, not imposed.

The plan was ambitious, but it was fundamentally flawed. For one thing, it did not spell out the roles and relationships between Managua and the regional governments. For another, the regional governments lacked the basic managerial skills—including financial management—needed to exercise autonomy in any real sense.

Nor did the regional governments have effective links with municipal governments, most of which existed in name only. The municipalities, in turn, had little to offer local communities. Only some of the larger jurisdictions had experience in providing potable water, sanitation and trash pickup, and only in their urban centers.

Both regional governments and municipalities are constantly strapped for cash. The RAAN and the RAAS receive transfers from Managua, and both they and the municipalities are also entitled to a portion of revenues from mining concessions, lumber, and fishing licenses. But the amounts are small and they arrive sporadically. Moreover, the regional governments end up spending more than half of the funds they receive from central government transfers on salaries, not on projects to improve the lives of their citizens.

Building local government from the bottom up. Clearly, the mere granting of autonomy could not by itself guarantee the benefits of local government. The regional and municipal governments must have the skills, the organization and the institutions needed to plan and carry out their own development, and to demand what is due to them from the national authorities. In addition, there is an urgent need to put the 1987 Autonomy Statutes into effect.

This is the objective of a new IDB-financed plan to strengthen government institutions on the Atlantic Coast. Taking up where the 1987 Autonomy Statutes left off, the $8 million IDB loan will finance activities to develop expertise in local government institutions as well as to break down existing barriers between government, local communities and nongovernmental organizations. The program will be carried out in close coordination with other international donor agencies, in particular Sida and DANIDA, the Swedish and Danish development assistance agencies.

The heart of the program will be a clear definition of the role of the regional governments along with the administrative and technical capacity to represent regional interests. Programs will be financed and carried out by two regional technical units, one for each of the regional governments. Plans are already underway to contract experts in planning, finance, administration, project development and other specialized areas who will advise their government counterparts and create the basis for an institutional framework that includes a career-based human relations system. The regional government units will then go on to work with selected municipalities to strengthen their own capacities and to manage their finances, plan and carry out development projects, and work with local leaders at the community level.

At first, IDB funds will cover the costs of the technical unit staff. But in the following years, the regional governments will gradually assume financial responsibility.

In the meantime, studies will be carried out on the best way to transfer revenues raised from concessions and licenses to local governments. Other studies will look at how local governments can have a greater say in managing natural resources within their jurisdictions.

The program is founded on a commitment to participatory planning. Municipal officials will go out into the communities to learn about local priorities, and will carry out public information campaigns to ensure the projects' success. Roundtable discussions will bring local leaders together with representatives from civil society organizations to help prevent duplication of efforts and ensure common goals.

But what happens if communities heed the call to participate, establish priorities, and the money never arrives to actually do the project? This demoralizing scenario occurs all too frequently in otherwise well-conceived development projects.

In the IDB program, $1.6 million are earmarked for local investments, such as repairing schools and health posts and buying equipment, potable water, day care centers, electricity, community centers, recreational areas and natural disaster prevention plans, among other things. Project beneficiaries and local governments will contribute at least 10 percent of the cost of each project, either in cash or donated land and labor.

Finally, the program has more than $3 million to spend on improving health and education projects. Among them are priority initiatives identified in a 1999 meeting in Stockholm of international donors that are helping to finance Nicaragua's reconstruction needs in the wake of Hurricane Mitch. One such project will be to introduce telemedicine technologies to improve the quality of health care for isolated communities. Another will be to train school administrators to help improve the quality of education through in-service teacher training. In addition to their intrinsic value, the projects will also advance the program's broader objective of establishing a process in which the central government routinely takes into account the needs of the Atlantic Coast.

A separate component of the program will address the growing problem of drugs along the Atlantic Coast. The region is located along the main transshipment route for cocaine from South to North America, and local people often find abandoned packages of drugs, which leads to their involvement in the narcotics trade. In addition, local consumption of marijuana and cocaine is increasing and has been the cause for growing health and social problems, including escalating levels of violence and crime.

A $330,000 IDB grant will be used to finance a drug prevention and awareness program at the community level. Included will be training for staff of the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, local agencies and nongovernmental organizations, as well as activities to provide youths with alternatives to drug use, such as sports, music, and theater.

The economics of decentralization. Although all municipalities on the Atlantic Coast have to address similar problems, they vary enormously in their abilities to do so. Corn Island is perhaps the strongest, both financially and technically. Others are practically powerless to provide even minimal services, such as trash pickup and potable water. According to Howard, decentralization is essential for enabling them to do their jobs.

"If we can decentralize our governments, many of our municipalities can become financially independent," said Howard. "They can use their own resources to address their problems, rather than relying on help from the central government.

"They will also have the ability to prepare laws to put before the national assembly that will help them protect their own interests," he said.

The key to it all, according to Howard and other Atlantic Coast leaders, is getting control over the region's natural resources. Historically, decisions on exploiting minerals, timber, and fisheries were made in Managua. Companies from outside the Atlantic Coast–and from outside the country–were sold concessions, and most of the money ended up in the capital city.

"We have to join together and propose laws to the central government that will both protect our resources and ensure that our wealth remains here," said Howard. "The Atlantic Coast has 70 percent of Nicaragua's natural resources. But it's Managua that makes the decisions. They just say, 'we're going to take so much more timber, so much more lobster,' without considering if this is sustainable. In the end, if they return just 5 percent of the profits to the Atlantic Coast, they say it's plenty. We have to protest this."

Now the talk is about oil. It appears likely that this poorest region in Nicaragua–maybe the poorest in all of Central America–sits astride petroleum deposits that could be tapped for 20 years. How much of the profits will benefit the people of the Atlantic Coast?

In the global economy, having access to export markets is essential. In this regard, Howard says that Nicaragua’s Atlantic Coast should no longer rely on firms from the Pacific to market the region's products abroad. Not only would local people derive more direct economic benefit if they controlled their industries, but just as importantly, they would learn essential skills and gain experience.

But an export economy needs infrastructure, particularly roads and docks. Here again, Howard protests that firms from outside the region are getting contracts that should be going to local people. "The profits of a Managua firm are spent in Managua, not here. They think they are solving our problems. But their solutions are creating more problems. We want Atlantic Coast firms to make money here and invest it here."

But for local firms to win contracts, they must be able to bid on a level playing field. "When this kind of work comes up, firms from the Pacific know about it long before we do. They have the contacts," he said, "so they get the contracts. I would say they are so 'lucky' to get the contract."

The problem goes deeper than historical circumstances, or even lack of experience, according to Howard. Discrimination is also a factor, he said, even though it is often hidden. "We are Miskito people, black people," he said. "We're Protestants, not Catholics."

In all of this, Howard feels that the new IDB program will help to begin a process of change. No longer marginalized by its geography and political weakness, this region will be able to assert itself and control its future.

Date posted: May 2001

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