The local government of the municipality of has been promoting this initiative since 1994, with the purpose of substantially increasing the quantity and quality of the investment in development projects in Nejapa, which is the municipality with the poorest population and also the one most affected by the armed conflict (1981-1992) in the Metropolitan Area of .

In order to achieve this purpose, the municipal government assumed a leadership position in the local society and oriented its principal efforts to the promotion of citizen participation in local governance, the construction of multi-sectorial alliances, the strengthening of local identity and the implementation of an energetic policy of national and international relations.

After six years of implementation, this strategy for the promotion of local development in the municipality of Nejapa has:

1) Substantially increased investment in projects that respond to the expectations of the population and are part of a larger collective development project for the locality with future vision. 2) Strengthened democratic governance in a locality that has recently concluded an armed conflict that lasted 12 years and took the lives of more than 60,000 victims. 3) Diminished considerably the levels of social conflict and delinquency in the municipality.

Since the municipal elections in 1994, when the mayor's party was elected with 39% of the votes, his government has been re-elected in two opportunities with 67 % of the votes in 1997 and 65% in 2000.

1) In the elections of 1994, a local government takes office and radically changes the style of local governance.

2) In 1995, the first exercise in participatory planning of local development is implemented and the Development Council of Nejapa (CDN) is created with representation of the principal local development actors.

3) In 1998, the Matching Fund for Local Development in Nejapa is created, which mobilizes financial investment from the private sector, the local government and the international aid agencies. Local community organizations and NGO's working in the municipality also participate in the Fund.

NARRATIVE: SITUATION BEFORE THE INITIATIVE BEGAN

In 1994, the 26,000 inhabitants of the municipality of Nejapa had the lowest levels of access to basic services and the lowest human development index in the Metropolitan Area of San Salvador. Their municipal government was also extremely poor and lacked links with the local society. The local population was profoundly divided as Nejapa had been directly effected by the armed conflict (1980-1992) that had recently finished.

ESTABLISHMENT OF PRIORITIES

The priorities of the initiative have been modified through the years of implementation in terms of content and the emphasis given to each one. However, considering this fact, we can determine that the priorities were: (a) increase the population's access to basic services, (b) decrease the existing levels of social conflictivity and (c) unite the local society around a commonly agreed upon vision and project of local development.

These priorities were first established, in a preliminary way, in the local government's plan in 1994, but were made more explicit and progressively diffused throughout the process of negotiation, consensus building (concertación) and joint implementation of initiatives between the local government and the rest of the local development actors.

FORMULATION OF OBJECTIVES AND STRATEGIES

The overall objectives presented by the local government elected in 1994, were:

1. Substantially increase the population's access to basic services and social and economic infrastructure. 2. Strengthen local democratic governance. 3. Reconciliate the local society in Nejapa and reduce social conflictivity.

In order to achieve these objectives, the local government of Nejapa focused its efforts on:

1. Promoting citizen organization and their participation in decision making and the implementation of these decisions. 2. Facilitating the construction of spaces and mechanisms for social consensus building and the establishment of multi-sectorial alliances. 4. Implementing an aggressive policy of external relations on a national and international level in search of resources to invest in development projects. 5. Investing the resources obtained in the implementation of priority projects defined by the population.

MOBILISATION OF RESOURCES

In 1994, inter-institutional alliances were established between 12 NGOs that responded positively to the possibilityof coordinating their development activities with the local government in order to achieve increased mobilization of financial, technical and human resources. These organizations provided much needed technical and human resource capabilities and also contacts with a network of international aid organizations that provided the needed financial resources for their work.

In 1998, with the facilitation of two NGO's, the municipality established Nejapa's Matching Fund for Local Development, with financial contributions from two big enterprises that were in the process of installing operations in the municipality and international aid agencies. This Fund is a permanent four-party alliance integrated by the local government, private enterprises located in the municipality, community- based organizations and NGOs.

Another source of resources mobilized for local development efforts has been the involvement of local community base organizations in the different projects which has mobilized citizen in-kind support as voluntary workers and some direct financial support also.

Furthermore, the municipal government established cooperation agreements with municipalities from other countries that have supported the efforts in Nejapa with technical assistance and financial aid for a diversity of projects.

Lastly, it is worth mentioning that the municipal government of Nejapa played an important role in the movement of the national association of municipalities to secure a substantial increase in the financial transfers from the national government to the municipalities.

PROCESS

In the beginning of the experience, the principal problem consisted of defining the mechanisms and acquiring the technical capacities necessary to open the process of citizen participation, given that the local government had not been traditionally involved in this area. This problem was resolved through the establishment of agreements between the municipal government and five NGOs that had experience in participatory planning on a community level. It is in this way that the local government of Nejapa and these NGOs initiated one of the country's first processes of participatory development planning on a municipal level.

From this planning exercise emerged the first space for citizen participation and consensus building, the Development Council of Nejapa, that cooperated directly with the municipality in the implementation of the Plan. The increasing levels of citizen participation and consensus building around local initiatives among different local actors helped to mobilize community resources and lent credibility to the process of changing the style of local governance in the eyes of external cooperation agencies.

However, the emergence of new institutional actors presented a problem of "power" in a society accustomed to simple and extremely vertical governance mechanisms. The solution to this problem was administered gradually through working together, generating a progressively greater inter-institutional confidence and clarifying the roles that each on would play in the process of constructing a joint territorial development project that put emphasis on the opportunities that developing the municipality represented for each of the different actors (the municipality, the NGOs, the base community organizations, the private enterprises, etc).

In 1997, the process of participation and progressive consensus building between actors had advanced considerably but the main protagonists were the community base organizations, the NGOs and the municipality. There was a notable lack of involvement of the local private enterprises. In fact, the negotiations between the Coca-Cola bottling company and the municipality concerning the installation of a local Coca-Cola plant were stalled due to a lack of effective communication, which is typical of the national tradition in relationships between private enterprises and municipalities. This problem was solved through the agreement to establish a Matching Fund, which would serve as an opportunity for inter-sectorial discussion and a mechanism by which private enterprise funds could be channeled into local development projects.

In the present situation, the major problem of the process is the excessive dependence on external (national or international) financing of local development efforts, which is why the Local Development Plan for the period 2000-2010 puts special emphasis on the productive reconversion in the private and cooperative enterprises present in the municipality. This emphasis is based on the logic that increasing local capacity of these enterprises to generate wealth will lead to an increase in the overall level of investment in favor of local development.

RESULTS ACHIEVED

The objectives proposed at the onset of this process have been progressively achieved.

The population's access to basic services has been greatly increased through the implementation of projects of electrification, introduction of potable water, road repair, etc. Three indicators of this progress are the increase in coverage of electricity from 51% to 89% of the population, potable water from 13% to 63% and latrines from 43% to 92%. The local road system has also been greatly improved.

This process has facilitated the construction of basic housing for 5% of the families in the municipality and another project is under way to provide an additional 8% with such facilities. The women workers in urban commerce has seen their incomes increase substantially through the construction of a new commercial center.

Local governability has been strengthened through an increase in the organization of community base organizations and the creation of opportunities and mechanisms for citizen participation. Over the last six years, there has been a dramatic increase from eight to 65 of a total of 71 communities that are now organized and they have created a municipal organization of organized communities that represents community interests. Women have increased their participation in the decision-making structures, both on a community level and as members of the local government. The citizens participate actively in the local development planning processes and the administration and follow up to projects that are implemented.

Lastly, Nejapa has gone from being a divided society with a high rate of social conflictivity to being a society that is characterized by the existence of inter-sectorial networks which integrate the municipal government, a few other State agencies, the private sector, the base community organizations and other citizen organizations integrated by young people, women, sports organizations, etc. and a group of NGOs committed to the development of Nejapa. In this sense, it is important to mention even though Nejapa has the highest level of poverty, it is one of the municipalities in the Metropolitan Area of San Salvador with the lowest crime levels.

SUSTAINABILITY

As has already been mentioned, the financing of the process that has been described during these last six years has rested principally on the transfer of external (national or international) resources. This process cannot therefore be characterized as auto- sustainable.

However, seen from another angle, this process has shown to be remarkably financially sustainable during this period based principally on the capacity that the local actors have had to produce constant innovations in the process as a whole, to articulate their own efforts around a dynamic vision and common project and to avoid dependence on any one source of financing.

Despite this capacity to acquire sufficient financing to drive the process up until this point, there is a growing conscience among the local actors that the long-term financial sustainability of the process depends on their capacity to increase the production of wealth on a local level.

The political sustainability of this process has been strengthened through the inclusion of different local actors in the local governance process in a way that would make it difficult, on the one hand, for a new municipal government to drastically change the course of the process. On the other, the social approval that this new style of local governance has gained has permitted the current local government maintain power through three consecutive elections, including the recent elections in March 2000 in which they received 65% of the votes.

This is undoubtedly related to the fact that the ample citizen participation in decision making processes has served to guarantee that the investments made in development projects prioritize social sectors that have been traditionally marginalized and without a voice in such matters.

LESSONS LEARNED

The case of Nejapa has resulted a virtual wellspring of innovative experiences for the local and national actors involved. From these experiences, we can extract the following lessons:

The strengthening of what we can call the socio-institutional capital of poor local societies is a component that can help to enhance creativity, secure needed resources and, in general, make efforts to overcome local problems more sustainable. Two key components in this sense are the creation of spaces and mechanisms for citizen participation and the construction of inter-sectorial alliances. The leadership of the local government in this construction process is fundamental.

Different initiatives, like the promotion of base citizen organizations, the processes of participatory development planning and the involvement of citizens in the decisions, implementation and oversight of the projects prioritized in these planning processes can result in effective means for the promotion of citizen participation in local governance.

Also, the construction of inter-sectorial alliances between municipalities and other local actors such as base organizations, private enterprises and NGOs, implies that the local governments must share governance responsibilities of "public matters" but can effectively contribute to the resolution of conflicts, the mobilization of resources and the forging of agreements that drive local development efforts.

The promotion of local development demands that the different actors move from a vertical vision of their projects, in which the principal actors are the "financers" the "implementers" and the "beneficiaries", to a more horizontal vision, in which other local actors are involved.

Lastly, it is appropriate that the policies of local development advance from the simple to the complex, taking as a starting point a response to the basic immediate needs of the population and projecting towards the implementation of more substantial projects that are oriented to changing the traditional mode of local development.

TRANSFERABILITY

After being a municipality of little importance on a national level, and although it has been governed by an opposition party, Nejapa has converted itself since 1994 into an important reference point for the implementation of innovative local development initiatives in . This is one of the primary motives that has promoted that mayor of this small municipality to be elected vice-president of the Corporation of Municipalities of the Republic of El Salvador (COMURES) in 1997.

The following are experiences that were first implemented in Nejapa and afterwards adapted to other municipalities in El Salvador.

The participatory elaboration of local investment plans, implemented for the first time in Nejapa (1994), has now been implemented in at least 90 of the 262 Salvadoran Municipalities and is a requirement demanded by the national Social Investment Fund for Local Development (FIS-DL) for financing local projects.

Similarly, the Development Council of Nejapa, which brought together representatives from different local development actors, has been replicated in at least twenty other Salvadoran municipalities and similar organisms are now being promoted by national institutions dedicated to promoting local development, like the FIS-DL.

The Matching Fund for Local Development in Nejapa has been replicated in the industrialized municipality of and the formation of such funds has been incorporated as a priority measure in the National Strategy for Local Development elaborated in 1999 by a plural group of national State agencies, the Corporation of Salvadoran Municipalities COMURES, and the network of NGOs for Local Development.

LESSONS LEARNED:

FINANCIAL PROFILE: Budget Year 1999: Total in US$: 898,417.00Municipality of Nejapa 65.9% of budget NGOs 18.8% Private enterprises 9.1% Base organization and communities 1.4% Budget year 1998: Total in US$: 1,519,250.00Municipality of Nejapa 74.8% NGOs 15.8% Private enterprises 8.4% Base organization and communities 1.0% Budget year 1997: Total in US$: 926,244.00Municipality of Nejapa 87.4% NGO's 7.1% Private enterprises 4.3% Base organization and communities 1.2% Budget year 1996: Total in US$: 393,410.00Municipality of Nejapa 68.9% NGO's 30.5% Private enterprises 0.0% Base organization and communities 0.6% Budget year 1995: Total en US$: 254,692.00Municipality of Nejapa 54.0% NGO's 42.0% Private enterprises 0.0% Base organization and communities 4.0% Budget year 1994: Total in US$: 36,321.00Municipality of Nejapa 75.5% NGO's 22.2% Private enterprises 0.0% Base organization and communities 2.2% Total 1994 - 1999 Budget: US$: 4,236,301.00Municipality of Nejapa 65.9% NGO's 18.8% Private enterprises 9.1% Base organization and communities 1.4%