Transcript 3539_Poster_Peru_Edith_Fernandez

Developing a methodology to enable community governance for market integration and adaptation
to climate changes: agency and the advocacy coalition approach in the Peruvian Altiplano
Edith
1Instituto
1
Fernández-Baca ,
University of Missouri, Illinios, USA
Methodology
Alliances
(Social
Capital)
between
farmer
organizations/communities and a range of actors,
from different sectors and levels of society can
increase negotiating power (Political Capital). The
Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) can provide
the elements needed especially by the grassroots to
effectively participate in the decision making process.
Previous research done in Ecuador and Peru (Flora
et al. 2006; Fernández-Baca 2006) has shown the
usefulness of the ACF in studying the multilevel,
multi-sector dynamic interaction among stakeholders
in their search to influence the rules, budgets, and
leadership in specific state agencies in the pursuit of
particular desired futures.
and Pedro
1
Condor
de la Pequeña Producción Sostenible, Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina Peru.
2
Introduction
Cecilia
2
Turin
A modified approach of the Advocacy Coalition
Framework (ACF), was used to initiate the process of
forming alliances around relevant issued. The
research was conducted by the communities
themselves, in order to better build advocacy
coalitions that satisfy their goals. Based on the
previous research done in Peru, the communities of
Santa Maria and Apopata engaged in participatory
processes of needs assessment, historical analysis
of existing stakeholder networks and identification of
desired futures and goals.
Results
Conclusions
Initial workshops to look at desired futures and goals
led to Santa Maria identifying increased soil fertility
as their goal. Apopata on the other hand, found that
an improved market access for alpaca fiber would
enhance their quality of life.
As the process has evolved, Apopata has shown
more willingness to engage in coalition building. On
the other hand, Santa Maria has shown some
reticence in engaging in AC, apparently partly as a
result of the change in local authorities. This has
made a reevaluation of work strategies necessary.
Thus we are evaluating the possibilities of shifting
our strategy to engage the community of Santa
Maria in AC research through its linkage with soils
studies that are taking place as part of the overall
SANREM project.
We propose that ACF can be used as a participatory
and inclusive bottom-up approach. An advocacy
coalition participatory-research process (AC) was
initiated in the Aymara communities of Santa Maria
and Apopata, in the Peruvian Altiplano around market
and climate change issues. The guiding assumption
of this process is that for strategies developed to face
market and climate change to be successful, civil
society must participate in deciding how they are
done.
Materials and methods
The setting
This study was undertaken in the altiiplano
communities of Santa María and Apopata, in Puno,
Peru. Both communities are of Aymara origin. The
community of Santa María (pop. 60 families) is
located at an altitude of 3800 to 4200m and has an
economy based on crops and livestock production.
Apopata (pop. 80 families) on the other hand is
located at a higher altitude (4000-4500m) and has an
economy based only on livestock production.
The LRT engaged in: (1) capacity-building in
coalition research, (2) data collection including
interviews with relevant actors in decision-making
positions
within
key
institutions,
(3)
documentation/systematization of research, and
(4) feedback and negotiation workshops.
Following these steps, would hopefully result in
emergence and strengthening of coalitions.
Participation, initiatives proposed, actions taken,
number of associations formed and any form of
social capital emergence as a result of the
intervention are being measured to evaluate
progress and increase in political capital.
Puno
Apopata
Two groups, one per community were elected in a
democratic process to initiate the formation of
advocacy coalitions around the issues/goals
identified (soils and market). These groups
received training sessions to improve interviewing
and negotiating skills with stakeholders to support
their goals. Groups were known as “Local
research teams” (LRT).
Santa Maria
Literature cited
Both communities identified the existing network of
key actors around the issues they had prioritized.
Existing and potential political capital in Santa Maria
can be found in its links and alliances with five
internal associations, including one women
enterprise, and the relationship the community has
with four external institutions including NGOs and
governmental agencies. Apopata instead has links
with only one external institution, the Municipality,
and lacks internal associations. The difference in the
links and alliances each community possesses might
lie on the amount of external interventions each of
them has been subjected to in the past decade or so.
As year three of the project is reaching its end,
Santa María has stalled in the process while Apopata
has been steadily increasing its network of possible
allies to engage in different capacity building
activities to improve alpaca fiber and overall quality
through improvement of their animals.
Fernández-Baca E.C. 2006. Modernization and
development as part of the globalization
process: Holistic participatory community
development in a community in the Mantaro
Valley, Peru. PhD Dissertation. Iowa State
University, Ames Iowa
Flora, J.L., C.B. Flora, F. Campana, M. Garcia Bravo,
and E. Fernández-Baca. 2006. Social Capital
and Advocacy Coalitions: Examples of
Environmental Issues from Ecuador. Pp. 287297 in R.E. Rhoades (ed.) Development with
Identity: Community, Culture and Sustainability
in the Andes. Cambridge, MA: CABI Publishing
Acknowledgments
We would like to give our acknowledgment to the
people of the communities of Apopata and Santa
María, the main actors in this process. Likewise we
would like to recognize the work of the Puno
Technical Team in charge of facilitating the process
and collecting data for this research.