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prologo: CARTAGENA, colombia
aims at fostering and strengthening
public policy advocacy
for the economic integration
and political participation of Afro-Colombian communities.
Cartagena is a very urban municipality,
with almost 1 million inhabitants.
It appears to have plenty of social capital.
However,
all that political, social, human capital
is not being effectively translated
into increased levels of human development.
The Customs Palace, as its name suggests
was the place in the colony
more than 478 years ago,
when Cartagena was founded,
where all the merchandise went through, in the Cartagena Bay.
At that time, slaves were considered merchandise,
so the African population
in most of Latin America
entered the continent through Cartagena de Indias.
Later on, this space, we may say, has necessities
to have answers of what was
a historical period that featured great indignity.
For many years, we have built,
and also allowed for others to build for us,
a city that is, in fact, several cities:
two, three and four cities,
and this is why thinking about Cartagena
as one city means thinking about inclusion.
The thing is that, clearly speaking, the city is a façade,
a postcard for the tourists
However, the Cartagena where it hurts the most,
where there is more suffering,
is the Cartagena of the disadvantaged neighborhoods,
mainly inhabited by Afro communities.
Nowadays, the main urban conflict in Cartagena
is land tenure. And, as it happens,
the Afro population has settled
in high-value zones for tourism
and agro-industrial purposes.
In the particular case of La Coquille community,
the native Rizal, fishermen population,
do not have title deeds to their lands
and there is huge real estate, touristic and hotel development,
which quickly obtain their title deeds
and build on lots
that traditionally belonged to the fishermen in La Coquille.
Economically, La Coquille was a fertile town.
Every time I come to the plaza I remember
it was a sandy mountainous village.
The arrival of the idea of building macro-projects
hotels, throughout Cartagena…
I think that was the real catastrophe for this town.
All the sand to build those buildings,
those hotels, was taken from here. Today, there are no mountains anymore.
That is why the land titling process
is so important to us. But this is not only
happening in La Coquille.
I think La Coquille is now safe
because we created a community-based council
and we started
a promising process.
But the same applies to areas
that were former sewers,
such as
Coinage de La ***.
This issue is has normative obstacles,
related to the national legislation,
other obstacles that arise from conflict of interest
among sectors in
the use of land,
resources, and there is, of course, the issue
of internal agreement within the Afro population itself.
Other people, like Cesar, started the resistance,
but at one point he had to leave
because Cesar has a high-rise
next to his place. The water
bill was nearly 300,000 pesos,
and it was already a commercial zone.
That was hard.
We are not against the development of such huge tourism projects,
what we are saying is that the concept of development that is been used
here should be changed.
It is a model that, unfortunately,
leaves us out of it.
The problem in this case is not the lack of elements
to promote human development. Maybe
what is actually the issue is public management,
the issue of transfers, the transformation of
resources into higher levels of human development
and, why not say, into greater inclusiveness.
It is a great opportunity in
which dialogue spaces open for governmental bodies,
communities, civil society,
as well as entrepreneurs.
An opportunity to see how best interact
and how to work for social inclusion in projects
that may force populations to leave
their traditional territories.
if we manage to reach political bodies such as congresses, councils, municipalities and other decision/making authorities…
I think this could be
a way to stop this
kind of scourge.
Locally,
what we community dwellers,
who are the most concerned,
should do is
to be aware and try not to leave our land so easily.
As we raise the awareness of three people,
ten other people have sold their land.
It is a lack of will. It is lack of will.
Governments talk about
public policy, but public policy
is not implemented in these towns.
PROLOGO means Local
Governance Proposals.
It is an initiative supported by the Generalitat Valenciana and implemented
by UNDP. PROLOGO focuses on capacity building,
advocacy tools,
community based leadership
and inclusion.
PROLOGO is a means, a methodology to promote governance
in the space that is closer to the people.
The PROLOGO project has been
a great pillar to promote
Afro leadership in the municipality.
Let’s say that it has boosted the capacity
for dialogue and consensus
within Afro organizations.
Second, it has visualized common problems
facing Afro populations.
Third, it has strengthened
capacities in terms of knowledge,
and skills that enable
a better exercise
of constructive and effective leadership.
We felt that politics
had nothing to do with us.
We felt the need
but the moment hadn’t yet come.
And then comes the PROLOGO project
and tells us: Come on, pinch yourselves,
power scenarios are right there,
decision-making scenarios are right there,
political participation scenarios are right there.
PROLOGO has come to shows us and to make us understand
that there is no possibility of development
if there is not political development
that allows for permanent
and good leadership that in addition is renewed.
In this case, capacity development is a means
for empowerment
so organized groups can make coherent
feasible and rational demands to government,
in areas within
its mandate.
The Project, through the Virtual School’s courses,
has provided content,
and has promoted exchange within this learning community
and other territories
in Latin America, with clear messages
to populations that feel isolated
to show them there are other alternatives.
I think
these simple practices
taught by the Virtual School have helped people
understand the need to reach small agreements.
It is about refreshing the aim of their work,
what they do and for whom.
That is, they understood that all the work on leadership,
all the knowledge
has to be oriented towards human development.
Within the framework of the PROLOGO project, we were instructed
by the Virtual School that we should find
a problem that is common to the whole municipality.
When we sat down and started thinking about the problems,
many said: it is water, it is healthcare… but then we realized
that it was all about land tenure.
In other words, it is of no value to have services
if we don’t have a place to live.
We decided to work
on the issue of land tenure,
building on previous
experiences of sister communities
that have experienced the same problems.
During the course we realized
there are opportunities not only to create policy spaces
but to scale it up, to reach the highest political circles.
Let’s remember that governance is not
an attribute exclusive to the government.
It is an attribute of society and,
therefore, it has to include
some dialogue mechanism,
some consensus-building mechanisms
to promote a win-win solution,
both for the government,
in terms of investment,
economic growth,
and for the population that demands increasing
projections and aspirations towards the future.
There are also challenges
within the Afro communities,
as they have to develop their capacity
for internal political negotiation, to avoid leadership conflict.
We Afro communities have not made progress
because of our weakness
in building social and economic contracts,
to unify together and
create advocacy proposals and actions
to find solutions
to this rights violation issue.
This may be somewhat idealistic, a dream,
but I think that it is still
possible in Cartagena
to really walk together, all the cartageneros together,
regardless of their condition. �