Planning from Below. Marta Harnecker
tax collection, civil registry, administration of state companies, urban planning, surveillance and security, road asphalting, management of homes with elderly people and community soup kitchens, along with the general maintenance of infrastructure related to healthcare, education, culture and sports (See Appendix I: Diagram of the different levels of planning and their responsibilities).
197. This decentralization of responsibilities creates a framework for determining the type and amount of human and financial resources to transfer to each level of local government in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity that we introduced in paragraph 40.
198. A correct distribution of competencies among the different levels is a fundamental step towards avoiding the overlap of activities and many other problems such as lending excessive technical support to one level and not enough to another. Before transferring competencies, a study should be carried out, because it is only worth transferring competencies to a lower level if the conditions exist to successfully deal with them.
199. We have to be careful however to ensure that all transfers are well planned and agreed upon by the levels that these competencies will be transferred to. It is possible that territorial public entities might try to rid themselves of competencies that are problematic for them (for example, rubbish collection) and keep those they are most interested in.
200. It is not possible to set general criteria for decentralization of competencies as it depends on many factors. For example, while the centralized management of services such as sanitation and street cleaning might seem reasonable in a city due to economies of scale and the possibilities available for mechanization, it is obvious that in the case of a relatively isolated rural area with small communities, decentralized management would not only be possible but would in fact produce better results.
201. Another example is housing construction. It would seem that this should be a state or municipal responsibility, but in many cases it is more efficient to give communities the possibility of managing the construction of new houses that can replace existing substandard homes or improve them. Undoubtedly, they should receive technical support from the state or municipality, but they are the ones who know best their needs and priorities, and can contribute their voluntary labor. Moreover, there is much self-confidence to be gained when people solve problems for themselves.
202. Lastly, another example that can help clarify this issue is water management within a defined territory. This can vary depending on whether it is a rural or urban area. While small communities are best equipped to carry out this task and come to an agreement on how to distribute existing water supplies, in urban areas where piping systems exist to distribute water throughout the city, it may make no sense for one neighborhood to have control.
203. In any case, as we have already said, the essential principle that should be applied in decentralization is that everything that can be managed at a lower level should be managed at that level, and in order to make this possible the necessary resources and training in how best to manage those resources should be provided to the community.
3) DECENTRALIZING RESOURCES
204. The other fundamental premise of DPP is the decentralization of resources.
205. If resources are scarce and only a small portion is decentralized, then the territories and communities will lack the capacity to act.
206. Here we have to take into consideration material resources (financial, tools and equipment), as well as human resources (staff). This is the only way to carry out an effective decentralization.
a) Financial resources
207. Where existing regulations did not foresee the possibility of decentralization, the municipal government could take initiatives in this direction.
208. In the Venezuelan municipality of Torres, the municipal government transferred the resources it had for public works to the 17 parishes so that they could carry out the projects they wanted to prioritize.30 The fundamental criteria used to transfer monies were: size of territory (much of which was rural), number of inhabitants, population density and an index of interterritorial compensation that Venezuela uses when providing funds to lessen inequalities between territories.31
209. In our opinion, we should follow the example of Torres when it comes to determining the amount of money to transfer to each territory. It is very important to use criteria that enable us to share available resources in the most equitable way; criteria that favor the poorest territories that have until now been the most neglected by the state. This way, we can slowly begin to reduce the socio-economic inequalities among territories (We outline our proposal for the kind of criteria and methodology to employ in Appendix III).
b) Equipment and personnel
210. In addition to transferring financial resources, it is also necessary to transfer personnel, that is, to relocate civil servants by taking them out of the central apparatus and deploying them in the community. There is also a need to provide offices and equipment.
211. The people required to form technical planning teams in each territory should be included among the personnel that should be transferred.
212. In Kerala, the lowest level of self-government, the Grama Panchayats, not only involves representatives -elected and recallable by the population – in governing roles, but also civil servants that previously operated in the central apparatus of the state and who today - thanks to the process of decentralization –carry out duties at the level of the village in areas such as health, education, sanitation, production, etc. Local governments also have buildings suited to fulfilling the functions of local self-government and the necessary logistics so that their personnel can work and attend to the population’s needs.
213. In Venezuela, big strides have been made in terms of organization and popular participation, especially with the communal councils and communes (the lowest level of genuine self-government). To an extent, progress has been made in transferring funds. But there has been little advance made, except in a few cases,32 in transferring competencies and human resources. The communes remain a long way away from counting upon the personnel and physical resources they require in order to function.33
4) TECHNICAL TEAMS TO PROMOTE THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PROCESS
214. Decentralized participatory planning is not a process that can be generated spontaneously. Preparatory work is needed to create the conditions that can ensure the success of the process and, above all, raise awareness and mobilize the population so that from a passive population that demands public works and services it becomes an active population that takes into their own hands the resolution of many of their own problems.
215. As well as this preparatory work, we also have all the technical and material support work that is needed to take the planning process forward, and the monitoring and control of the process itself.
216. Political will alone is not enough to take the process forward or simply decentralizing human resources. As we will see when we look at the actors involved in the process, a municipality or other higher level entity that decides to carry out a process of participatory planning needs to create different teams at each level (municipality, territorial area and community) made up of volunteer technical experts and activists willing to take up these tasks.
217. These teams should work closely with the population, without substituting for them. Their support function is essential to creating confidence among residents involved in the process. They contribute experience and technical know-how, but above all provide the encouragement needed to help overcome any initial doubts and hesitations, which will naturally appear when embarking on any project for the first time.
5) RAISING AWARENESS AMONG THE POPULATION AND KEY PARTICIPANTS
218. Another fundamental condition for the success of the participatory planning process is ensuring