2009

Partnerships for the development of Bolívar (Ecuador), managed by Àgora Nord-Sud

The context

The province of Bolívar (Ecuador), characterized by family production systems of less than 5 hectares surface, is facing a challenge because of the decrease in the agricultural sector, the low educational level of the rural population and high rates of poverty (85, 8% - 98%) and extreme poverty (43.1 -68.6%). The area has a high rate of intern and stationary emigration and the rural population life expectancy is only of 56 years. On the other hand, it has a poor allocation of resources both by the Ecuadorian State and by international cooperation.

The agricultural production in the area -which is the main activity- is characterized by low productivity, low quantity and quality of production, little product diversification, weakness or lack of peasant organizations, the lack of access to financial resources and the dependence of small producers of capital lender.

The project to evaluate

The project affects the improvement of the conditions of life, the increase of the production -in quantity and quality-, the agile access to credit and financing, and the marketing of products to local, national and international markets, targeting the most disadvantaged sectors of the province of Bolívar.

A double structure of inter-institutional alliances is required for the implementation of the program. On the one hand, in Catalunya, made up of institutions of cooperation -ACCD, COPCA and Àgora Nord-Sud-, which in 2007 signed an agreement to collaborate in the program partnerships for the development of Bolívar, in line with the fact that Ecuador is one of the priority countries of the Catalan cooperation according to the Director Plan of 2007-2010 development cooperation. Of the other, in Ecuador, formed by Ecuadorian institutions with extensive experience in cooperation and executing of projects of local endogenous development – Grupo Social Fondo Ecuatoriano Populorum Progressio (FEPP), Fundación Maquita Cushunchic Comercializando Como Hermanos (MCCH), Insituto de Ecología y Desarrollo de las Comunidades Andinas (IEDECA), Corporación de Promoción de Exportaciones e Inversiones (CORPEI) and Comercializadora Solidaria Camari.

The possibilities of generalization of the results of the evaluation to a thematic scope defined as strategic for the Catalan cooperation makes that this evaluation to be considered also as a training, and that its usefulness can extend to making decisions subsequent to the completion of the action.