MINK'A DE CHORLAVÍ FUND
Call for Projects 2003

" Experience Systematization on Decentralized Environmental Governance in Rural Latin America and the Caribbean"

The Fondo Mink'a de Chorlavií (Mink'a de Chorlaví Fund) calls public and private organizations interested in Latin America's rural issues to participate in their 2003 Call for Projects. The call topic is "Experience Systematization on Decentralized Governance in Rural Latin America and the Caribbean." The Fund will earmark approximately US$ 200,000 for this call, divided between more or less 10 to 12 projects. For more information, please visit our website www.FondoMinkaChorlavi.org or write to rimisp@rimisp.cl

THE MINK'A DE CHORLAVÍ FUND

There is a general consensus on the need to facilitate learning processes in public and private organizations whose action has impact on inequity, rural poverty, management of natural resources and sustainable rural development. Even though learning has always been significant for the effectiveness of these organizations, socioeconomic and institutional changes in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) in the last two decades call for a thorough examination of our conventional way of doing things. It could also be said that we must re-learn to work successfully in pursuance of the goals to fight poverty, change exclusion systems, promote sustainable rural development and improve management of natural resources.
Fortunately, learning is taking place in thousands of concrete initiatives in struggling against poverty, in improving management of natural resources and promoting sustainable rural development. Multiple economic, social, technological and institutional innovations are underway in LAC. Consequently, the region is turning into a gigantic 'experiment' of local and regional response to this new context. These initiatives can and should be the main source for new experiences, lessons and knowledge.
The general objective of the Mink'a de Chorlaví Fund is to facilitate organizational learning to improve involvement aimed at fighting poverty, change exclusion systems, promote sustainable rural development and improve management of natural resources.

DEFINITIONS

The following definitions apply for the 2003Call for Projects:
(a) Systematization: An ordering and critical reflection process arising from one or more development experiences, in respect to a question or pre-determined concern in which local actors participate. It is aimed at generating lessons learned to help improve the action itself as well as to contribute in increasing knowledge.

(b) Environmental governance: 'Political, social and administrative ways to govern access and use of natural resources. Environmental governance can be carried out through state organizations and institutions (i.e. ministries, municipal governments, forestry or fisheries legislation, municipal ordinances for use of soil, etc.) and/or by civil organizations or institutions (i.e. Community Assemblies, Board of Irrigators, traditional systems of rules and criteria to access and use forestry resources or community pastureland, etc.). In both cases, there is greater or lesser incidence of market rules.'

(c) Decentralization: 'Action and effect of the distribution of powers and competences, which used to be in the hands of the central and national government. This was made through the acknowledgement of the right of local and regional people to elect their government authorities and to transfer part of the administrative competences performed by the supreme government of the State to various corporations or sub-national bureaus.'

(c) Institutions: Formal and informal rules that frame decisions and behaviors of public and private agents, including systems for their enforcement.

Questions to be answered by projects submitted to the 2003 call for projects

Natural resources privatization processes; opening to foreign investment (mining, fisheries, forestry); substitution of public intervention for market mechanisms; real estate development; deepening environmental awareness in the population; progress in acknowledging the rights of native people, including their ancestral rights over territories and resources; etc., have created a new institutional framework that regulates access and use of natural resources by public and private agents.
A recurrent trait of the new institutional framework in all the various countries is the tendency to decentralize decision-making processes on the access and use of natural resources. To a lesser or greater degree, according to each national reality, local governments have acquired more power -at times effective and at others simply formal - in the environmental governance ambit.
Another common trait of the new institutional framework in the various countries is that it has triggered important processes of social mobilization, aimed precisely at influencing environmental governance. There are examples of social mobilization in all the countries in relation to the access and use of water and forests; urban expansion, control of territories inhabited by native people or national and multi-national private investment based on the exploitation of natural resources. It could also be asserted that a critical problem of environmental governance is channeling and managing these conflicts between different alternative users of the same natural resource, between civil society and the state, between different sectors of the economy, between the city and the country or between the different objectives in the general development of a country.
As it is assumed, the new institutional framework that regulates access and use of natural resources, also modifies -sometimes favorably and sometimes adversely- the opportunities poor rural sectors have to access and use natural resources.
Taking these facts into account, it is compulsory for all bids submitted to the 2003 Call for Projects to address the following main question: What are the minimum necessary conditions in order for decentralized environmental governance to provide greater access and use of natural resource opportunities to poor rural sectors?1

This main question can be addressed by the projects submitted to the Call, through more specific guiding topics and questions such as2:
(a) On the relationship between decentralized environmental governance and public policies. Up to what point and under what terms can environmental governance decentralization processes influence public policies? Under what conditions and how can feedback mechanisms be established between experiences and decentralized environmental governance processes and planning and implementation of public policies?

(b) On the effects of environmental governance decentralization, in relation to other elements of the new institutional context: Up to what point and under what conditions can environmental governance decentralization processes influence or modify the effects that some 'meso' or 'macro' structural changes have (like for example, freeing foreign direct investment, privatization of natural resources, the recourse to the market as main institution to regulate access to natural resources, etc.) on opportunities to access and use natural resources by the rural poor?

(c) On the relationship between environmental governance, institutions and local organizations and social mobilization as regards natural resources: How can the effectiveness of environmental governance forms based on local organizations and institutions be improved? What types of environmental governance facilitate solving social conflicts in respect to access and use of natural resources resulting in better opportunities for the rural poor? What lessons can be derived from experiences such as local participation, accountability, social supervision, public-private alliances or agreements at a local level? How can decentralized environmental governance and social mobilization coincide to increase opportunities for the rural poor to have access and to use natural resources?

(d) On local governments conditions and capacities: What are the minimum required conditions so rural local governments (municipal, provincial, state) can effectively perform their environmental governance responsibilities? How can synergy or balance be achieved among political agencies and local government competences and the effective participation of local actors, especially those that have been traditionally excluded from decision-making processes on the access and use of natural resources? How can the legal/state forms of decentralized environmental governance favorably coincide with the environmental governances based on local organizations and institutions constituted by or with the participation of users of said resources? Can environmental governance local organizations and institutions play a complementary role in state/legal organizations and institutions, as for example in the stabilization of public policies through subsequent local administrations under different political parties?

(e) On the contribution of decentralized environmental governance to social build-up of an identity and rural territorial project: Under what conditions can environmental governance contribute to the social build up of an identity and a rural territorial development project that will convoke the different internal and external agents?

(e) On the contribution of decentralized environmental governance for the improvement of living conditions among the rural poor: Up to what point is it reasonable or feasible to request that processes aimed at improving environmental governance should also generate positive effects on the income and other aspects of the rural poor's material welfare?

EXPECTED RESULTS OF THE CALL FOR PROJECTS 2003

Entities participating in the Call and whose projects are finally selected must take part in the complete learning cycle foreseen by the Mink'a de Chorlaví Fund. This cycle includes three main stages:
(a) Implementation of winning systematizations, including a coordination workshop in which those in charge of each winning project participate. Likewise, agreements will be adopted in order for the package of winning projects to, in turn, conform quite a coherent and articulated package.

(b) Comparative analysis of project results, with the purpose of obtaining conclusions, lessons and recommendations of general validity.

(c) A strategic communication process of entire cycle results.

The main result of projects submitted to the 2003 Call shall be a systematization of one or more decentralized environmental governance experiences in rural Latin America and the Caribbean. Said systematization must generate conclusions, lessons learned and recommendations in reference to questions made in paragraphs 9 and 10 of this Call.
Winning projects' final reports shall be the main inputs for a comparative analysis. This will be added to a query and discussion process (through an electronic conference). The result will be a summary in answer to the main question specified in paragraph 9 of this Call.

DEADLINES

The Call's deadlines are: July 11, 2003 2003 Call for Projects Call and Regulations Publication.
September 9, 2003 End of acceptance term of clarifying queries on the Call, Regulation or any other aspect of interest for bidders.
September 22, 2003 Deadline for acceptance of proposals and additional documents requested in the Regulation is 9.00 am, Santiago de Chile time.
December 8, 2003 Winning call for projects list publication.
December 31, 2003 Signing of agreements with winning project executing organizations
February 3-4, 2004 Workshop for winning project coordinators
July 15, 2004 Submission of progress reports
December 31, 2004 Submission of final, technical and financial reports
January 15, 2005 Delivery of project final reports (technical and financial)
January-March, 2005 Report review and comparative analysis
April, 2005 Synthesis e-conference

regulation of MINK'A DE CHORLAVÍ fund

This call is ruled by the Regulation of the Mink'a de Chorlaví Fund. It is essential that all those interested in applying to the Call for Projects know and analyze this Regulation beforehand and in detail. This document contains information on:
(a)Characteristics of organizations that can submit proposals to calls
(b)Deadlines for submission of proposals and other stages of the call
(c)Criteria for project eligibility, merit and selection
(d)Maximum amounts donated by the Fund, budget issues that can be financed and co-financing requirements
(e)Process of acceptance, evaluation and selection of proposals
(f)Characteristics of forms proposals must comply with
(g)Agreements to be signed with organizations whose projects are chosen and on the transference procedure of co-financing resources contributed by the Fund
(h)Deadline for the execution of chosen projects
(i)Partial and final, technical and financial reports to be submitted
(j)Competencies of the Mink'a de Chorlaví Fund Committee regarding decision-making in connection to this Call
(k)Other general aspects of the Call and the Mink'a de Chorlaví Fund

FOR MORE INFORMATION

The Regulation and other important information are available on the Internet at (www.FondoMinkaChorlavi.org) or can be requested at:

RIMISP
Casilla 228 -22, Santiago, Chile
Tel + (56-2) 236 45 57
Fax + (56-2) 236 45 58
rimisp@rimisp.cl

All official information concerning this call will be published on www.FondoMinkaChorlavi.org. All interested parties are encouraged to participate in this call and to visit this Website from time to time in order to be updated on any news related to their candidacy or proposals.