CHF Nicaragua- 26 Municipalities Sign onto the Municipal Governance Program

CHF Nicaragua- 26 Municipalities Sign onto the Municipal Governance Program
By Mara Martinez, Communications Coordinator, CHF Nicaragua

PHOTO: Juan Rayo Masís, Mayor of San Isidro, and Jordiana Gutierrez, Head of Planning and Projects in the Municipality
May is approaching, which is the official start of the rainy season in Nicaragua. It will bring with it one of the main problems felt by the country’s rural population: the inaccessibility of the roads. The raining and flooding make already poor road conditions virtually impassable, hampers productive enterprise and prevents the access of people to basic services such as health and education.
Juan Rayo Masís, Mayor of San Isidro in the Matagalpa municipality, hopes that the Municipal Governance Program will contribute to improving the access of rural communities to the urban center and beyond. “We have identified a need to open up roads to reach the communities found in the highlands and we will present these projects to the MGPs,” he enthusiastically stated after signing a partnership agreement with CHF International on March 21st.
Rayo Masís and 25 other mayors throughout Nicaragua signed memorandums of understanding with the Municipal Development Program in March and the first week of April. Ten municipalities signed MOUs in the MGP’s Southern Corridor of Chontales, Rio San Juan, and the RAAS (South Atlantic Autonomous Region) while 16 municipalities signed agreements in the Northern Corridor departments of Nueva Segovia, Madriz and Matagalpa.
For the Mayor of Rancho Grande, Sabino Leiva Luquez, the Municipal Development Program is an opportunity to bring to fruition the vision of the municipality as seen by the city council. While talking to the MGP technical team, the mayor expanded on his shared vision: “that includes a municipality whose territory is better organized, with more sophisticated planning tools and improved municipal services delivery.”
And these types of improvements are precisely what the MGP offers: technical assistance to improve municipal management and to increase the quality and coverage of municipal services, while also providing co-financing for investments in municipal infrastructure necessary to improve quality coverage of basic services. The MGP also supports the incorporation of citizens in the management, oversight and maintenance of municipal services and promote municipal transparency and access to public information.
This five-year program that began in October 2010 is implemented by CHF International with funding from the American people through USAID.