Increasing Community Ownership, Participation and Trust in Colombia

Increasing Community Ownership, Participation and Trust in Colombia

The completed bathrooms will serve 100 primary school students in Sabanetica.
Each time Daivi Perez went to Sincelejo city, Sabanetica’s residents whispered about suspicious payments that he allegedly obtained during the construction of the school’s bathrooms. People thought Perez, President of the Community Action Board, was getting paid for the community volunteer work.
Leaders said that this community, located in San Onofre Golfo de Morrosquillo, was apathetic, lacked commitment and trust, and had inefficient communication. These features were determined by distrust in leaders and institutions, anchored in corruption and extreme institutional weakness, product of violence and the paramilitary domination experienced between 2001 and 2005.
Apathy hindered participation even after the community recovered its security conditions. When Colombia Responde Montes de Maria (CR MdM) started working in September 2010, people were pessimistic about their situation and thought they lacked the capacity to transform their reality.
During this year, five leaders formed a community development committee that sought to lead a participatory planning process integrated with the Municipal Development Plan. One of the needs identified by the community was the construction of bathrooms for the 100 primary school students.
In October 2012, CR MdM began the process of building the bathrooms. The Community Action Board was appointed as the implementing agency of the project, which entailed a strengthening process needed to fulfill the requirements to sign a contract. Supported by CR MdM, the Community Action Board was legally constituted, obtained a tax registry and opened a savings account. With these documents, the board was able to sign an agreement to implement the project.
After signing the contract, the Community Action Board hired the staff needed for the project (most of them from the community), approved the designs, appointed an oversight committee, and obtained the construction licenses. Working with the committees, the board made decisions on providers, purchases, and budgets. During this process, the community learned about management, accountability, monitoring and oversight.
As a result, the community executed the project in less time and at a lower cost than expected. The bathrooms were built in one month (not in three as expected), and cost was 10% less than budgeted. The surplus will be reinvested in improving the school.
Don Clodomiro, Community Action Board member, said, “We learned everything should be legal, we belong to the community, so we don’t steal from ourselves. We want to save resources to reinvest them into our own development”.
 

The women of Sabanetica were major contributors of labor to the project, hauling around 40,000 litres of water to the construction site.
Although the project was a success, it also had difficulties, especially due to the apathy and distrust of the community. The rumors about Perez were clarified. The community acknowledged Perez was voluntarily and selflessly serving the community and this transparency encouraged the community to keep working and increased trust in leaders and institutions.
One of the most important community contributions was made by women. They collected the required water for the construction by transporting pots on their heads. Ines Maria Almeida Torres, mother of seven and administrative assistant of the Community Action Board, said that for a period of twenty days she carried a 20 liter bucket for 300 meters back and forth from the well to the construction site. She repeated this ten times a day. Maria Almeida herself carried about 4,000 liters of water to help realize the project. Another nine women helped carry water as well. The Community Action Board estimates that in total the women hauled an estimated 40,000 liters of water.
Don Clodomiro Torres Bertel, Vice-President of the board, said, “Now we know how to work together and that our contribution is very important. No one will force us to do anything. We did not get involved in the past, but now we have knowledge so we are able to implement projects. Our sense of belonging has increased.”
Talking about their future goals, Perez said he wants to “implement many other projects with entities such as the local government to ensure quality, economy and transparency. Now we have experience and know how to get support from institutions so we will be able to work in our own development”. 
Sabanetica is one of four projects implemented by Community Action Boards. In other the communities, the boards oversaw projects to upgrade three schools and construct a health center. These projects totaled $165,524, $154.401 given by CR MdM, and $11,123 contributed by the communities.
All these projects followed the same methodology, which included consultation, viability, dissemination, hiring an implementing agency and the execution of the project. Strong oversight and community participation has meant that the communities have saved about 10% of the total cost planned and through the implementation of these four projects the communities have gained managerial capacity, increased their empowerment and ownership levels and transform people’s morale and outlook for the future.