A selection of 2007 fieldnotes on participatory budgeting
Date: 17 may 2007
Information: On 14 may I did interviews with Milagros [Peruvian engineer with an NGO that does water projects with funds from a foreign NGO] and O [works for a multilateral agency in the area of water provision]. I have written those up in a preliminary way and will send them to them tomorrow when I go to Huancayo for their response. One interesting difference -- Milagros says there is a list of government priorities which the communities must follow and O says the participatory budgeting is whatever the people decide.
Codes: [participatory budget] [ngo] [world bank] [devel]
Date: 19 may 2007
Information: There was a cabildo yesterday morning -- a special meeting of the comuneros as distinct from a regular general assembly to which people are called ahead of time. Only about 20 people showed up of the 45 or so that P S says are currently comuneros activos. They approved my request to do research. There were also discussions of other issues, including the participatory budgeting. The authorities were called to go to Piedra Blanca to discuss the process with the mayor, and all who want to participate (must represent clubs, community groups, etc) must register with their names, DNI [state given identity number], list of members of group, by 25 May. They need a general assembly to name people, and since no one had shown up the day before because of the funeral, they had to name a time for another. Some wanted it to be wednesday, some Thursday, ten voted for wednesday and one for thursday. They talked about urgent issues, including the internet one, that need to be decided. Some thought that there should be a meeting on Monday, if there were urgent issues, but P S said that there was no point calling a meeting without lots of advance time as no one would show up. It does seem odd that they would call a meeting for 9:30 am on a weekday, but it seems that people go to Jauja on Sunday. There were complaints about the municipal agent, who may be G C, who was there, for not submitting the letter from the mayor about the participatory budgeting process. He said he was handing it over as soon as he could, given that the authorities were not always around. G seemed to be silenced a bit. There was also some discussion about being registered in the Registros Publicos, which they are not again, because the previous administration has not submitted its accounts -- this was directed at A R who was the previous president, who was at the meeting but who said nothing. There is some discussion about the president working with all the executive, and P S said he did, to the extent possible but that P R is sometimes absent. JL was there, probably in P R's place. I have not seen PR yet.
Codes: [comunidad] [fieldwork] [permission] [participatory budgeting]
Date: 20 may 2007
Information: J E. says that the mayor of Piedra Blanca is from the party with the key. A D (APRA) put himself forward but the people of Piedra Blanca did not support him, but those of Allpalumichico did. Allpachico got the stairs to the bridge, new planks on the bridge, the cement sports field, Colibrí got a new local, both Colibrí and Allpachico got sewage. F Z is the new mayor and belongs to the Conredes party. For the sewage project, the budget was 95000 soles; the people had to contribute their own connections. From earlier conversations I have heard that the septic tanks for the sewage project will be built this year, along with a water reservoir for the people in Trebol. The participatory budgeting process is about to begin. He says the people decide on the priorities and the mayor concedes them. There is a bit of fudging about how much power the mayor has and how much ability to direct funds to some places and not others.
Codes: [politics] [participatory budgeting] [community]
Date: 20 may 2007
Information: I talked briefly with J P this morning. He is retired from the community, but worked on the sewage project. I asked what Allpachico needed for the next participatory budgeting and he said the school needed to be rebuilt. Then he said agriculture needed help. He said that there were a lot of abandoned fields and young people only thought of migrating for work. I reminded him that he did this too, but he didn't say anything. In part he was talking of the comunidad fields. He says that insecticides and seed are very expensive and there is no security that the harvest will be good.
Codes: [participatory budgeting] [project] [devel] [ag]
Date: 20 may 2007
Information: I talked to a man from Oroya, married to R P from Allpachico, at the Colibrí Cruz de Mayo fiesta (we were dancing). T thought he might be a school teacher in Oroya. I told him what I was studying and asked him what his experience with the participatory budgeting was. He said he had none in Allpachico or Colibrí, but that in Oroya they had paved the street and that now they were interested in getting an alpaca textile workshop started. There are alpacas being raised by communities in that area, it seems, and they want to be able to employ people. They will first sell in the region and then maybe eventually to other countries.
Codes: [participatory budgeting] [oroya]
Date: 20 may 2007
Information: At the Colibrí Cruz de Mayo fiesta one of the men who asked me to dance, obviously from Colibrí, asked me if the Canadians could help with their water. It seems there is a source that gives 100 litres a minute that they would like to access but it is a bit far. I said that NGO mostly worked in Ayacucho and on the coast and was not likely to work again here but that this might be something they could do with the participatory budgeting. He said the mayor told them they were only eligible for 5000 soles this year.
Codes: [participatory budgeting] [water] [devel]
Date: 20 may 2007
Information: T said that where they live in Lima there is an association of residents (the Asociacion Pro-Vivienda L P). Each block is represented in the association by one person and this person collects any charges that are administered to the residents. For instance, they fixed the road that goes by their house and each house owner had to put in some money. They also have a campaign to get proper titles to their property, which they have not had. Each house owner had to contribute money and make sure that all payments were in order, then they took this to the government. However, things were almost ready when Garcia took over last year and now it seems they have to do things over again. They occasionally have meetings in an inside sports field with all residents and there is little room as there are about 5000 of them. T has gone a couple of times but mostly her brother R [he lives on the ground floor of the same house as T; the house is owned by her father] goes. She supposes that the Asociacion sends someone to the participatory budgeting process.
Codes: [participatory budgeting] [lima] [migrant] [residence]
Date: 21 may 2007
Information: J said they had chosen the sewage project because the Ministry of health promised them a new health post and it would need sewage. They would like to build the health post down near the cemetery on a piece of land that they could get for 4000 soles. It is currently planted, I think. The new health post would be bigger, with more equipment and perhaps a pharmacy.
Codes: [participatory budgeting] [health] [comunidad]
Date: 21 may 2007
Information: I asked L whether the young people were involved in the participatory budgeting process and what they would want. He said they were not organized at all, except for football. They would like a reglementation size field -- the one the mayor cemented is quite small. L wonders if Colibrí has a regular size field. he said they supported the other things that the community wanted, such as sewage.
Codes: [participatory budgeting] [youth] [sport]
Date: 21 may 2007
Information: I spoke to L C, whom I saw for the first time today. He said he had been away. He said the sewage project was almost finished, just the septic tanks. The budget is 70 000 soles to bring all the waste down to the bottom of Allpachico. He said they needed support for agriculture. He didn't seem to know anything about the project J was talking about yesterday for a project of crops with the ministry/pronamachs, that the community did not have the land ready for. He thought the rest of the sewage project should be done with A Trabajar Urbano, so that people could get paid. He said there was a project now in Rosario where people were given food -- 1500 soles out of a project for something went for food for those who worked. He also said that in Piedra Blanca, the people will not work unless they are paid and wonders why it is not the same here. He said there was something about a map and Piedra Blanca being considered to have mines, but said that another town (Rosario? I don't think it was Pachacayo, but it was a rock quarry town) was eligible for the A trabajar assistance. He said even those with pensions mostly did not earn enough to meet the poverty line, which he put at 450 soles a month. He said he got 400 soles a month and that most got around 350. Thus, people have to sow fields in order to get by. He was much in favour of assistance for agriculture and I mentioned the meeting P S had told me about in Paca in June 5. L said that last year they had decided on two priorities -- the Pronoei and the health post.
Codes: [participatory budgeting] [income] [devel]
Date: 21 may 2007
Information: J E. says that there is a budget of 5000 soles to build a reservoir with a tap for the people of Trebol. They have the materials, they just have to carry them up there, something they will do with the municipal tractor. He said there were some tensions between Allpachico and Trebol as the people of Trebol did not help with Allpachico's water, but now the people of Allpachico will help with Trebol's. The water will not go to the houses, just have a tap there.
Codes: [participatory budgeting] [comunidad] [water] [conflict]
Date: 22 may 2007
Information: I had a brief chat with C and J this morning to ask them about the participatory budgeting. Neither claimed any knowledge. C said that since she was not on club de madres [a local women's group] or vaso de leche [parents, usually mothers, of children younger than 7 who receive food through a government program], not a comunera [a registered member of the local legal polity, the comunidad], and had not worked in the sewage project, she really didn't know anything about it. J, although she had worked on the sewage project, said she didn't know how things worked. She said it was up to the mayor to decide when things would happen -- I asked, because it seems as though july is a better time to such work than during the harvest. Is it that women don't know -- R P also said she knew nothing about the participatory budgeting process, although she is the one who attends assemblies -- or is it that they say they don't know?
Codes: [gender] [participatory budgeting]
Date: 22 may 2007
Information: I chatted with G C this morning. He is the comunidad representative to the participatory budgeting workshops. In the cabildo last week he was being chewed out for not giving notice of the upcoming sessions, but today he said that there was a lot of dejadez [laxness] in the community. He said the process involves the agente municipal and the agente participatory budgeting. the community, in assembly, decides what its priorities are. I mentioned that I had heard that last year the community wanted the Pronoei and the health post moved and was that going to happen? He said there was no money for that and that locations for these were still pending. He said that there was a committee at the level of the distrito [district] which decided what was going to happen -- they look at the priorities and see whether the community has the labour and wherewithall to do the project, also to see if the budget is sufficient. It might be that a community gets no project in a year because the budget goes to another annex or place. As far as getting support from A Trabajar, he said that would be up to the municipal agent to make a request. The design of the sewage project is made by a technician from the district. Thus, they can't leave the sewage going into the river because the community would be charged for polluting -- hence the need for the septic tanks. The timing seems to be the result of when the materials are available, and the plan, rather than around the harvest or anything. The faenas [communal work bees] might be during the week or anytime and each user is responsible for sending a man. In some work the woman might be acceptable, but it seems as though they are more exigent in this project than in the water one about who is an acceptable worker. If a man from the household is not available then they must hire one or pay the fine. Older people also must hire someone. There is a committee of the sewage program to oversee the assistance at faenas, control the materials, etc. I must look more carefully into the roles of the different agents in the municipality.
Codes: [participatory budgeting] [comunidad] [devel] [sewage]
Date: 22 may 2007
Information: I took the letter to Piedra Blanca to the mayor's office to see if I could arrange an interview. He is in Lima. The secretary said he would be back on Thursday, so I will go after 10.
Codes: [participatory budgeting] [mayor] [fieldwork]
Date: 22 may 2007
Information: I had a chat with A H, O C and J, who must be A's niece (P being his sister). They said that the sewage project was actually done with money from Telefonica. Telefonica put a cable through the town, and in compensation gave money to the mayor of Piedra Blanca (AD). In other towns the money went straight to the comunidad, so they were annoyed that this had not happened here. They don't know exactly how much money it was. D said he used the money for the sewage project, but there is no accounting. They talk as though it is too late now to do anything. They said the sewage project had its problems. Each person had to do 10 metres of trench -- this was in the upper street and the up and down streets, which don't have traffic. The main street was done by faena. For the individual ones, things seemed to go fine. J said she did her share while pregnant with S, her current baby, about a year old. There were bits she could not do and N did them at night or on Saturdays. For the main road, the going was very tough and they had to dig quite deep. In the end, A said he told the mayor that they wouldn't be able to do it and asked for a retroexcavador (I assume a back hoe). This was denied, also by the mayor de jauja. In the end the mayor of Piedra Blanca hired people to dig the trenches from somewhere, not even Piedra Blanca or Allpachico or AG, but somewhere else. They were paid 5 soles a meter of trench. It seems to be a sore point that local people were not hired. J said that there were old people who were working at first in the sewage project, but the rest complained because they could not do their share, and eventually it was decided that the faeneros had to be able-bodied. She said there were also problems in some people trying to get connected when they had not done the faenas. She said there was one person who was angry at her and her sister because they discovered this and denounced it. She eventually said that it was R P, who she said did the faenas for one house but tried to get connections for two. J said that people tried to get water and sewer connections without doing the work and without paying the equivalent of the fines for missing the faenas. Now the fine is apparently 15 soles, so anyone entering now would have to pay the equivalent of 15 X number of faena days. J said she had trouble with N during the water project and ended up owing 280 soles for missed faena days, which she eventually paid and finally now has water. She said that J E helped her then by digging the trenches she was individually responsible for. For this she is very grateful.
In the sewage project, they wonder if the 57000 soles (cf. A) that is for the septic tanks will be enough. They said the mayor came a month ago to look at the system with an architect, but they still do not know where the septic tanks will go. A doubted that there would be enough money to have pipes take all the sewage down to the bottom of the town to a single septic tank. I mentioned the problem of contaminating the river and they agreed that there was much talk about saving the river -- they had been told that they could not longer throw garbage in the river.
Codes: [participatory budgeting] [devel] [politics] [comunidad] [conflict]
Date: 22 may 2007
Information: A said that there had been a lot given to Allpachico, such as the artisan workshop [really some sewing and knitting machines], the carpentry workshop, but that the people had not known how to take proper advantage of it. Instead, people had stolen things, and it all came to nothing. I suggested that the terrorism was one of the problems and they, especially O, agreed, but they still insisted that there were poor authorities and that the people themselves had robbed the stuff. I said I thought that the carpentry workshop could be put to work for an investment of about $10000, but wondered if it would work. A took this to mean that they needed people with carpentry skills. I suggested that it might be a risk if the men who had jobs in Pachacayo left them to work in the carpentry workshop, even after training, because they might not know if it would succeed. J seemed to consider this seriously.
Codes: [devel] [participatory budgeting] [comunidad] [project]
Date: 22 may 2007
Information: J, O and A told me about the public toilet, which I had just noticed by the sports field. They said it had been given by the mayor (A D) but that it was not usable. The connections inside seem to leak. It has a sewage connection. The mayor has not fixed it, nor has anyone else. In any case, they say, most people have their own bathrooms now. All the people below the plaza have them, and most of the people above the plaza do too.
Codes: [participatory budgeting] [sewage] [comunidad] [project]
Date: 23 may 2007
Information: I talked briefly to M C (not drunk) this morning before the assembly. He is from Trebol, so I asked him how the decision was made for the reservoir which is going to be built there. He said that the mayor made the decision, that the people of Trebol had not participated in the participatory budgeting process. Rather the mayor had promised the reservoir in his campaign. When I asked him if that was the greatest priority of the people of Trebol, he said yes and had no other suggestions.
Codes: [participatory budgeting] [Trebol] [devel] [project] [comunidad]
Date: 23 may 2007
Information: There was a general assembly called for this morning at 9:30. Few people showed up at that time -- G, M C, R, P S. Eventually the building was opened when the nurse (still I) showed up at around 10, and we went upstairs. The meeting itself didn't start until after 10:30, with about 24 comuneros or representatives. I sat between R P and a woman from Colibrí. The meeting was delayed while they waited for the agenda. It seems the secretary (who is it? -- P R took minutes and had from the previous meeting too) rarely shows up. The meeting finally started and the first item was to elect a president of debates. R nominated J E and JE nominated A R, J won. P R had to read the minutes from the previous meeting in April, then JE had to read all the reports that had arrived -- they included various ones from the mayor about upcoming obligations, something from the Federacion Regional de comunidades campesinas about an event on June 24 (dia del campesino), and my (unfortunately long) letter asking permission to do research.
Then J (P?) gave an report about the internet. He seems to be a passive comunero who frequently travels but who has taken the lead on the effort to get internet. He said it was through the Ministry of Transporte and communications. The requirements are to have 6 computers that are at least pentium 3 (the one StFX gave is only a simple pentium and I have no idea what the one the mayor gave was), to have a place adequately prepared for the installation of the computers and internet, and to have a person with some technical training in computers to administer the computer workshop. He said that he had heard that some people were unhappy with his work and that he would be glad to retire as he was not here constantly.
Then P S gave some requests about some of his activities.
Then requests but there were none, or one I did not hear very well.
Then there was a presentation by the representative from the mayor about the community development plan. He, of course, had listened to my letter, so knew what I was doing, and seemed to direct his speech to me. First he let the architect of the sewage project speak. The architect wanted to be sure that there was a oversight committee to whom to transfer the materials for the Trebol reservoir and the sewage project. These may come in early june. Then the representative harangued on about how the community needed to be organized and united in order to present a combined development project. There were examples and cross examples. The architect pitched in at the end with an example of a community, I think by Comas, which was an annex of a district that was so organized it had water, sewage, terraces, a school, etc. This was what a community could accomplish with organization. Then there was a long discussion about how, yes, the community needed to be organized, and it was the fault of the authorities, and then it was the fault of the comuneros, and people needed to put the community first, etc.
Then they got to discuss business (all of the above was just information). First, J P again talked about the internet. J E sort of decided that JP would continue. There was some hope that support would be forthcoming from some entity about the computers. JP made it clear that this would be a long process. There was not a lot of discussion about this. It is possible that few people there had a clear idea of what the internet involved. J E, having to read a web page in one of the letters, mushed it and it seemed as though he had not encountered urls before.
They came to the agenda item asking for the accounts to be rendered from the previous period. P S expressed great irritation that 5 months had passed and the accounts had not been given. A R (the previous president) said that his treasurer was away a lot and that some things had just been given to him by G in April, and that he was waiting for the new authorities to ask for the accounts on a specific date. Much disapproval from the assembly for the length of time it was taking, what had G to do with it, and why could the accounts not have been given over earlier. The former treasurer spoke up saying that it was not that easy to come up with the accounts, they were complicated and that he was very busy until May 31 but could give them over on June 7 or 8. P S said he was away then on community business. The response was June 5. J E. said that was settled, then, but more rebuttals. P S said it would be better to have them within a few days, like in 5 days. R asked the Governor for his opinion about this. He said it was as much the fault of the comuneros for not having required the accounts earlier, but that since a specific date was being proposed that that be taken as a commitment, but that the accounts not just be a summary of inputs and outputs, but be detailed with receipt numbers and everything. That this was an example of the lack of organization and that the community should get along and build rather than entering into conflict. This was finally agreed on.
Then came the question of updating the Comunidad Statute. They have one, but it seems to be from 1992. The Governor said they were to be congratulated for having a Statute, and asked if it was in the Registros Publicos. It was, but it needed to be updated. Much discussion about what this meant. Finally they decided that they needed to have a committee update it, and named the municipal representative (I think), O M and G Ci along with P S to come up with a new draft and present it in an assembly. The updating seems to be something that has to be done constantly. The Statute contains the local customs, rights, obligations of comuneros and comunidad.
Then the business arising from reports. Then they came to the participatory budgeting stuff. G is outraged, I think that he feels he was given little notice about having to put in his credentials to the mayor to be able to organize the participatory budgeting process. He blamed the municipal agent (M D from Trebol). There were several blames around, and some confusion over whether they had to decide on their priorities for development today. The Governor (for the district, quite a young man, B something), pitched in saying that they needed the accredited people first and the process would take place over the next 15 days or month. They seem already to have decided on G, so it is really unclear to me what the problem was, except that he had to give several documents to the municipality by may 25. Other community based organizations (from neighbourhoods, vaso de leche), also have to be registered with a representative with DNI, # members, etc.
Next was the invitation from the Federacion Regional de Comunidades Campesinas, which outlined how downtrodden the local communities were, how they needed to fight ElectroCentro (apparently a question of how many public lights they can have and who looks after fixing them). To raise money to deal with their problems, they want to hold an event in Paca on June 5, inviting the communities to perform dances from their communities and to buy 20 tickets for a truchada [sale of grilled trout] at 5 soles each. R wanted to know if it was obligatory to participate. P S seemed to imply that it was and expressed the need for union among communidades campesinas [peasant communities] in case they needed united support at some point. L R also wondered if it was obligatory and there seemed such resistance to dancing that that point was put aside and they discussed the truchada. At this point the Gobernador intervened. He said he had had experience with a president of the Federation (named a person who was not the signatory, but who he said circulated among the cargos of the Federation). He said that the Federation was of the extreme left and that this person was investigated by Peruvian intelligence, that the community should be careful of their association with him since this could have bad repercussions with petitions to government agencies. He accused the Federation of not being representative, asking the people if they had voted for this president, if they knew him. He said the person he mentioned was only in it for personal political gain -- that he had attended an assembly of the comunidad of Piedra Blanca (of which the governor is an active comunero) asking for their support as mayor of the region, so clearly he was not really supporting the comunidad, simply wanting to be elected. He said it was up to the comunidad to decide what they would do, but stated that the Federation had neither RUC nor was registered in Registros Publicos and so implied that it was illegitimate. Eventually the invitation sort of slid away and they went on to the next point as various people stated their agreement with the governor.
The next had to do with the sewage, naming an oversight committee. They decided that the committee of sewage was sufficient, but that they needed a vocal. They discussed getting someone to look after the stored materials for a while -- OM (president of the barrio of Colibrí) said that he wondered if the materials would come together or if those for Colibrí would come separately and said he would name a storehouse manager for their materials when they came. Putting off this decision, leaving it in the hands of the committee de sewage, seemed to be convenient, but they did need to fix a date to take the materials to Trebol for the reservoir. In order for this to happen, they need to fix the road so that mayor's tractor can take the materials up. They named Saturday first, then some wanted monday, and finally settled on Friday -- saturday people need to go shopping, it seems. They want to do the community potato harvest first, and then the road. Since there are only two small potato fields and only a bit of work on the road, they think they can do this. They also had to name a vocal for the sewage committee. Much silence. M ( the man who came back from the jungle, after having been sequesterd in a region by SL, according to T, and who was taking the role of silence keeper, shushing too much chatting among attendees, waking up one woman, quieting the children who were playing outside) was named by J E. but said he already had one office. Another woman who was named also refused saying she had collaborated in the past as a vocal. JC was named, but is already the vice-president. Finally, R P was named.
That ended the assembly at 2 pm. People around me (R, L, the woman from Colibrí) had been complaining for a while about the length of time it was taking and making many comments about the goings on, although the women, in general, intervened very little (R 2 or 3 times, L once or twice). People asked permission from M to leave for a moment from time to time but returned. R came back with some bananas which she passed quietly around. The woman from Colibrí asked permission to leave at about 12:50 -- she said she had only been told that morning about the assembly by R, sister of the woman who died in Colibrí and who had not got around to informing people until then, and had already made a commitment for 2. P S said she was always late, tired, had other things to do and that, as the mayor's representative had said, people should support the comunidad. She left anyway.
At the end of the assembly, the mayor's representative asked to have a picture and I was made to go to the table to sit and other table representatives came and the picture was taken first with the governor and then with the representative. I had to sign the libro de actas [official register of minutes] as a witness (receiving it from a P R who smelled strongly of alcohol) and then escaped frozen and hungry --
Codes: [participatory budgeting] [assembly] [comunidad] [project] [conflict] [sewage]