In Guatemala, communities spearhead innovative monitoring initiatives
Young returnee migrants in Guatemala constitute a vulnerable group faced with the arduous challenge of reintegrating effectively into their host communities. To help ensure peaceful and effective reintegration, FAO, IOM and UNESCO jointly implemented a project funded by the Peacebuilding Fund (PBF) in the municipalities of Tacaná and Concepción Tutuapa in the department of San Marcos, located in the western highlands of Guatemala. Working in partnership with Government institutions, the initiative developed a youth-sensitive and gender-focused approach to contribute to peaceful reintegration and strengthen the capacities of local and national government institutions to respond to this critical endeavor.
The project introduced an innovative community-based monitoring (CBM) system to ensure the participation of young men and women in data-gathering processes to measure project results and include the voices of the communities regarding peacebuilding impacts. The launch of the CBM system empowered the returnees and host communities as an integral part of the project by equipping them with critical transferable skills and fostering their potential as agents of change.
Through a participatory process, ten young men and women, appointed as members of the CBM committee, took matters into their hands as community representatives. The committee members received training on data collection methodologies as well as tools used in the project monitoring process. Youth carried out around 488 surveys and 257 interviews in the San Marcos Department.?
"My greatest learning was my knowledge. We obtained a lot of knowledge because in these cases most of our colleagues didn't know how to use the computer and we had to transfer information gathered from the surveys we had done,” said Berenice del Rosario Solis Gonzales, 19, from Tacana in San Marcos.
“For me, being part of the community helped the youth feel free to express the information they wanted.” Lucio Obdul Gabriel Perez, 22, Concepcion Tutuapa, San Marcos. As young people from the returnee and host communities conducted surveys in their own territories, the process created a feeling of mutual trust and facilitated the collection of information that assisted the project’s implementation and evaluation. Regular meetings held between the 缅北禁地agencies, youth networks and government institutions provided the opportunity to share progress and interpret results.
The young data collectors felt empowered by their new role and reached out to the municipal and departmental authorities to share their findings. The project generated livelihood opportunities for community members and promoted knowledge and learning of valuable transferable skills for the youth. Some 240 young men and women trained in skills including education, leadership and financial autonomy. More than 65 people kickstarted micro-business ventures in the agriculture and service industries generating income to support their families.
Community members welcomed the newly acquired leadership roles of the youth and nominated the CBM Committee members to participate in the Community Development Coordination Councils (COCODE). This enabled greater representation and reintegration of young returnees in community organizations and decision-making processes. Moreover, CBM enabled youth to discover and develop their unique talents and capacities and encouraged them to be agents of peace in their communities.?
"The young people are getting more involved in the community, in fact this time they named me in COCODE, so I say that in the community it is not easy for them to tell a 19-year-old girl that she is going to be COCODE." - Berenice del Rosario Solis Gonzales, 19 years old, - Tacaná, San Marcos
Indigenous and agrarian communities support?accountability systems
This innovative, first-of-its-kind CBM experience enabled the identification of mutual accountability practices as well as lessons learned that are currently being incorporated and refined in the newly funded PBF projects in Guatemala.? FAO now includes CBM in its monitoring endeavors in Guatemala linked to PBF projects. Together with WFP and OHCHR, FAO is currently developing community-based monitoring practices in the Polochic River Valley, in partnership with civil society organizations. The CSOs will consult with indigenous communities in the selection of local mediators in charge of gathering qualitative and quantitative data and mediate with community leaders for a swift implementation of the PBF-funded project.
Community members work together to measure impact of peacebuilding interventions
The Peacebuilding Fund Impact Evaluation, Learning and Dissemination (PeaceFIELD) Initiative launched in January 2021 to strengthen the evidence base regarding what works and what does not, in commonly supported areas within peacebuilding programmes funded by the PBF. The PBF selected a series of case studies to test the availability of data, common impact evaluation approaches, and new and innovative research designs built to solve questions commonly posed to the peacebuilding sector. Among them, the Polochic Valley PBF funded initiative has been selected as a peacebuilding impact environment.
While developing the research design, community members, civil society organizations and the implementing agencies, pointed out the success story of CBM in Guatemala. Particularly, how the community mediators were already well known within their communities and some communities around them. Since then, in association with Sotzil[1], a leading indigenous organization, PeaceFIELD also deployed a CBM system, to inform the various data collection processes needed to conduct an experimental approach to support impact measurements and learning on the PBF-funded project.
The already trained community mediators played a critical role in the development of the PeaceFIELD subsequent Polochic Valley CBM system. The CBM process ensures accountability as the community members assess the quality of the project’s work and also communicate their satisfaction or disappointment to the PBF via the community-based implementing group[2]. Its inception in Guatemala has provided additional benefits for community members involved including the newly acquired skills, reintegration and the ability of the youth to act as agents of peace in their communities. 144 young people obtained certificates that validated their skills and improve access to job opportunities.
“We as CBM of the Youth Project have managed to develop ourselves according to the training and activities already received by the project facilitating team, it helped us to position ourselves as new leaders in our communities, we want you to continue giving us your support to continue strengthening our knowledge, as well being able to contribute from our community,” Young participants in CBM.
"In several communities they have told me that they learned things... that they can avoid conflicts and what they emphasized the most was that they were encouraged to learn about peace and the culture of peace, so at least in my community this has generated more strength in terms of cultivating peace.” Lucio Obdul Gabriel Pérez, 22 years old, Concepción Tutuapa, San Marcos.