OVERVIEW The Activa Buenaventura Alliance strengthens public management and democracy in the District of Buenaventura. It encourages citizen participation in public affairs, helps institutions respond to citizen requests, and generates citizen confidence in public institutions and decision making. The Activa Buenaventura Alliance is implemented through a public-private partnership between USAID, Corona Foundation, Carvajal Foundation, Ford Foundation, SPRBUN (Sociedad Portuaria Regional de Buenaventura), ProPacífico, Gases de Occidente, Movilizatorio, International Republican Institute and Extituto de Política Abierta. Together these organizations are contributing USD $6.9 million, USD$3.4 million of which was contributed by USAID directly and USD $3.8 million of which was contributed by the private sector. This project has been implemented since February 2019 and will continue until January 2025.
COMPONENTS
PROMOTING SOCIAL LEADERSHIP
The Activa Buenaventura Alliance strengthens citizens’ individual and collective leadership skills. It provides methodological and practical training tools to community-based organization (CBO) leaders and encourages them to share information and co-develop solutions to the problems they encounter.
ENCOURAGING ADVOCACY IN PUBLIC POLICY
The Activa Buenaventura Alliance encourages citizen participation in the decision-making process of public affairs through innovative mechanisms, like the Buenaventura Cómo Vamos Program, which involves community leaders in processes of transparency and accountability, it monitors and evaluates the life quality of all the citizens. Another of these mechanisms is the Civic Tech Platform Marea Digital, which allows citizens to identify and report local issues that continuously affect the life quality of their communities, as well as to help them to identify local initiatives that are working to improve their well-being. Likewise, Marea Digital also lets the local government and other important actors of the region identify key information, necessary to design solutions and make evidence-based decisions.
FOSTERING OPEN GOVERNMENT
The Activa Buenaventura Alliance promotes open government through the dialogue between organized citizens, public actors, private actors, and civil society actors, under the principles of an Open Government: Transparency, Participation, Accountability and Innovation. Moreover, the goal is to have these principles adopted by the local administration.
RESULTS
- 203 youth in social and leadership skills trained.
- 3.755 social leaders and local decision-makers engaged in advocacy processes.
- The participation of 222 civil society organizations in advocacy interventions was encouraged.
- 1.538 social leaders’ capacities strengthened to identify and represent their community’s collective interests.
- Citizens were enable to report 1.536 civic issues related to education, infrastructure, gender-based violence and health.
- An opportunity for citizen feedback was created by facilitating 23.915 downloads of products developed by the Buenaventura Cómo Vamos Program, including a citizen perception survey that measures 84 subjective indicators on the citizens’ quality of life in the District.
