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GISN gives voice to those “whom no one listens to”
The North-South Advocacy Group opens spaces for political advocacy for a “forgotten region and people”, said an indegenous representitative at the GISN General Assembly in November. MS and several of its partner organisations are members.
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The entire population of Puerto Cabezas participated in the mobilisation that led to an agreement with the government. Photograph: Civil Coordinator
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26. November 2004
They closed down the airport. The National Tax Administration. The seaport. Traffic was paralysed. A situation of emergency was declared in Puerto Cabezas in the North Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAN) of Nicaragua this past August. The people insisted that the government in Managua finally hear their demands: the restoration of the wharf, an indispensable facility to a town that is dependent on fishery, and the construction of a road to this isolated region, virtually inaccessible from the rest of the country.
They did it. A high-level government delegation arrived and an agreement to finance the restoration of the wharf was reached. Work has already begun. “This was due in part to the accompaniment provided by GISN”, said Waldo Múller Lacayo, of the RAAN Regional Council. “GISN trained us in advocacy techniques, and that helped us to lobby the Ministry of the Treasury and the National Assembly (Parliament).”
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Waldo Múller Lacayo, a Mískito Indian, is of the opinion that working through the GISN there is an opportunity to struggle for some specific issues, such as those linked to ethnic minorities.
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Another achievement linked to the mobilisation was that the central government did not perceive it as motivated by a particular political party with its own agenda. They understood that this mobilisation was a SOS message from the entire population of Puerto Cabezas, in which everyone participated, from organised civil society to fishing entrepreneurs, the divers union and ocean workers, merchants, transport carriers, students, the pastoral council, women business leaders, and both the municipal and regional governments. “Our victory must be attributed to the massive, non-partisan mobilisation – as well as advocacy techniques”, says Lacayo.
The RAAN Regional Council began to work with GISN two years ago – since the alliance came into being – and already has several achievements to its credit. The first of these was when the Regional Council fought for an increase in its current expenses budget. They got it. The second success was when RAAN presented its own Regional Development Plan at last year’s Consultative Group meeting with the international donor community in Managua.
GISN, one of whose main objectives is that the government’s National Development Plan takes the proposals emanating from the territories into account, had achieved a space at the Consultative Group Meeting so that these might present their own development plans. The RAAN’s plan was prepared and agreed upon among the seven municipalities that make up the region. Lacayo considers that the GISN is “interesting” precisely because it opens spaces from below all the way up to the “top leadership”.
“This was a unique opportunity and our first experience of this kind”, said Lacayo regarding this region that “no one listens to”.
His greatest concern is Law 445 concerning the distribution of power in the autonomous regions of the RAAN and the RAAS, were particularly the population of the former is mainly indigenous. The law was passed in 2003, but thus far not a penny has been spent on its enforcement.
“We have worked in the framework of the GISN to get this law put into practice and we intend to continue doing so”, promised Lacayo before taking off to the General Assembly of GISN to participate in the planning of next year’s activities.
“There we who come from outside the big towns have the opportunity to introduce concrete elements related to our particular situations and to be listened to”, says Lacayo.
“But I will also listen“, he adds, “and once back in Puerto Cabezas, I will share my experiences with the other members of the Council and the regional government.”
Erika Brenner is a MS information DW in Nicaragua
GISN General Assembly
On 26 November the North-South Advocacy group (GISN) held its General Assembly, at which representatives of partner associations planned their activities for the year 2005.
GISN is a coalition among groups of civil society organisations (CSOs) and is emerging in a setting of different relationships between CSOs from the North and the South.
Three types of organisations join together in the alliance: Nicaraguan territorial associations (municipalities and other territorial organisations), national organisations (such as the Civil Coordinator) and networks that form part of the latter. In addition there are international cooperation organisations such as MS, Ibis, Diaconia, Oxfam, Trocaire and others.
GISN forms part of the North-South Coalition (http://www.norte-sur.dk), which brings together Danish NGOs that work in the South. The coalition has a three-year project titled Alliance for Poverty Eradication, which is linked to the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) in five countries, as follows: Honduras, Nicaragua, Ghana, Zambia and Nepal. The GISN coordinates its gender network.
The GISN’s main objective is to change the focus of the economic policies contained in the definition of broad-based economic growth toward a concept that is truly grounded in local capacities. To achieve this, the Nicaraguan population is trained while a dialogue is entered with the government of Nicaragua and countries of the North, as well as international financial institutions (IFIs). Likewise, efforts are made to stimulate national and international mobilisation, and information regarding the experiences is provided and disseminated.
