USAID has awarded Creative Associates International a five-year program to strengthen the governance skills of municipal officials and empower communities to advance development and improve services in El Salvador.
Called the USAID Local Governance Solutions Project, terá uma abordagem faseada em que 10 municipalities will be selected and targeted for support during the first year. The results, lessons learned and pilots from those municipalities will be shared nationally.
The Local Governance Solutions Project comes at an inflection point in El Salvador’s history, following the large-scale municipal consolidation of May 2024 and a marked reduction in gang control that has made communities more accessible than they have been in decades.
“This is a unique moment in time in El Salvador and a perfect opportunity for this type of governance program," diz Leland Kruvant, Presidente e CEO da Creative. “The Local Governance Solutions Project will support local officials and communities to play critical roles in setting and achieving much-needed sustainable development outcomes.”
In addition to Creative’s decades of experience implementing governação programas, Kruvant says it has a long history in El Salvador and has a deep understanding of the country’s local and national contexts. Além disso, Creative has built a network of relationships with local, regional and national organizations that will benefit this new program, Kruvant says.
Susan Kemp, Diretor da Área de Prática de Governança Criativa, says the program will use a citizen-centered approach to find opportunities within the consolidation that show El Salvadorans how democracy can deliver and represent their interests while strengthening community bonds and minimizing drivers of irregular migration.
“This new program is a wonderful opportunity to continue USAID’s investment in strengthening responsive local governance in El Salvador, building on the important achievements of the previous Municipal Governance Project,” Susan Kemp notes.
Implemented in partnership with WSP USA e o Metropolitan Group, the program will use local grants and other tools to build municipal officials’ skills and abilities to engage constituents and community leaders.
The USAID Local Governance Solutions Project has three key pillars: Making citizens a focal point in the local governance ecosystem; supporting a demonstrative effect by recapturing citizens’ trust and confidence in municipal governments; and adopting a politically aware perspective that considers actors and institutions’ incentives and motivations.
To guide priorities and adaptation, we will use thinking and working politically, Creative’s municipal assessment tool, WSP USA’s Financial Health Assessment tool, issue-based political economy analyses and gender, equity and social inclusion analysis and action planning. Além disso, the Metropolitan Group’s estratégico and behavioral change communications approaches and citizen perception surveys that integrate elements of Creative’s FRAMe tool and Metropolitan’s analysis will be used to gauge impressions on local governance performance and stability.
Challenges in a new political ecosystem
El Salvador’s municipalities face significant challenges, including pressure to align with central decision-makers, limited skills to navigate the charged politics surrounding the municipal consolidation and resource scarcities that affect their ability to deliver basic services, as well as local officials’ tenuous connections with citizens.
Despite these pressures, Kemp says municipal governments offer space for promoting democratic practices. The consolidation has created a rare opening to fundamentally re-examine, re-define and re-socialize the role of local government, while the improved security situation creates space for communities to rebuild their trust in local institutions, she says.