This article analyzes the institutional barriers faced by Decentralized Autonomous Governments (GADs) and local actors in the Ecuadorian Amazon in accessing funding from the Common Fund, administered by the STCTEA—a mechanism aimed at channeling public resources toward sustainable territorial development. Using a mixed-methods approach, the study examines 926 projects submitted between 2019 and 2023 and surveys 58 key stakeholders in the province of Pastaza. The findings reveal a 78.4% gap between requested and approved funds, geographic allocation biases, and perceived exclusion related to technical requirements and decision-making mechanisms. Barriers identified include regulatory rigidity, lack of technical assistance, and the absence of redistributive criteria. Within the framework of institutional resilience, the study proposes a reconfiguration of the funding model based on adaptability, transparency, and territorial equity. This article contributes to the debate on organizational adaptation in highly complex contexts, proposing institutional reforms that strengthen the State’s capacity to manage development from an intercultural and redistributive perspective.
The objective of this research coffee growing and community tourism in the province of Loja-Ecuador was to develop a bibliographic review and documented research that determines the feasibility of applying community tourism in the coffee growing area of the province of Loja. To meet the objective, the snowball technique was applied based on the bibliographic and linkographic documentation found, the first thing was to collect and select information related to coffee production in the province of Loja and community tourism activities that include visits to coffee production farms. The selected information comes from official institutions at the national level such as the Ministry of Tourism (MINTUR), Associations of coffee growers in the province of Loja, independent producers, processors, and marketers to which it was applied. surveys and interviews, coffee exporters from the province of Loja, Tourism Observatory of the UTPL and the Decentralized Autonomous Government of Loja (GAD), in addition to what was already mentioned, 12 publications from scientific journals were selected. Among the main findings we have that: the experiences of community tourism in the province of Loja are recent, however, it represents an important alternative for a sustainable use of natural resources, the future of community tourism ventures combined with coffee production, for this, the organization processes of all the actors must be improved to achieve an improvement in the quality of life of the communities.
Objective: To characterize the preparation of macro-fiscal reports on the Budget, the Treasury and the State of Public Finances submitted by territorial comptrollers’ offices in Colombia. Methodology: With a simple random sampling study, a sample size of 34 comptrollers’ offices was determined. The Tool to characterize macro-fiscal reports in light of the Territorial Audit Guide (GAT) was designed and applied. Results: Budget and Treasury reports predominate, and in the case of the comptrollers’ offices that prepare both types of reports, the Public Finance reports contain the Budget and Treasury reports. With respect to departmental comptrollers’ offices, few manage to consolidate information from municipalities and decentralized entities. Conclusions: unifying the two types of macro-fiscal reports in order to improve the quality and comparability of the information generated by the territorial comptrollers’ offices. This would provide a complete view of the fiscal situation of territorial entities, facilitating fiscal control and informed decision making.
This article analyses the role of urban marketing in the governance of local governments in Ecuador in line with the Organic Code for Regional, Autonomous and Decentralized Organization (COOTAD). The governance debate demonstrates the potential that local governments may have to assume the competence to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). It also highlights the importance of urban marketing in the construction of Ecuador’s branding or of Ecuador’s image and its economic positioning in the regional and international sphere. The paper arrives at the conclusion that local government is coordinating commercial and institutional agendas to ensure economic, socio-political and technological development in Ecuador.
This research uses Urban Regime Theory and identifies one in Pudahuel, Chile. It examines the process through which the public-private agreements and a strategic agenda were organized to develop urban and social policies in Pudahuel commune through local actors between 1994 and 2010. Given the lack of decentralized planning in Chile and taking advantage of a change in the balance of power in Pudahuel, local actors imagined and produced environmental and social policies based on their local reality. And concluded the process with a local masterplan, mainly financed by the private sector. The process develops a model of urbanization through compensation. However, this does not guarantee full citizen participation, effective alternatives to segregation nor balanced development. The analysis also serves as an indicator of how effective the central government is in directing the urban economy. The Pudahuel regime was eventually used as a model for national urban programs; both reductionist models of the initial meaning of producing urban policies through compensation that consider local environmental conflicts.
ResumenLa tesis que se defiende en este trabajo es que el complejo modelo institucional y territorial vasco funciona aceptablemente bien, a pesar de sus luces y sombras, y puede ser un ejemplo de la idea ampliamente generalizada de cómo un modelo de organización territorial descentralizada (y sus complejas, pero al mismo tiempo, valiosas formas de interacción entre los distintos niveles de gobierno), pueden mejorar la calidad del gobierno de sus instituciones, ayudar en el desarrollo humano, económico y social, aumentar la transparencia, administrar los recursos disponibles para ofrecer mejores servicios públicos y, en definitiva, mejorar la calidad democrática de la sociedad.Summary1. Introduction. 2. The distribution of competences between the Common Institutions of the Autonomous Community of Euskadi and the Regional Administrative Bodies of the Historical Territories ofBizkaia, Gipuzkoa and Álava. 2.1. The distribution of competences in the Statute of Autonomy of the Basque Country. 2.2. The distribution of competences in the Law of Historical Territories. 3. The competences of the municipal institutions of Euskadi. 4. Conclusion.AbstractThe thesis defended in this paper is that the complex Basque institutional and territorial model works acceptably well, despite its lights and shadows, and can be an example of the widespread idea of how a model of decentralized territorial organization (and their complex, but at the same time valuable forms of interaction between the various levels of government), can enhance the quality of government of their institutions, help in the human, economic and social development, raise transparency and manage available resources to deliver better public services and, in short, improve the democratic quality of society.
Se realiza un análisis de los componentes esenciales del proceso de gestión del desarrollo local, que han de constituirse en principios para la gestión del mismo. Se proponen cuatro principios para la gestión del desarrollo local, a saber: la descentralización, la financiación, la objetividad de la gestión y la participación. El proceso de desarrollo local no es posible al margen de la descentralización, para lo cual se necesita la definición de competencias de gestión local, comprendidas en su doble perspectiva, a saber, en sus componentes normativo y cognitivo. La financiación garantiza la autonomía para la gestión local. Para poder gestionar el desarrollo local se hace necesario poder tener una representación de la situación demográfica del territorio, pero para ello hace falta hacer una caracterización que identifique la situación real del territorio. Ello garantiza la objetividad en el proceso de gestión. Se presenta un algoritmo cuyos componentes constituyen pasos necesarios a cumplir para la instrumentación de indicadores sociodemográficos para la elaboración de las estrategias de desarrollo local. En la participación como principio, hay que tener en cuenta dos componentes ineludibles del mismo, a saber: la información-comunicación y la informatización, en el contexto del entramado institucional que le da cobertura a esa participación y los procedimientos para bregar con sus contenidos y evaluar su efecto. La información-comunicación garantiza el contenido de la participación mientras que la informatización es lo que garantiza la universalidad del acceso a la información como base para la participación social en el desarrollo local. An analysis is made of the essential components of the local development managing process, which are to be principles for managing local development. Those as principles for the management of local development are identified. And are proposed four principles for the management of local development, namely: decentralization, financing, management objectivity and participation. The process of local development is not possible taking it into apart the decentralization, necessary to define competences included from a dual perspective, namely in its normative and cognitive components. Financing is critical for local management autonomy. In order to manage local development, it is necessary a representation of territorial demographic situation, that`s why it is also necessary a characterization to identify the real demographic situation of the territory. This guarantees objectivity in the management process. An algorithm whose components are necessary steps to be followed for the instrumentation of sociodemographic indicators for local development strategies elaboration is presented. In participation principle, it is necessary to take into account two inescapable components of the same, namely: information-communication and computerization. Information-communication guarantees the content of participation while computerization is guarantees for the universal access to information as basis for social participation in local development.
René Mesías Villacrés Borja, Mónica Elizabeth Bonilla Manobanda, Sergio Enrique Fierro Barragán, Mario Enrique Escobar Gortaire
This paper focuses on the results of the research carried out to determine the incidence of Fair Trade as a factor in reducing the poverty of small cocoa producers in the province of Los Rios, Ecuador. It also aimed to ascertain if there are guaranteed aid that will grant them a more direct access to the market for their products, under fairer and more equitable conditions. A mixed research design was used in the study. The qualitative activity was focused on observation, interviews, compilation of documents, registers, materials, and exchanges developed with cocoa producers to collect the information and know their criteria and opinions on the conditions and standard of living. This, however, was carried out from a quantitative point of view. The greatest amount of information was achieved through a structured survey with the application of a multivariate option questionnaire applied to a sample of 177 farmers. The main results obtained revealed that Fair Trade is a key element in reducing poverty levels as long as it is a fundamental part of the territorial development plans of Decentralized Autonomous Governments at all levels. Also, trade unions provide real support to farmers and they also assert their claims using a more continuous use of development premiums, adjustment of minimum guaranteed prices, and pre-financing.
"For 25 years, Colombia implemented a rural development policy according to models adopted in Latin America since the 1960s. That policy advanced progressively toward decentralized andparticipatory development and it also moved forward to new concept of rural territorial development. Nevertheless, the Integrated Rural Development Program - IRD, turned into a Co-financing Fund, due to several reasons, ended during the second half of the 1990s. The change of protectionist policies towards deregulation, political cooptation of the program and the weak State capacities to replacing the IRD with other alternatives to stabilize rural societies contributed to the disappearance of the policy."
This paper is intended to analyze, in a comparative perspective, the financing mechanisms of urban local governments in two groups of countries. The first group refers to a sample of OECD countries. They are rather decentralized, and have institutional features which date back many years from now. The scope of responsibilities faced by these countries. The second group is constituted by a number of Latin American countries. They are, in general, less decentralized and have the characteristic of not having a well established institutional structure. This has experienced various changes over the recent years, one of them being a process of transferring responsibilities to local tiers of governments, a tendency which in general, has not been accompanied by an increasing capacity to get resources neither from the central government nor from the local financial market.