Planes de desarrollo para el empoderamiento de comunidades indígenas del altiplano occidental de Guatemala

Abstract

This thesis explored the experience of theory and practice of community development plans (CDP) in Guatemala, in which rural and indigenous communities of the ancestral Mayan culture continue to struggle to raise their voices and counteract the onslaught the western perspective of development. The primary research purpose was to explore whether development plans from the community driven development approach accelerated empowerment and improved quality of life in Guatemala Western Highlands indigenous communities. From a theoretical perspective, this research takes as its starting point an initiative executed between 2017 and 2023 in 203 communities in the Guatemala Western Highlands, which had constituents around an inclusive participation of traditional leaders and representatives of other groups that have historically not been considered in community decision making. The research sought to establish whether the results of Community Development Plans under this approach had a direct or indirect influenced into complex interrelationships between opportunities, empowerment, and quality of life in these communities. From the practical perspective, this research surveyed the experiences of plans building under this approach in three indigenous communities and one mestizo community that participated in the initiative. The direct participants in this research were leaders and authorities, men and women with community recognition and legitimacy, who contributed with their experience, knowledge, and vision on empowerment level and quality of life achieved in their community. From the methodological perspective, the research had a qualitative, ethnographic, and descriptive character that allowed establishing similarities and differences between communities, configuring noticeable elements of the research unit of analysis and main variables. The analysis and reflection of the study results suggest encouraging signs for the community driven development approach, if its center and core revolve around local authorities’ participation, and to promote the viability of CDPs in similar regions. However, the institutionalization of such plans at the community and municipal levels still requires time and effort to make them part of the country national planning structure and framework. This will be feasible if decision-makers at the national level replace the current barriers of exclusion and structural gaps with approaches of inclusion, transparency, and new ways of promoting development based on participation and granting communities, mainly those of indigenous lineage, the right to decide for their own development, as a right that corresponds to them.