LESSON
Lesson Learned: Strengthening Democratic Participation Among Indigenous Peoples of Oaxaca, Mexico
While the grantee had a clearly defined mission and institutional objectives it lacked a strategic plan that enabled it to clearly define its interventions and the budget needed to implement them in the short, medium, and long term. Up to now the NGO has been funded entirely with donor resources. This poses a risk to its sustainability, given the changing international cooperation priorities and the current adverse environment of budgetary constraints facing all donors.
Project Partner
Servicios del Pueblo Mixe
Project Description
The project sought to empower indigenous people from the State of Oaxaca, Mexico. Through jurisdictional resolutions or agreements, the project worked to reduce the number of conflicts between the indigenous legal system, on the one hand, and the state legal system, on the other, seeking to establish precedents for harmonizing the two systems. The project’s intervention was very timely and highly relevant, given the recent changes in the legal framework, especially the passage of subsidiary legislation and a new energy policy. It provided legal assistance and representation before jurisdictional, judicial, and administrative bodies in the State of Oaxaca. Politically, the project made it possible to include the indigenous peoples’ perspective and expectations in the Constitutional Reform proposal for Oaxaca. The project’s support for empowering indigenous women’s groups had a major impact on the lives of the beneficiaries as well as the development and improvement of institutional and democratic life in the State of Oaxaca.
Report
Evaluation Date
May 2014
Theme
Country