Poverty Alleviation and Children in Urban Latin America: The New Strategic and Programmatic Framework of Plan

Reinhard Skinner

Florian Steinberg

Citation: Skinner, Reinhard and Florian Steinberg. “Poverty Alleviation and Children in Urban Latin America: The New Strategic and Programmatic Framework of Plan.” Children, Youth and Environments 13(2), 2003. Retrieved [date] from http://colorado.edu/journals.

Keywords: Latin America; urban poverty; child poverty; NGO

Introduction

Urbanization and Poverty in Latin America

Latin America is the most urbanized of the developing regions. In 2001, 75 percent of its 519 million people lived in cities, a figure which is expected to rise to 81 percent by 2020 (UNCHS 2001, 16). Poverty in these cities is different from that in rural areas. First, incomes and access to services is generally higher. Urban areas also produce new problems, such as street children, child prostitution, begging and street crime. Dense populations place excessive pressure on already limited sources of employment, land supply, housing, physical infrastructure and services. The city is highly commercialized and politicized and the poor lack the economic and political weight to make an effective claim on resources. The result is that a large part of the urban populations in Latin America live in peripheral, low-income settlements and central city slums. Children are among the most vulnerable of these populations. This article considers the specific problems of children in towns and cities in Latin America and the way in which one international NGO, Plan,¹ is involved in formulating a strategy to work for their solution.

Plan, like many other NGOs, has a long history of working in rural contexts, but during recent years has turned towards the urban sector. Trying to embrace this new field in a strategic and holistic manner is important in order seamlessly to incorporate new approaches and techniques within its existing philosophy and methodologies.

Plan's Decision to Work in Urban Areas

Plan has traditionally worked mainly in rural communities. In recent years, however, it has recognized the importance of the global phenomenon of urbanization and has decided it needs to develop activities with children in cities and towns. For a number of reasons it decided to start this development in the Latin American region and commissioned the Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS) in Rotterdam to assist it in designing an urban strategy. It selected the three countries in which it already had some limited urban experience, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.

The study consisted of field work in various Plan and non Plan project sites in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru and various consultations with Plan. The process of policy formulation was launched with a workshop with Plan regional staff in Quito in December 2001 where the issue and purpose were discussed and contents and a methodology agreed upon. The work continued with fieldwork carried out by IHS staff and the local consultants. Further workshops were held with youth of Plan projects as well as its own field staff where problems were identified and ideas for solutions generated. Interviews were also held with other important urban actors in the field of children and youth, such as ministry officials and NGOs. In March 2002 a second workshop was held with Plan's regional staff in Quito to discuss the draft report. The comments and ideas emerging from this were subsequently included in the final report entitled Estrategia Regional para Programas Urbanos (Regional Strategy for Urban Programmers).²

Problems and Needs of Urban Children in Latin America

Problems and Their Causes

Children's problems are largely a result of the problems which their parents and communities face ( UNICEF 1986; UNICEF 1992; UNEP 1990; Hardoy et al. 1990; Satterthwaite et al. 1999; Timberlake 1990) . Plan recognizes this and seeks to work with families and communities in addition to working directly with the children who are at the centre of their mission. In order to identify appropriate strategies and actions there must be an understanding of what these problems are as well as of their causes. The following table was drawn up as part of the study; it summarizes the relationship between the most important problems affecting urban children and their causes as found during the study. The strategies derived from this simple analysis are presented in the following sections. It should be borne in mind that this relationship is not always simple or unidirectional. In addition, one problem will have its own causes but is frequently itself the cause of other problems. The table, therefore, should be understood as a simplification of reality.

Table 1. Some Major Children's Problems in Urban Areas and Their Causes

The Differences between Urban and Rural Areas

The study identified differences between problems faced by children and their communities in rural and urban areas. This would show how Plan's strategy as developed in the former would need to be modified in order to be appropriate for the urban setting. At the same time the study sought to indicate new opportunities provided by the urban environment which would facilitate work by Plan. Of course, the distinction between urban and rural is not always clear-cut and what is found in one is sometimes found, albeit in a different form, in the other. The results of this part of the study are presented in Table 2. The column on the left-hand side indicates the five domains, or areas of work, to which Plan as an organization is dedicated.

Table 2. Main Differences Between Problems Confronting the Poor in Urban and Rural Areas in Latin America and the New Work Opportunities Open to Plan in Urban Areas

The New Urban Strategy Proposed to Plan

In the following section, a strategic framework is presented in which the appropriate urban interventions are defined taking into account Plan's “domains” and the new problems and opportunities which have been identified above.

Principles

The following principles guide Plan's work:

• Activities must focus on the rights of the child.
• Beneficiary children must be motivated to participate in program decision making, monitoring and supervision.
• Programmers must be integrated: they must have economic, social, political, environmental and cultural dimensions
• Projects must fit within an integrated development plan which the beneficiary community has already drawn up.
• Projects must simultaneously address physical deficiencies in basic needs (shelter, education, services, etc.) and the cultivation of a sense of citizenship, democracy and respect for civic values.
• Children and youth of low-income families are the principal target groups.
• Projects must be institutionally, financially and technically sustainable.
• Activities should form part of the municipal urban management process.
• Reputable, experienced and non-political strategic partners will be sought which represent different interest groups and which will facilitate a scaling up of activities across the city, and
• The child sponsorship system must be adapted to the needs of integrated programmers and planned and implemented with the participation of children, especially the poorest.

General Objective

The strategic framework is also guided by Plan's vision of a world in which all children realize their full potential in societies which respect their rights and dignity, as well as by its mission to seek lasting improvements in the quality of life of dispossessed children in developing countries. Plan's role will be that of facilitator, starting from needs and demands as defined by children themselves.

The Integrated Urban Program

The integrated urban program aims to bring together these principles in a specific package of actions. Its target groups are shown in the following table in which the needs of different age groups of children are also identified.³

Table 3. Children by Age Group and Needs to be Addressed

The detailed activities envisaged for each group of children is as follows.

Children between 0-5 years: Health interventions at this age are important as these are crucial to the physical and mental development of the child. Poor nutrition or care during illness at this stage can seriously disadvantage a child for the rest of its life including its chances of securing well-paid employment. For the same reason it is a vital period in which to stimulate the child intellectually.

Children between 6–14 years: for the majority of children in Latin America this is primary school age. Schools need to be hygienic and healthy and children educated in the importance of these areas. This and other areas can be catered for within and outside the school environment. For example, it should be ensured that children finish their primary education at the appropriate age and not continually repeat years. This can be achieved through additional tutoring of weaker students. But it also requires education of the children's families in order to raise their perception of the importance of education; they should also be encouraged to promote regular school attendance by their children. This has been absent from social policy and the actions of educational institutions. At this age children are also capable of monitoring and evaluating their education and need to be enabled to do so. In the field of shelter neighborhood recreational centers are an important need.

Adolescents between 15-18 years: this is the age of secondary education and/or vocational training. Curricula should include education in reproductive health and sex education, responsible parenthood, and the avoidance of teenage pregnancies. In addition to strengthening schools in cognitive areas they also need to be able to impart civic awareness, values and ethics, in conjunction with the family and the community. Schools should enter into partnership with public and private sector institutions, communities and parents in order to develop jointly a curriculum which includes these subjects. Additional tutoring of weaker students and teacher training are also necessary.

Training should also be given to families in such areas as self-esteem, loyalty, honesty, gender awareness and civic values. These are intended to help prevent domestic violence, gang membership and drug addiction.

In the residential neighborhoods recreational centers are needed which facilitate sporting activities, healthy competition and artistic capacities. These recreational and cultural centers are an express demand of the children and youth in the study. Their construction, administration and maintenance should not be monopolized by adults but include children's participation. These centers can also be used to provide technical training in professions and trades such as nursing, secretarial work, artisan production and computing for which there is a market demand.

The children and youth in special circumstances or with specific needs are those which fall within the following categories: refugees and the internally displaced, street children, child laborers and soldiers, prostitutes, those detained in institutions, or those in difficulty with the justice system.

This section has presented a general strategic framework based on certain action principles and objectives. Previous sections contained a summary of the problems facing children and youth which the strategy addresses. It is now possible to present more detailed and specific action programmers. The following section presents five of these which together make up a proposed integrated urban program for Plan. These correspond in the main to Plan's domains but Participation and Development of Civil Society and Urban Poverty have been added as new categories which presently are not covered by the domains but which require attention in an urban strategy.

Case Studies: The Situation of Children in Urban Areas in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru

Colombia

The armed conflict in Colombia over the last five decades has created special problems for children: they are exploited as combatants and as victims of the internal displacement which the conflict has created. Other effects include health problems caused by overcrowding and food shortages in combat zones; kidnapping, torture, death and disappearances and the internal validation of violence as a means of resolving conflict and gaining recognition of one's right and ability to shape the world one lives in.

The permanent economic crisis of poor families has contributed to child labor and to the phenomenon of children who live on the street. Estimated at between 15,000 and 20,000 by the Colombian Institute of Family Welfare, they often suffer from multiple violations of their rights. These include physical, verbal and psychological abuse, economic and sexual exploitation and possible murder by so-called “social cleansing” groups.

Children from poor families are the most likely not to attend school, drop out or play truant. Demand for school places exceeds supply, costs are relatively high for the poor, and parents priorities earning income above learning.

The main health problems facing children are malnutrition, acute respiratory infections and severe diarrhea. 44 percent of children start consuming alcohol before the age of 15 years.

Approximately two and a half million children in Colombia between the ages of 6 and 17 are victims of labor exploitation. Few if any receive the legal minimum wage and up to half are unpaid. A significant proportion work in conditions of grave danger such as working as hired assassins, collectors and processors of coca, and in mining, construction and refuse collection.

Adapted from M. Contreras, field report.

Ecuador

During the fieldwork in Ecuador a series of workshops was held and interviews carried out with children. The following are the main problems identified by the participants and respondents.

• Heads of household do not earn the minimum required to meet basic needs. Poorly paid employment or informal employment with long hours leads to malnutrition, poor, small, overcrowded and unserviced housing, and abandonment of children during the working day.
• Poor quality education results in limited learning in the areas of language, reading and writing and mathematics. Teachers are under-trained, unmotivated and underpaid and schools are poorly equipped.
• Health services are of poor quality so that preventable illnesses such as malnutrition, skin diseases, tooth decay, high cholesterol levels, respiratory diseases, high lead levels in the blood and visual impairment are common.
• Violation of children's rights, abuse and violence are commonplace. In addition children complained of racial discrimination, poor sexual education, gender inequality and machismo . Effects of these conditions were identified as alcoholism and drug addiction, family violence and sexual abuse, teenage pregnancies, child neglect, gang membership, low self-esteem, child labor, dropping out of school and street children.
• Children and youth are rarely consulted in the decision making process in their neighborhoods. Residents are uncommitted when it comes to the delivery of services for children and youth and parents show little more interest. At the same time state services are weak or absent at community level. All this results in poor quality services.
• Most communities have no plans for the protection of their environment. Educationists provide no lead here and families show no interest in environmental issues. Communities are typically characterized by poor hygienic practices, incorrect use of latrines, the accumulation of refuse, unsurfaced roads , lack of green or recreational areas, and poor quality housing which is often unsafe, inadequately serviced and constructed in areas of high risk. All this contributes to the poor health of children and youth in these neighborhoods.

Adapted from Cristina Peña, field report.

Peru

Peru has 11 million children of whom some 60 percent are considered poor, 50 percent have anemia, 25 percent are under- or malnourished, 1.5 million work and about 1 million do not attend school. Of every 10 children who start school only 5 finish their (basic) education and, of these, only 2 do so without repeating a year. These painful data reveal in general terms some of the realities of the life of the urban child in Peru. In general one finds a wide range of problems which may be classified as:

• Material deficits in the quality of life and habitat (lack of water, poor housing, etc.) or others which have more or less direct impacts (lack of space and locations for recreation for children and youth, formation of violent youth gangs, etc);
• Family breakdown, widely spread female headed households, domestic violence, truancy and dropping out of school;
• Child labor.

Consequences of Urban Poverty for Children in Peru

Children's experience, as much as that of their families, reflects life in illegal settlements which, even after years of existence, remain poorly developed, without basic domestic services like water, sanitation and electricity. Living in huts made of bamboo matting, covered with plastic, cardboard or metal sheeting, contributes to a proliferation of health problems and premature deaths among children particularly due to gastrointestinal, pulmonary and malnutrition related diseases. Added to this are broken homes and domestic violence. The struggle for survival takes its toll on childhood: instead of being protected during this formative period of its development as a human being, as is the case for the well-to-do or the children of many developed countries, the poor urban child in Peru faces a continuous struggle against deprivation. One of the direct impacts is the phenomenon of dropping out of school, a consequence of poverty and the need for children to work to contribute to household incomes. This starts a vicious circle since the badly educated poor will only be able to reproduce their own poverty.

Many families are characterized by fragmentation, abandonment and violence. In Peruvian cities in 2000, 16 percent of mothers had become pregnant during their adolescence while some 19.2 percent of households were female headed. Although the sensitivity of the subject makes it difficult to obtain reliable data, it is generally believed violence is on the increase in poor informal fringe settlements. This reflects the growth of social and economic burdens in the life of the poor which in turn exert pressure on family relationships. Young couples often prefer to co-habit rather than marry. Through lack of the opportunity to own their own house many young couples live with the female's parents and in the long run this creates tensions and resentments. This is often the start of domestic breakdown. This is aggravated by an authoritarian, “ macho ” culture. It is the children who suffer most from these conflicts.

Adapted from Julio Calderón, field report.

Strategies for Urban Children: An Integrated Urban Program

Strategies for the improvement of the situation of children need to be embedded in a policy of meaningful poverty alleviation, local capacity building and partnerships among various (urban) stakeholders, and last but not least influence public policy.

Poverty Alleviation

For the children and youth of urban Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, poverty alleviation is not just a matter of having more money in their pockets; it is also about having an increased control over their lives and the chance to participate in the development of their communities, where through collective action they can contribute to the construction of a better future. If they obtain some access to education, they expect this to improve their chances of finding employment or learning a trade which allows them to start their own small business and thereby help them break out of the circle of poverty. The children and youth of poor families express a clear understanding of their situation, seeing poverty as a multidimensional issue that encompasses issues of monetary poverty and lack of consumption capacity, low educational status, vulnerability and the sensation of abandonment by society. They have their own ideas on how to improve their shelter, neighborhood environment and infrastructure, health, social development and security. They are also able to contribute, not only in the form of collective labor but also in the planning process. In these activities they should be seen as natural allies of non-governmental organizations and government agencies intervening in these settlements.

Capacity Building and Partnerships

The study clearly found that children and youth not only want to be taken seriously and for their opinions to be heard but also to be allowed to contribute to improvement work. In return they expect government to invest in them and to protect their rights. They want put in place and enforced laws and regulations to protect them and to facilitate better access to health, education, physical infrastructure, cultural and social facilities, employment, vocational training and advice for small and micro-enterprises. Finally they seek actions to reduce the power of (youth) gangs and violence at home and in the streets. Short-term solutions to emergency problems need to be complemented with sustainable, long-term support programmers. The challenge is to create new capacities among the public sector organizations (local governments) and to engage a wide range of social organizations, NGOs and even the private sector in partnerships for poverty alleviation.

Influencing Policies

Poverty alleviation and work with children and youth are profoundly important for human development and are the backbone of any economic development strategy that aims at sustainability and equity. NGOs and institutions dedicated to the issue of working for and with children and youth cannot limit themselves to micro-level interventions, but need to address policies relating to poverty alleviation and child/youth programmers. Many NGOs have gained recognition as important contributors to the formulation of public sector policies and are considered effective allies in poverty alleviation programmers. After having executed pilot projects for many years, after having experimented with a number of new thematic orientations (ranging from a welfare approach towards participatory empowerment-oriented grassroots projects), the real challenge ahead for NGOs is the mainstreaming of the poverty alleviation and child-youth program approaches which have proven successful. These will need to become integral part of local development policy, local budgets and partnerships.

Plan's Five Urban Programs

Plan's program traditionally had its main focus on, i.e. Growing up healthy; Learning – healing minds; Habitat and environment; Livelihood – rebuilding lives; Building relationships – championing rights ( Plan International 2000) . The result of the study undertaken by IHS is that additional, new themes have emerged in the form of Participation and Development of Civil Society, Vocational Training and Urban Poverty. In addition there are new target groups who should be incorporated in the future urban strategy such as refugees, displaced communities, working children, child soldiers in armed conflicts, children as prostitutes, children living in special institutions, children in conflict with law, and children in areas of high risks.

The principal focus is on the poorest children and youth, however, this is not supposed to exclude neighbors and friends of targeted families whenever this can contribute to a higher social cohesion.

1. Participation and Development of Civil Society⁴

Objective

Facilitation of relationships that respond to the new urban realities and new policies, aiming at a wider participatory role of children and youth, of neighborhood-based community organizations and civil society. Ultimately this is directed at the formation of a new civil society that plays an active role in development and implementation of social and economic policies.

Strategic actions

• Participatory programming and elaboration of integrated Community Development Plans (CDPs) – assuring the participation of children and youth.
• Organizational support for community organizations and technical assistance directed at sustainability of community efforts.
• Training and technical assistance of neighborhood volunteers.
• Information and communication campaigns directed at poor families concerning issues of environment, health, education, habitat, and livelihood.
• Involving community organizations in the work of local governments, demanding good governance in poverty related issues, application of integrated policies and formulation of participatory budgets to target local government expenses towards needs of poor communities.
• Promotion of dialogue between civil society and national government to implement agenda of essential rights of children and youth.
• Strengthening of organizations which deal with well-being of children and youth (NGOs, local leaders and community activists, school teachers, technical organizations dealing with health, environment, and local government service providers.
• Promotion of local regulations and service standards to assure continuity and sustainability of achievements.
• Socialization of achievements of community projects to sponsors of externally funded interventions.

Attention to displaced people (the case of Colombia)

• Emergency assistance (basic food aid, provisional shelter, schools, mobile clinics).
• Special partnership programmers between NGOs, public and private sector organizations for donation of support.
• Promotion of and support to organizations of displaced people which will enable them to manage by themselves the distribution and use of resources received.
• Incorporation of displaced communities into regular development programmers.
• Efforts of reconciliation and peace among social and political groups, and youth gangs.
• Support to extra-judicial council.
• Support to youth groups which are dedicated to activities related to employment creation, recreation, culture, educational campaigns against delinquency and insecurity.
• Education of families on means to deal with intra-family violence.

2. Health– Growing Up Healthy

Objective

Facilitate an adequate environment for preventive health of children and youth, through improved health services.

Strategic actions

• Inter-institutional coordination and incorporation of communities in preventive health measures (i.e. environment-related diseases, sexually transmitted diseases and AIDS/HIV.
• Creation of local health networks, provision of supplies and medicines for health stations, technical support directed at sustainability of services.
• Establishment of safe playgrounds (kindergartens, and community based day care centers); stronger collaboration with public sector entities (i.e. co-financing of community pharmacies) and private organizations (i.e. subsidized medicines and medical utensils).
• Creation of community parks for recreational purposes.
• Lobbying work at national and international levels directed at change in public policies and support of private sector donors (i.e. campaigns against negative environmental impacts caused by productive activities; fulfillment of global health goals towards primary health care for all by year 2015).
• Support to local health sector NGOs (financing, critical dialogue, exchange and networking).

3. Learning and Vocational Training

Objective

Facilitate better conditions for learning at school and opportunities for vocational training.

Strategic actions

• Support to better school infrastructure (classrooms, equipment), making schools friendlier environments (known as Plan's “The school – my friend” campaign).
• Establishment of community day care centers, managed by mothers from the community.
• Creation of community networks to supervise the quality of education provided in community schools.
• Technical support for day care centers directed at their sustainability.
• Capacity building of local government entities which supervise planning, operation and maintenance of educational facilities, provide staff, curricula and other material inputs.

4. Habitat and Environment

Objective

Facilitate the creation of a healthy habitat, promote integrated neighborhood improvements where housing and the residential environment are healthier and more secure.

Strategic actions

• Support for neighborhood organizations and (organized) youth groups for their engagement in neighborhood improvement activities, such as construction of neighborhood parks and playgrounds, communal green areas and individual gardens.
• Confinement of animals (animal husbandry) which circulate freely throughout neighborhoods and contribute to the spreading of infectious diseases and overall contamination of the residential environment.
• Drainage of wastewater, educational advice on efficient use of existing water resources and its possible re-use for gardening and sanitation purposes.
• Technical support for home gardening and animal husbandry as source of additional income or nutritional support.
• Residential and neighborhood environmental cleanliness; maintenance of cleanliness of public open spaces.
• Promotion of solid waste collection by technological (individual closed containers, collection points) and organizational means (e.g. local cooperatives).
• Support to and coordination with local authorities in matters pertaining to the legalization of human settlements and the provision of basic urban services.
• Promotion and insistence on service standards of services provided by local authorities; collaboration with environmental groups at neighborhood level and promotion of community responsibilities in safeguarding, operation and maintenance of services and service infrastructure; technical support directed at aspects of sustainability.
• Technical support for improvements of house constructions through programmers individual or collective self-help construction (or local craftsmen).
• Technical assistance for individual families and organized self-help groups in selection and use of earthquake resistant materials and designs.
• Revision of construction standards and norms; technical support to the development of locally appropriate and affordable standards.
• Utilization of economies of scale for the supply of building materials for private (housing) and public construction activities (infrastructure).
• Assistance in obtaining access to soft loans of small credits for home improvement and/or new construction of houses.
• Technical assistance for sanitary improvements in the interior of houses (construction of pit latrines or household sewer connections).
• Coordination with NGOs which are specialized in house construction and neighborhood infrastructure (including aspects of building materials, construction processes, management of self-help processes and mutual aid).

5. Urban Poverty– Livelihoods

Objective

Facilitate the access of poor families and their children to a productive life, directed at reduction of poverty, strengthening their technical and managerial capacities.

Strategic actions

• Strengthening and improvement of existing micro-enterprises.
• Services, technical assistance, capacity building (for example in marketing, management, product development) aiming at sustainability of small and medium enterprises.
• Support in financial and technical aspects for the promotion of cooperatives and solidarity groups committed to income generating activities.
• Integrated promotion of community services like community markets, laundries, and other collective services.
• Support for the creation of community revolving funds that can support seed money for local income generating projects and investments.
• Workshops and vocational training programmers for youth over 15 years who are able to work outside their homes.
• Awareness raising of negative impacts of child labor.

Some Considerations of Methodology

Selection of Cities and Poor Neighborhoods Targeted for Intervention

Above all the criteria presented in Table 4 below, Plan has taken the pragmatic view that all interventions should be “manageable” from the viewpoint of own capacities and of possible partners.

Table 4. Criteria for Selection of Cities and Poor Neighborhoods

Working with Partners: Community Organizations and Local Governments

For international NGOs like Plan, operational strategy cannot rely solely on their own resources and capacities. The growing complexities of problems addressed and the existence of other specialized organizations make it necessary to devise a number of strategic alliances and partnerships with a host of organizations which can help to strengthen and multiply efforts.

• Children and youth: The principal partners for NGOs like Plan are (organized) children and youth themselves who demand respect for their rights and are searching for ways to allow their integrated development and demand better services from institutions such as voluntary organizations, Christian churches and local government bodies.
• Public entities: Related to the work of children and youth the principal partners are Ministries of Education, Health, Women's Affairs and Human Development, regional/provincial governments and the municipalities (and their respective district administrations). These are important because they control substantial budgetary resources which could become counterpart funding for local interventions, have technical experience in project implementation, and can facilitate political and normative adjustments. The municipalities represent a force that can have a very relevant impact on the livelihood conditions of the poor and their children. Furthermore, municipalities are providers or regulators of municipal services which obviously cannot be handled by NGOs even if they are very strategic partners. Hence, an orientation towards synergy of resources can contribute to the construction of cities which will be more favorable to the situation of children and youths.
• Civil society: for some years civil society has been an increasingly active stakeholder. In the shape of networks, citizens' committees, thematic committees, organized grassroots groups, trade unions, cooperatives, universities, church organizations, amongst others, it has assumed many development initiatives and contributed substantially to greater transparency and a more social orientation of development programmers.
• Private and community organizations: local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are natural partners of international NGOs like Plan and can contribute substantial field and negotiating experience that can complement neighborhood level activities.
• International organizations: organizations such as UNICEF and CARE which share similar philosophies and operational ambits are ideal strategic partners for NGOs like Plan, and are considered as strategic allies when it comes to national and international lobbying for the implementation of Children's Rights Charters.

For each city and each thematic program it is advisable to devise a strategy of alliances in order to maximize synergies and achieve as much “additional mileage” from investments as possible.

Entry and Exit Strategies

To initiate support activities in poor neighborhoods, Plan advocates the execution of a feasibility study to confirm whether targeted communities are within the poverty and general feasibility focus for planned interventions. The study needs to confirm the existence of neighborhood organizations and a sufficient willingness to collaborate. There should also preferably already be a nucleus of a child and/or youth organization. A definite decision to intervene is taken after an initial participatory planning exercise ( SAS or SASito – in Plan terminology) that is based on the logical framework concept including overall intervention aims, objectives, outputs, outcomes in terms of sustainability and indicators for monitoring purposes.

The criteria for phasing out of support will be based on achievement of sustainability of project activities and institutions that have been established. Such parameters of sustainability need to be coincide with those established as part of the initial logical framework. These should, for instance, be in accordance with expected results of projects, and cover aspects like achieved reduction of poverty, availability of basic services (infrastructure, health, education, livelihood support, etc.). However, phasing out could also take place in the case of under-performance and negative experiences which have jeopardized the achievement of project targets.

After project activities have ended, it is usual to maintain contacts with communities and their leaders for another 1-3 years, involving them in the transfer of experiences to other communities and projects. After about 3 years (which is the average duration of Plan projects) an independent project evaluation is recommended to all projects supported by Plan in order to identify lessons and to feed these back in to current operational strategies and programmers.

Conclusions

In concluding, it is necessary to address Plan's partnership sponsorship model which is essential to its fundraising and the institutional implications of the new urban strategy

Sponsorship

Plan's sponsorship model is considered as the “glue” that binds the organization. Sponsorship from private, mostly individual donors, is traditionally the prime source of funding for Plan's worldwide activities. It is only in recent years that the co-financing approach (tapping official government aid funding in Europe and North America) and the utilization of bank-financed credit lines (for housing and small scale economic activities) have been added. The traditional sponsorship approach established more or less direct linkages between philanthropic sponsors and individual children (or families) in beneficiary communities. Regular communication is intended to establish a close bond that encourages reporting of progress at field level, and encouragement of further financial contributions as the child grows older or new stages are reached in the development of target communities. While Plan has been able to manage this sponsorship program successfully, it has received criticism for the “artificial” nature of the sponsor-child/youth relationship. Hence, alternative modes of the sponsorship model have been discussed, particularly in the case of urban projects. It has been suggested to reduce the number of individual (and fairly time- and resource-consuming) sponsorship relations and to introduce “community sponsorship” for entire communities, in support of their integrated development, as laid out in their Community Development Plans. Alternatively, a similar approach could be applied to sponsorship of community schools or other projects. Thus, sponsors will eventually evolve as benefiting a whole community instead of a single individual. Whatever the decision in the medium-term concerning the type of sponsorship which Plan will pursue, sponsorship as such will continue to be the core funding approach. It has the advantage that it creates identification with the beneficiaries. However, there is a growing concern among individual as well as institutional donors that funding be used effectively. This acts as an incentive to perform well as in some donor countries (such as the Netherlands) the sponsorship system is extremely sensitive to negative rumors emanating from the field, and this may quickly lead to a fall in sponsorship contributions.

Institutional Implications of the New Urban Strategy

The new urban orientation of an internationally NGO like Plan has implications for institutional capacity building and staff training. In addition to existing skills in project management, rapid appraisal techniques, and promotion of sense of community, the complexities of work in urban areas and the intention to implement its urban strategy requires new knowledge and capabilities. These mainly relate to urban management (municipal administration, environmental, urban planning and building legislation, service provision, budgetary planning), participatory local development or neighborhood planning and technical aspects of neighborhood improvements (housing, infrastructure, environment, health, local economic development and support for small and micro enterprises, green areas). In addition, knowledge of and skills in the development and management of community facilities (day care and youth centers), development communication, conflict management, and management of revolving funds and micro-credit will also be important. In many regards these new areas of knowledge and skills transcend the traditional “core” areas of a NGO that was solely dedicated to health, educational and food issues.

Plan's experience in general shows the need for increased professionalism, the need to embrace the concept of partnerships with other relevant actors in the field and even (formerly competing NGOs) in order to maximize results and impacts. Continued review of (best and worst) practices in the field and the fine-tuning of operational tools for project preparation, implementation and monitoring and evaluation are essential in order to sustain acceptable project results.

The strategic development taking place within Plan coincides with work of other development agencies such as UNICEF and Save the Children ( IIED 2003; UNICEF 2002; Bartlett 1999; Bartlett et al. 1999; Ennew 2000; Hart 1992; Hart 1996, 1997; Tonucci 1996) . While Plan may not be in a position to influence the world trade relationship, international agreements or other external matters which impact on the population that Plan wants to serve, this may constrain Plan's capability to bring about change for the better. However, this new urban strategy of Plan offers the opportunity to forge concerted efforts in the urban field where children have hitherto been seen by many as marginal actors even when they have been cast as key beneficiaries.

Florian Steinberg, an architect-urban planner and institutional development expert, works as an independent consultant. He has more than 25 years of professional experience, most of it in or relating to developing countries. Mr. Steinberg is a specialist in urban management, urban planning and renewal-rehabilitation, settlement upgrading, urban infrastructure planning, Local Agenda 21 and institutional development. Most of his professional work in the above fields has been related to poverty reduction, institutional development, capacity-building and local governments. Currently he is team leader of the ADB-sponsored Sustainable Capacity Building for Decentralization project in Indonesia, in affiliation with the Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS, Rotterdam).

Reinhard Skinner is a sociologist and independent consultant who has specialized in urban development and poverty reduction since 1975.  He has lived and worked in Latin America and Africa for 11 of these years.  He has published extensively on community participation in urban projects.

Endnotes

1. Plan was formerly known as Plan International.

2. Skinner, R., Steinberg, F., de Vries, J. and van der Wegen, S. 2002. The present article draws on this report. The authors wish to thank Plan for its permission to use the material produced during this consultancy. The present authors were two of the IHS team members who also included Jaap de Vries and Sasja van der Wegen. In each of the three countries IHS worked with a local consultant, namely Maira Contreras (Colombia), Cristina Peña (Ecuador) and Julio Calderón (Peru). In this way their contributions to the present article are indirect but significant though they should not, of course, be held responsible for any shortcomings.

3. This classification is based on the age groups defined by UNICEF:

• Infancy: applicable to children below five years of age.
• Primary school age: 6 to 14 years.
• Secondary school age and youth: between 15 and 24 years. As Plan defines childhood as ending at 18 years, the present strategy omits youth between 19 and 24 years.

Finally, a special category of “Children in Special Circumstances” has been added to cover groups of children not covered by the existing domains but who were detected in the field work. These include street children (children living and/or working in the street), internally displaced persons and refugees, etc.

4. Indicators for success and operational principles will not be mentioned here due to lack of space.

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