Final report : environmental partnership for economic development, Cd. Juarez, Mexico

The Partnership fulfilled its goals for allocating small grants to local NGOs and community-based organizations (CBOs) to promote environmental actions. The Partnership was also effective in leveraging other resources close to five times its grant budget, and played an important role in building the capacity of a local CBO to the point that it is now working on several programs with U.S. universities and is developing projects on its own, including one for the Ford Foundation. Through the recycling program, nearly 14 tons of recyclable materials have been collected by the community, and eight centers are operating in the City. The centers have also served to take the Environmental Awareness and Action Program (EAAP) to neighborhoods. In addition to the family events sponsored by employers, it is estimated that the EAAP has reached more than 5,000 people directly or indirectly. The Partnership also offered the opportunity for the Resident Advisor (RA) to become involved in a number of pertinent local projects, the most important of which were the following: (1) The RA assisted in the institutional strengthening of the IMIP (Instituto Municipal de Investigacion y Planeacion), which is in charge of city planning. Also through the Partnership, ICMA offered a mechanism to share technical information with the IMIP and the city"s Public Service Department, which is in charge of solid waste management and public parks. (2) Serving as a nongovernmental representative on the City Environmental Committee enabled the RA to learn about the City"s environmental priorities and to integrate the Partnership"s projects into those priorities. (3) As technical advisor to the Brick Maker Project, the RA was involved in developing a circular kiln, which uses 20% less fuel than traditional square kilns. The RA was also part of the team that secured funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to build 15 round kilns to replace square kilns in the city. (4) The RA became the Chairperson of the International Paso del Norte Air Quality Task Force. During his tenure, the Task Force developed a regionwide geographical information system of fixed emission sources, with funding from EPA and assistance from different local government agencies. This tool will make it possible to perform modeling and risk assessment as well as other prevention activities. The RA was also involved in creating the local chapter of the international Clean Cities Coalition. Lessons learned are as follows: (1) Overcoming infrastructure deficiencies in cities where growth has been rapid can be an insurmountable problem. The community effort can easily be overshadowed by the size of the problem. (2) The structure of the partner NGO or CBO had a significant impact on the degree of success of their projects. Small NGOs did not demonstrate the ability to undertake new projects, even though funding was provided. On the other hand, the CBO took advantage of the partnership opportunity and delivered acceptable results. In general, the CBO seemed to take on a greater degree of ownership than medium- to large-size NGOs, especially in terms of maintaining the works after they were built. (2) The private sector has sufficient interest in working with the community to improve the environment. What is needed is to find the common ground where both feel their contributions can have a lasting effect. (3) A partnership between the NGO community, the private sector, and the government is possible. The common ground for such a partnership lies in educating the community via employers. This approach is especially applicable in cities where the maquila industry has a significant presence and where the need to bring awareness to an uneducated population is a relevant challenge.