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opinion
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The country needs decentralization by Raúl Leis R. --- raulleisr@hotmail.com The country needs a public policy, arrived at with public participation, about decentralization and the strengthening of municipal and local governments, as an indispensable element of wholesome and equitable development. Despite decentralization being made imperative by the constitution, the majority of the parties have no municipal agenda either within their organizations or within their legislative caucuses. The party members receive almost no training on municipal affairs by their organizations, either before or during their tenure in public offices. The majority of parties lend no political or technical assistance with respect to decentralization to their representantes or mayors, and they don't have municipal caucuses. This means that representantes and mayors are left orphaned and this lack of support is a negative influence on municipal government. That partisan hallmark, the absence of spaces for democratic decision making, intrudes into local mechanisms. These mechanisms are lcoated in a party structure that has little explicit interaction with the realities of municipal life. They appear to be supra-party structures that are directed from the leadership in the country's capital. That is, the centralism within each party gravitates toward uninvolvement in local affairs, which are not given the weight and importance that are necessary. The National Assembly has not municipal affairs committee and in recent years has dealt with the subjects of decentralization and municipalities in perfunctory fashion. Efforts toward decentralizing actions in the government need to be become more agile and more coordinate with the different actors in the process. You should be aware that in the late 90s a national agenda was set by the Pact for Decentralization and Local Development, as a commitment among the political parties and civil society. In this they agreed: · To make a determined effort to promote political and administrative decentralization of the the Panamanian state, as a process of gradual, equitable and responsible transfer of jurisdictions, resources (human, technological and economic), responsibilities and decision-making powers from the central government to the local governments. To the extent that this transfer is effected, to sponsor within the municipalities the development of resposibilities and the necessary skills to assume the processes on an optimal scale at the local level and simultaneously the entities at the central level that had these functions must be modified. To recognize the municipality, fortified by a growing citizen participation, as the political-administrative unit in the process of government decentralization. · To, in addition to infrastructure, include the generation of productive jobs at the local level, human and social development at the local level through participative and educational programs in accord with the realities, health programs that prevent problems and promote reproductive health and wellness in general, and the development of the potentials of everyone in the municipality. To include the promotion on the local level of the rights of children and adolescents that are established in the UN Convention on the Rights of Children. It should include the community in a participatory planning process for local development activities. To approve municipal budgets with prior public consultation about objectives, priorities and assignment of resources. To include the implementation of the right of municipal initiatives and referenda which are provided for in the national constitution and current laws, and promote other rights such as the town meeting, recall, and citizen participation by way of municipal development commissions. · To promote the necessary legal and judicial changes inherent in the decentralization process by means of the creation of a Decentralization and Municipal Affairs Committee in the Legislative Assembly, which will prepare and structure the necessary laws to move the decentralization process forward; and a Presidential Commission for State Decentralization, a broad-based entity in charge of preparing and coordinating a national decentralization and municipal development program, all of this within the framework of formulating concrete policies and programs conducive to a coordinated effort among the diverse sectors and entities involved; creating, negotiating and using international cooperation in this field; and proposing changes in existing municipal legislation in consultation with all sectors. · To promote an efficient, effective and transparent municipal administration that is provided with the social controls of civil society in order to eradicate or mitigate corruption. To develop the capacity of local rule to surmount the lack of preparation of local governments to assume jurisdictions that they possess or that will be transferred to them from the central government. To establish a personnel policy directed at the professionalization of the local official. To establish mechanisms that aid in the formation of the required management teams, in accordance with the needs that decentralization demands, and generating the technical assistance that's necessary to strengthen the process. It's fundamental to incorporate the municipal technical and administratove employees into a civil service system in order to accomplish their adequate and correct professionalization. · The incorporation of an environmental dimension in every process of local development planning and execution, creating incentives for the expanded capacities of the residents that are necessary for citizen participation in the process of making decisions about the sustainability of the management of natural resources and environments. To stimulate formal and informal participatory environmental education on the local level. A commitment to respect the indigenous peoples' traditional governments and comarcas and to seek their incorporation into the municipal regime in a way that safeguards their identity. This is, then, a pending agenda, and the country needs the will of political and social actors to carry out the that changes that this pact promises.
Raúl Leis is a sociology professor, Panama's most honored living playwright, a newspaper columnist, one of the founders and leaders of the Panamanian Center for Social Studies and Action (CEASPA, a Panama City think tank), and an activist in the fields of environmentalism, human rights and governmental reform. He was the chairperson of the Foro 2020 which arose from the 2020 National Vision process.
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