The Hunger Project-Mexico

April-September 2007
By: Lorena Vazquez Ordaz, Country Director

Generating Momentum for the sustainable development in the rural villages

The Hunger Project Mexico is working in three states to mobilize clusters of villages for self reliant development. Its strategies are based on social mobilization, gender equality, and creating effective partnerships with local government.

Zacatecas

Creating a bridge between grassroots people and the Zacatecas Government agencies through bottom up development:

Five government agencies, four at a state level and one at federal level, have joined The Hunger Project work in Zacatecas. These are the Health (SSA), Education (SEC), Youth (INJUZAC), Women (INMUZA) and Social Development (SEDESOL) agencies, which are now working together with SEDIF (Development and Family) and SEPLADER (Regional Planning) to close the existing gap between the government and the grassroots people through the empowerment of both.

Government officials are now working in true partnership with rural people to ensure bottom up development and the sustainability of the process, so grassroots people’s voices can be heard. In the last six months, 179 animators have been trained to create mobilization in the rural communities; the people at a grassroots level are taking self-reliant actions to end their hunger using the available resources.

Government Agencies	Animators Trained
SEDIF	20 animators
SEPLADER	15 animators
SSA	80 animators
INMUZA	5 animators
SEC	4 animators
INJUZAC	55 animators
SEDESOL	Partnership

Government officials being trained as animators.

A total of Seven State level agencies are aligned in working towards integral community development based on how people have envisioned their futures.

Projects Income Generation Projects Day Care Centers for working women Domestic technology products (creation of home cleaning products and body cream) Pottery Pizza place Community Projects Reforestation Hygiene Campaign Health Community Center equipment

A women's sewing cooperative produces clothing.

19 Municipios	Zacatecas	Morelos	Sain Alto	Luis Moya
Miguel Auza	Nochistlán	Muyahua	Juan Aldama	Villa Hidalgo
Rio Grande	Sombrerete	Tepechitlan	Fresnillo	Pinos
Caňitas de Felipe Pescador	Jerez	Monte Escobedo	Guadalupe	Francisco R. Murguia

Because of the size of the state, it is necessary to concentrate our work in two of the seven regions of the state so that we can be more effective and have a greater impact. These regions have been delimitated by nine municipios as the first part of our scale up program in the state of Zacatecas.

Region II	Rio Grande Caňitas de Felipe Pescador Francisco R. Murgia Juan Aldama Miguel Auza
Region III	Chalchihuites Jiménez de Teul Sain Alto Sombrerete

Durango Scale up in the state through strategic alliances towards self reliance: The strategy in Durango is focused on strengthening our partnership with state government agencies and local NGOs to create an environment where grassroots people can mobilize their actions to self reliance. Due to the strong relationships we already foster with certain government agencies, it has been requested that we scale up our program to a State level. The Family Integral Development Agency (DIF), Environment and Natural Resources Ministry (SEMARNAT), Farming and Agriculture (SAGARPA- FIRCO), Health (SSA), Women (INMUD), Social Development (SEDESOE) and Education (SEP) agencies want to be trained as animators to work with grassroots people to create powerful visions of their future. They hope to take responsibility for their own development and use their voices to demand the correct application of the government development programs for a real bottom-up development.

Durango strategy meeting.

We have defined the Laguna region as the region where our work in the state will scale up: we will expand from one municipio to ten municipios where we are going to increase the number of animators, grassroots people, and government officials, and create a body of powerful trainers who will work in partnership with The Hunger Project. These trainers will come out of other NGOs working in the region, as well as from the government agencies with which we already have a partnership.

Chiapas

Strategic action

The strategy in Chiapas has been to create a partnership with the local government of the municipios. The election of a new governor and new municipal presidents has just been completed, which has presented a big opportunity to create partnership with the state government and the local governments.

Our initial mobilization efforts in the state have taken place in the municipio of Las Margaritas, near the border with Guatemala. The staff of the municipio participated in a VCA workshop where they experienced how powerful a tool this workshop truly is. They requested that we deliver the VCA workshop to a group of three, very marginalized, villages in the municipio. The initial conversations in the villages have been held and the people are very excited to start working with us.

Also exciting is the development of a new government program named Chiapas Solidario. It is a state program which is still being defined; it has promoters who work in sectors within each of the municipios who are committed to promoting development activities in the villages.  A VCA workshop was delivered to the group of 20 of these promoters in the municipio of Las Margaritas and they are very excited about establishing a partnership with The Hunger Project. A proposal of partnership with Chiapas Solidario, at a state level, is being developed. This partnership may be the key to successfully scale up the programs.

The planned scale up starts by going from one municipio, Las Margaritas, to reach a region of ten municipios which are strategically connected to each other.

Municipios:

• Las Margaritas
• Maravilla Tenejapa
• Comitan
• Independencia
• Trinitaria
• Chiapa de Corzo
• Teopisca
• Amatenango del Valle
• San Cristóbal de Las Casas
• Las Rosas