Placement: Agros International, Cotzal, Guatemala
Project Title: Promoting Healthy Independence
in Assistance-receiving Villages of the Ixil, Guatemala
Abstract:
This study explores causal factors for why some villages
in the Ixil region of Guatemala tend to become financially over-
dependent on development aid organizations. Research was carried
out in collaboration with Fundacion Agros, one of the primary community
development organizations in the area. The indigenous Mayans who
occupy this region were targeted and largely displaced during the
36-year civil war that ended in 1996. Agros works to reestablish
and provide assistance to young, returning villagers with land loans
and development projects. Agros assistance typically comes in the
form of 7-10 year commitments to a community. Most villages do eventually
become self-sufficient and achieve some degree of land ownership;
but the development aid organization’s continued support of
these villages may prolong a cycle of financial dependency that
can stifle a community's ability to grow independently.
Using data from oral interviews and written histories, this study
tested twenty-nine possible causal factors for healthy independence
in fourteen Ixil villages and determined that there are six principal
causes. These principal causes included sustainable practices in
the village, local resources, diversity and level of income, breadth
of support network, access and proximity to market, and innovative
solutions to problems. Four additional factors showed minor or negative
correlations, the details of which can be found in the body of the
report.
This report also identifies a number of problems that needed to
be addressed internally by Agros. This list includes but is not
limited to: lack of communication about debt repayment expectations,
poor communication during trainings, delays over land distribution,
lack of centralized communication with villages working with multiple
institutions, lack of women in village leadership and lack of planning
for the future among villagers. Because they emerged during the
analysis but showed no direct relation to healthy financial independence,
they were identified but studied no further. Analytical solutions
to these extraneous problems were not offered as part of the summary.
While this study had its own set of limitations, its applicability
to other farming-centered, rural developing societies is compelling,
not only in Central America but in other parts of the world as well.
As sustainability and dependency theory become further absorbed
into the expansive rhetoric of community development, financial
independence will continue to emerge as a principal goal for village
development and rebuilding efforts.
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