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Objectives and Problems

After the creation of the Los Rios Region and the implementation of its new public institutions, it became necessary to develop this strategic plan, the main and first planning instrument for this young region. The very history that put citizen mobilization in the foreground, institutionalized or not, to achieve this geopolitical recognition, made necessary the incorporation of horizontal participation policies that were consistent with the current guidelines of democratic expansion.

Background Story and Context

The constitution of the Los Ríos Region is the result of a long citizen process to recover the administrative political status that the then Province of Valdivia had until 1974. But it has also become one of the most relevant events in terms of intra-regional decentralization, relocation of public services and administrative management since the installation of the Regional Governments, at the beginning of the 90's.

The new configuration has its origins in the territorial division established in the Political Constitution of 1925 in which the country was structured into provinces, departments, sub-delegations / communes and districts. Until 1973 there were 25 provinces, including Valdivia, whose capital was the city of Valdivia. But in turn, the province was made up of 3 departments: Valdivia, La Unión and Río Bueno.

This provincial condition was partially modified when in 1965, the recently created National Planning Office, ODEPLAN, made the first regionalization proposal in the country. On that occasion the provinces of Valdivia, Cautín and Osorno made up the VIII Region. However, a strong movement of discontent in Temuco made this project change, which finally led to the constitution of the IX Region, in 1968, with the provinces of Valdivia and Osorno and establishing the city of Valdivia as the regional capital. Likewise, a series of initiatives aimed at deconcentration were developed through the creation of Regional Offices, Regional Development Corporations, among others, in which Valdivia was favored due to its status as regional head.

However, the establishment of the military regime brought with it a radical change in the concept of regionalization. From an integrative perspective of regional development, a strategy that privileged geopolitics and national defense was passed, which materialized through a regionalization that ignored the historical, political and economic characteristics of the territories. In this sense, the configuration of the X Region of Los Lagos and the establishment of the regional capital in Puerto Montt, had important repercussions in the province of Valdivia that led various business, union and social organizations to be gestating a citizen movement that demanded the old status and which was strengthened as public investment, the number of inhabitants and economic activity decreased.

During the government of Eduardo Frei Ruiz Tagle, important advances were made through the preparation of various studies that evaluated the feasibility of transforming the province of Valdivia into a Region. In this context, one of the most relevant milestones was the Instructions issued by its President to the Governor of Valdivia, dated August 4, 1997, in which it established that it was necessary to expand and improve transfers, powers and resources, primarily to the provinces of Arica and Valdivia.

Along with this process, other actions were developed that were strengthening a movement in favor of the new region: the creation of the New Region Women's Committee (1995), the Agreed Provincial Development Agenda (1997) and the Provincial Association of Municipalities of Valdivia (2003), which added to the work of more than a decade by the New Region Committee (1983) laid the foundations for what would become the future Los Ríos Region.

Thus, after a long journey, on August 26, 2005, the constitutional reform contained in Law No. 20,050 was enacted, which introduced modifications to the Political Constitution of the Republic, through which the numeral referred to the number of regions and the procedure to create and suppress them was standardized, leaving to a law, of constitutional organic rank, what is related to the political and administrative division of the country.

This important modification allowed, in October 2005, in the city of Valdivia, President Ricardo Lagos to sign the project that created the new Los Ríos Region, which was later sent to Congress for processing.

This entire process culminated on March 16, 2007 when the President of the Republic, Mrs. Michelle Bachelet, signed Law No. 20,174 creating the Los Ríos Region and setting a period of 180 days for its installation. This meant that on October 2 the historic demand to be a Region was finally fulfilled and the construction of a new destination for the former province of Valdivia began through the conformation of its new public institutional framework, and very especially, from the development of the main planning instrument: the Regional Development Strategy.

In the understanding that the law that created the Los Ríos Region had a strong social correlate, since it was the voice of the citizens that maintained the demand for the regional division for three decades, it is of all justice and realism propose the construction of a Regional Development Strategy through a technically implemented and socially validated process.

In this context, during the process of the Presidential Delegation and in the first year of operation of the Regional Government of Los Ríos, various activities were carried out that made it possible to gather the wishes and hopes of the community regarding the future of its new territory, the that were systematized to become the foundation of this Strategy that will govern us for the next 10 years.

Organization, Support and Financing Entities

The “Regional Development Strategy Proposal, 2008-2018, Los Ríos Region” made by the Regional Planning and Development Division of the Regional Government based on the results obtained in the Citizen Dialogues, which were carried out during the period of the Delegation, in the Consultancy "Implementation of Participatory Territorial Planning Processes for the New Region of Los Ríos", prepared by the Eco-Region Program Local Agenda 21, and the Community Development Plans, among the main inputs. This allowed access to extensive information regarding the reality of the new territory and in which more than three thousand people participated at the regional level.

To this must be added what was obtained in the Technical Workshops , held during the month of September, and of the Regional Prospective Study, in charge of the Austral University of Chile, which configured seven exploratory scenarios. These contributions were of vital importance for the elaboration of the desired scenario and the strategic guidelines and objectives.

Recruitment and Selection of Participants & nbsp;

Once again, more than three thousand people participated at the regional level. The purpose of making this document known to the main actors of the regional community constitutes the main action in the construction of this instrument: to analyze and validate the contents of this proposal to later shape the Final Document. And in this way to be able to understand and assume that the Regional Development Strategy is part of all the inhabitants of the Los Ríos Region.

Methods and Tools Used

The proposal was developed at the Citizen Dialogues and the Technical Workshops .

What Happened: Process, Interaction and Participation.

During the months of August and September 2007, 13 participatory events were held in each of the communes of the new Region. This instance of participation was reinforced by the opinions collected through the website and by the participation mailboxes located in each of the 12 municipalities.

The Citizen Dialogues were instances of great convocation, since they brought together individuals without organizational participation, government authorities, public services and representatives of civil society, who debated on the main aspects and problems that the installation of the new Region implied .

The information gathered in the Citizen Dialogues was structured in three specific guidelines:

• Decentralization of public services
• Emblematic Projects for the "Bicentennial"
• Axes of development and growth for the Region of Los Rios that should be privileged by the Regional Development Strategy

The main suggestions and / or citizen proposals that were collected from these Dialogues focused on topics related to sustainable development, support for the tourism and productive sector, protection of the environment, strengthening of the regional intercultural identity, among the most important.

They are incorporated into local and regional government plans to be dealt with in particular again on specific projects where they would be applied.

Influence, Results and Effects

The specific Outputs on these guidelines were, among others, some of those that are detailed below:

• Creation of university citadel
• Road connectivity
• Decontamination of rivers and lakes
• Modern hospital
• Restoration of the operation of Estacion Mariquina
• Electrification of rural areas
• Development of local communication media (newspaper, television and newspapers)
• Development of rural tourism and ethno-tourism

According to the results obtained, it is important to point out that for each economic sector associated with the National Investment System it was also possible to identify a common idea that was translated into objectives and / or strategic actions. This made it possible to emphasize the qualitative aspects of the participatory processes developed.

Among the main areas of interest, the following stood out:

• Environmental protection, watershed management and natural resources.
• Plan for the generation of energy alternatives.
• Development plan for artisanal fishing.
• Property management, land ownership and support for smallholders.
• Urban image and quality of public spaces.
• Infrastructure plan for regional connectivity.
• Digital connectivity, communications and broadcasting.
• Health with greater coverage and specialties in communes with an intercultural stamp.
• Formation of productive chains and regional tourist circuits.
• Intercultural education with territorial relevance.
• Sanitation of basic services in rural areas.
• Regional sports development policy.

In this perspective, it is worth mentioning the great interest of citizens in strengthening the links between the different public bodies, both communal, provincial and regional, and existing social organizations in the Los Ríos Region.

Analysis and Lessons Learned

Within the perspective defined in the course on citizen participation (active participation of citizens in a real, individual and concrete way to make an election and make a decision, a process by which citizens influence in public decisions) it is restricted to the first part of this project, in which it is estimated to shape the institutions through the results collected individually and, mainly, collectively (institutions of all kinds: churches, neighborhood associations, etc.). Once the departments or secretaries that will be in charge of addressing the main defined problems have been established, participation becomes, to a degree, less direct, since those summoned to deliberate on specific projects are representatives of associations of all kinds, but not including participation. individual. Although informative workshops are held on the objectives and forms of the measures adopted, they do not allow their modification. However, this process is outside the evaluated period and actions, which is restricted to Citizen Dialogues.

Some data about this first stage, shows us the following results:

& nbsp; Participates and is a leader Participates without leadership Does not participate in any organization

Female 381 163 45

Male 327 121 35

Individual participation is strongly inferior to the rest. The collective interests of specific groups will thus be overestimated. The evaluation of the degrees of democratization, although they are not mostly based on individual participation, cannot be disregarded since it is in a constant process of construction and, ultimately, is approaching absolute expansion.

See also

Canadian Policy Research Network's Citizen Dialogue & nbsp;

The Mention & nbsp;

Web Pages:

• http: // erd. goredelosrios.cl/index.php/estrategia/presentacion/conozca-la ...

Journals

• Valdivia News - http://www.diariodevaldivia.cl/
• La Aldea University - http://www.laaldea.cl/
• Mercury - http://www.elmercurio.cl/
• La Tercera - http://www.latercera.com/
• Austral - http://www.australtemuco.cl/

Documents

• History of Law 20.175, Library of the National Congress of Chile
• "Consultancy: Implementation of participatory territorial planning processes for the New Region of Los Ríos", Regional Action Plan
• Regulation Advisory Council, Regional Development Strategy

External Links

Notes

Main Photo: Los Rios Region https://bit.ly/2D1VxHn 

Second Picture: Regional Development Strategy https://bit.ly>/2U25slZ