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Regional Development Project

As from the beginning of 2004, the FAO Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean has been carrying out a regional development Project in 11 regions of 3 Latin American countries ( Mexico , Brazil and Chile ).

The main objective of this initiative is to support sub-national governments (states in the case of Mexico and Brazil, regional in the case of Chile) to foster a development strategy in a specific region of their states, that will contribute to the promotion of sustainable regional development, by the provision of linkages among the different stakeholders, capacity building and promotion of territorial projects. It is obviously, not just a matter of teaching governments how to promote regional development, but to support already on-going initiatives in specific regions.

The 11 regions involved in this project are the following:

Brazil

• Cantuquiriguaçú Region (Estado de Paraná)
• Center-South/Vale do Salgado Region (Estado de Ceará)
• Assis Region (Estado de São Paulo)
• Northwest Region (Estado de Minas Gerais)
• Vale do Cocais Region (Estado de Piauí

Mexico

• “06 Sur” Region (Estado de Jalisco)
• Citrícola Region (Estado de Nuevo León)
• Lerma Chapala Region (Estado de Michoacán)
• Otomí Tepehua Region (Estado de Hidalgo)
• Cañón de Juchipila Region (Estado de Zacatecas)

Chile

• Arauco Territory (8^th Region - Bio Bio)

In each one of these regions, FAO/RLC has worked with local counterparts in drafting a proposal of initial strategy. Each counterpart, in coordination with the state government and with FAO/RLC support, has identified the main stakeholders of the region and has availed the coordination between them to prepare two products: a) a Regional Development Strategy, and b) a Proposal for a Regional Alliance to Promote Development.

These two products were presented in a meeting of technical teams held in Santiago , Chile , from 27 to 29 April, 2005 . This event provided the opportunity of getting to know, discuss and analyze the different methodological approaches of the ongoing processes in the 11 regions of Mexico , Brazil and Chile participating in this experience.

In later months, there will be a settling process of the regional alliances and FAO will monitor, give advice and evaluate each one of the experiences.

A Meeting with State authorities of the 3 countries involved in the project will take place in October 2005, together with international cooperation agencies representatives and private sector. This meeting is a milestone in the consolidation process of the Regional Alliances which have been settling in each one of the States and a chance to identify investment opportunities on integral development strategies.

FAO/RLC commitment after the Meeting will be centered in providing technical assistance to the States for a detailed preparation of projects that compose the regional development strategies, besides supporting their negotiation, installation, management and evaluation.

On the other hand, it is expected that Regional authorities in each country will assume their institutional commitment for the installation of the development strategies prepared in their regions, so that foreign investors may notice the linkage of the public sector with the future of this initiative.

At the end of the process it is expected that FAO, as well as State governments, have identified which are the main conditionings of regional development processes, allowing thus to reproduce the experience in other regions.

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