“Mesas de concertación”:

Creando posibilidades de vida, promoviendo

gobernabilidad democratica

A summary by Felicity Rose, UMP-LAC

The “mesa de concertación” (mesa) has been defined by the partners of the
Lurigancho-Chosica City Consultation as follows:

“A space for dialogue in which: all actors are heard; ideas are
exchanged; proposals are brought together; commitments to the
solution of urban problems are made; the assets of each of the
actors in driving local development are added together; a form of
management is generated whereby decisions and priorities come
from a horizontal process involving local authorities, public and
private actors and community-based organisations; and internal
and external alliances are linked to the local territorial space”
(CENCA/PGU-ALC/Municipalidad de Lurigancho Chosica, Mesa de
Concertación: Creando posibilidades de vida, promoviendo
gobernabilidad democrática).

The Mesa is, generally speaking, a forum for participatory governance, in

which local actors come together to discuss, debate and agree on proposals
for the development of their own community, district or city. The aim is to
achieve a pooling of the assets, resources and capacities of different local
actors, from different sectors, and to synthesise common interests, for the
good of local development. The Mesa is institutionalised in order to ensure
continuity and sustainability, especially across political elections.
The Mesa enables local actors to define and implement a local vision for
future development and to assume joint responsibility for that development.
All sectors – local government, the private sector, NGOs, CBOs, etc. – can be
involved in the Mesa and work together, sometimes with external actors, to
make and implement decisions. Projects are formulated, implemented and
monitored in a wholly participatory and democratic manner. Mesas have been
set up in Latin America in the following cities, among others: San Salvador (El
Salvador), Cotacachi (Ecuador), Meso de los Hornos (Mexico), Córdoba
(Argentina) and Lima (districts of Los Olivos, Lurigancho-Chosica, Ate-Vitarte
and Villa El Salvador) (Perú).

In the case of Lurigancho-Chosica, a district of Lima, Perú, a Mesa was

formed to strengthen local management, particularly in the following areas:
(1) environment, disaster prevention and housing; (2) basic services, and (3)
security, income generation and capacity-building; these were the three
priority thematic areas for action developed in the City Consultation. The
Mesa was formed in October 1999, led by the district mayor and supported by
technical NGOs, professionals and public institutions working in the various
thematic areas. The Mesa immediately defined 10 priority projects, especially
in the environmental area, and at the same time has striven to build local
participatory governance. Special attention has been paid to the integration of
women, children and young people into the district’s development. The need
for strengthening of the Mesa itself, so that it can play the most effective role
possible as leader of local development, has also be recognised. For this
reason, courses in environmental management, women and leadership, and
institutional strategic planning are being sought and undertaken in order to
build the capacity of the Mesa.