Last week, a team of I2UD researchers and professionals returned from a ten day field trip to Dangriga, Belize to research alternative strategies to increase the town’s resiliency to the impacts of climate change. Jim Kostaras, Elda Solloso, and Maren Larsen were joined in Belize by Dr. Elizabeth Hamin and students from UMass Amherst, and environmentalist and GIS specialist Jan Meerman to undertake action research supported by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. The research team also had the privilege of working in close collaboration with Keisha Rodriguez, the Urban Planning Officer of the Belize Municipal Development Project (BMDP), and members and staff of Dangriga Town Council, whose generous hospitality made for highly productive working sessions with the Local Planning Working Group (LPWG) and the community
The trip began with a presentation by Regional Planning students of UMass Amherst of a Climate Change Action Plan for Dangriga, including a vulnerability assessment that identified sites for interventions. The presentation provided the foundation upon which the I2UD team went into greater detail to assess the feasibility of proposed strategies, such as rain gardens and the use of mangroves. Dangriga Mayor Francis Humphries graciously offered to take the team on a tour of Dangriga to gain a detailed understanding of the town’s drainage system and Councillor Herbert Nicasio organized a community meeting in the neighborhood of Wagierale, which experiences serious flooding during the rainy season. I2UD’s week of meetings and site visits in Dangriga led to a workshop with participants from the central government, donor funded development programs, local town council, and concerned residents. I2UD is currently working to integrate lessons learned from the workshop into the final research paper.
I2UD has a long history of continued engagement with the people and places involved in our projects. This research project is no exception and offers a unique opportunity to research ways in which municipalities in Belize can begin to integrate and streamline resiliency planning into their recently completed and adopted Municipal Development Plans. Through the Belize Municipal Development Project, funded by the World Bank and implemented by the Social Investment Fund of Belize, I2UD provided technical assistance to seven municipalities to prepare their development plans to the horizon 2030. I2UD also organized capacity building activities to equip municipalities and LPWGs to manage and update the plan in the future.
During this most recent field mission, Elda Solloso and Maren Larsen had the opportunity to travel to Belmopan and San Ignacio/Santa Elena to document some of the lessons of the BMDP nearly one year after I2UD organized the Third National Workshop for LPWGs to present their development plans. While the Belize Municipal Development Project is ongoing and will conclude in November, I2UD was already able to identify some of the lessons and successes brought about by the process of preparing municipal development plans.
All seven municipalities participating in the BMDP have now adopted their Municipal Development Plans. Municipal elections held in March led to changes in leadership in many cities and towns and have required a reconfiguration of their Local Planning Working Groups. LPWGs are critical to maintaining the momentum of the planning process and to filling the gaps left by incomplete or inoperable planning frameworks and legislation at the national level. The elections and reconstitution of the LPWGs has allowed for certain modifications to be made to strengthen the interactions and coordination of central and local authorities. The composition of the LPWGs has been changed to include more central government representatives and the LPWG is strongly encouraged to provide recommendations to the Town or City Council on permit, license, subdivision, and development requests issued by various local and central agencies and authorities.
One of the central objectives of the LPWGs is to support the implementation of the MDPs. Chapter 5 of each town or city’s plan provides critical linkages to plan implementation including the phasing of projects, municipal management, financing, and human resources. A large effort has been made in multiple town councils to improve own source revenue generation and strengthen budgeting and taxation process in order to develop a sustainable flow of financial resources. Sustained efforts by members of the San Iganicio/Santa Elena LPWG have worked to address this issue from all angles through:
- Internal staff re-organization with strong leadership in the human resources department and the establishment of a planning department;
- A scheme that hires temporary council bailiffs for increased collection during tax season;
- Compilation of a citizen database for inter-department use;
- Cross-training and regular full staff meetings; and
- Greater integration and awareness of the mapping of tax arrears to link citizen tax dollars to infrastructural improvements.
The town council collected 48% of its total collectable property tax last year, which was valued at $BZ 3.6 million. This year, however, with enhanced finance and management practices in place, Human Resource Director Melanie Danilczyk tells us San Ignacio/Santa Elena’s collection goal is 100%.
BMDP Feature III from Video Maker on Vimeo.
During the elections in March, several mayoral candidates, including the newly elected Dangriga Mayor Francis Humphries, incorporated tenets, principles, and projects from the MDPs into their political manifestos, which has raised their level of recognition among the councils and the communities. Furthermore, the video recently produced by SIF will soon be broadcast on local public television to ensure community awareness and engagement in the process. I2UD equally looks forward to staying engaged in the processes and evolution of the Municipal Development Plans through our current research on climate resiliency as well as future work that the Institute pursues.