Building Community Assets to Advance Racial and Ethnic Equity
Small-scale infrastructure projects implemented through a deep community engagement model can offer high impacts in marginalized communities that have historically been under-developed.
In Honduras, factors such as high levels of gang violence, climate change impacts, lack of infrastructure, and persistently high poverty rates have contributed to the vulnerability of historically marginalized populations, including Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities. In response, USAID is harnessing the power of our Agency’s principle of Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting to advance equity for underserved racial and ethnic communities through an activity known as “Projects Executed by the Community” (PEC).
The PEC activity promotes a bottom-up community engagement process that provides collective accountability and aims to cultivate empowered and self-reliant communities that develop, implement, monitor, maintain, and evaluate inclusive action plans in collaboration with public and private stakeholders. The flexible model is particularly suitable for enabling racial and ethnic communities to assume leadership roles throughout the process.
Another exciting aspect of the PEC activity is that by enabling community members to assume leadership in collaboration with a broad range of actors, they are building or improving community assets such as schools, health centers, youth outreach centers, recreational spaces and police stations, among others. They are also improving water and sanitation systems in and around these assets, and connecting them through better roads.
About Projects Executed by the Community (PEC)
PEC engages a broad group of interconnected stakeholders, creates democratic structures for deliberation and decision-making, uses effective processes to build consensus, puts local actors in control and accountable to one another, and helps to establish local ownership over a development challenge. The activity implementing partner, Fondo Hondureno de Inversion Social (FHIS), is an agency of the Government of Honduras. FHIS collaborates with community-based groups in a design process where partners come together to identify priorities related to infrastructure, crime reduction, and essential service delivery.
Once these priorities are identified, a project execution committee (CEP) is formed. The committee, whose members are selected through a voting process by the community, comprises a cabinet of leaders including a president, treasurer, secretary, and warehouse manager. The process of identifying priorities and selecting leaders as a collective helps build social cohesion among residents and fosters community ownership of the prioritized project right from the beginning.
An infrastructure project under the activity entails two phases. The first is training, which begins at least two months before construction. During this phase, CEP members learn about environmental and gender considerations, basic accounting, and procurement. This equips them with the necessary knowledge and skills to effectively contribute to the project. During this phase, land titling issues are resolved, and the CEP is legally registered as a non-governmental organization, hence enabled to receive and manage donor and government funds.
The second phase is construction, where several CEP subcommittees are formed to oversee various processes, including procuring construction materials, hiring specialized labor, ensuring environmental regulation compliance, conducting audits to ensure resources are safeguarded, and overseeing fee collection for the infrastructure’s sustainability at the conclusion of the project. A key aim of this phase is to actively involve more community members.
To ensure the sustainability and long-term success of each project, the CEP establishes an operations and maintenance subcommittee. Alongside this subcommittee, observers also monitor the work, helping to ensure that the constructed project is in good condition and ready to serve its intended purpose.
CEP participation is voluntary, requiring at least two hours a day from the president, treasurer, and secretary during construction, while the six members of the purchasing and environment committees contribute an average of five hours per week. The CEP is responsible for project administration as well as operation and maintenance once construction is finished. Each community, through its CEP, contributes between 5 and 10 percent of the project’s value (about $5,000–$10,000) in addition to in-kind resources it leverages from other sources.
Collaboration with Government Institutions
USAID/Honduras follows a government-to-government (G2G) approach established with the FHIS. While USAID allocates funding for PEC, FHIS contributes staffing, materials, and equipment funded through the national budget. Once USAID and FHIS approve a work plan, FHIS technicians and engineers initiate the consultation process with the communities. They provide technical assistance and training to the residents, who will ultimately form the CEP that will co-lead the execution of the PEC project. By fostering transparency between FHIS and local communities, democracy and trust are promoted, allowing citizens to see firsthand how the government is addressing their needs at the local level.
The PEC community engagement process encourages local government investment in areas that might otherwise be overlooked. Every dollar contributed by USAID is matched by the Honduran government by 25 percent. Municipal governments also contribute. In Western Honduras, where Lenca Indigenous communities reside, there is even greater participation by municipal authorities, who in many cases match USAID’s funding alongside the national government.
Since 2007, USAID, together with the Government of Honduras, has successfully funded more than 300 PEC infrastructure projects, with an average cost ranging from $100,000–$150,000. PEC projects have been implemented without any serious negative audit findings, and there has not been a single case of project abandonment to date.
Increasing Resident Agency
CEPs help to build local leadership while promoting accountability within their communities. Construction bids for infrastructure improvements must follow a competitive process, and the committees are subject to regular audits through the Honduras Supreme Audit Institution.
In addition to leadership development and accountability, the PEC model provides committee members with better employment and the opportunity to develop business management skills. For example, the committee may collect fees for local project maintenance, which allows members to practice profit and loss management, bookkeeping, and other skills. In some cases, committee members have been hired by the local government or the private sector because of the experience they gained through the program.
Once an initial project is established, learning and adapting are incorporated through pause-and-reflect workshops. Through these workshops, communities are empowered to continue improving the quality and usage of the infrastructure and to pursue opportunities beyond the initially identified needs and priorities. Community PEC leaders become engaged in the operation and maintenance of completed projects, and they continue to work with both the local and the national government to sustain the improvements. When maintenance is needed on a PEC infrastructure project, the CEP can go back to FHIS and ask for the specifications for the repair and initiate the process.
Advancing Racial Equity
A 2022 countrywide conflict assessment conducted by USAID/Honduras found a number of challenges impacting Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities. On the North Coast, the appropriation of Indigenous and Afro-descendant lands for private-sector use is widespread.
Poverty levels among these populations are among the highest in the country. According to the 2013 Honduras census (the latest available census data), Indigenous and Afro-descendent communities make up approximately 9 percent of the population. However, persistent stigma toward Indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples and a corresponding reluctance to disclose identity mean that this figure is likely an underestimate.
The PEC activity has not been limited by these challenges because of its flexibility, appropriate project sizes, and emphasis on collaboration, learning, and adapting with local communities. The PEC approach can be used as a tool to advance racial and ethnic equity, which is achieved by tailoring programming or policy efforts to the needs of marginalized groups.
In Afro-descendant Garifuna communities, USAID/Honduras has supported at least three PEC infrastructure projects. In Corozal, an integrated community center was built following the PEC model at a cost of $250,000. The center includes a daycare facility, an outreach center, and a community library, and is able to withstand an emergency caused by hurricanes, which are frequent in the area, and can be used as shelter if needed. More than 5,000 residents benefited from this multi-purpose center. Another PEC project expanded the "Alfonzo Lacayo" basic education center located in the Rivera Hernandez Sector of San Pedro Sula, which has historically been one of the most violent sectors in Honduras. Existing classrooms were improved, and six new ones were built, in addition to space for sports and the addition of furniture and computers.
There is evidence that the community engagement approach embedded in the PEC activity also helps reduce crime. Gang members are less likely to disrupt a PEC infrastructure project than they would if a privately held contracting company were doing the work. There is a sense that they know their own family members will benefit from PEC efforts. Ultimately, it is the social cohesion and community pride that is formed through PEC that makes it so successful.
Conclusion
Case study research suggests that collective action programs are viable and effective for supporting localization and inclusive development at both the country strategy and activity levels. The PEC activity is an example of the effectiveness of this approach in promoting inclusion and creating the environment and social cohesion that sets in motion a long-term community and economic development effort that is led locally by communities.
The PEC process for local infrastructure projects helps build social cohesion, improve communal skills and capacity, and promote accountability between local governments and their residents. PEC infrastructure projects advance racial and ethnic equity through its engagement practices, allowing representatives directly from the community to have voice and ownership over the process. This powerful activity allows residents to clearly see and experience what it means to engage with their government and directly contribute to the economic vitality of their communities.
1) USAID/Honduras, 2022. “Honduras Strategic Assessment.” Latin America and Caribbean Learning and Rapid Response (LACLEARN).
https://usaidlearninglab.org/resources/collective-action-usaid-programming-practical-guide-missions