Claire Sharp and Dr. Tim B. Heaton, Sociology
Background:
Mexico’s national poverty initiatives are intended to provide assistance for those living in poverty. It is a development targeting concern that people who could most benefit from such poverty alleviation development programs are excluded, such as the indigenous populations and other minority groups. I will be assessing how indigenous populations are included in development initiatives of Mexico and providing a detailed case study of how these national development initiatives affect the Raramuri Indians of Chihuahua, Mexico. Determining the efficacy of development programs entails assessing whether the development projects address the local-level concerns of various groups in society, including the indigenous groups.
The national development initiatives of Mexico are intended to improve the overall economic growth and stability of the country. While fluctuations in indicators of economic growth, such as foreign direct investment, personal savings rate, GDP growth rate, are recorded by national and international organization, the level of inclusion in these development programs among various socioeconomic groups has largely been ignored in evaluating the effectiveness of a development policy. I am primarily concerned with how the indigenous people are integrated in these national development policies as I hypothesize that the development needs of indigenous people are high.
I will be researching Progresa to provide an overview of programs designed to promote economic growth. This overview of Progresa will include the identification of the target population of the development program, the desired effect of such development program, whether the program fulfills its stated objectives, and whether the aim of the projects are harmonious with the development goals of the indigenous group.
My hypothesis is that although indigenous people are in great need of development in terms of improving health care, technology and education, the impact of such poverty alleviation strategies on the indigenous groups remains low. I will consult the Mexico Family Life Survey and the World Bank databases, to test this hypothesis.
Progresa Introduction:
Although Progresa has been renamed Opportunidades, it will be referred to as Progresa for this paper. Dubbed the “most innovative counter-poverty program implemented in the region in recent decades”, Mexico’s national poverty alleviation strategy, Progresa, is intended to reach individuals and groups living in rural areas subject to poverty. Since its beginning in 1997, Progresa has focused on three areas to reduce poverty—education, health and nutrition—“in order to ensure their medium and long-term impacts.” These areas are believed to interact with each to influence the transmission of poverty. “Better health and nutrition are positively associated with gains in schooling in many areas: enrollment at younger ages, less grade repetition, less absenteeism, more grades completed and better performance on test scores. Recent surveys conclude that empirical studies constitute strong evidence showing that health and nutrition influence children’s success in school.” Utilizing a development approach that includes the areas of health, education, and nutrition reflects the research that these areas interact.
Progresa Target Population:
Progresa employs a standard procedure to select families living in extreme poverty to participate in their programs. Targeting is a means of increasing program efficiency by increasing the benefit that the poor can get within a fixed program budget. Based on recent data, approximately 4.5 million are in extreme poverty in Mexico. Families living in extreme poverty are potential Progresa participants. Community meetings are held targeting these potential participants, and potential participants are decided upon with the input of the community. Once a family is selected to participate in Progresa, Progresa “elicits co-responsibility from the families by imposing obligations in exchange for continued support.” For example, the family receives a grant if their child attends school (with minimal absences); the grant increases with each school grade attended and females are entitled to a larger grant than males.
Progresa Objectives:
The overall program objective is to “increase human capital accumulation among families living in extreme poverty, by improving opportunities in education, health, and nutrition.” Progresa “deliberately chooses to make direct transfers to women because of the growing body of evidence that funds controlled by women result in greater improvements in children’s and family welfare.”
Progresa and Indigenous Groups:
In Mexico, “There are 156,557 settlements in 803 municipalities with more than 30 percent indigenous population, and 6,300 of the country’s 30,000 ejidos and comunidades”. Currently, there is no global definition of indigenous people. Generally the United Nations uses a working definition in which the United Nations define indigenous peoples as those persons meet the following criteria: “Indigenous communities, peoples and nations are those which, having a historical continuity with pre-invasion and pre-colonial societies that developed on their territories, consider themselves distinct from other sectors of the societies now prevailing in those territories, or parts of them. They form at present non-dominant sectors of society and are determined to preserve, develop and transmit to future generations their ancestral territories, and their ethnic identity, as the basis of their continued existence as peoples, in accordance with their own cultural patterns, social institutions and legal systems.” The Mexico Family Life Survey 2001 asks respondents whether “they belong to an indigenous group” ; Respondents answering affirmatively to this question will be included in the data analysis.
Indigenous people, often marginalized and exploited, sometimes have a great deal of difficulty in providing for some of their most basic needs. Many indigenous people struggle to protect their rich cultural heritage against the tide of modernization, and as a result they resist government developed educational programs.
There are additional complications concerning attempts by indigenous groups to preserve their own political autonomy within a larger state. This determination to have political autonomy can sometimes distance indigenous people from the national government, and in return the dominant government ignores the indigenous peoples. This isolation of indigenous groups from the dominant government can result in a failure to recognize and protect the basic rights of indigenous peoples.
Prior to conquest of indigenous peoples, many indigenous groups fled into remote locations to distance themselves from the newer dominant groups. In the case of the Tarahumara Indians, the Tarahumara slowly moved up the Sierra Madre mountains around Copper Canyon in Mexico to separate themselves physically, culturally and politically from the from the dominant group.
These residence locations for the indigenous people create a structural impediment to political involvement. In the case of the Tarahumara Indians, the closest Tarahumara indigenous village to the local non-indigenous authorities is at least a two-day strenuous hike down Copper Canyon, and the potential losses of crucial farming periods seem to be enough to deter these indigenous peoples from becoming greatly involved in the local government.
Furthermore, societal institutions in the dominant culture create another barrier to indigenous involvement. Barriers sometimes arise from a dominant group for the indigenous peoples because of the low awareness of indigenous concerns. “The extensive barriers faced by indigenous peoples have not only included a set of structural positions and institutions formed by groups who are stronger than they are. This has also included the ruling power of definition, which has resulted in a lack of knowledge and awareness of the indigenous peoples on the part of civil and public authorities.” Physical separation, as exemplified in the Tarahumara case, coupled with political separation typically results in the subordination of indigenous needs and political priorities in the local and national political setting.
The difference in culture between the minority indigenous people and the majority causes another complication for the involvement of indigenous peoples. An indigenous representative must represent the culture values of the indigenous group, while advocating for their rights in a foreign cultural setting. The juxtaposition between some culture values of indigenous groups and their foreign cultural setting, in which they must advocate for their rights, presents difficulties in effectively communicating the indigenous people’s political desires. “It is inherently difficult for culturally distinct communities to designate leaders who are both representative of the group’s values and effective in the wider political arena. This creates cleavages within indigenous groups.” The failure to produce representatives exemplifies the difficulty in developing a dual-cultural perspective.
Additionally, there is a lack of advocates for indigenous people to serve as a link between the indigenous people and the local government. “In northern states, the disconnect can occur between ejido and indigenous authorities and with municipalities. In ejidos with mixed indigenous and non-indigenous settlements, indigenous localities falling within ejido boundaries may never have been formally included as voting ejidatarios, leaving entire groups with no representation.” The lack of an intermediate link between indigenous groups and local government and the difficulties inherit in creating such an ombudsman has been noted by several researchers of indigenous rights. “There is no ombudsman for indigenous peoples, and it will not be easy to create an international functional equivalent for cases implicating their interests in which they are not or cannot be present. Political issues, concerning indigenous peoples, are developed and discussed with little or no input from indigenous peoples.
Case Study:
As a case study, I observed a specific indigenous group in Mexico, the Raramuri Indians. The Raramuri, commonly referred to as the Tarahumara. The Raramuri reside in the Copper Canyon area of Chihuahua, Mexico. During my stay, I observed that the Rarmuri village in Rowerachi had a limited knowledge and access to Progresa programs. In the communal tool shed, there was a faded government program warning about the dangers of UV rays and cancer. The poster seemed out of place in a community that more concerned with securing a stable water source than the negative effects of sunbathing; indeed, we spent the majority of our stay constructing rain water collection systems and water filtration devices.
I am assuming that the health information was well-intended but out of touch with the issues most important to the Tarahumara. Research shows that “Indigenous municipalities have three times the incidence of death from intestinal infections, and the ten main causes of death are intestinal infections or respiratory illnesses. By comparison, the five main causes of death for the general population are all noninfectious.” I think that the relative isolation of the Tarahumara Indians contributes to this lack of awareness. Although the Tarahumara families would have qualified as being in extreme poverty and thus potential Progresa participants, the village location seemed to isolate them from accessing the predominantly urban development programs.
It is possible that urban Tarahumara are more aware of the Progresa program. Advertisements scattered around Chihuahua provide information about the program and the various benefits that participation in Progresa may provide; urban Tarahumara have a greater probability of viewing these billboards. However, the majority of the billboards are printed in Spanish, which is a potential barrier to indigenous individuals who are not fluent in Spanish.
Data Analysis
Many indigenous groups qualify as the targeted population of this poverty alleviation strategy. The level of impact of current Progresa programs can be ascertained by national survey data of indigenous groups reporting if indigenous people participated in government services. The absence of indigenous peoples actually participating in a poverty alleviation program that is targeted toward their socioeconomic class suggests that the actual impact of the program is low for indigenous groups.
The Mexico Family Life Survey database provides information concerning indigenous groups’ participation in national development initiatives, such as Progresa. The first regression explored the connection between belonging to an indigenous group and participation in Progresa. “Participation in Progresa” was the dependent variable. Participating in Progresa was measured by those who answered “Yes, I do participate in Progresa and I received money; or, Yes, I do participate in Progresa but I have not received money.” Respondents answering “No, I do not participated in Progresa” and “Don’t Know” were grouped together.
Contrary to my hypothesis, indigenous were almost twice as likely to participate in Progresa. Another regression with infant mortality as the dependent variable, indigenous people, controlling for receiving any government income (Progresa or Procampo) and post primary education showed that the indigenous were 1.504 times more likely to experience infant morality. The p value, .0148, for this regression was not statistically significant so the results can not be generalized to the population. Government income, controlling for indigenous groups and education, were slightly more likely to have infant mortality (1.358). This most likely reflects the disadvantaged state of those who are receiving government income. This result was not statistically significant (p value=.332).
Evaluation of Progresa:
Progresa has been shown to improve the quality of the poorest by “reducing poverty and income inequality among the communities in which it is operating; cost-effective in transferring resources to the poorest of the poor; successful raised transition rates between primary and secondary school and a significant increase in the use of health services and public clinics for preventative health measures.” Many other studies show that Progresa is reducing levels of poverty, improving enrollment rates in school, reducing child labor, and improved the health of its participants. Based on the research, Progresa is having a positive influence on participants and indigenous peoples are participating in the program. However Progresa could be improved to expand the scope of its program to reach indigenous groups. Perhaps Progresa would be more effective if it focused on reaching the urban indigenous and distributed information printed in the indigenous languages. These suggestions are not exhaustive but they could help include more indigenous in the government programs designed to alleviate poverty.
References
- Multiphase consolidation and Expansion Project for the Education, Health, and Nutrition Program (Progresa) Phase 1. Nacional Financiera, S.N.C. Department of Social Development (SEDSOL).
- Behrman, J. 1996. The impact of health and nutrition on education. The World Bank Research Observer. Cary:. vol. 11, 1; pg. 23, 15 pgs.
- Coady, David. 2004. Targeting of Transfers in Developing Countries : Review of Lessons and Experience.
Herndon, VA, USA: World Bank Publications, p 5.
http://site.ebrary.com/lib/byuprovo/Doc?id=10064339&ppg=19 - The World Factbook. 2005. Mexico. Available through http://www.cia.gov/cia/ publications/factbook/geos/mx.html
- Ibid.
- Ibid.
- Multiphase consolidation and Expansion Project for the Education, Health, and Nutrition Program (Progresa) Phase 1. Nacional Financiera, S.N.C. Department of Social Development (SEDSOL).
- Ibid.
- Giugale, Marcelo M.(Editor). 2001Mexico, A Comprehensive Development for The New Era.
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