1. Country office: Venezuela
2. Date of Submittion: 25-avril-2003
3. Amount Requested from the Fund: $ 25,000
4. Budget Breakdown:
The funds requested will partially fund the political component of the National Human Development Report 2003-2004 (see 8 below).
Breakdown and US $:
12 focus group (*)US $ 21.000
Discussion Sessions (Partial funding) US $ 4.000
TOTAL US $ 25.000
(*) Including field design, selection and recruiting of participants, conducting focus group, report.
5. HDR Theme/Area of focus: HD and Equity.
6. Expected date of launch: From July 2003 (Intermediate Products) to December
7. Proposed HDR Activities to be supported with the Innovation Fund:
The requested funds will finance a qualitative study (based on focus and discussion groups) aimed at a precise and objective appraisal of political representations in Venezuela.
In a context of acute polarization and a sharp governance crisis, the project attempts to identify expectations of different citizen groups concerning the public realm, notions of freedom, democracy, and justness, perceptions about ethnic and class relationships, the value of work and definitions of well-being, themes that have been highlighted as fundamental issues that currently divide the country.
The proposed project will generate innovative data for the NHDR 2003-2004 on Human Development and Equity in Venezuela. One outstanding feature of this Report, compared to the NHDR of 2000 and 2002, is its focus on generating data specifically produced by the Report, stressing the relationships between diversity, equity and values, as well as people’s vulnerability and perceptions vis-à-vis a profound socio-economical and political crisis.
A parallel survey on the Social Vulnerability of 8.000 households will supply information on how Venezuelans are coping with the crisis, stressing social and economical risks. The subjective and qualitative dimension in the realm of political representations, will be the focus of the “Political Representations Study” and complement the Social Vulnerability survey.
The study will be carried out through the following stages:
1.Setting-up discussion group (s) with political scientists and political analysts, as advisory panel in the validation of the proposal.
2.Setting-up at least 12 focus groups composed of people of different social strata, gender, age group and region.
8. Other financial support available to complement these activities and the preparation of the above mentioned HDR:
The NHDR 2003-2004, including partial funding of the Political Representations Study (Consultant-Coordinator and partial funding of discussion groups) will be financed as follows: UNDP Venezuela (US $ 100.000, Project VEN/02/001), GTZ (US$ 10.000); National Institute of Statistics/UNDP (US $ 50.000, Project VEN/02/002).
The Vulnerability Study is funded by UN Agencies in Venezuela (PAHO/WHO, FAO, UNICEF, OIM, UNFPA, UNDP) at a cost of US$ 190.000.
9. Indicate with a X which aspect(s) of the NHDR preparation/production process will be supported with the resources received from the Innovation Fund and write in the box next to the one selected a brief summary of what is intended:
Excellence in Quality of Analysis
The requested support will enable the Venezuelan Human Development Team to advance one important step forward in understanding the different dimensions of Human Development in the country, studying aspects missing in the precedent reports due to lack of resources. It aims to highlight diversity in objective and subjective dimensions of development and political perceptions, supplementing the information available in statistics and surveys.
The need for this research is based on the following elements:
1.As the initial activity in the preparation of NHDR 2003-2004 the team reviewed recent International Reports on the subjects of Human Development and Equity. This exercise revealed that political issues are at the top of the agenda as key factors in achieving human development.
2.NHDR 2000 on Poverty identified the absence of data on subjective dimensions of human development as a weakness. The Report also pointed out the loss of consensus around a national project for democratic governance as an important determinant of the deterioration of social conditions.
3.Venezuela is in the midst of a serious political confrontation that manifests itself in violence and in the increase of social imbalances. According to a recent poll, the “political situation” has become the main problem, surpassing unemployment. Politics is increasingly a pressing issue in the agenda of Venezuelans .
4.As a contribution to consensual solutions to this delicate political, economic and social situation, UNDP in Venezuela is in the process of drafting a NHDR on Equity from a Human Development perspective. The Report aims at: (a) clarifying the conceptual basis of human development.
Excellence in Policy Impact
See next.
Excellence in Participatory and Inclusive Process and Deepening National Ownership
The country’s current governance crisis poses new challenges to its political leadership. As the NHDR Chile 2000 aptly points out: “To articulate the variety in a plural order presupposes the existence of an environment where those differences can be negotiated and agreed. The multiplicity of the society is expressed, it develops and it articulates when a common world exists.”.
This proposal’s objective is to include the concerns of citizens and create a pool of analysts, allowing the production of a non-conventional report –not an opinion survey-, with the hope that it could be a tool for understanding the collective-subjective dimensions of conflicts and consensus.
We would expect that the inclusion of citizens in diverse situations (class, gender, age group, geographical origin), and political analysts and stakeholders in every stage of the process will allow the future agenda to be appropriated from the very beginning.
Excellence in Presentation
10. Expected Results:
According to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan: “Good governance is perhaps the single most important factor in eradicating poverty and promoting development .
Given the prevalent political situation, 2003 and 2004 will be milestones years in the definition of a shared vision of the future in the country, either in the context of electoral venues or in the redrafting of the current government's program.
In this context, the NHDR intends through a dialogue focused on human development and equity, to bring together diverse voices in the task of drafting a new social and political pact in Venezuela in order to promote good governance as a precondition for overcoming inequity and achieving social justice.
The intended use of results is not a formal presentation for academics or specialists, but an awareness campaign on the need to intervene taking into consideration the complexity and diversity of political representations in the process of decision making.
Integrating the results of the proposed NHDR 2003-2004 (diversity and inequities in different realms, vulnerabilities and coping strategies, institutional conditionings and visions of citizens about governance and politics) will contribute to answer the question: How a country with such a wealth of resources could have achieved such poor results in basic dimensions of human development?.
11. Timeline for implementation of the proposed activities mentioned in item # 6:
The expected results for 2003 are:
-Intermediate Product (IP) 1: Conceptual Framework : July 2003 (started March 2003)
-IP 2: Determinants of Inequity in Venezuela: September 2003 (started March 2003)
-IP 3: Relationships between inequality and equity: September 2003 (started March 2003)
-IP 4: Geographical inequalities (based on 2001 Census): August 2003 (started March 2003)
-IP5: Diversity and Inequity: September 2003. (started March 2003)
-IP6: Vulnerability Survey: September 2003 (to begin in May 2003)
-Intermediate Product 7: Political Representations and Political Culture: March 2004.(To begin in May 2003 if funds are available).
-Intermediate Product 7: Challenges and Preliminary Agenda for Action: December 2003- to 2004. (Process to be developed as preliminary results begin to be available).
In December 2003 a Preliminary assessment of results will be the basis for 2004 programming.
Name of Requesting officer/focal point for this initiative: Claudia Giménez
Email: claudia.gimenez@undp.org
Title: Project Coordinator HD Promoting in Venezuela
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