10/16/18

GP2 “Towards Equitable and Sustainable Integrated Water Resource Management policies in Peru”– Reflection paper 1

 

“Seek truth from facts” (Chinese expression)

I have learned during my MPPGA to think about solve problems looking for the facts and evidence. I try to explore how the new knowledge that I am learning during this program is linked with real cases that in my country and in the world in general. For example, my process starts by taking a problem exposed in the classes, doing the readings and try to think what are the ways to solve this issue in a critical way and with a criterion of equity and the common good.

In my thought process, sometimes, it happens to me that by wanting to think in a different way or looking for new frameworks and tools to solve public policy problems I find myself in a moment where I do not have the concepts and the right tools to go deeper into the phenomenon. I suppose that with more time, study and experience I will be able to find those novel answers. For now, I try to maintain a balance between what I teach and learn by my story in the world of public policies and I feel to seek new horizons to understand and solve the pressing problems that the world and my society pose to me.

In a more concrete way, I always try in my process of weighting and solving public policy problems to know what are the paradigms that are behind and why certain frameworks and tools for action. That is, in the case of the Project with ANA I have tried to decipher what the Integrated Water Resource Management paradigm means, what are the concepts, tools and methods that are proposed to advance the democratization of water in the world and that is so relevant for the Latin American reality, a region where inequality and structural inequality is the largest in the world.

I believe that the course of GPP 590 A has been very interesting so far, especially because it allows us to interact in a more creative and team-based way around a problem of public policies. It is not a typical class in which a single subject transmits knowledge, but this policy studio environment invites us to recognize ourselves as creators and carriers of public policy knowledge.

Now, I recognize that I still have a hard time understanding the relationship between the method of design thinking and creativity for innovation and the other approaches and tools that we have acquired throughout the program for the analysis and resolution of public policy problems in general.

In this sense, I believe that another very valuable aspect of GP2 has been to be able to apply the quantitative and qualitative tools acquired during the first year of study in the program to a real case. I find it interesting to see how the field of action of public policies goes beyond the quantitative aspect of a problem. If there is a characteristic that I can observe in the design process, elaboration of a public policy is that it is dynamic and not static. For example, I have been able to see how all the different parts of the analysis and problem resolution framework of public policies interact with each other, rather than being linear, one-dimensional processes.

Finally, I have been able to reflect on the challenges posed by this process of elaboration of a public policy proposal aimed at water management in a country like Peru. For example, it is challenging to be precise in the definition of the problem that we would like to analyze and make a proposal for change in the context of the National Water Authority. Likewise, it is another challenge for me to think how we are going to interact in an effective way with a reality like Peru when our interlocutors are public actors. Specifically, as a future policy maker specializing in development and social change in Ecuador and in the Latin American context, I hope to learn to incorporate criteria of equity and inclusion in the process of design, elaboration and implementation of public policies.

05/19/18

Lenin Moreno´s Referendum: the Chronicle of a Political Crisis Foretold?

“Constitutional questions are first and foremost not questions of right but of power” (Ferdinand Lassalle)

“…But what is left of democracy?” (Wendy Brown)

Background

After ten years of political stability and one of the broadest social reform agendas implemented in its history under President Rafael Correa government, Ecuadorian people voted in a historic referendum, which will have an enormous impact on the country´s institutional and social future. Thanks to President Correa´s, the quality of Ecuadorian democracy was strengthened in areas of equity between 2007 and 2017; the rate of poverty dropped from 37.6% to 22.5% and according to the Gini index the rate of inequality dropped from 0,54 to 0,47.

During the Correa administration, there existed a strong political will to recover and rebuild the State from the ashes of the neoliberalism era and to foster a more participatory democracy.

After Lenin Moreno, once the former Vice President of Correa became elected in April 2017, the political spectrum turned to the right as President Moreno started to descorreizar the country. To “descorreizar” Ecuador, President Moreno launched his referendum initiative arguing that his reasons were mainly to fight against corruption in State institutions and to reactivate the economy, so then he initiated an entire reform of “control” institutions.

It is difficult to define what descorreizar the country means precisely. This has been a term used by those political forces against former President Correa to says is aimed to dismantling the institutional arrangement created by the Constitution of 2008, which is associated solely with President Correa´s style of government. Moreover, President Moreno has begun to dismantle the economy and social policies implemented by former President Correa´s coalition, which are focused on inclusion and redistribution of wealth and social resources. In addition, it has been claimed that corruption was widespread during the Correa administration because all the power had concentrated in his hands.

The referendum issued by President Moreno consisted of seven questions in total, including one a presidential reelection ban, one on the elimination of the Plusvalia Act, and one on a substantial reform of the Council for Citizen Participation and Social Control (“CPSC”).

The Government received a positive response to seven questions of 60% while 36 % of electors voted “No” on the three questions mentioned in the previous paragraph. Currently, the new referendum policies are being executed diligently by the different state actors with the full support of mass-media as well as and traditional political forces of all political spectrums and the elites.

In spite of the positive “public opinion” regarding President Moreno´s proposed changes, reforming the CPSC which Montecristi´s Constitution consider as the “holy grail” of the new accountability and “check and balance” system, is simply a means for President Moreno to gain full control of the State power, at which point he can become the leader of an authoritarian regime.

The reform of the Council for Citizen Participation and Social Control and its Transition

The government´s reason for the proposed amendment to the Constitution is that the Council for CPSC needs to be reform because the former Council has not fulfilled its mandate. The proposal indicates that, through the amendment, new council members will be elected by the people thereby increasing the legitimacy of this branch of government.

In the meantime, the Council has to be replaced by a transition Council in which members are nominated entirely by the executive and designated by the Assembly and will have the complete authority to replace the control authorities over a period of six months -Ombudsperson, Public Defender, National Prosecutor, Comptroller, Electoral Council, Electoral Court.

The CPSC was an innovation in terms to give citizens’ voice an institutional channel to increase the participatory democracy and as a different way to design the accountability and check and balances mechanisms (1). In this sense, the Ecuadorian Constitution reflects Bolivarian constitutionalism, in which Simon Bolivar suggested such a social contract was necessary as it as the necessity to create and develop a moral power in the society capable of promoted and cultivated cultural transparency sense among citizens. Bolivar believed that our Republics had to promote the common good through its political arrangements: “let us give our Republic a four branch of government aimed to educate the kids and the people hearts, the public spirit, the customs and the republican moral.” (2)

Under the Constitution, the CPSC has to fulfill three crucial functions: promote the participatory democracy mechanism; promote the transparency and social control among common people; enable a process in which the control authorities, electoral branch, and judicial council are selected on merits and citizens base on approval mechanisms.

When this “transition” mechanism was criticized, President Moreno simply replied in an interview “The Ecuadorian people know I am not a liar. So I ask them to have faith in me”. However, one of the citizen´s main concerns has been was how this situation might represent a threat to horizontal accountability mechanisms, as the executive branch will directly nominate the new transition Council members.

The new Council members have now been chosen, and the Council for the transition has started its work. In contrast to the former Council where there was greater diversity, the new Council is composed of six males as well as only one indigenous male and just one female.

As mentioned above, this Transition Council will have the authority to evaluate current control authorities and to designate new ones. Hence, one of the main concerns of this proposal is, as there is a link between the members’ designation and the Government, the new control may not be able to fulfill their duties independently and ethically. Ironically, this was one of the main criticisms of the Council during President Correa´s administration– its attachment to the executive.

With that said, the second part of reform could eventually be beneficial in terms of democratic participation. One of the positive aspects of the government’s proposal is that new Council members should be elected every four years through popular vote. The success of the reform will depend on its implementation, and on how political actors, citizens, and social organizations will respond to it. This new election mechanism could potentially give more legitimization to the Council and give citizens the opportunity to citizens to engage and learn more about the new participatory framework. However, one of the risks associated with the electoral mechanism could be how to ensure that not only the powerful and elite can have a seat on the Council.

It is important to stress that the CPSC was designed as kind of “holy grail” in the 10-year-old Ecuadorian constitutional system, and served independently to ensure checks and balances were maintained. Today, it is difficult to envision a scenario where Ecuadorian political parties -starting with the Moreno government will not be tempted to seize greater power for their own benefit. Ecuadorian political history shows a pattern where political actors were not respectful of their power limitations and tried to reshape other branches of government to serve their agendas. If that pattern repeats itself once again, the “medicine” proposed to deal with the “politicization problem” of this Council is likely to be worse than the alleged illness.

The new transition Council has started its functions facing severe challenges. The first problem has revolved around the extension of its current power. Here, public and scholarly opinions are divided. Some people argue that because this is a “transition” time, the transition Council must have extraordinary powers. Other sectors say the Council must fulfill what people voted for in the Referendum, and there is no signal of people will give the transition Council extraordinary powers.

Indeed, the Council members – except for one its members- currently stated they have extraordinary powers, and they have started to evaluate even the Constitutional Court, launching a warning to the highest tribunal that if the Court does not accept the CPSC ´s evaluation, members of the Constitutional Court will be replaced. However, the Constitution states that the CPSC does not have the power to replace members of the Constitutional Court. Similarly, when the CPSC fired the Ombudsperson after his show of opposition, the Council designated a new Ombudsperson without any public input as was required on the Referendum.

Despite this constitutional debate, the Council President -an old guard conservative politician- says that because of this “transition” time, he has “extraordinary” powers, even if the Constitutional norms do not support his thesis, the CPSC norms will prevail. This constitutional interpretation is completely arbitrary and even was opposed by one of the council members. What the new Council president is saying is that the CPSC could be above Constitutional order and the Rule of Law, and could start to exercise its power in an authoritarian manner.

The bypass of horizontal accountability mechanisms and some procedural problems associated with this Referendum initiative

Despite the Presidential constitutional faculty to announce a Referendum this particular initiative of President Moreno spurred a controversial debate regarding its constitutional legitimacy because the Constitutional Court – a crucial institution of horizontal accountability– was bypassed and not allowed to exercise control over the whole process (3).

Generally, Referendums are a way to engage citizens in Direct Democracy logic and are used to achieve different goals, sometimes to vote on sensitive issues, however, bypassing institutional checks and balances through executive powers can be problematic. Referendums initiatives should be designed as a way to strengthen citizens´ voice and power (4).

One of the problems associated with Referendums that scholars have detected is that complex political topics may be reduced to yes and no questions, as in the recent Ecuadorian Referendum case. In addition, the government and its new political allies were afraid of President Correa´s influence during the campaign, so they did not spend adequate time promoting a serious debate in order to engage citizens. Moreover, the way questions were framed in the Referendum was misleading, which shows a lack of fair play.

The OAS electoral mission prepared a report highlighting the lack of constitutional control over this Referendum initiative: “if this referendum initiative would have a constitutional control before many of the challenges would have been avoided”.

Chronicle of a Political Crisis Foretold?

Was the Referendum really meant to strengthen either the participatory democracy and social transparency mechanisms in Ecuador, or was mainly used as a legitimization strategy to boost government power and its allies in pursuit of their political agendas and interests? It is too early to determine these answers with 100 percent accuracy.

At this moment, it is a fact that President Moreno´s Government, the new Council, the mass-media, the elites and the new majority at the Assembly are working aggressively to fulfill the plan to “descorreizar” the country. We could observe how Moreno and his allies have designed and are implementing a sophisticated strategy to fulfill the main objective, where there is no difference between the discourse of the Government´s secretary of communication and the editorials or interview show across mass-media. Private mass-medias want to get rid of the Communication Act or any democratic regulation over their power so they will support the Government agenda wholeheartedly.

As part of this plan, the governing coalition hasn´t had any problems challenging the Constitution or the democratic norms. Indeed, in one short year, we have observed how a democratic elected vice-president was “guillotined” under a clear case of “Lawfare”, the President of the Parliament was also replaced in an illegal way; the Ombudsperson was fired after asking the CPSC to respect the due process of law. Lastly, the comtropller started a legal persecution against President Correa for his sovereign policies surrounding the external debt.

This kind of Blitzkrieg (“Guerra relámpago”) strategy against Rafael Correa´s social and democratic legacy seems to be working at the perfection until now. However, the Council could face its biggest proof when it challenges the Constitutional Court.

As pointed out before, if the transition Council assumes the extraordinary power to evaluate and reorganize the Constitutional Court, this could lead to an intense power struggle (“Choque de trenes”) between the two institutions. At this moment, the Constitutional Court has to decide when to give in Council ´s power or to rescue the Constitutional order from an authoritarian path that Moreno and his coalition started to walk. We could observe two possible scenarios here:

Scenario one: the Constitutional Court decides to exercise its full control and take an ex-post constitutional control. Here the goal would be aimed at assessing whether the whole Referendum was or not Constitutional or just issue a decision limiting the power of the transition Council. The first situation could lead to a the political crisis because the actions of the Government and its allies may be declared unconstitutional. In this casem we could enter into a very uncertain political arena. If the second action were taken, the Council will see limitations to its power and seriously affected President Moreno agenda.

Scenario two: The Council decides to use its “extraordinary” attributions to end the mandate of the Constitutional Court, and to start designating new members directly. This move has the full support of President Moreno who has indicate in tv message connection he will support every decision taken by the Council. However, from a constitutional point of view, this would represent one of the worst breakdown of the Rule of Law in Ecuadorian history. In this case, from a legal point of view only an emergency mechanism review by the Interamerican Human Rights Court could save Ecuadorian from the authoritarian regime.

At the parliamentary level, Moreno has lost his early political allies since he decided to break with his electoral constituents and shift toward the support of right-wing parties. This is also problematic in terms of the stability of his government. Because of the new alliance with the right-wing parties, Moreno has to make serious concessions in his governmental plan, the one which won the elections. In other words, this represents another constitutional infraction, which could open the door to a possible “recall” during the second year of his mandate.

We have observed in Ecuador a very catastrophic political scenario over the past year, which leads to the question: Are we facing the chronicle of a political crisis foretold? Everyone who knows the Ecuadorian political history and the way our elites and right-wing forces operate can agree with Gabriel García Marquez “There Had Never Been a (Political Crisis) More Foretold”.

References:

(1) New Institutions for Participatory Democracy in Latin America: Voice and Consequence. Cameron, Maxwell.
(2) Angostura Speech. Bolivar, Simon.
(3) Mauricio Guim & Augusto Verduga, Ecuador’s “Unstoppable” Constitutional Referendum, Int’l J. Const. L. Blog, Dec. 16, 2017, at: http://www.iconnectblog.com/2017/12/ecuadors- unstoppable-constitutional-referendum
(4) The Rise of Referendums: Elite Strategy or Populist Weapon?, Topaloff, Journal Of Democracy.

03/2/18

Interview with Professor Maxwell Cameron: Latin America as a region for democratic innovation.

I would like to share the interview with Professor Maxwell Cameron about Latin America as a region for democratic innovation.  You could find this interview at the UBC MPPGA Student Union podcast here.

Professor Cameron is one of the greater experts on Latin America comparative politics at UBC. His work focused on Democratic theory and practice in Latin America. On this episode of “The Pub” we talked about the Participatory democracy institutional innovation that occurred in the region during the last decades.

The region have several opportunities to build Democracies with power base on a strong citizenship sense thanks to this participatory mechanisms. According to Professor Cameron the participatory innovation institutions could work as the adequate space to educate people to become citizens.

Finally, it was an honor to learn from an intellectual who is a good friend of Latin American´s people.

12/17/17

Global Governance in its Labyrinth: History, Deficiencies and Successes

 

This paper was made it for my course on Modern Public Management together with my group (Beilmann, Akwiri, Bastidas) related with the Global Governance Analysis, Public Management and Multilevel Governance in Limited States.

Link to the paper, here: https://www.scribd.com/document/367401086/Final-Copy-Public-Management-Paper

11/5/17

Reflections On Data Collection for the Global Affairs Social Media Census

I have to analyze six twitter accounts made by Global Affairs Canada.  Those accounts could be divided between Global North hegemonic countries, and more southern peripheral countries. All of them located in Europe, and one in Eurasian to be precise. In general, there is  a pattern to promote a Canada foreign investment agenda around natural resources extraction combining with trying to promote as a State nice face in myriads of banality topics and other more serious (Gender equality).

In terms of engagement and audience, it seems a difference between interaction at Global North countries where there exist no so big interest by their citizens to have a nice reply from Canadian diplomacy. As a contrast, in some peripheral countries there is a more interest in feeling the “Canadian diplomacy spirit” probably more related with the economical suffering and a possible migratory plan.  The exception to the Global North countries that I notice it is related to UK society, where there is an abundance of interactions very expectable from a historical, cultural, and dominance ties between UK in relation with Canada political establishment.

My surprises findings it was when collecting data from Canadian embassy at Turkey and at Germany. In the case of Turkey there exist an interesting reference to artistic activities, such as film festivals. In the case of Germany embassy there is several references to Margaret Atwood tour around German books fairs. Both references I found more constructive from the perspective of “Twitplomacy”, rather than just trying to back up the Mining State interests.  So there could be a reflection in terms of content and what kind of Canada diplomatic legations wants to promote abroad, either the Gord Downie´s Canada (thumbs up!) or the big business one?

In sum, there still a need for working on a more structure goal-driven strategy and also to define the political point of view for this strategy. On the other hand, there still needs to build a double-way engagement with the different audiences at different countries.

11/5/17

Is The State the Problem or the Solution?

       

“Since its founding fathers, the United States has always been torn between two traditions, the activist policies of Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804) and Thomas Jefferson´s (1743- 1826) maxim that the “government that govern least, governs best”. With time and usual American pragmatism, this rivalry has been resolved by putting the Jeffersonians in charge of the rhetoric and the Hamiltonians in charge of policy”

(Erik Reinert)

This post contains some free reflections about the State and its importance within the social dynamic, after I finished to read the amazing book written by Mazucatto tite “The Enterprenaurial State: Debunking public vs. private sector myths”. Sorry, Reaganomics but even under the contemporary capitalist scholars discussion the State rather that just being important, it is the real catalyst of the Digital Revolution and Knowledge society.

Historically, the State purpose has been under big discussions in the different social realms. Among the political forces there has been a big struggle for increase or decrease the State role in the social life. Conservative forces have struggle for a minimum size State restricted just for given security to citizens and enforcement of the laws. As contrast, the reformist forces have struggle for strong State capable to protect their citizens since the birth until their deaths.

From a theoretical perspective this rich debate regarding the State role appears in the different political theory traditions. According to the Liberals the State has to be provide basic goods and act in relation to a procedural notion of Justice (Rawls). The anarcho-capitalist scholars have developed the primacy of markets instead of any other social instance, so that the State has to work for improving the functioning of those markets (Nozick). The Marxist tradition has divide between Lenin approach whereas the State is just the Executive Committee of Ruling Elites interests and rights, on the other hand more critical perspectives whereas the State is the result of force correlations within a Society (Gramsci, Jessop, Miliband).

During the 80´s, this debate was appropriate sum in the famous Ronald Reagan rhetoric in the sense that the Government is will be always the problem, and never part of the solution. Underlying this notion supposedly the countries has to shift from a post war welfare policy (interventionist State) to the absolutism of the free markets. In spite of the rhetoric use by Reagan his policies were always interventionist in support of USA capitalist historical cycles, expanding military budget and their big corporations interests around the world.

In these sense, Canadian scholars Leo Patnich and Sam Gindin has shown with strong historical evidence how the State has been always the backbone for the development of US capitalism during the last 300 years. Beyond from being a stranger to US reality the interventionist and protectionist State idea has been the most American genuine paradigm. For example, since the Jefferson government it was inaugurated the idea of the protectionist policy in order to granted the development of the “infant industry”.

The “Entrepreneurial State” paradigm could be situated among this historical and theoretical debates regarding how to conceive a State in front of society needs. I think the most accurate expression to describe how really works and should work the State came from the Gramscian reflection of this phenomenon. Gramsci idea of the State it’s a conception pointed out that the State it’s the result of the correlation of force in between the Civil Society and Political Society. In these sense, it is more usefully to analyze the State role from a complex approach were the State could be a mix of problem and solution depending of material historical conditions. A direct consequence of this paradigm is to debunking the public vs private sector frontiers.

Mazzucato sum very well this debate stating “it is necessary to build a theory of the State´s role in shaping and creating markets- more in line with the work of Karl Polanyi (1944) who emphasized how the capitalist market has from the start been heavily shaped by State actions”. 

    
10/23/17

Cinema, political education, and social change

“Times have changed. It’s not like the Old Days — when we can do anything we want. A refusal is not the act of a friend. If Don Corleone had all the judges, and the politicians in New York, then he must share them, or let us others use them. He must let us draw the water from the well. Certainly he can — present a bill for such services; after all — we are not Communists.”

(Barzini, the Godfather III, Francis Ford Coppola)

The Cinema has a powerful potential to help us understand the World Order in a more subtle and comprehensive way. In the tradition Cinema-politics there are two main currents of thought: the first one argues that the cinema has to be used as a tool for ideological indoctrination, the typical example being the Soviets´ Films; the second one says that the Cinema has to be used just to promote critical thinking through the possibility to share technical concepts with the audience. Probably, the second approach could be the most effective if it´s taking account the postmodern times.

Nowadays, the Cinema has become a useful instrument to create values, maintain cultural hegemonies, impose cultural identities and to further political positions; in fact, as Walter Benjamin said “the nature who speaks to the camera, it´s not the same that one which speaks to the humans ‘eye” and in this line of ideas the the key concept to understand is “abstraction”.

It is important to recognize that neoliberalism’s greatest victory, rather than the destructions of the unions or the privatization of the state, has been the people’s unnoticed indoctrination in its dangerous discourse; it´s big triumph has been the colonization of the human minds (Leftists and Progressive included). The Neoliberalism has managed to build a cultural consensus among the people with the greed and individualism as (anti)values in part because the mass Medias and the Cinema. This postmodern consensus has converted “to liquid”, or casual, most social relations,. According to this ideal everything must be casual, the political struggles are casual, the friendships are casual, and the love and affective relationships are casual (the movie to explore this tension could be “The dreamers” by Bernardo Bertolucci); the world is a big Super Market where all human beings are simply commodities and this ideal could be traduced in pleasure, just pleasure, and nothing more than pleasure, or to put it in North American terms “You Only Live Once (YOLO)”. Thus, the great strategic and tactical mistake kn the Leftist family has been to fail to recognize this new reality. Marx, in a visionary way, on the Communist Manifest also recognizes this Capitalist model characteristic, “[…]These labourers, who must sell themselves piecemeal, are a commodity, like every other article of commerce, and are consequently exposed to all the vicissitudes of competition, to all the fluctuations of the market[…]”. This hegemony could be challenge by a counter-hegemony trough the same cultural device.  As Fidel said, and Gramsci and Buttler understood very well, the main (but not only) political battle is the battle of ideas.

It is imortant to stress the neccesity of “The other” alongside the Cinema speech. Therefore, it will be necessary to review Hollywood films and Cinema Art films. In the Hollywood tradition it is possible to find both hegemony and counter-hegemonic films. For example, “Batman: the dark knight arises” is an interesting movie to understand how the mainstream Cinema works, in this film the popular struggle and the revolutionary ideal are reduced to the Bane character and his movement “The shadow League”, a terrorist organization that pretends to change the World Order through its total destruction. Thus, the implicit message for the audience was, “Hey, be aware of those Leftist and Progressive forces who want to change the social order, because, at the end of the day, they are kind of Banes. Was it a coincidence or an intentional strategy to release this film in the middle of the “Occupy Wall Street” protest in the USA? Another good example of the Hollywood style could be the James Bond movie “Skyfall”. In this Bond film the villain is Raoul Silva (with a fantastic performance by Javier Bardem) a former MI6 agent who worked for M in Singapor. Silva is   a cyberterrorist who is releasing the identities of field agents to seek revenge against MI6. Again, was it a coincidence or not to release this film in moments where Julian Assange and Wikileaks were trying to show the world what the real Imperial political order is?

Despite the huge advantage that neoliberalism has in the cultural struggle our answer, paraphrasing Humprey Bogart in “Casablanca” , is “We will always have Paris” or  “We will always have HOPE!”. So, there are ways for deconstruct Hollywood speeches, to awake our deepest human being essence throught the South Global films (Pontecorvo, Meirelles, Gutierrez Alea), to link the Socialism, Politics and Love through the Ken Loach films, to explore the gender relations and women condition around the Fellini movies, the “Nouvelle vague” French films, and “Lolita” by Kubrick and to understand the aesthetic of the violence through Par Chan-Wook movies.

10/1/17

Reflections on Right to Water in Ecuador

Since the Constitution of 2008 the water acquire a legal status as Human Right, and deserve a constitutional protection as a part of the Nature (1).  Ecuadorian constitution was the first in the world to introduce a Bill of Rights for the nature. In this line, there is several duty that State has to follow to protect and fulfill every citizen needs, as for instance, to granted the communitarian governance of hydric sources, to prevent and response to any pollution on water reserves, to granted that every citizen has access to clean water and sanitation services.

Accordingly to United Nations SG6 until 2030, every society has to granted to their citizens the universal access to clean water and related services. Also is a sensitive goal to granted the protection of every ecosystem related to forest, rivers, and any other source of fresh water. Finally, the UN commitment stress out the importance that International cooperation transfer enough resources and technology to support Global South societies in order to fullfill this goal. (2)

In spite of theses constitutional provisions and the UN development goals there still many challenges to secure the universal access to water in Ecuador. In this sense, a Ombudsperson report suggest to develop public policies toward to reorganize the Institutional framework wich has the responsibility to protect and provide clean water to every citizen, to mitigate the poluttion of rivers by urban consumption, and most important to protect the water sources from extractivism industries. (3) 

One of the main concerns at the national public debate is about the mining activities on Amazonian and indigenous ancestral lands.  So that, there is a tension in how extractions industries operates vis-a-vis indigenous communities rights and needs.   

References:

  1. http://pdba.georgetown.edu/Constitutions/Ecuador/english08.html
  2. http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/es/water-and-sanitation/
  3. http://repositorio.dpe.gob.ec/handle/39000/119