Citizen participation, development and land use planning

Abstract

It is not unknown that the participation of citizens in the governance processes of public bodies emphasizes a challenge that involves the so-called advisory councils or citizens to represent the community by having a voice in the design of action plans, as well as works and services that benefit the community without distinction of any kind. While it is true that in Ecuador the norms that express citizen participation in public policies are exposed in the media, there are still gaps in the intervention of citizens in the work of the Decentralized Autonomous Governments, overlooking the premise that any plan must consider the opinion of the people involved. Because of this, the desire to know the environment in which the participatory processes of the municipal government of El Empalme are deployed was born. To measure this, qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques were applied with an interview that was directed to five officials related to citizen participation plans; On the other hand, a survey was applied whose participants were fifteen leaders of urban neighborhoods and rural sectors. The results showed that there are marked limitations in citizen participation and commitment, with characteristics such as the absence of training, little communication, as well as the lack of periodic work meetings to improve territorial development due to the low budget, the lack of political will and the lack of evaluation of results, factors that affect the scope of benefits to the population.