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development indigenous peoples Panama

Stories and lessons of development for indigenous territories

November 24, 2020 Por Juan Manuel Puerta - Odette Maciel Becerril Leave a Comment


It was dawn in Cartí (Gardí) Sugdub. This small island is part of the Guna Yala indigenous region on the Caribbean coast of Panama. Cartí, like the other 51 Guna communities, has significant development challenges, including difficulties in accessing essential services, as well as the threat of climate change. 

The strong governance of the Guna people, the richness of their culture and ancestral knowledge, the beauty of the environment, and the warmth of the people inspire great confidence in their future.

A group of evaluators from the Office of Evaluation and Supervision of the IDB Group (OVE) arrived to obtain information to carry out the Country Program Evaluation: Panama 2015-2019, where the relationship of the Bank is analyzed, as well as the relevance, added value, and results of its technical and financial support program provided to the country in a specific period. With the purpose to issue recommendations that help improve the future work of the IDB Group.

Throughout Panama, the image repeats itself. Despite the indigenous peoples’ social, cultural, territorial, and natural capital, their indigenous regions’ isolation and material poverty contrast with the skyscrapers and the narrow strip’s economic and business development around the Panama Canal. The Panamanian economy has rapidly grown in the last decade, among other things, due to the expansion of the canal while being sustained by private savings and investment. Today, Panama is one of the wealthiest countries in Latin America and the Caribbean; nonetheless, it is also one of the most unequal. Panama’s challenges include the institutions’ weakness, the government’s lack of efficient management, and a tremendous economic and territorial duality. Growth, productivity, employment, trade, and access to services concentrate around Panama City and a few economic sectors.

Economic growth for everyone?

Few of the benefits of growth have impacted indigenous comarcas: the incidence of multidimensional poverty is almost five times the national average, and maternal mortality is more than double. As we walked through the narrow corridors that separate the houses in Cartí, a question kept coming back to our heads. How can Panama’s economic success also translate into concrete improvements for indigenous regions and rural areas?

The challenge is more complicated than it seems at first glance. The concept of development that indigenous peoples manage includes the right to self-determination. The Guna people make decisions through community assemblies led by their saglas or authorities. 

The Panamanian constitution recognizes autonomous forms of government and special regimes. Hence, the seven indigenous peoples of the country organized into twelve governance structures, and a National Council of Indigenous Peoples decide the future of their development and make those decisions within the framework of their well-being concept.

Our evaluation found that, between 2015 and 2019, one of the IDB’s priorities was learning about each people’s culture within a framework of respect and horizontal dialogue and their decision-making processes. Based on this, the Bank would develop a relationship of trust and work with indigenous peoples facilitating the cultural adaptation of services. As a result of this relationship and the Bank’s collaborative work with the corresponding ministries, at least 20 IDB operations were implemented between 2015 and 2019. These operations focused on cultural adaptation and promoting service delivery in indigenous territories and focusing on drinking water and sanitation, rural electrification, rural roads, education, early childhood, health, and entrepreneurship.

Development with identity

Upon our arrival at the communal room, the leader or sagla received us. He explained the work plan that the community has and asked questions and commented on the progress and challenges of collaboration with the government in conjunction with the IDB.

A topic that occupied an essential part of the conversations was the community’s situation in the face of climate change. Studies indicate that the island will be uninhabitable in some years due to the rise in sea level, added to overcrowding problems, and public services provision. The community made the difficult decision to relocate to the mainland voluntarily. In this sense, the community works hand in hand with national authorities and other local and international organizations, including the IDB, to structure the sustainable and effective management of the future transfer.

The ethnic-engineering work carried out to rehabilitate the rural roads of Besikó (in the Ngäbe-Buglé Comarca) is recognized as a value proposition by both the Ministry of Public Works and the Ngäbe people. Also, the Bank allocated efforts and resources to analyze and communicate internally in the country office the new possibilities and seek solutions to challenges in indigenous contexts. In 2017, the Bank surveyed the state of the social infrastructure in Panama in all its operations (including indigenous regions) to improve the targeting of resources to areas where interventions were complementary. Thus, several Bank operations directed the remaining resources or funds to these areas. For example, this was the case of some investments in schools’ construction in indigenous regions with rural electrification or improvement of roads, highways, and bridges.

Where do we see the results?

Our evaluation identified that the Bank’s work in comarcas and rural areas was relevant and added value. It also entailed implementation challenges related to remoteness and access difficulties, deserted tenders, and the persistence of cultural adaptation challenges and other cross-cutting challenges to the portfolio. Nominalization of coverage, the provision of essential services, and the implementation of care and mobilization protocols for obstetric emergencies for comarcas and rural areas stand out as positive results. However, challenges persist in the quality of services. Also, we identified advances in rural electrification coverage, although with maintenance challenges, while the education portfolio advanced, although with delays, to build schools in rural and regional areas. OVE recommended that the Bank systematize and document lessons learned from this experience to use in future work and seek mechanisms to strengthen these areas’ integral focus further. At the same time, we were fostering sectoral and geographic coordination of interventions from their design stage. And, ultimately, to be able to achieve the proposed results.

Before leaving Cartí Sugdup, we visited the medical center. We spoke with Ritzel, the local doctor, and the staff who support her. She told us about the needs and the challenges, but also the progress. For example, how a small installation of a solar panel system can keep medicines refrigerated. The IDB’s rural electrification program equipped several islands with solar energy systems and is currently seeking mechanisms to improve the service’s sustainability and expand energy provision in other regions. 

Ritzel’s story is an excellent parable of how culture is not an obstacle but an impulse for development. After studying in Panama City and receiving a medical degree, she decided to return to her community to work there, knowing how much. Her medical apron has intertwined motifs that resemble the decorations of the Guna “molas.” It is a symbol of her path. At dusk in Cartí Sugdub, when the sun was hiding with the sea after bathing the island with its last reddish light, we left for Panama City on a long journey across the isthmus. We also spoke with a community member who was returning to the city, excited about the future. As our vehicle plows through the isthmus in an incessant rattle, our minds returned to the remoteness of Cartí Sugdup, its people, its cultural assets, and its challenges. Promoting development projects in harmony with the local culture may seem complicated. Still, it is possible and effective in promoting more sustainable results in the longer term.

To learn more about these initiatives from the Bank – To read the full evaluation, follow this link.


Regarding the evaluation: The visit referred to in the text was carried out in June 2019 within the framework of the Evaluation of the Bank’s Program with Panama between 2015 and 2019. On that occasion, several communities were visited in the Guna region and in the Comarca Ngäbe-Buglé, and representatives of the Comarca Emberá – Wounaan were interviewed. The authors thank OVE Director Ivory Yong Protzel, as well as the evaluation team, especially Stephany Maqueda, Anna Mortara, and Juan Felipe García. They are also grateful for the support of the Bank’s Administration, the Bank’s Country Office in Panama, and the IDB gender and diversity team, for supporting us in this enriching professional experience.
About OVE: Created in 1999 as an independent evaluation office reporting directly to the Bank’s Board of Directors, the Office of Evaluation and Oversight (OVE) evaluates the performance and development results of the IDB Group’s activities. These independent evaluations seek to strengthen the IDB Group through learning, accountability, and transparency. To achieve this objective, the policies, strategies, programs, and projects of the IDB Group are independently evaluated, and the results of the evaluations are made public, in order to share lessons learned with the region and with the development community in general. Follow these links to learn more about OVE’s work and the evaluation process.

Filed Under: Diversidad, Diversity Tagged With: Development, Development with identity, Indigenous Peoples, Panama

Juan Manuel Puerta

Economista Senior de la Oficina de Evaluación y Supervisión del BID (OVE). Antes de trabajar en OVE fue profesor de Economía en la Universidad de Europa Central (CEU). Tiene un doctorado en Economía de la Universidad Pompeu Fabra en Barcelona, España.

Odette Maciel Becerril

Economista Especialista en la Oficina de Evaluación y Supervisión del Banco Inter-Americano de Desarrollo. También, ha trabajado como consultora del Banco Mundial y en el gobierno de México. Tiene una maestría en Administración Pública y Desarrollo Internacional por la Universidad de Harvard.

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