In our first approach to the free, prior, and informed consultation exercise with indigenous communities carried out by the Mexican government, we decided to start from what they mean to the people

In a previous post we told you about the first exercise of the Accelerator Lab of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Mexico to innovate in the design of participatory exercises for public policy making. In this blog, we tell you how we approached a process of free, prior and informed consultation carried out by the Government of Mexico with authorities and institutions representing indigenous peoples and communities (Indigenous Consultation), to inform the design of the Program for the Development of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec (PDIT in Spanish), regional initiative derived from the country's National Development Program (NDP).

Conducting the consultation

In this protocol you can learn how the government solved the logistics and methodological challenges of the Indigenous Consultation. These range from the organization of the Consultation Assemblies to the selection of venues and the organization of events. The Indigenous Consultation was organized by three units of the Federal Public Administration (APF): The National Institute of Indigenous Peoples (INPI), the Ministry of the Interior (SEGOB), and the Inter-Oceanic Corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec (CIIT), a state-owned company recently created.

Between March and October 2019, they organized 21 assemblies in 7 venues throughout the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. These assemblies were attended by hundreds of civil servants and more than 5,000 people from 12 indigenous groups. Participants included members of the Binnizá (Zapotec), Ayuuk (Mixe), Zoque, Ikoots (Huave), Chontal, Chinanteco, Mazateco, Mixteco, Popoluca, Náhuatl, Totonaco, Tzotzil and Afromexicans, all of them settled in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in the states of Oaxaca and Veracruz, the area of influence where the PDIT will be implemented.

The purpose of the consultation was to receive opinions, proposals, suggestions and approaches from indigenous groups and communities on what the Program for the Development of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec should contain, so that they could be incorporated into the design and implementation of this public policy. We were invited to conduct an ethnographic exploration during the agreement monitoring and verification meetings that took place on October 5 and 6, 2019.

Our attendance did not imply an institutional validation of the consultation process by UNDP Mexico or the United Nations, but rather served as an exploratory exercise to make sense of the challenges ahead for the government and the communities of the Isthmus to build trust and collaboration. 

The angle for the approach

The consultation exercises are unique opportunities to advance Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16: Peace, justice and strong institutions of the 2030 Agenda. Specifically target 16.7 which speaks of ensuring inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels, which responds to people's needs. Therefore, at the Lab we are interested in learning about how to create spaces for dialogue and collaboration between government and society to advance on common goals. We want to put innovation at the service of this challenge, which is both complex and global.

Many angles are possible to begin to make sense of a process of participatory democracy such as the Indigenous Consultation and how it builds trust and networks to achieve the objective of the PDIT. In the Laboratory we decided to start from the significations that the process has for the people who participate, both citizens and civil servants. To understand what is discussed in these spaces and the social dynamics that are triggered.

We are interested in rescuing the perspective of the people who came together and approach to understand the Indigenous Consultation from the level of emotions and the specific meanings that people give them. Not forgetting that non-attendees and other external actors are also rich sources of information and that their voices should also be heard.

Logistics details

In order to carry out the Consultation, Consultation Assemblies were organized, composed of people who could represent their communities. Those who formed them did so on a voluntary basis and, since they tended to have obligations from Monday to Friday, the government arranged the meetings on weekends. We attended on Saturday the 5th and Sunday the 6th, what was called the second meeting for the follow-up and verification of agreements.

In order to hold the same meeting in each of the 7 venues, the government delegation was first divided into two. One part went to Minatitlán, Veracruz and the other to Salina Cruz, Oaxaca. Each party was again divided into two, to form a total of four caravans. In this way 4 assemblies were organized simultaneously on Saturday and 3 on Sunday. 

Portraying the exercise

This exercise was portrayed through the eyes of a group of documentary filmmakers led by Nicolás Gutiérrez Wenhammar and Luis Fernando Pacheco, and a team of sociologists and anthropologists that included Laura Camila Espinosa Osses, Paulina Saraí Peralta Serrano, Hugo Arriaga González and Mario Alberto Ochoa Bahena. The logistics required us to split into four teams.

Thus, each of the caravans had the presence of a sociologist or anthropologist who was able to document, first-hand, the experience of the events through non-participant observation and interviews with the people attending, both federal, state and local government officials, as well as people from the communities. In addition, for two days, one of the caravans was accompanied by a team of documentary filmmakers, who carried out a video ethnography and photographic survey.

By asking people about their concerns, expectations, challenges and meanings of the Consultation, video ethnography makes it possible not only to listen to people's discourse, but also to take up gestures and, since they express and conceal a diversity of positions that, if they were not visual, would escape analysis.

The result is a short documentary and a research report that we invite you to watch and download!

In the following posts we will go deeper into the results of this exploration and the challenges we identified. Do you know about the consultation work done by the government or do you want to share with us ideas on how to build trust and collaboration between groups? Write to us, we want to read you!