PROAmazonía, a National Government program with UNDP support, conducts training on strengthening the local Information System (LIS). This system constitutes an institutional and territorial planning tool that facilitates the interaction of the GADs with the citizens in order to identify relevant information for planning and public management at both the local and national levels.

The municipality of Cascales is one of the youngest in the province of Sucumbíos. It was founded in August 1990, while Sucumbíos was named a province in February 1989.However, Cascales has been one of the first local governments to be concerned about having a strengthened Local Information System, which allows the authorities and technical commands to have quality and updated information for an adequate territorial planning, as well as for making decisions on public policies that lead to improve the living conditions of the population.

In this regard, PROAmazonía provides technical assistance and accompanies the implementation of a process to strengthen the Local Information System, leading to the creation of a LIS that complies with the technical standards issued by Planifica Ecuador, now the National Planning Secretariat.

During the months of July and August of this year, training and practical application processes have been carried out for the entry of thematic information, which corresponds to the initial phase of the LIS. These workshops were held in person and were directed to the technical team of the GAD.

It should be recalled that the Technical Standard, of mandatory compliance, establishes that the “Local Information System is the organized and systematic set of elements – technical and administrative dependencies; human talent; technical means; procedures in general; information products – that allow the interaction of the Decentralized Autonomous Governments with the citizens in the territory, within the framework of accountability and social control; to access, collect, store, transform and disseminate data into relevant information for planning, development and public, local and national management.”

Therefore, PROAmazonía, together with the technical team of the GADM of Cascales, with the sponsorship of the cantonal authority, built a roadmap to achieve as a result, the generation of a participatory LIS, in which all municipal areas involved actively participate and generate quality information, based on management and performance indicators, according to the competencies of the GADM and the specific requirements of the technical standard.

In the sanitary context that the country is experiencing, due to the presence of the pandemic caused by COVID-19, technical assistance has been provided virtually and in person, under strict sanitary standards established by the control agencies. This has made it possible to advance to the second phase of the LIS construction in the GADM of Cascales.

María Coyachamin, councilor of the Cascales canton, considers PROAmazonía’s support to strengthen the Cascales LIS to be very important, as well as the program’s contribution to related activities such as updating the PDOT and supporting the implementation of public policies related to the protection of water sources, conservation and climate change.

PROAmazonía will continue to provide support and technical assistance to the Cascales GADM until 2022.

Photograph: Patricio Saravia – PROAmazonía

Description: Training workshop on statistical information entry, phase I LIS

Author: Patricio Saravia – Technical Planning Specialist for the Province of Sucumbíos