Local development : seeking an alternative in post-conflict El Salvador

Abstract

This study examines local development and its conditions for implementation, popular participation and decentralisation, in post-conflict El Salvador. The ability of local development to facilitate social transformation and equitable economic development depends on the use and definition of these two principal conditions. The central questions of the study are: (1) Is local development being used as an Another Development approach that will make the primary agent of development the community thereby strengthening the capacity of the community to define its own development to challenge existing economic, social and political structures? or (2) Is local development a response from within the neoliberal model of development to the problems created by economic and political restructuring? A theoretical convergence of neoliberalism and Another Development occurs through the concepts of participation and decentralisation thereby providing the theoretical and analytical framework of the study. A case study based on research gathered from three municipalities located in the northern zone of the department of San Vicente, El Salvador is presented. The case study examines local development in practice and observes how participation and decentralisation are manifested within this context.