Evaluación Externa 2012-2015

Background

In 2016, NCA planned an external evaluation of the impact of the work of COPAE.
The evaluation focused on the impacts of the politic, legal and communication
initiatives and processes implemented by COPAE as part of its Strategic Plan 2012-
2015. It is intended to assess their experience and learnings to produce valuable
inputs that could be useful for the preparation of their new Strategic Plan 2016-2020.

Purpose/ Objective

Identify the tangible and intangible impacts resulting from the political and operational strategies implemented by COPAE to achieve the institutional objectives to promote the collective rights of indigenous peoples; and its contribution to the construction of a democratic country with social justice for human dignity and the care of the common house.

Methodology

Two were the main techniques used: structured and semi-structured interviews and
five focus groups were developed in San Marcos, Quetzaltenango, Huehuetenango,
Quiché and Chimaltenango. In all these meetings, the Theory of Change criteria were
applied to stimulate ideas and learnings in different dimensions. More than 45
documents were read and studied. There were also bilateral talks with the staff of
COPAE and international cooperation agencies with whom it has built a strategic
alliance. 53 people participated in the interviews and focus groups.

Key Findings

1. The evaluation found that COPAE's central strategy became its main challenge because the stimulated political linkage of COPAE evolved amidst the intersection
   of actors, paradigms and powers (habits, attitudes, ways of acting, etc.) and
   epistemologies (knowledge, ideas, perceptions, etc.) different and even adverse to the political horizon that COPAE itself proposed and deployed through the close
   alliance with Council of Peoples of the West (CPO)
2. COPAE contributed to the construction of a new epistemology of the indigenous
   peoples of Guatemala. COPAE has contributed in the creation of knowledge on the
   indigenous being. This construction of imaginaries has a significant relevance for
   Guatemala because the indigenous population constitutes the majority of citizens
   and, in turn, suffers the most serious social exclusion, one of them being the
   structural racism.
3. COPAE established a historic alliance with indigenous peoples through the CPO,
   which has stimulated mobilization dynamics of the communities due to ethnic
   awareness and impelled transformations and demands aimed at raising the dignity
   and self-determination of the indigenous population. Their joint participation in the
   general elections of 2015 shows that COAPE/CPO are recognized as the political
   forum for indigenous peoples; and are a direct reference in the struggle for a
   plurinational State in Guatemala.
4. It warns of COPAE's ability to set up a media platform based on alliances, made up
   of more than 26 radios, most of them linked to the Catholic Church. This platform
   also provided other audio-visual capabilities, whose virtue has been to consolidate
   a chair to analyse the Guatemalan reality from the perspective of indigenous
   peoples.
5. The construction of technical knowledge and scientific arguments, from the
   communities, about the socio-environmental impact, mainly linked to the mining
   exploitation projects.

Recommendations

1. COPAE /CPO need to be prepared to show a compelling platform on the exclusion of indigenous peoples as new citizenship, creating in turn a plan to outline the
   structures of opportunity required to place a new correlation of forces in their
   favor.
2. COPAE and CPO need to rebuild their priorities and agreements to ensure more
   qualified outward political action and a better division of labor internally, so that
   clear and specific tasks and responsibilities assumed by both bodies are needed.
3. Plan a new management and financial strategy, shared between COPAE and CPO,
   nourished by its strategic alliances with religious actors and leaders and with
   international cooperation agencies with whom have already been built strong
   relationships of solidarity.

Comments from Norwegian Church Aid

COPAE has been assessed by NCA as a one main core partner in Guatemala for the
current country strategy and programmes. The work of COPAE responds strategically
and contributes to the results framework defined by NCA for the period 2016-2020.
Besides that, COPAE is considered as a main actor for the E8 Joint Country
Programme in Guatemala.

Their efficiency and their capacity to incorporate the recommendations of the
evaluation to their actions allow us to value positively their contribution both in their own and ours strategy plans.