The Socio-economic Accord
Agreement on Social and Economic Aspects and Agrarian Situation
Whereas:
A firm and lasting peace must be consolidated on the basis of social and economic development directed towards the common good, meeting the needs of the whole population,
This is necessary in order to overcome the poverty, extreme poverty, discrimination and social and political marginalization which have impeded and distorted the country's social, economic, cultural and political development and have represented a source of conflict and instability,
Socio-economic development requires social justice, as one of the building blocks of unity and national solidarity, together with sustainable economic growth as a condition for meeting the people's social needs,
Rural areas require an integral strategy that facilitates access by small farmers to land and other production resources, offers juridical security and promotes conflict resolution,
It is essential, both for the realization of the production potential of Guatemalan society and for the achievement of greater social justice, that all sectors of society participate effectively in finding a way to meet their needs, particularly in setting public policies that concern them,
The State should pursue democratisation in order to expand those possibilities for participation and strengthen its role as a leader of national development, as a legislator, as a source of public investment and a provider of services and as a promoter of consensus-building and conflict resolution,
This Agreement seeks to create or strengthen mechanisms and conditions to guarantee the effective participation of the people and contains the priority objectives for Government action to lay the foundations of this participatory development,
The implementation of this Agreement should enable all the country's social and political forces to face together, in a cooperative and responsible way, the immediate tasks of combating poverty, discrimination and privilege, thus building a united, prosperous and just Guatemala that will afford a dignified way of life to its people as a whole,
The Government of Guatemala and the Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca (hereinafter referred to as "the Parties") have agreed as follows:
I. Democratisation and Participatory Development
A. Participation and consensus-building
1. In order to pursue a true, functional and participatory democracy, the process of social and economic development should be democratic and participatory and include: (a) consensus-building and dialogue among agents of socio-economic development; (b) consensus-building between these agents and State bodies in the formulation and implementation of development strategies; and (c) effective citizen participation in identifying, prioritising and meeting their needs.
2. Expanded social participation is a bulwark against corruption, privilege, distortions of development and the abuse of economic and political power to the detriment of society. Therefore, it is an instrument for the eradication of economic, social and political polarization in society.
3. In addition to representing a factor in democratisation, citizen participation in economic and social development is essential in order to promote productivity and economic growth, achieve a more equitable distribution of wealth and train human resources. It ensures transparency in public policies and their orientation towards the common good rather than special interests, the effective protection of the interests of the most vulnerable groups, efficiency in providing services and, consequently, the integral development of the individual.
4. In this spirit, and in line with the agreements already concluded on the resettlement of the population groups uprooted by the armed conflict and on identity and rights of indigenous peoples, the Parties agree on the importance of establishing or strengthening mechanisms allowing the citizens and different social groups to exercise their rights effectively and participate fully in decision-making on the various matters affecting or involving them, with full awareness of both their individual and collective obligations to society, which they will fulfil responsibly.
5. Strengthening social participation means that greater opportunities in social and economic decision-making should be offered to organized groups. This assumes that all kinds of grass-roots organizations representing different interests will be recognized and encouraged. It requires, in particular, the guarantee of full and effective rights for rural and urban workers and small farmers to participate, as organized entities, in the process of building consensus with the business sector or at the national level. For this purpose, flexible laws and administrative regulations must be passed to grant legal personality or other forms of legal recognition to those organizations requesting it.
6. This also assumes a major effort to promote a culture of consensus and capacity-building in business, labour and other types of organizations in order to increase their ability to plan and negotiate and effectively to assume the rights and duties inherent in democratic participation.
Consensus-building
7. Building consensus at the national, departmental and communal levels and among rural and urban units of production is essential in order to stimulate and stabilize economic and social growth. State structures must be adapted to fulfil this role of building consensus and reconciling interests, in order to be able to work effectively and efficiently to modernise the production sector, enhance competitiveness, promote economic growth and provide basic social services efficiently and universally.
Participation at the local level
8. Bearing in mind that the people who live in a department or municipality, whether business owners, workers, members of cooperatives or community representatives, are the ones who can best define the measures that benefit or affect them, a package of instruments must be adopted for institutionalizing the decentralization of social and economic decision-making, involving a real transfer of government funds and of the authority to discuss and decide locally on the allocation of resources, how projects will be executed and the priorities and characteristics of government programmes or activities. In this way, government bodies will be able to base their actions on proposals arising from the reconciliation of interests among the various segments of society.
9. Through this Agreement, the Government commits itself to take a series of steps designed to increase the people's participation in the various aspects of public life, including social and rural development policies. This series of reforms must enable structures that generate social conflict to be replaced by new relationships that ensure the consolidation of peace, as an expression of harmonious life together, and the strengthening of democracy, as a dynamic and perfectible process from which advances can be achieved through the participation of various segments of society in shaping the country's political, social and economic choices.
10. In order to reinforce the people's ability to participate and, at the same time, the State's management capacity, the Government agrees to:
Communities
(a) Promote a reform of the Municipal Code so that deputy mayors are appointed by the municipal mayor, taking into account the recommendations of local residents in an open town council meeting;
Municipalities
(b) Foster social participation in the context of municipal autonomy, pursuing the process of decentralization to give more authority to municipal governments, and consequently, strengthening their technical, administrative and financial resources;
(c) Establish and implement as soon as possible, in cooperation with the National Association of Municipalities, a municipal training programme that will serve as a framework for national efforts and international cooperation in this field. The programme will stress the training of municipal staff who will specialize in executing the new duties that will be the responsibility of the municipality as a result of decentralization, with an emphasis on land use planning, a land register, urban planning, financial management, project management and training of local organizations so that they can participate effectively in meeting their own needs;
Departments
(d) Promote in the Congress a reform of the Act concerning the governance of the departments of the Republic, to the effect that the governor of the department would be appointed by the President of the Republic, taking into consideration the candidates nominated by the non-governmental representatives of the departmental development councils;
Regions
(e) regionalize health care, education and cultural services for indigenous people and ensure the full participation of indigenous organizations in the design and implementation of this process;
System of urban and rural development councils
(f) Take the following steps, bearing in mind the fundamental role of urban and rural development councils in ensuring, promoting and guaranteeing the people's participation in the identification of local priorities, the definition of public projects and programmes and the integration of national policy into urban and rural development:
(i) Re-establish local development councils;
(ii) Promote a reform of the Urban and Rural Development Councils Act to broaden the range of sectors participating in departmental and regional development councils;
(iii) Provide adequate funding for the council system.
B. Participation of women in economic and social development
11. The active participation of women is essential for Guatemala's economic and social development, and the State has a duty to promote the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women.
12. recognizing women's undervalued contributions in all spheres of economic and social activity, and particularly their efforts towards community improvement, the Parties agree that there is a need to strengthen women's participation in economic and social development on equal terms.
13. To this end, the Government undertakes to take the specific economic and social situation of women into account in its development strategies, plans and programmes, and to train civil servants in analysis and planning based on this approach. This undertaking includes the following:
(a) recognizing the equal rights of women and men in the home, in the workplace, in the production sector and in social and political life, and ensuring that women have the same opportunities as men, particularly with regard to access to credit, land ownership and other productive and technological resources;
Education and training
(b) Ensuring that women have equal opportunities for education and training in the same conditions as men, and that any form of discrimination against women that may be found in school curricula is eliminated;
Housing
(c) Ensuring that women have equal access to housing of their own by eliminating the obstacles and impediments that affect women in relation to rental property, credit and construction;
Health
(d) Implementing nationwide comprehensive health programmes for women, which involves giving women access to appropriate information, prevention and health care services;
Labour
(e) Guaranteeing women's right to work, which requires:
(i) Using various means to encourage vocational training for women;
(ii) Revising labour legislation to guarantee equality of rights and opportunities between men and women;
(iii) In rural areas, recognizing women as agricultural workers to ensure that their work is valued and remunerated;
(iv) Enacting laws to protect the rights of women who work as household employees, especially in relation to fair wages, working hours, social security and respect for their dignity;
organization and participation
(f) Guaranteeing women's right to organize and their participation, on the same terms as men, at the senior decision-making levels of local, regional and national institutions;
(g) Promoting women's participation in public administration, especially in the formulation, execution and supervision of government plans and policies;
Legislation
(h) Revising national legislation and regulations to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women in terms of economic, social, cultural and political participation, and to give effect to the government commitments deriving from the ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
II. Social Development
14. The State is responsible for promoting, guiding and regulating the country's socio-economic development so as to ensure economic efficiency, increased social services and social justice in an integrated manner and through the efforts of society as a whole. In the quest for growth, economic policy should be aimed at preventing processes of socio-economic exclusion, such as unemployment and impoverishment, and maximising the benefits of economic growth for all Guatemalans. In seeking to ensure the well-being of all Guatemalans, social policy should foster economic development through its impact on production and efficiency.
15. Guatemala requires speedy economic growth in order to create jobs and enhance social development. The country's social development, in turn, is essential for its economic growth and for better integration into the world economy. In this regard, better living standards, health, education and training are the pillars of sustainable development in Guatemala.
State responsibilities
16. The State has inescapable obligations in the task of correcting social inequities and deficiencies, both by steering the course of development and by making public investments and providing universal social services. Likewise, the State has the specific obligations, imposed by constitutional mandate, of ensuring the effective enjoyment, without discrimination of any kind, of the right to work, health, education and housing, as well as other social rights. The historical social imbalances experienced in Guatemala must be corrected, and peace must be consolidated, through decisive policies which are implemented by both the State and society as a whole.
Productive investments
17. The country's socio-economic development cannot depend exclusively on public finances or on international cooperation. Rather, it requires an increase in productive investments that create adequately paid jobs. The Parties urge national and foreign entrepreneurs to invest in the country, considering that the signing and implementation of an agreement on a firm and lasting peace are essential components of the stability and transparency required for investment and economic expansion.
Gross domestic product
18. For its part, the Government undertakes to adopt economic policies designed to achieve steady growth in the gross domestic product of not less than 6 per cent per annum, which would enable it to implement a progressive social policy. At the same time, it undertakes to implement a social policy aimed at ensuring the well-being of all Guatemalans, with emphasis on health, nutrition, education and training, housing, environmental sanitation and access to productive employment and to decent pay.
The State's leadership role
19. To meet this objective and to enable the State to play its leadership role in social policy, the Government undertakes to:
(a) Apply and develop the regulatory framework to guarantee the exercise of social rights and provide social services through public entities and, where necessary, through semi-public or private entities, and supervise the adequate provision of such services;
(b) Promote and ensure the participation, in accordance with the regulatory framework, of all social and economic sectors that can cooperate in social development, particularly in providing full access to basic services;
(c) Ensure that the public sector provides services efficiently, considering that the State has a duty to give the population access to quality services.
20. In response to the population's urgent demands, the Government undertakes to:
(a) Increase social investment significantly, especially in the areas of health, education and employment;
(b) Restructure the budget so as to increase social expenditure;
(c) Give priority to the neediest sectors of society and the most disadvantaged areas of the country, without short-changing other sectors of society;
(d) Improve the administration of government resources and investments by decentralizing them and making them less concentrated and bureaucratic, reforming budget performance mechanisms by giving them autonomy in decision-making and financial management to guarantee their efficiency and transparency, and strengthening supervisory and auditing mechanisms.
A. Education and training
21. Education and training have a fundamental role in the country's economic, cultural, social and political development. They are central to the strategy of equity and national unity, and vital for economic modernisation and international competitiveness. Reform of the educational system and of its administration is therefore necessary, as is the implementation of coherent and forceful State policies in the field of education, in order to achieve the following objectives:
(a) To affirm and disseminate the moral and cultural values and the concepts and behaviour patterns which are the foundations of democratic coexistence, including respect for human rights, for the cultural diversity of Guatemala, for the productive work of its people and the protection of the environment and for the values and mechanisms of power-sharing and social and political consensus-building which constitute the basis of a culture of peace;
(b) To avoid the perpetuation of poverty and of social, ethnic, sexual and geographical forms of discrimination, particularly those which arise from the divide between urban and rural society;
(c) To contribute to the application of technical and scientific progress and, consequently, to the achievement of higher productivity, the creation of more jobs and increased income for the population, and beneficial integration into the world economy.
22. In response to the country's needs in the field of education, the Government undertakes to:
Spending on education
(a) Implement significant increases in the resources allocated to education. By the year 2000, the Government proposes to step up public spending on education as a proportion of gross domestic product by at least 50 per cent over its 1995 level. These targets will be revised upwards in the light of future developments in State finances;
Adjustment of educational curricula
(b) Adjust educational curricula in accordance with the objectives set out in paragraph 21. These adjustments will take into account the conclusions of the Education Reform Commission established by the Agreement on Identity and Rights of Indigenous Peoples;
Coverage
(c) Expand, as a matter of urgency, the coverage of education services at all levels, and in particular the provision of bilingual education in rural communities, by means of:
(i) The integration of children of school age into the educational system, ensuring that they complete the pre-primary and primary levels and the first level of secondary school; in particular, by the year 2000, the Government undertakes to provide access, for all those between ages 7 and 12, to at least three years of schooling;
(ii) Literacy programmes in as many languages as is technically feasible, with the participation of suitably qualified indigenous organizations; the Government undertakes to raise the literacy rate to 70 per cent by the year 2000; and
(iii) Education, training and technical courses for adults;
Occupational training
(d) Develop, with appropriate and efficient methodology, training programmes in communities and enterprises for the retraining and technical updating of workers, with emphasis on the inhabitants of isolated areas and rural communities, with support from those sectors which are able to collaborate in this undertaking;
Training for participation
(e) Provide training to enable social organizations at the municipal, regional and national levels to take part in socio-economic development, including the fields of public administration, fiscal responsibility and consensus-building;
Civic education programme
(f) Design and implement a national civic education programme for democracy and peace, promoting the protection of human rights, the renewal of political culture and the peaceful resolution of conflicts. The mass media will be invited to participate in this programme;
Community-school interaction and community participation
(g) In order to encourage the enrolment of children in the educational system and to lower the school drop-out rate, the Government undertakes to encourage effective community and parental participation in the various aspects of the education and training services (curricula, appointment of teachers, school calendar, etc.);
Financial support
(h) Develop scholarship and student grant programmes, economic support and other incentives, to enable needy students to continue their education;
Training of school administrators
(i) Develop continuing education programmes for teachers and school administrators;
Advisory commission
(j) For the purpose of designing and implementing the educational reform to be carried out by the Ministry of Education, an advisory commission attached to the Ministry will be set up, consisting of participants in the educational process, including representatives of the Education Reform Commission set up pursuant to the Agreement on Identity and Rights of Indigenous Peoples;
Higher education and research
(k) State-run higher education, the management, organization and development of which is the sole responsibility of the Guatemalan University of San Carlos, is a key factor in achieving economic growth, social equity, the dissemination of culture and a greater pool of technological know-how. The Government of the Republic undertakes to provide to the University of San Carlos, in a timely manner, the funding which is its prerogative under a constitutional mandate. With all due respect to the autonomy of the University, the parties urge the authorities of that distinguished institution to give favourable consideration to all initiatives which increase its contribution to the country's development and help to consolidate peace. The Government undertakes to heed such contributions and initiatives and to respond appropriately. Particular importance is attached to the development of the University's regional centres and of its internship programmes, especially in the poorest sectors. The Parties also urge the business sector to devote increased efforts to applied technological research and to human resources development, forging closer exchange links with the University of San Carlos;
Educational outreach workers
(l) Pursuant to the Agreement on Resettlement of the Population Groups Uprooted by the Armed Conflict and the Agreement on Identity and Rights of Indigenous Peoples, community educational outreach workers shall be incorporated into the national education system, and due regard shall be given to suitable curricula for indigenous communities and uprooted population groups.
B. Health
23. The Parties agree on the need to promote a reform of the national health sector. This reform should be aimed at ensuring effective exercise of the fundamental right to health, without any discrimination whatsoever, and the effective performance by the State, which would be provided with the necessary resources, of its obligation with regard to health and social welfare. Some of the main points of this reform are as follows:
Concept
(a) It would be based on an integrated concept of health (including prevention, promotion, recovery and rehabilitation) and on humanitarian and community-based practice emphasising the spirit of service, and it would be applied at all levels of the country's public health sector;
National coordinated health system
(b) One of the responsibilities of the Ministry of Health is to formulate policies to provide the entire Guatemalan population with integrated health services. Under the coordination of the Ministry of Health, the health system would combine the work of public agencies (including the Guatemalan Social Security Institute) and private and non-governmental organizations involved in this sector to implement actions designed to enable the whole Guatemalan population to have access to integrated health services;
Low-income population
(c) The system would create the conditions for ensuring that the low-income population has effective access to quality health services. The Government undertakes to increase the resources it allocates to health. By the year 2000, the Government proposes to step up public spending on health as a proportion of gross domestic product by at least 50 per cent over its 1995 level. This target will be revised upwards in the light of future developments in State finances;
Priority care
(d) The system would give priority to efforts to fight malnutrition and to promote environmental sanitation, preventive health care and primary health care, especially maternal and child care. The Government undertakes to allocate at least 50 per cent of public health expenditure to preventive care and undertakes to cut the 1995 infant and maternal mortality rate in half by the year 2000. In addition, the Government undertakes to maintain the certification of eradication of poliomyelitis, and to eradicate measles by the year 2000;
Medicine, equipment and inputs
(e) The Ministry of Public Health and Social Welfare will revise current rules and practices with regard to the manufacture and marketing of drugs, equipment and inputs and will promote measures to ensure that these are in sufficient supply and that they are affordable and of high quality. In the case of popular basic or generic drugs, ways of purchasing them will be studied and applied in order to ensure transparency in their marketing, quality and pricing to ensure that services are provided efficiently;
Indigenous and traditional medicine
(f) The system would enhance the importance of indigenous and traditional medicine, promoting its study and renewing its concepts, methods and practices;
Social participation
(g) The system would encourage active participation of municipalities, communities and social organizations (including groups of women, indigenous people, trade unions and civic and humanitarian associations) in the planning, execution and monitoring of the administration of health services and programmes, through local health systems and urban and rural development councils;
Administrative decentralization and enhancement of local autonomy
(h) The decentralized organization of the various levels of health care should ensure that health programmes and services are offered at the community, regional and national levels, which are the basis of the national coordinated health system.
