More corn, good roads and better services for Oaxaca, thanks to a new planning model

The forest covered mountains and the small valleys and villages spread before you as far as the eye reaches in Ixtlan de Juarez in Oaxaca State. All shades of green are present in the landscape.

It is not surprising, seeing its nature, that Oaxaca is the State in Mexico with the richest biodiversity and is considered a national leader in sustainable community forest management.

Moreover, it has a big potential in agriculture resources, like corn, and also in fishery and livestock, although there is still a lot of leeway for their exploitation and commercialization.

 “We are traditionally in the last places in terms of production, productivity and organization in the agriculture, livestock and fishery sectors,” explains Jorge Carrasco Altamirano, Production Subsecretary of the Ministry of the Development of Agriculture, Livestock, Forestry and Fishery.

The State has also various challenges in other sectors: only 69.5% of people in Oaxaca have water in their home and almost 19% of the houses are considered vulnerable because they don’t have floors and the roofs are not of good quality.

A new way of planning

 “When we arrived to the government, we encountered planning structures that were in line with the previous needs, but that didn’t allow us to strategically focus the State investment,” says Alberto Benítez Tiburcio, Planning, Programming and Budget Subsecretary.

“We realized we needed to make a 180 degree turn regarding the planning exercises made until then,” he adds.

Because of that, and to make the most of the resources and address the challenges of Oaxaca, the State government implemented a new planning model by sectors. Currently, the State has plans for sectors like forestry, agriculture, water or roads.

With a methodology and the technical support from the World Bank, plans were developed for the next 4 years with a focus on results. These plans allow to allocate the expenditure in a more effective and planned way so as to offer better services to the people of Oaxaca.

Any citizen can see the official plans, the allocated resources and the goals, making the process transparent to society.

Reach the key goals

 “To have an instrument, with this methodology with which the World Bank has accompanied us, a management instrument with precise results, precise objectives and goals, I think it is fundamental, “ says Félix Piñeiro Márquez, Forestry Development Director.

“The methodology is part of a diagnostic: where we are and where we want to be,” explains Dzahuindanda Flores Bautista, Head of Department in the Ministry of agriculture, livestock, forestry and fishery development.

With this new planning model, the objective is to organize the work of the government so as to achieve key goals, like to have 75,000 hectares of forests more under sustainable management, or produce a million tons of corn per year.

Also, the State government wants to achieve that 80% of homes have water and that 76% of roads are in a good state.