San Sebastián de Yalí, Nicaragua. Yalí is a municipality of 27,000 residents spread out over a large area. More than 80 percent of the population is in rural areas, mostly growing coffee and other agricultural products. Faced with a limited tax base, insufficient support from a country struggling to develop, and a remote location that makes development aid difficult to reach, Yalí has faced many challenges. In late 2005, a team of municipal leaders participated in a program called Business Planning for Health (BPH), sponsored by USAID. The BPH was developed by Management Sciences for Health to enable institutions, including governments, to identify their needs, organize themselves, and develop compelling business plans to present to donors. The basic idea is donors are more willing to invest in something when they can see what social return will result.
As part of the program, the team from Yalí identified their municipal waste system as a key challenge they were facing. The waste system at the time was no more than a site where all trash—regardless of its type—was thrown. The municipal government had to fund the trash pickup, costing the community precious resources. Many didn’t use the site so waste was strewn along streets. “Our system was completely obsolete,” explains the mayor of Yalí, Mr. Noel Efraín Moreno. “It was basically a horse and wagon. We identified overall sanitation as a priority for the municipality, and this was the most glaring issue we had to face.”
By the end of the program, the Yalí team developed a business plan to procure the equipment necessary for a more modern trash collection site, as well as money to build up a waste site and startup funds for staff to run the system. “We submitted the plan to a few places with no luck and were then advised to send it to a few more places,” Mr. Moreno explains. “However, as part of our plan—and all plans since—we included what we the community would contribute as well, in terms of volunteered labor, supplies, and even funding. Using that, we started on our own. We knew it needed to be done and we could start getting benefits before any assistance came.” With their own resources, the collection system was modernized, a system to separate recyclables, organic waste, and trash was established. Materials recycled generated a small amount of revenue, and selling the resulting compost back to the community did as well. As this progress was achieved, funding from the European Union channeled through the Nicaraguan government was received. The Yalí team’s business plan enabled them to receive US$120,000, which they used to procure a truck, further improve the waste site, pay staff, and begin waste collection. As the system ran, members of the community recognized the value of the service offered and now pay a small fee for waste collection, making the entire system self-sufficient.
“The transformation we have undergone is amazing,” Mr. Moreno continues. “We have achieved greater success and community participation. Once, we would get maybe 50 participants in our monthly meetings. Now we have more than 500 most times. As citizens see what we can do together, they become more engaged. We just received another $US51,000 from the Swiss to build a center and retaining wall for the trash site.” Since the program, Yalí has continued to use the tools from the BPH in several other proposals for new projects, even when the proposals are simply to present at the meetings to open discussions. As a result, the community is more aware of their needs and plans, and more engaged in participating in achieving results. “Our environment is cleaner and every part of the community is benefiting from a healthier Yalí and the saved resources which can be put to better use, like in education.”
