In order to make local development visible as a driver of progress, equity and sustainability, and to connect the actors who pay taxes in the municipalities to this end, the Center for Local and Community Development (Cedel) launched its communication campaign Development starts here in Florence.

The presentation, which took place at the national level last March, was given by Melissa Pérez Ruiz, coordinator of Cedel's campaign team, who highlighted some of the objectives, including raising awareness among decision-makers in the municipalities about the urgency of encourage development from within.

During the launch, which took place at the seat of the Government of Florence and was attended by the highest political and administrative authorities of the territory, the long-standing work and the results that the municipality, one of the four chosen for carry out the actions included in the communication exercise this year.

Pérez Ruiz said that three stages and four moments were designed, with their respective actions, ranging from a campaign week (dissemination approach, forums in neighborhoods and communities, outreach to schools), a national workshop with the participation of communicators and journalists, the local development fair and a national meeting of local authorities.

The three stages of the project: "discover your municipality", "promote new ideas" and "star in change" plan to clear a path with a strategic approach, that is, more than the sum of undertakings, it is a comprehensive vision of the municipality, taking considering their potential.

On the day, the campaign team promoted participation dynamics among the attendees, to analyze issues related to the visual identity of Development begins here. The meaning of the colors was discussed, as well as how the central motto and the rest of the message lines call for thinking strategically and with a vision of the future, as well as identifying threats and strengths.

Likewise, the foundations were laid for two of the designed actions: the campaign week and the fair. The attendees brainstormed ideas in which they outlined how they conceive these spaces for learning and participation.

Hill up and down

It might seem at first glance that a communication campaign will not work the miracle of local development, because, more than saying, what determines is doing. However, since 2019, the Cedel researchers, Mailyn Castro Premier and Ana Hernández Apán, have been insisting that one of the greatest impediments to the achievement of projects is the disarticulation of the actors.

This was stated in the text “Municipal projects as protagonists in the implementation of municipal development strategies”, which we also quoted in February 2020, when local development in Florencia seemed unable to even climb Loma del Aguacate.

At that time, the equipment of four PDLs coordinated by Prodel (the international project Strengthening Capacities for Local Development, which has financing from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, COSUDE), was sleeping the dream of inertia. Moreover, although solutions were promised, reflected by this newspaper, the truth is that they did not materialize.

Two years later, Julio Valentín Santana Cruz, coordinator of Prodel in Florencia, can speak with a little more calm about five active PDLs, four in process and another seven that have already met the deadlines set by international cooperation. They are, without a doubt, the irrefutable evidence that the local development group of the municipality has not stopped, despite the regrets.

Finally, the small ice cream factory has produced ice cream. Not yet on a commercial scale, because the setbacks have been greater than the wishes. From the premises located in Tamarindo, which at the beginning of 2020 was 70 percent, they had to "move" without having released any equipment. The poor quality of the civil works and the leaks forced the project to be moved from one location to another.

Now, the UEB Processing Center Las Palmas, attached to the Municipal Company of Commerce and Gastronomy and managed by Luis Rodríguez Pérez, houses the machines and refrigerators that, under ideal conditions, could produce and store up to 40 tubs a day. Enough for Florentians to refresh their afternoons in a Coppelia, yet to be born.

Walking the "last mile" is Ricardo Cardoso Sospedra, a young engineer who "bought" the challenge of putting the plastic pipe factory managed by Prodel into production using recycled raw material. Approved since November 2021 by an agreement of the Municipal Administration Council, it is lacking a bank loan that allows liquidity to go out and buy the first chips.

Three other active PDLs in the territory are “sitting” on that same bench awaiting financing (two for meat production and one for ice cream), which the passage of time does nothing but put pressure on.

Precisely the delay, the cumbersome and bureaucratic procedures, were deficiencies pointed out to the banking sector during the recent visit of the Secretariat of the Central Committee and its auxiliary structure to the province. Does that statement apply to Florence?

“The great challenges of the current Cuban context correspond to the production of food, the construction and reconstruction of houses, the generation of energy, the supply of water, the improvement and preservation of environmental conditions, the adaptation to climatic changes, among others”, the aforementioned Cedel researchers said four years ago. Those challenges remain.

Also from 2019 is the Constitution of the Republic, whose article 168 establishes that "the municipality constitutes the primary and fundamental political-administrative unit of the national organization" and "enjoys its own autonomy and legal personality." Therefore, it is there where solutions to these challenges can be found and where the transformation that the territory demands can be born. Local development has to be the spark plug for these transformations.