How Chile includes communities in strategic planning

Community involvement in infrastructure planning is essential to ensure it meets social needs.

The Chilean government has taken steps to empower communities to share their insights and needs, supporting transparency in decision-making.

This includes remote indigenous groups, who are often left out due to geographical isolation.

Embodying principle 7 of the Enabling Better Infrastructure guidance, this approach has helped Chile resolve conflicting demands by making the decision-making process more transparent.

This aids the long-term success of projects and programmes.

A call to incorporate communities in decision making

Chile is home to nine indigenous groups that live far away from the capital city, Santiago, where decisions on infrastructure take place.

Major infrastructure projects in Chile, such as ports, railways, and roads, often negatively affect indigenous communities, including serious physical impacts.

Since the 1970s, there have been rising disputes over the lack of community and indigenous participation in decision-making.

This has encouraged the Chilean government to look for opportunities to incorporate all stakeholders into strategic infrastructure planning.

They have used policy interventions to enhance consultation, including setting up national and international institutions that provide inclusive legislation.

Policy interventions to encourage participation and transparency

The Chilean government has set up four policy mechanisms that work together to provide more opportunities for indigenous communities to input on infrastructure and other needs:

1. The National Corporation for Indigenous Development (CONADI) was created in 1993 to encourage indigenous participation in policy and legislative processes.
2. Chile ratified the International Labour Organisation’s Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention in 2008, requiring the government to talk to indigenous people on all matters affecting them.
3. The Ministry of Public Works passed a resolution to guarantee engagement with indigenous stakeholders throughout the infrastructure life cycle.
4. The Presidential Instructive for Participation and Public Management, created in 2014, allows communities to raise their concerns and requests with government officials through public meetings and online platforms.

The outcome has been enhanced transparency in infrastructure decision-making.

Delivering community needs in practice

Since the increase of tools to support indigenous communities, the Ministry of Public Works has carried out more than 70 indigenous consultations.

This has helped Chile build infrastructure that incorporates indigenous values, beliefs, and principles.

For example, the government worked with the indigenous Chango people who live in the Atacama region where they plan to deliver maritime and coastal port infrastructure.

As part of this, seven modification requests were included in the final infrastructure plans. This also included creating buildings in the region showcasing Chango culture.

However, while improved equity in infrastructure decision-making is now a feature of Chilean national policy, many members of indigenous communities still feel they have limited participation.

Strengthening participation

While Chile demonstrated how a range of policy interventions can incorporate community needs, particularly indigenous needs, into strategic planning, it can further support this approach.

Step 2 of the Enabling Better Infrastructure guidance focuses on incorporating sub-national plans into infrastructure planning.

The Chilean government can use this step to explore existing infrastructure plans at regional and local levels that have incorporated community needs and use them in their policy interventions.

Coordinating plans for infrastructure at different scales of government helps to streamline the decision-making process.

For inspiration, Chile can look to Brazil’s national planning process called Participatory PPA.

This plan aims to integrate regional and local plans on infrastructure to reduce regional inequalities and support national unity.