The first commitment of our administration is to lay the foundations for better standards of living in our state. Together we will promote sound human development amongst all the people of Guanajuato, both on an individual and collective basis. This implies achieving greater and better access to health, housing and basic services. More opportunities must be granted to those who have until now had the least. Only this way shall we achieve a fair and just society.

For this reason, the social and human development of all the people of Guanajuato will form the central theme of our administration, our paying particular attention to the most vulnerable social groups.

The population of the state totals some 4.65 million, this having grown at an average rate of 1.1% p.a. over the last five years. Of this population, 67.2% live in urban and 32.8% in rural regions.

The state’s high population density has arisen from the concentration of industrial activity and the growth of cities in the municipalities located along the Bajio industrial corridor. In 1995, population density stood at 143 inhabitants per km². By the year 2000, this had risen to 152 inhabitants per km². It is worth pointing out that 37% of the state’s entire population is concentrated in just four cities: Leon, Irapuato, Celaya and Salamanca. (See Map 1)

The main problem caused by the disperse distribution of population can be seen in the scarcities and backlogs in satisfying the demand for public services. This obviously represents a major challenge for the government. These regions also have the highest rates of fertility, child mortality and absence or deficiency in basic services (water, drainage, electricity, telephones and road access).

Figures indicate that the population of Guanajuato in the year 2000 was 48% male and 52% female⁴.

Meanwhile, 48% of the state’s total population is aged 19 or under, and 35% are between 22 and 44 years of age ^5.

The population pyramid allows us to identify the changes that are taking place in the makeup of the state’s population⁶.

Demographic change in the state is characterized by falling birth, death and fertility rates. These tendencies have resulted in Guanajuato having a predominantly young population⁷.

As for migration, some 11.15% of all Mexican migrants to the United States come from the state of Guanajuato. Furthermore, it is estimated that 5.31% of the state’s 4.65 population work as temporary workers abroad ⁸.

The central region of the state accounts for 70% of these migrants. Of these, the majority are from communities with a population of over 15,000, and from the 22-44 age-bracket ⁹.

The population that lives along the Bajio’s industrial corridor, some 53% of the total, boasts the state’s highest levels of well-being in aspects such as education, health, employment, housing, services and durable goods. Meanwhile, the lowest levels of well-being are to be found in the isolated and difficult to reach communities in the state’s northeast, where just over 1% of the population live.

In the year 2000, health coverage in the state (including the open population and those entitled to coverage) was estimated at 99.84%¹⁰. This, together with sound nutrition and disease prevention strategies, has resulted in a significant improvement in the health of the people of Guanajuato. In Guanajuato, life expectancy in the year 2000 was estimated at 75 years¹¹.

Despite the fact that general health coverage is widespread, there are some regions where the service is lacking. There is a need to conserve and modernize infrastructure and equipment to ensure that the quality and warmth that our society demands of its health services is guaranteed.

In the most defenseless sectors of the population, we face the double challenge of tackling poverty-related illnesses and dealing with the rapid growth in non-transmittable ailments.

Between 1996 and 1999, the main diseases affecting the mortality rate in the state were: infections during the perinatal period, diabetes mellitus, heart complaints, cirrhosis and other liver diseases, cardiovascular complaints, malign tumors, pneumonia and influenza and renal deficiency.

With regard to housing in the state, supply has clearly failed to satisfy demand; it is estimated that there is a shortfall of 99,183 homes. In 1995, there were an average of 5.2 occupants per house, a figure which had fallen slightly to 5.02 by the year 2000 ¹².

One of the most fundamental concerns of the state government regarding infrastructure has been the provision of basic services, given that it considers these an essential factor in promoting development.

In Graph 6, we see the availability of basic services in communities of over 100 inhabitants.

In the year 2000, 79% of the rural population and 95% of the urban population had access to potable water ¹³.

In the same year, the electricity supply reached 98% of all people living in communities of over 100 inhabitants¹⁴.

The main problems regarding the provision of water include outdated tariffs and a register of users that also needs to be updated, deficient service and the absence of a culture of water conservation ¹⁵. With regard to drainage, coverage reaches 35% of those living in communities of over 100 inhabitants¹⁶.

Some 75% of the water supply comes from underground sources and is extracted from wells. The remaining 26% is taken from the surface.

There is a serious shortfall in the supply of water. Around 4,195 million cubic meters are extracted annually from underground water supplies, of which 2,949 million are replaced, leaving a deficit of 1,246 million cubic meters (Table 1). Furthermore, fulfilling NOM-01 requires the construction of 18 wastewater treatment plants in an equal number of main municipal towns.

It is estimated that around 4,600 tons of solid waste are generated per day in the state of Guanajuato, the majority of which is discharged into open-air dumps¹⁷. The improper disposal of this waste contaminates soil, underground water deposits and the atmosphere¹⁸. Studies into domestic and industrial waste generation are needed, including research into the potential for their recovery and recycling. In most cases, the final disposal of solid waste in the state takes place with no regard for the official corresponding norms.

  OBJECTIVES

1.1 To provide organizational processes that encourage regional and local development, whilst respecting the dignity and autonomy of all people and communities.

Goals to 2006

• To establish and support community councils in all communities of over 100 inhabitants.

• To promote self-sufficient planning, as well as the carrying out of 5,000 community development projects, including productive and basic services projects.

• Strategies

1.1.1 Enhance the public’s management skills in order to improve human and social development within the state.

1.1.2 Support community-planning processes, particularly in underprivileged rural and urban areas.

1.1.3 Coordinate government programs and projects that deal with human and social development.

• Actions

• Integrate the community councils of communities of over 100 inhabitants, thereby guaranteeing their participation in the development process.

• Create development support programs in rural and priority areas.

• Establish a system to evaluate the impact of the aforementioned programs.

• Promote self-sufficient planning in development projects.

• Carry out population and statistical studies that will serve as the basis for creating human and social development programs.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE

• Goals to 2006

• To introduce 200 production and exchange systems for basic products amongst communities that make up a micro-region, generally within one municipality.

• To encourage the implementation of 1,200 productive projects in isolated and underdeveloped communities.

• To train 15,000 people involved in local production and exchange systems.

• Strategies

1.2.1 Stimulate the supply of goods and services in communities, involving the human and material resources they have to offer.

• Strengthen the capacity of underprivileged rural and urban communities to be self-supporting.

• Create economic solidarity programs.

• Create financing schemes to suit the reality of rural conditions.

• Create a new Department of Health and Social Development.

• Goals to 2006

• To reduce the average mortality rate to 2.2 per thousand inhabitants.

• To increase the average life expectancy of the population to 77 years.

• To reduce the number of years that are lost through premature death or disability by 30% (i.e. to extend years of life).

• To raise the level of nutrition of 32,000 children under five.

• Strategies

2.1.1 Strengthen the regulation and development of the sanitation system.

2.1.2 Greater research into public health and epidemiology.

2.1.3 Consolidate the links between the department of health and public, social and private institutionas, as well as educational institutions.

2.1.4 Expand the coverage of nutritional support programs.

2.1.5 Encourage the production of food for personal consumption.

• Tackle health problems related to the use and abuse of alcohol, tobacco and other addictive substances.

• Create health programs for women and children.

• Develop cost-effective treatment for non-transmittable ailments, wounds, disabilities and mental health conditions.

2.2. To guarantee access to primary health care for all the people of the state.

• Goals to 2006

• To ensure that 100% of all Guanajuato citizens have access to health services with a maximum travel time involved of half an hour in urban areas and one hour in rural.

• Strategies

2.2.1. Develop mechanisms to eliminate the cultural and geographic barriers that impede access to and the use of health services.

• ACTIONS

• Increase investment in preventative medical.

• Strengthen primary health care.

• Ensure medical units are supplied with sufficient medicines.

• Include cost-effective treatment in the basic package of secondary health care.

2.3. Improve the quality and warmth of medical services.

• Goals to 2006

• To increase the coverage and further advance the modernization of health infrastructure and equipment.

• To improve the general quality of attention in health services both in the basic package of services, and at every level of specialization, within a framework of warmth and professionalism.

2.3.1 Encourage a professional and service ethic based on respect for people’s dignity.

2.3.2 Increase investment in health sector infrastructure.

2.3.3. Identify alternative sources of finance to fund the development of health sector infrastructure.

• ACTIONS

• Set up permanent training and updating programs.

• Modernize Leon Regional Hospital.

• Inaugurate services at Celaya General Hospital and Penjamo’s central hospital.

• Expand Salvatierra General Hospital.

• Build the new Dolores Hidalgo General Hospital, as well as the San Felipe and San José Iturbide Health Centers; furthermore, build Leon Pediatric Hospital and the State Specialist Hospital.

• Renovate facilities and equip the existing 456 primary health care units.

• To increase the level of women’s participation in the workforce by 45%.

• Strategies

3.1.1 Initiate a gender policy that will ensure that women have fair and equal access to society’s goods and services.

3.1.2 Stimulate the equal participation of women in the decision-making processes of family, social, political, work, economic and cultural life.

3.1.3 Firmly establish equal opportunities for women in education.

3.1.4 Create gender impartiality in development opportunities.

• Create a program of productive projects that include a gender perspective.

• Grant scholarships to a greater number of women to enable them to gain further education and work training.

• Carry out projects aimed at improving women’s health and increasing their opportunities to gain fruitful employment in dignified jobs.

• Reinforce the activities of Guanajuato’s Institute of Women

• To improve the attention given to victims of family violence.

• To set up permanent prevention programs to deal with violence in families.

3.2.1. Stimulate public participation in programs related to the prevention of family violence and attention provided to its victims.

3.2.1 Support centers to provide assistance to the victims of family violence.

3.2.2 Training and publicity to prevent family violence.

• Provide general assistance to the victims of family violence.

• Carry out campaigns to reduce family violence.

• Create a program of general support for the victims of family violence.

• Goals to 2006

•To reduce the mortality rate for children under five by 40%.

• To reduce perinatal mortality by 25%.

• To reduce the mortality rate for children under one year old by 20%.

• To provide sound attention to 20,000 elderly people living in precarious conditions.

• To increase the quality and quantity of the services provided to those needing rehabilitation and physiotherapy.

• To give 50,000 packages of basic provisions per year to families in underprivileged rural and suburban communities.

3.3.1. Create programs to attend to the needs of priority groups.

3.3.2. Provide dietary supplements for children in underprivileged communities.

3.3.3. Provide all-round attention and nutritional counseling for the elderly.

3.3.4. Inter-institutional cooperation to meet the needs of the elderly.

3.3.5. Expand the coverage of services and facilities.

3.3.6. Provide counseling to the family members of the people who make up these priority groups.

• Provide a range of aid and development options to children throughout the state’s municipalities involved in begging.

• Attend to the needs of those elderly people living in vulnerable conditions.

• Promote the creation of day centers for the elderly.

• Provide guidance for families with members who have special needs.

• Promote centers to aid family development and unity.

• Provide all-round attention. Including food, scholarships and health services to these sectors of the population.

• Goals to 2006

• To create conditions that will encourage potential emigrants to stay in their home communities and boost the growth of development options.

• To ensure that the mailing services used by migrants to send funds home provide the highest level of security at a minimum cost.

3.4.1 Establish a thorough policy of attention to migrant needs.

3.4.2 Give preference in community development support programs to those highly underprivileged communities with a tendency to lose members through emigration.

3.4.3 Boost the economic development of the areas of greatest emigration, encouraging productive investment by those very migrants.

3.4.4 Further the human and social development of migrants and their families, and their access to health and basic services.

3.4.5 Protect the cultural values of our region so as to impede the phenomenon of ‘transculturization’.

3.4.6 Strengthen the system of support centers - Casas Guanajuato – which provide assistance to Guanajuato emigrants associations.

3.4.7 Promote respect for the human rights of Guanajuato migrants, both at home and abroad.

• Carry out social, human and economic development projects that benefit those communities that are losing members through emigration, in an attempt to give them reason to stay.

• Coordinate the participation of the various government offices and departments in community well-being projects and link these activities with community councils in those communities that are losing members through emigration.

• Publicize and carry out programs to bring together resources for public investment in US communities where there is a population of Guanajuato migrants.

• Set up and maintain Cases Guanajuato support centers in foreign communities with Guanajuato migrant populations.

• Promote the Migrant Families Assistance program in Guanajuato communities in the US and in the state.

• Carry out studies to identify ways to reduce the cost of sending funds home and encourage their being put to better use.

• Create and maintain the State Commission for Migrant and Migrant Family Affairs.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE

To promote the general sustainable development of all autochthonous ethnic communities,

3.5.1 Create and maintain indigenous community councils.

3.5.2 Develop the capacity of indigenous representatives to organize, plan, be represented and participate in the solution of the problems facing their community.

3.5.3 Promote productive projects amongst indigenous communities and the sustainable use of the natural resources available to them.

3.5.4 Consolidate the program of intercultural bilingual education.

3.5.5 Provide support for traditional and herbal medicine, as well as emergency and community health care.

3.5.6 Reinforce respect for indigenous people’s rights.

• ACTIONS

• Create service and development programs for indigenous communities.

• Goals to 2006

• To set up 5 development centers for indigenous migrants in the main cities concerned (Leon, Irapuato, Celaya, Guanajuato and San Miguel de Allende).

• Strategies

3.6.1 Provide support through state, municipal and federal departments for production and marketing projects that involve artisans.

3.6.2 Provide support for health, education technical training programs for migrant families through the relevant state government office or department.

3.6.3 Support the work of research and further education institutions involved in providing advice centers that work with indigenous migrants regarding their development and general well-being.

• ACTIONS

• Carry out diagnostic studies into the phenomenon of indigenous migration in the 5 main cities concerned (Leon, Irapuato, Celaya, Guanajuato and San Miguel de Allende).

• Identify and support those civil organizations capable of taking responsibility for centers that work with indigenous migrants regarding their development and general well-being.

• Goals to 2006

• To initiate the construction of 50,000 homes.

• To offer 17,000 lots in urban areas.

• To grant 18,000 home improvement loans at favorable rates in urban and rural areas.

• Strategies

4.1.1. Design housing construction and improvement programs for rural and urban populations.

4.1.2. Simplify the rules and procedures related to housing development, whilst ensuring respect for environmental and urban regulations.

4.1.3. Provide support for housing construction and own-home building.

4.1.4. Collaborate with local authorities to ensure the regularization of unauthorized housing developments.

4.1.5. Acquire the necessary land reserves.

4.1.6. Promote architectural projects that involve the efficient use of natural resources.

4.1.7. Stimulate the creation and adoption of housing production technology.

• ACTIONS

• Adapt and equip with urban utilities land that is available and suitable for housing.

• Promote the regularization and simplification of administrative procedures.

• Design and implement programs to regularize property ownership and utility provision in unauthorized housing developments.

• Goals to 2006

• To guarantee the supply of water to the state’s communities for the next 25 years.

• To expand the coverage of the basic utilities of electricity, roads and telephones in communities with a population of over 100 inhabitants.

• To increase the rate of potable water coverage to 85% of communities with a population of over 100 inhabitants.

• To increase the rate of sanitation coverage (drains and/or composting toilets) to 42% of communities with a population of over 100 inhabitants.

• To expand the rate of coverage of potable water to 95% of municipal main towns.

• To increase the rate of sewer coverage to reach 90% of main municipal towns.

• To increase the rate of drainage coverage to reach 80% of the key towns of the state’s municipalities.

• To commence construction work on the Rio Verde and Rio Santa Mario reservoirs, and inaugurate the Vaqueros reservoir. Furthermore, to bring about the construction and operation of wastewater treatment plants in 18 municipalities.

4.2.1 Direct public investment aimed at rectifying the existing shortfalls in water, telephone, electric, sanitation and road infrastructure.

4.2.2 Promote programs to extend the coverage of basic utilities in communities where there are shortfalls, in coordination with municipal authorities.

4.2.3 Construct and restore sanitation systems (drains, composting toilets).

4.2.4 Restore, modernize and construct hydraulic infrastructure.

4.2.5 Construct and restore roads.

4.2.6 Construct and restore treatment plants using municipal, state and federal funds.

• ACTIONS

• To carry out infrastructure projects involving basic services using municipal, state, federal and private resources.

• To promote the conservation, rational and efficient use and reuse of water.

1) Instituto Nacional de Estadística Geografía e Informática (INEGI) - National Institute of Geographic and informatics Statistics: Preliminary results of the twenty-first census of population and housing, 2000.

2) Estadísticas Históricas de México - Historical Statistics of Mexico - Volume I, INEGI 1999.

3) Calculations based on preliminary findings of the twenty-first census of population and housing, INEGI 2000.

4) Preliminary findings of the twenty-first census of population and housing, INEGI 2000. (Census sample tables, expanded questionnaire).

5) Idem.

6) CONAPO. Population Projections 2000, Expanded Questionnaire, XII National Census of Population and Housing 2000.

7) Idem.

8) CONAPO, National Survey of Demographic Conditions 1997.

9) Colegio de la Frontera Norte - Northern Border College - Study of Migration 1997.

10) Government of the State of Guanajuato, 5^th Government Report 2000.

11) CONAPO. Population Projections 2000.

12) Centro de Información Guanajuato. (INFO) - Guanajuato Information Center - Guanajuato in Figures: Performance indices 1995-2000.

13) Comisión Estatal de Agua de Guanajuato (CEAG). - Guanajuato State Water Commission Guanajuato State Hydraulic Plan.

14) Secretaría de Desarrollo Social y Humano - Department of Human and Social Development; Central Office of Investment for Development; Department of Investment Promotion.

15) CEAG, Performance Report 1995-2000.

16) Department of Human and Social Development; Central Office of Investment for Development; Department of Investment Promotion.

17) IEE, Guanajuato State Environmental Report 2000.

18) IEE, Guanajuato State Environmental Report 2000.