EspañolINTERNATIONAL COOPERATION AND PRODUCTIVE DEVELOPMENT IN ESMERALDAS-ECUADOR: CURRENT CHARACTERISTICS AND CHALLENGES IN THE PANDEMIC PERIOD Manuscrito recibido: 29/11/2020 Aceptado: 12/05/2021

Abstract

This paper studies the importance of international cooperation for productive sectors in Esmeraldas and the possible challenges it faces after the global pandemic. This study is taking as reference the five principles of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness. For this, the cocoa sector of Esmeraldas has been taken as a case study.

Through a qualitative approach, the interaction between cocoa producing organizations, international cooperation actors and the GADPE is described. The data have been collected since 2018 by unstructured interviews applied to three of the most important cocoa organizations in the Province, to the Director of International Cooperation of the GADPE and two foreign NGOs whose cooperation projects are carried out in the cocoa sector.

The research shows important changes in relation to the decentralized management of the IDC in Esmeraldas, aligned with the five principles of the Paris Declaration. However, the results are meager in terms of development in rural sectors such as those of the Province and especially in the cocoa sector. The data are used to generate a prospective study in the post-pandemic period.