3 Assignments

Governance

Ecuador is the fourth-smallest country in South America and 78th in the world (Worldometers, 2016). It is known conventionally as the Republic of Ecuador, and the government type is presidential republic. The government is made up of the Executive Branch, with President Rafael Correra as Chief of State and Head of Government. Elections are typically held every four years and results are a percent of vote by party. However, as outlined below, Correra caused civil unrest when he maneuvered constitutional reforms to increase the power of the office of the president, which allowed him to run for re-election. Ecuador has twelve political parties. Alianza PAIS movement is the current party in power.

Ecuador’s repressive political environment makes investment increasingly risky. By controlling trade and investment, the government is forcing closer economic ties with Venezuela and China. The judicial system remains vulnerable to political interference. Ecuador is part of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) that was organized in 2004 and aims for social, political, and economic integration in Latin American and Cuba ("Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America", 2016). It is led by socialist Venezuela, and has strengthened its relations with Iran and Russia and with China, the major buyer of its oil exports. The judiciary is not independent, and the Inter-American Human Rights Commission has criticized Ecuador for restricting freedom of the press. Correa relies on heavy public-sector spending to reward his core supporters (Index of Economic Freedom, 2016).

Corruption

A country's corruption index can be scored. Since 1995, the Corruption Perceptions Index has been scoring countries' corruption based on expert assessments and opinion surveys (Transparency International, 2016). A corrupt country would likely engage in bribery at the governmental level, does little to stem smuggling, or does not protect companies against blackmail.

Ecuador has a serious problem with corruption. It scores a low 32/100 on the corruption scale, and ranks 107/168 countries in 2015 (Transparency, 2016). Eighty-percent of the countries in the world have a better corruption, which means its corruption is better than only 20% of the countries. By comparison, Canada scored 83/100 and ranks 9/168 (Transparency, 2016).

Ecuador has many examples of corruption in the country. It was centre to a large organized contraband trade, and nearly all police officers or public officials were benefiting monetarily from it (Global Security, 2016). One main problem was that the borders between Ecuador and Peru and Colombia were open and poorly controlled. Even then, any attempt to control that by placing officials at the border was compromised because of the high level of bribery or blackmail. Offering or accepting bribes can means up to five years in prison, but this law is not consistently enforced. Ecuador has laws and regulations to combat official corruption, but they seem to be inadequately enforced. Again, because officials take payments and bribes, these laws and regulations do not hold weight. Dispute settlements cannot be reached fairly because of lack of transparency and ineffectiveness in the judicial system (Global Security, 2016). A weak judiciary and lack of investigative capacity contribute to an environment of corruption. In 2015, the government closed Fundamedios, an NGO that had openly criticized it (Index of Economic Freedom, 2016). Ecuador decriminalized intellectual property rights violations in 2014 (Index of Economic Freedom, 2016).

Recent examples of corruption include $13.3 million in stolen money from the municipality account by a mayor of a town in 2014, and the falsification of academic credentials and irregular loans of former Central Bank president in 2014 (Global Security, 2016).

Ecuador has a long history of civil unrest, related to being ruled under the exiled former President Abdala Bucaram. He was one of Ecuador’s most corrupt leaders, raiding the public till, engaging in fraud, and worsening poverty (Global Security, 2016). In 2015, there were protests against the current government (Prange, 2015). The people feel that the government is too authoritarian and limits their freedoms. The government also places limits on freedom of the press. Further, President Rafael Correa maneuvered constitutional reforms to increase the power of the office of the president, which allowed him to run for re-election (Lamaitre, 2015).

Control of Corruption

According to the Worldwide Governance Indicators, in 2014, Ecuador scored 21.15, which was more than a 10 percent drop from 2013 (World Bank, 2016). Worldwide Governance Indicators scores the quality of a country’s governance based on numerous factors. Control of corruption is one of them. To compare, Canada scored 93.75. This means that Ecuador has serious issues with corruption among businesses, public officials, and politicians. Not only that, the country does little to combat corruption issues, which makes doing business in Ecuador risky. Ecuador is not even a signatory to the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery (Lamaitre, 2015).

Gender Inequalities in Politics and Ecuador's Reponse

As mentioned in the social part of this project, gender discrimination could account for the lack of women in parliament and ministerial positions.

From 1995 to 2005, Ecuador's political environment was unstable. It underwent three different governments in five years, several structural adjustments, and erosion of democratic process (Vega, 2005). Women and children were the most affected during this unstable process. Despite this, much progress was made in terms of recognition of women’s rights and government policies on gender issues.

A women's movement was inspired after the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1996. The Equal Opportunity Plan was created as part of the process led by the National Directorate for Women, DINAMU (now CONAMU) with the participation of 200 women (Vega, 2005). In 1997, "an institutional, state system [was consolidated], responsible for guaranteeing, implementing, and requiring recognition of women’s rights, with the establishment of the National Council for Women as the oversight organ for government policies with a gender perspective" (Vega, 2005). That same year, the Office of the Assistant Director for Women and Children in the Office of the Ombudsman (Defensoría del Pueblo) was established.

Gender issues became a focus in the government once again in 1998 by the inclusion of women’s rights in the Political Constitution (Vega, 2005), which reinforced equal opportunities for men and women. Additionally, CONAMU has focused on "formulating, crafting, and guiding government policies on behalf of women in the areas in which it specializes: violence, education, sexual and reproductive health, the environment, development and local governments" (Vega, 2005).

Although women are vastly underrepresented in government, Ecuador supports initiatives of the women’s movement aimed at increasing women’s participation as candidates in national elections and for senior positions. The Constitution and lower-ranking legislation have provisions designed to promote and increase women’s involvement in politics. Unfortunately, it was not come to fruition. During the 2000 elections, just 25% of positions filled were by women. Women mainly fill local authority positions, particularly in municipalities and on parish boards (Vega, 2005).

Article 102 of the 1998 Constitution establishes that “The State shall promote and guarantee the equitable participation of women and men as candidates in the popular electoral processes, in instances of leadership and decisions in the public arena, in the administration of justice, [and] in the organisms of control and political parties" (Vega, 2005). A law amending the Elections Act stated that at least 30% of the candidates on political party lists had to be women.

Although women still have a long way before they achieve political equality, intiatives are in place to help them achieve it. However, some discrimination about women's roles and how women behave is still entrenched in Ecuadorian culture.

Government Progress

Despite these problems, Ecuador’s economy is stable, growing by 5.2% in 2012 and 3.8% in 2014 (Prange, 2015).

The president supports open borders and guarantees the free movement of people through Ecuador’s borders. However, Ecuador has experienced a number of border conflicts. Recently, there have been tensions over the military incursions by Colombia into Ecuador and the growing number of Colombian refugees into Ecuador (Karim, 2010). Further, there is a major problem of drug smuggling passing through Ecuador’s open and often unprotected boarders. The United States has concerns about undocumented migration, with people using Ecuador as a “staging ground” for entry into the States (Karim, 2010). Drug trafficking, illegal mining, human trafficking, and smuggling are issues which have been a concern for authorities in both countries. Ecuador recognizes that smuggling is causing problems for businesses, who cannot compete with the low cost of smuggled goods.

In September 2016, Ecuador planned to cut border security spending by 80% following the peace deal signed between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in December 2015 (Sanchez, 2016). FARC is a guerrilla organization in Colombia, and insurgents regularly move between borders. Ecuador spends around USD$120 million on border security with a deployment of 10,000-11,000 troops, Correa said. The country recently established a new joint task force (Unidad Integrada de Control Fronterizo (UICF) in 2016 to crack down on crimes across its border with Colombia (Sanchez, 2016). In 2016, the emphasis on anti-smuggling efforts has resulted in around $915,000 worth of goods being seized so far. Last year, just $78,500 worth of goods was seized (Romero, 2016).

Ecuador’s national plans on good governance is developing widely. First, their medical coverage not only appeases the people but helps them in their retirement. Ecuador is now removing age and pre-existing medical condition restrictions for those who want to join the system voluntarily at a price of $70 per month (Peddicord, 2014). Medical coverage includes doctor’s visits, routine medical services, and dentist visits.

Ecuador has heavily invested in education, particularly for women. Education plans and policies are listed under Social Indicators.

Ecuador is revamping social spending and developing a specific strategy to enhance social protection and alleviate poverty. The country has made strides in implementing inclusive social policies to combat inequality. Ecuador’s Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program, the Human Development Grant, has been highlighted as “an innovation in effective targeting and substantial coverage” (Nehring, 2012). It emerged out of Ecuador's work to make changes to its social assistance programs in 2003. It is beginning to establish a new vision for economic inclusion, transparency and citizen participation. CCT encourages parents to keep their children in school. It is recognized that parents' children's labour is needed to help the family survive, so many families take their children out of school. This program aims to offer cash in exchange to keep their children in school and have their children regularly visit health services institutions (Nehring, 2012).

Some programs include:

· Bono de Desarrollo Humano – This program aims to reduce poverty. It begain in 1998 and has expanded its services since. The government transfers $35 on the condition that each child in the family attends school to prevent families from taking children out of school to work. This program was created from Ecuador's goal to increase school attendance and graduation rates. It also tries to prevent youth from entering the informal sector where they may be taken advantage of, abused, or lost.

· Pension Asistencial – The program aims to reduce poverty for the disabled and the elderly for people who do not have a private social security pension scheme. This is an unconditional monthly transfer of $35. A law made in 2001 to completely overhaul the system has not yet been implemented.

· Bono de Emergencia – This program helps to alleviate effects of natural disasters by giving two total sums of $45. Ecuador is prone to natural diasasters such as flooding. The payments can help to recover losses and fix damages.

(Nehring, 2012)

Ecuador has worked to help and protect children and youth. The country encourages children to complete school by giving families money per month per child based on school attendance. Ecuador’s Joint Programme improved opportunities for youth experiencing social, economic, gender, land and cultural inequities by fostering decent employment and economic enterprises. The government allocated 2 million for youth enterprises. Youth in the program were involved in decision making and planning on the future of youth entrepreneurship. The government has a budget to continue running this program every year. The program started in 2009 and continues to run, giving youth entrepreneurship skills (MDG, n.d.).

References