Mission

PROEVAL-RAXMU is an association

• non-profit and non-governmental
• for nature conservation and sustainable development in Guatemala,
• with special focus on the department of Alta Verapaz, central Guatemala,
• with this vision

The Association’s name is a combination of "Evaluated Projects" (PROEVAL for its abbreviation in Spanish), and "Raxmu" from the Q’eqchi’ language, which means fresh and cloudy weather, indicating a change to come.

PROEVAL-RAXMU was founded in July 2002 and is based in the city of Cobán, Alta Verapaz. All founding members are residents in Guatemala and have extensive professional experience in rural development and nature conservation.

PROEVAL-RAXMU was founded as a platform for the non-bureaucratic achievement of projects for conservation, investigation and sustainable rural development. For its adequate administration, PROEVAL-RAXMU guarantees that project funds will be invested effectively. The association works like a platform for those willing to work on projects that contribute to nature conservation. PROEVAL-RAXMU helps seeking funds, and organizes evaluations during the achievement of the project.

Each new project inscribed is carried out under a decentral administration, with institutional support and quality control provided by PROEVAL-RAXMU. New proposals presented to the association, are revised by a group of external evaluators (formed by specialist on the specific subject of each proposal) to analyze if the project can efficiently contribute to conservation and development. Once the new proposals are inscribed in PROEVAL RAXMU, they can be sent to external donors to request funding. The projects approved by the donors must be evaluated externally and independently, by an evaluator assigned with agreement between the project coordinator and PROEVAL-RAXMU. The criteria for evaluating are based on the goals of the project. The process of evaluation is designed in a way that promotes the application of recommendations for improvement.

All projects, their results, evaluations, and experiences, will be published on the PROEVAL-RAXMU web site. This guarantees high transparency and accelerates information interchange, which is very important to contribute to the design and efficiency of future projects. The internet was chosen as media because:

• it is widely accessible.
• it offers the possibility of publishing and easy updating preliminary results and experiences.
• it avoids high publishing costs.
• it reduces the use of natural resources for publishing.

About the internal structure of PROEVAL-RAXMU: The association has a Board of Directors and a team of External Evaluators. The Board of Directors will gather a group of External Evaluators related to the subject of a new project, in order to adequately accompany both planning and accomplishment of the project. Technical control is provided by the assigned Evaluator, and financial control by the Treasurer. The Board of Directors will receive periodical reports.