Governance & Accountability
Naye Xjaw Maya Midwifery International operates through an integrated governance model designed to protect Indigenous leadership while ensuring strong financial, legal, and institutional accountability.
This model has been shaped by direct operational experience and informed by best practices in nonprofit governance, financial management, and cross-border organizational structures. It reflects a deliberate approach to addressing common risks in institutional design, including gaps in accountability, financial control, and asset stewardship.
At the center of the model is a clear principle: programmatic authority remains with Indigenous midwives and community leadership in Guatemala, while administrative, financial, and regulatory systems are structured to support that leadership and sustain the work over time.
This is not a traditional NGO model. It is a locally led system of care supported by an international platform.
Our Structure
Naye Xjaw and Maya Midwifery International are two autonomous organizations with an exclusive relationship and an integrated governance model, functioning as interdependent parts of a single living system, each with distinct and complementary roles.
Asociación Civil Naye Xjaw is the local system in Guatemala. It leads the model of care, defines training approaches, supports and mentors community midwives, delivers services, and holds cultural and programmatic authority.
Maya Midwifery International (MMI) is the international organization that provides technical and administrative support, including biomedical midwifery capacity building, fundraising, grant management, financial administration, compliance, advocacy, and strategic partnerships.
Naye Xjaw leads the model. MMI enables the model.
This relationship allows care, leadership, and decision-making to remain rooted in community, while also providing the financial systems and institutional support required for long-term sustainability.
How Decision-Making Works
Programmatic authority resides with Indigenous midwives and community leadership in Guatemala.
They define priorities related to care delivery, clinical practice, cultural knowledge, and community health needs. Their authority is grounded in practice, territory, and community trust. It does not come from external designation.
This leadership follows Maya cosmovision, where authority is not based on hierarchy, but on relationship, knowledge, and collective responsibility.
In practice, this means ancestral knowledge guides decisions, community experience defines authority, and no single voice imposes control over the system.
External structures, including U.S.-based administration and boards, do not determine programmatic direction. Their role is to support, not override, Indigenous leadership.
The Role of Midwives
Maya midwives are at the center of the system. They are not beneficiaries of the work. They are the foundation of it.
They provide care across the full continuum of reproductive health, including prenatal care, birth, postpartum support, and community-based reproductive health services. They also carry ancestral knowledge, train the next generation of midwives, and sustain trusted relationships that no external institution can replicate.
Their authority is operational as well as cultural. Decision-making over care and practice originates with them, and the broader organizational structure exists to sustain that authority.
The Role of Administration
Administration is designed to align with Indigenous leadership and make the system viable without redefining its authority.
In Guatemala, administrative leadership supports program coordination, financial management, legal compliance, and operational continuity. This team works closest to the midwives and communities, translating decisions into implementation and supporting daily operations.
In the United States, MMI supports fundraising, donor stewardship, grant management, financial administration, regulatory compliance, and strategic partnerships. This structure helps secure and manage the resources needed to sustain the work over time.
Administration contributes structure, technical criteria, and systems. It does not replace ancestral knowledge or community legitimacy.
The Role of the Board
Boards serve an oversight function. They do not direct programmatic work.
The Guatemala Board supports legal governance, organizational oversight, and alignment with Indigenous leadership.
The U.S. Board supports regulatory compliance, financial accountability, and institutional integrity.
Together, these boards help maintain transparency, mission alignment, and responsible governance across both entities.
Financial Accountability
Funds are administered through defined financial systems designed to ensure transparency, control, and alignment with programmatic priorities.
Financial management includes budgeting aligned with Indigenous-defined priorities, documented approval and disbursement processes, financial tracking and reconciliation, and separation of roles across authorization, execution, and oversight.
Resources are mobilized and administered through MMI in the United States and disbursed in support of priorities defined by Indigenous leadership in Guatemala.
This structure allows the organization to meet international compliance requirements while keeping programmatic direction anchored in the community-based system the funds are intended to support.
Oversight and Safeguards
The governance model is structured to prevent concentration or misuse of power.
Leadership, administration, and oversight are intentionally separated. Independent boards in Guatemala and the United States provide governance and fiduciary oversight. Internal financial controls, reporting systems, ethical safeguards, and defined governance agreements across entities help ensure accountability throughout the system.
No individual or entity can unilaterally control decision-making, finances, or operations.
This separation is essential to the integrity of the model. It protects Indigenous authority while ensuring responsible stewardship of resources.
Why This Model Matters
Many organizations struggle when decision-making becomes disconnected from the communities they serve, or when financial control becomes concentrated in a single institution.
Naye Xjaw was built differently.
By separating programmatic authority, administration, and oversight, the model protects Indigenous self-determination while ensuring the systems needed for operational and financial accountability.
The result is a structure that keeps leadership where it belongs, supports effective implementation, and creates the conditions for long-term resilience.