DEVELOPMENT-LATIN
AMERICA:
Local Innovation - Fresh
and Fair
By
Darío Montero
PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil,
(IPS) - This is no
ordinary contest. The
participants are from
the most vulnerable
areas of Latin America,
and they are already
winners because they
have been selected out
of 900 projects applying
for the Social
Innovation Fair
organised by ECLAC in
this southern Brazilian
city.
Programmes to care for
street children, plans
for literacy campaigns,
experiences in
incorporating disabled
youngsters in mainstream
education, and novel
proposals from
indigenous communities
to combine environmental
protection and economic
development have met in
Porto Alegre under the
auspices of the Economic
Commission for Latin
America and the
Caribbean (ECLAC) and
the U.S. W. K. Kellogg
Foundation.
Among them is a project
for managing and
treating sewage by the
town council of San
Rafael de la Laguna,
about 200 kilometres
from the capital of
Ecuador and at an
altitude of 2,000 metres
above sea level.
"The most important
aspect is the backing
and recognition we have
already received, just
by coming to the fair,
although the prize money
would come in very
handy," Juan Aguilar,
the manager of an
indigenous community of
craftspeople in Totora
Sisa, told IPS.
Since 2000, they have
worked on protecting a
nearby lagoon, which has
resulted in controlling
the growth of nuisance
aquatic plants like
duckweed and water
lilies, and optimising
the availability of
totora reed, fibres from
which are used to make a
wide range of items for
domestic use and
decorative purposes.
José Luis Machinea,
executive secretary of
ECLAC, said the fair is
an excellent experience
of public bodies and a
private foundation
working together, at a
time when it has become
clear that the market
cannot automatically
solve everything, as was
claimed in the 1990s,
nor can the state manage
everything, as it once
did.
In a large fairground
erected in the central
Alfandega Plaza and the
adjacent Santander
Cultural Centre, people
undertaking hard work in
the Andean mountains and
valleys of Bolivia, Peru
and Ecuador, volunteers
and experts caring for
street children in
Mexico, Brazilian
literacy workers and
Peruvian women activists
fighting domestic
violence have all been
mingling and meeting,
from Tuesday to Friday.
Five projects emerged as
winners of cash prizes
from the Kellogg
Foundation and technical
support and follow-up
from ECLAC, which will
provide them with
backing and credibility
in the eyes of other
international bodies and
the local and national
governments of each
country, in an attempt
to widen their
participation and
influence, according to
the head of the ECLAC
project on Social
Innovation Experiences,
María Elisa Bernal.
"In our view, the
contest is useful
insofar as it allows us
to identify successful
projects, on the basis
of which we can promote
their creative
replication, using the
technical skills we
have," Bernal told IPS
with enthusiasm and
conviction, pleased with
the results of the fair,
which is the third
annual event of its
kind.
Over the past three
years, 3,600 community
initiatives of all sorts
and characteristics,
from community
organisation efforts to
those with social
purposes, have been
scrutinised by ECLAC,
and during that period a
total of 48 finalists
have been selected.
The selection process
itself was one of the
objects of the exercise
for the regional U.N.
agency, because it
allowed it to gain
in-depth knowledge of
3,600 projects which
arose from the local
communities who are the
projects’ beneficiaries
themselves, without
having been imposed from
outside, which might
have resulted in
failure.
Machinea said that ECLAC
embarked on these
contests, which are
atypical in that they
are not limited to the
traditional functions
attributed to these
events, because one of
its concerns is to
discover best practices
to combat poverty,
promote decentralisation,
and other social
challenges.
These contests, in fact,
have the virtue of
tracking initiatives
that have emerged from
the local community
itself, in a region
where the community is
increasingly important
in the fight against
marginalisation and
violence. They are a
means of supporting
local projects and of
trying to multiply them,
he said.
Innovation is the key
feature that the
selectors are looking
for, because the main
goal pursued by ECLAC is
to use its influence to
achieve multiplication
of the projects in the
rest of Latin America.
"That’s why the idea is
not so much to increase
resources and widen the
field of projects coming
forward, but to fight
for the initiative to
continue over time,"
Machinea told IPS.
The notion arose from
the Kellogg Foundation’s
desire to do something
different to mark its
75th anniversary, apart
from the traditional
social assistance that
it has funded in Latin
America.
The Foundation was
created in 1930 by
breakfast cereals
pioneer Will Keith
Kellogg, with the aim of
"helping people to help
themselves."
"That’s why they decided
to award a prize for
social innovators, and
they approached ECLAC,
in the knowledge that we
cover the whole region,
which ensures
impartiality and
provides analytical
capability," said
Bernal.
We asked ourselves at
the time what we could
learn in general from
these social
experiences, what a
community can do to
fight poverty, domestic
violence, etc. I think
this helps us spread
information, which is
precisely one of ECLAC’s
tasks, said Machinea.
In terms of anti-poverty
programmes, Latin
America is an example to
turn to, while we have a
lot to learn from Asia’s
experiences in the field
of science and
technology, he said.
He recalled that Latin
America has been very
innovative in terms of
plans to overcome
poverty and foment
social inclusion, and
there are many projects
going on today, some
more successful than
others, he said, without
naming any particular
examples.
Bernal added that "the
number of finalists has
not been the same every
year. It’s shrinking,
because as knowledge
about innovations
spreads, it becomes
harder to find new
projects."
Winners will receive
from the Kellogg
Foundation amounts
ranging from 30,000
dollars for first prize
to 5,000 dollars for
fifth prize, and ECLAC
will provide technical
and institutional
support. "But the most
important thing for
these projects is the
credibility they will
gain in their own
countries as a result of
our backing," she said.
For example, Community
Ombudswomen were
established as a
response to domestic
violence in the Peruvian
department (province) of
Cusco, and after
receiving a prize at the
Social Innovation Fair
last year, they were
regarded as valid
spokeswomen by the
justice system.
"Now the justice system
comes to them for
practical advice. And
the system has spread to
other communities in
Peru," said Bernal.
"We keep in touch and
follow up their
victories and their
difficulties, and we
create a kind of network
between the projects, in
which we are constantly
together. This is a
support mechanism in
itself, beyond what we
can offer on the
technical side," she
said. |
