Tuesday 02 December 2008, San José, Costa
Rica
DEVELOPMENT
LATIN AMERICA:
The Greater the
Solidarity, the Lower
the Cost
By Darío Montero
MEDELLÍN, Colombia
(IPS) - Football in
Belize does not aim for
international
achievements, but that
does not matter to the
environmental group that
uses the sport to
recruit children and
young people to fight
for the protection of
local biodiversity under
threat.
Now the Economic
Commission for Latin
America and the
Caribbean (ECLAC) is
promoting it to the
major leagues.
The uniqueness,
effectiveness and
simplicity of the
Freshwater Cup
Environmental Football
League were the key to
its being awarded first
prize on Nov. 28 in the
Fourth Experiences in
Social Innovation
contest, organised by
ECLAC, in the
northwestern Colombian
city of Medellín, at the
end of the long annual
selection process among
nearly 900 community
projects.
"We use the power of
football to involve the
community in
environmental work in an
area where biodiversity
is as rich as it is
fragile, and we already
have 10 adult teams and
six teams of teenagers,"
Celia Mahung, one of
those responsible for
the project, told IPS.
"This 30,000 dollar
prize will allow us to
include women's
football," she said.
A football league to
commit players, their
families and the
community to protecting
the environment, like
the one set up by the
non-governmental Toledo
Institute for
Development and
Environment in Belize,
is an example of a
sustainable social
project which is
"low-cost and easily
reproducible," said
economist Norah Rey de
Marulanda, spokeswoman
for the evaluation
committee.
The final exhibition of
the contest, organised
since 2004 by ECLAC with
the support of the
U.S.-based W. K. Kellogg
Foundation, is an
opportunity for
communities with diverse
characteristics,
concerns and places of
origin in Latin America
and the Caribbean to
make themselves known
and, at the same time,
to demonstrate that the
best solutions among and
from society's most
excluded members emerge
from solidarity-based
joint action among the
people themselves.
Holding the fair this
year in the central
square of the University
of Antioquía "confirmed
that the best location
for a fair of this kind
is an academic
environment," María
Elisa Bernal, the head
of the Experiences in
Social Innovation
project at ECLAC, told
IPS.
The Nov. 26-28
exhibition was visited
by a steady flow of
students, professors and
researchers, she said.
At the closing ceremony,
the fifth Contest for
2009 was also launched.
"Although the economic
and financial crisis is
expected to be at its
worst, the contest will
not be affected, because
the Kellogg Foundation
has already assigned
resources to it, and
ECLAC provides technical
and follow-up support,"
she said.
On the contrary, the
importance of
encouraging community
initiatives is greater
than ever, she added.
"These projects ought to
be an inspiration for
governments, because
without the least
hesitation we can tell
them that these are ways
of getting results in
health care, education
or productive
development that are
more efficient and less
costly than traditional
methods," Bernal said.
She described, for
example, the initiative
that took second prize
in 2007, which was a
family-style student
hostel. "It costs seven
time less than the
traditional model of
boarding facilities, and
so offers a convincing
solution in the midst of
the crisis," she said.
Another positive lesson
from this fourth fair,
in Bernal's view, was
the joint activities
with the local
government of the
department (province) of
Antioquía, the municipal
authorities in Medellín,
which is the provincial
capital, the federation
of non-governmental
organisations, and the
university itself.
"This enabled us to
organise thematic forums
for target audiences,
which were attended by
representatives of the
local governments,
academics and the social
organisations that are,
or will be, working on
the themes of each
project," she said.
Clearly enthused, Bernal
said she was confident
that they would be able
to motivate local
authorities from other
parts of Latin America
to get involved in
future social innovation
fairs.
Over its four-year
lifespan, the
Experiences in Social
Innovation contest has
assessed 4,400 projects,
of which 70 have been
selected as finalists
and 21 as award winners.
Rey de Marulanda
emphasised that the high
number of applicants is
due to ECLAC's presence
in the region, and
demonstrates that
society is active from
below, seeking
intelligent solutions
for its pressing
problems.
"When I was invited to
take part in this
project four years ago,
and I was told that
around 1,000
applications were
expected, I thought it
was an exaggeration, but
to my surprise, every
year that extraordinary
level of participation
is repeated," the
Colombian economist told
IPS.
"We eliminate from the
word go any project that
doesn't really involve
community
participation," she
said.
The evaluation committee
is looking for new ways
in which people are
trying to solve old
problems, a premise
which was the original
basis of the Kellogg
Foundation-ECLAC
project.
In order for proposals
to receive backing from
ECLAC, those responsible
must calculate the costs
of the project, even if
not a single cent
changes hands: for
instance, the value of
voluntary work, not
because it is paid but
in order to know how
much that work is worth.
"The value of inputs
used must also be known,
even if many are
donations. It's a key
component of
sustainability," the
expert said.
All these elements
contributed to the
choice of the second
prize for 2008, of
20,000 dollars. It went
to the "Hermes school
conflict management
programme," which
teaches people how to
overcome confrontations
and create a culture of
peace, through
mediation, and reaches
children, parents and
teachers in 225 schools,
in 19 districts in
Bogotá and 10
municipalities in the
neighbouring province of
Cundinamarca.
The third prize, of
15,000 dollars, was
awarded to a programme
from Ecuador called
"Strengthening popular
finances in Azuay and
Cañar: consolidation of
a local development
proposal in the context
of a high level of
international
migration," which
provides banking and
loan services to
low-income sectors,
using funds from
remittances sent home by
Ecuadoreans living
abroad.
"A Roof for Chile: from
'campamento' (shanty
town) to neighbourhood.
Implementing
participative work
groups of residents and
volunteers in the 'campamentos'
of the Metropolitan
Region," won the 10,000
dollar fourth prize.
The fifth prize, of
5,000 dollars, went to a
school in the
northwestern Argentine
province of Jujuy, for
its systematic education
method "Nuestras huellas"
(Our Footprints) which
strengthens the skills
of indigenous children,
recovering the history
of their communities.
Chilean student Pablo
Carvacho said that in
proposals like "A Roof
for Chile," in which he
participates, "we try to
to make the projects as
cooperative as
possible." This is a
guiding principle in all
the experiences
submitted to the
contest.
Carvacho said that in
the case of the Chilean
project, "the
contribution is provided
by the professionals who
work with us for less
than the going rate of
pay."
Active in 13 of the
region's countries, the
goal of "A Roof for
Chile" is to remove
families from their
social exclusion and
connect them to the
formal state networks of
health care, education,
access to justice, and
all the things that are
there for them but they
do not know about.
That is why, at the same
time as they start the
process that will lead
to building houses, they
hold training workshops
covering different
areas, he told IPS.
They have set themselves
an ambitious target, but
are convinced that it is
viable: they want to
eliminate "campamentos"
or slums in Chile by
2010. Problems just seem
to be grist to the mill
of a well-organised
community and a good
cause. |
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