Jorge Bela, Cali Community Manager
A key issue at the time of designing and implementing programs aimed at improving conditions in slums is to consider how to involve potential beneficiaries in the process. The awards Por Una Ciudad Mejor, created in 1998 by an alliance of foundations and NGOs, have taken a decisive step in the right direction at the time of fostering such involvement. Community organizations are asked to present innovative solutions to specific problems in their neighborhoods. Taking into consideration their ability to transform in a positive and innovative way their communities, three prizes are awarded, and ten proposals are given honorable mentions. In the current edition the first prize winner gets 13 million COP (about US$ 6,500), second prize amounts to 7 million COP (about US$ 3,500), and the third prize amounts to 5 million COP (about US$2,500). The award money is to be used by the organizations to fund the implementation of their proposals.
Cali joined the initiative in 2006 (Bogotá, Buenaventura and Cartagena are the other cities were prizes are currently awarded). Success has been immediate for Cali: an average of 94 initiatives compete for the awards each year, a total of more than 600, and 24 prizes awarded since 2006. In 2012 winners in previous years were invited to participate in the “Cali Como Vamos, por una Cali Mejor” seminar, whose proceedings and recommendations were used in the elaboration of the Plan de Desarrollo de Cali 2012-2015, an official document where the main strategic lines of action by the city government are outlined. Thus a full circle was closed: an alliance of private organizations mobilize the communities to make innovative proposals which are later considered and even assumed by the local government to be applied elsewhere in the city.
Among the award-winning initiatives mentioned in “Cali Como Vamos, por una Cali Mejor” is one proposed by the parents association at the school Institución Educativa Cacique Calarcá at Villa Carmelo. The association created educational food growth programs for the students and their families. The goal was to improve food safety while generating additional sources of income for the community. Another related proposal was made by Ecolprovys, a community organization in the Altos de Menga, comuna 1 and 18 areas. Ecoprolvys advocated the creation of a network of not-for-profit farms and urban composting posts in urban areas. These networks would help to alleviate nutritional deficiencies in the poorest neighborhoods, at the same time that allowed for the recycling of some organic waste.
The Cali awards are sponsored by the Corona, Plan, Bolívar Davivienda, Alvaralice, and Carvajal foundations, the Sociedad Portuaria de Buenaventura, Funcicar, the Cali Chamber of Commercey, El Tiempo, El País, Noticiero 90 Minutos and the Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios. Even though the amount of money awarded is relatively small, it is sufficient to set the initiatives in motion. In addition, the awards give local organizations visibility, occasionally even at the national level. The number, size and name recognition of the sponsoring organizations also insures significant social repercussions. The participation of winning organizations in the formulation of public policy is also a strong incentive for these communities.
If the slums can be considered as laboratories for urban innovation, there is no better way to promote and to insure the effectiveness of such innovation than to ask its inhabitants to propose ideas and then give them the means to implement them.
Photo credit: David Alejandro Rendón