Set up your own bank When your bank says no, unite with your neighbors. People need to increase their incomes and become financially wise to get out of poverty. To facilitate this, the poor require the same credit and savings opportunities as the rich, but on a smaller scale. Unfortunately, residents of small communities very rarely have to access stable financial services and are instead forced to use informal financial mechanisms such as moneylenders. Such services are risky and unsustainable, and do not teach the poor financial cleverness.
How can we share our resources with our local communities and become smarter together?
The response to this problem is a new communal bank called ‘Bankomunal’, run by community residents to serve their local financial needs. Bankomunal is an integrated financial service, giving bank members simultaneous access to savings, investment, and credit. Accountability is ensured because the funds from which community members borrow are their own. To establish a bank, an educated bank employee works with a small group of five community members. The local bank leaders achieve community buy-in, convincing family and friends to invest their savings in the bank. The loans are drawn from the pool of savings of all the bank members, inspiring nearperfect repayment rates. Members set their own lending rules according the best interests of the community. The organization of communities into Bankomunales not only addresses their financial needs but also establishes an organizational framework and a sense of competence, which facilitate both community organization in general as well as personal accomplishment.
Facts: “Muhammad Yunus taught the world the poor were financeable. We are demonstrating that in fact they are self financeable.” Bankomunales is founded by Salomón Raydán. The initiative is part of the financial organization Fundefir. Approximately 7000 persons have benefited directly in 8 countries.
politics far beyond conventions Mockus amused and shocked people with his theatrical interventions but it turns out that he caused a profound impact When the mathematician and philosopher but politically completely unexperienced Antanas Mockus became major of Bogotá through his honesty he describes the city as “a 6.5 million person classroom”. The city at that time was perceived by some to be on the verge of chaos through violence, lawless traffic, corruption, and gangs of street children who mugged and stole. With the inventiveness of an educator Mockus what unexpected turned Bogotá into a social interventions could you experiment. Amongst other social apply that allows a system to interventions he sent 420 mimes to metamorphose itself from control traffic in the chaotic and within? dangerous streets, launched a “Night for Women”, appeared on TV showering and turning off the water when he used the soap, handed out 350.000 thumps-up and thumpsdown to the citizens as a means for them to approve or disapprove other peoples behavior, he launched the ‘Carrot Law’ that demands bars to close at 1am with the goal of diminishing drinking and violence and he placed large bronze stars in the ground to signify the spot where a citizen died. Most important to Mockus was the sacredness of life; “In a society where human life has lost value, there cannot be another priority than re-establishing respect for life as the main right and duty of citizens”. Mockus theatrical interventions worked quick, effective, and changed behaviors across Bogotá and beyond at very low cost. His interventions enabled his fellow citizens to recognize and then realize their aspirations and needs for a healthier society. He strategically and systematically taps into what has been called “cultural agency” or “cultural power”: the ability for a social system to metamorphose itself from within.
Facts Under Mockus's leadership, Bogotá saw improvements such as: • water usage dropped 40% • 7000 community security groups were formed • the homicide rate fell 70% • traffic fatalities dropped by over 50% • drinking water was provided to all homes (up from 79% in 1993) • sewerage was provided to 95% of homes (up from 71%) • When he asked residents to pay a voluntary extra 10% in taxes, 63,000 people did so
an indigenous shelter, a space to meet a local project linking tradition, culture, social engagement, and integration Facts:
how can a countries indigenous culture offer inspiration to create physical and mental meeting-spaces in big cities?
In 2002, there were 78 communal spaces in Ciudad Bolivar (less than one per 9,000 residents) and most of them were only available for rent. Projects like building Malokas are crucial for a healthy demographic development.
Communal spaces and collective projects are essential to the wellbeing and development of the community. They are spaces where common objectives can be identified and pursued, and where a common identity and culture can be developed. Ciudad Bolivar in Bogotá is a young community made of immigrants from all parts of the country. Therefore developing and consolidating social ties and a felling of belonging and pride is extremely important. A notable civic initiative there is the construction of a ‘Maloka’ - a traditional indian communal shelter. It was built by Huitoto Indians, an indigenous Colombian tribe. Indians tend to have a bad public image in Bogotá because they are often poor and transient. Many inhabitants of the Cartucho squatter settlement were Indians. In contrast, the Huitoto tribe preserved some of its ancient traditions, customs, and wisdom. Tribesmen inaugurated the Maloka with a ritual of purification and equilibrium. The Huitotos Indians use the center to share their knowledge and teach the youth the importance of speech, teamwork, and negotiation in the resolution of conflict in an area where conflicts often end up in cursing and fighting. To the professor Quinonez who was one of the main investigators of the Maloka, it is a place for dialogue where people can identify the issues and problem they are facing and propose alternatives. This is a very good, if rare, example of a local project linking tradition, culture, social engagement, and integration. Ciudad Bolivar needs many more of these types of spaces of communication and exchange where the social fabric consolidates.
housing for all A billion people is in need of proper housing, does anyone see a potential new market? Facts: $424 billion = The size of the global low income housing market at the base of the pyramid $9.3 trillion = The estimated value of dead capital locked in informal housing markets 3 billion = The number of people who will need housing by the year 2030 (or 96,150 new units per day
How can new economic models enable less wealthy people in society to be included in the flow of money?
Currently, one sixth of the world’s population lives in slums and scattered cities. That’s a billion people who are shut out of the formal housing market. If you’re a building-material company, just think: What would it mean for your business if you could unlock the potential of a trilliondollar housing market? Until recently, that was nearly impossible, because the business world acting alone—with its existing cost structures and limited understanding of local markets—could not reach those customers. The Colombian NGO Kayros, working to improve quality of life in the slums, opened the eyes for this potential to Grupo Corona, the leading home improvement and construction company in Colombia, to provide affordable home improvement solutions to communities in need. Through this collaboration, Kayros and Grupo Corona have led a new and profitable business that is now active in 8 major cities across Colombia. This business continues to grow with projected sales for 2012 estimated at USD$25 million. Corona provided the product and the technical and business know-how. Kayros, in return for fees, recruited and managed a female sales force. That model generated income for previously unemployed women and pushed the product into the hands of potential customers, rather than waiting for a storefront to pull them in. It reduced Corona’s distribution costs by a third, so the company could afford to pay a percentage of its profits to the women sales promoters and community partners. The program launched in January 2006 and in 2009 its sales reached nearly $12 million as it expanded to five of the six largest cities in Colombia, in partnership with five NGOs. It has helped more than 28,000 families improve their living conditions, and 179 saleswomen are each earning $230 a month. Furthermore the improvement of kitchen facilities has resulted in a largely increasing amount of female entrepreneurs selling food made in their homes.
Cultivating change in Bogotá – poor, returning to sow
Agricultura Urbana is an initiative in the Botanic Garden in Bogotá training poor people to create urban gardens
Facts: In the summer of 2005, the Urban Agriculture Pilot Project began working The program has educated over 40.000 people in Bogotá and improved their eating habits. with the people of Ciudád Bolivar One objective of the project is to decrease the problems by teaching them how to associated with malnutrition among young, old and pregnant cultivate vegetables and woman in the city! herbs in their homes and what practical in limited or open knowledge could you spaces. The project offer to empower poor “Bogotá Without people to become microHunger” is supported entrepreneurs? by the mayor's office and the network of Botanical Gardens of Colombia, among others, has the goal of training 6,000 families in the basics of urban agriculture using organic, water-conserving, environmentally friendly and sustainable methods. Through workshops in the production of compost and bio-fertilizers, the use of medicinal plants and cooking what can be cultivated in the household, citizens are taking steps to reduce the hunger, malnutrition, and social maladies that plague their barrio. The increasing growing of vegetables keeps the prices low, despite otherwise rising food-prices. The collective gardens have tightened the bonds between neighbors as they exchange products and ideas, strategizing how to supply local communal kitchens with vegetables, or to market their products commercially.
GET CREATIVE AND GO PUBLIC TO EARN MONEY many people everyday earn their money through little mobile street shops, get creative with juggling, storytelling or help buses to get overview. The lack of unemployment-pays forces thousands of people into poverty many of these are not willing to give up though. They get themselves a shopping cart and fill it with snacks and cigarettes, attach some mobile phones on chains and ready is their mobile street-shop. Others get creative telling stories or the latest news on the bus, monetize their artistic and acrobatic potential on the streets or they become self-empowered busrouters. Those create an overview from bottom-up by telling the drivers of the private buses for some coins when the previous bus of that line came, so that they can adapt their route and speed to maximize passengers...
which of your skills could you monetize in public space as a creative streetentrepreneur?
public space becomes communal space banning cars from all main streets once per week and having over one million bicyclists and a vibrant meshwork of market places, pop-up shops and street artists on them instead? Ciclovía!
Facts: Bogotá's weekly Ciclovías are used by approximately 2 million people (30% of citizens) on over 120 km of car-free streets.
Each Sunday and holiday the main streets of Bogotá, Cali, Medellín, and other colombian municipalities, are blocked off from cars for Ciclovía. From 7am to 2pm, runners, skaters and bicyclists take over the streets. At the same time, stages are set up in city parks. Aerobics instructors, yoga teachers and musicians lead people through various performances. In Bogota is also a growing number of permanently designated bicycle lanes; known as “ciclo-rutas”. Ciclovías happen in many cities around the world (in countries like Australia, Argentina, Canada, Ecuador, Mexico, New Zealand and in many cities in the US) but the inspiration is credited to Bogotá where the events have taken place since 1976.
can you extend the conventional use of a system in a way that liberates community spirit and creativity?
Public space should be felt with the soul “All this pedestrian infrastructure shows respect for human dignity. We’re telling people; ‘You are important’. A bikeway is a symbol that shows that a citizen on a $30 bicycle is equally important as a citizen on a $30,000 car.” -Enrique Peñalosa
Enrique Peñalosa led a profound city transformation - during his mayorship he developed five megaprojects; the bank of lands, the District's system of Parks (including the Bogota's Bike Paths Network), the District's system of libraries, the Transmilenio mass transit system, and road construction and maintenance. Central to his vision of urban revitalization and to his notion of "equity" is access for all citizens: access to education, to public places, to jobs and housing, and to the democratic process. Peñalosa redressed the very limited access of poorer residents to transportation options by dramatically reordering the city's priorities: creating a highly efficient bus rapid transit system, restricting cars during peak hours, and developing a long bicycle network. Of equal importance was providing citizens with places simply to stroll in safety, to encounter the beauty of nature, and to congregate.
Facts: During his three-year term, Penalosa... • built more than 100 nurseries for children • built 50 new public schools in the poorest neighborhoods and increased enrollment by 34% • built a network of libraries • built a highly-efficient, ‘bus highway’ transit system: transmilenio • built or reconstructed hundreds of kilometers of sidewalks • built more than 300 kilometres of bicycle paths • built pedestrian streets throughout the city • built more than 1,200 parks • planted more than 100,000 trees • ...
what new or improved buildings and landscape-design would foster the blossoming of your surrounding?