Here's a story about how members of the Changemakers community are changing the laws and empowering women in Bangladesh:
In Bangladesh, there are now 11,400 reasons to treat poor rural women fairly. They are the fleet of "barefoot lawyers," working all over the country to educate citizens, particularly women, about their rights.
Sharmin is a typical barefoot lawyer. A shy woman in her 30’s, Sharmin was married at age 14, despite the fact that child marriage is officially outlawed in the country. She applied for a loan from her village micro-credit organization to start a small handicraft business. The group, an NGO called BRAC agreed to make the loan if she agreed to take a free class in human rights and law.
Read more about this solution, or discuss this topic below.
Created on 03/25/2013 by SamSaad
US: "The truth is is that as a nation, we face nothing short of a justice crisis" - Larry Tribe, Senior Counselor at the Department of Justice
Canada: As Supreme Court Justice Beverly McLaughlin clearly states, access to justice is "basic right" and our system is creating a "national crisis".
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideSelect the stage that best applies to your solution
Idea (you're poised to launch)
What problem is your organization committed to solving? In particular, share what is innovative about your approach.
US: "The truth is is that as a nation, we face nothing short of a justice crisis" - Larry Tribe, Senior Counselor at the Department of Justice
Canada: As Supreme Court Justice Beverly McLaughlin clearly states, access to justice is "basic right" and our system is creating a "national crisis".
JustAccess is a crowdfunding platform for the justice system. While maintaining the utmost degree of accountability and transparency, litigants will be able to upload their case profiles to our site, thereby enabling individuals - such as yourself - to more easily engage with and financially support litigation of your choosing.
We all want to create a more just society, one where everyone regardless of income has equal access to the courts -- JustAccess helps you make this a reality.
What are your organization's top three priorities in the next year?
1. Establishing 10-15 launch clients/cases for a soft launch, and going live within 90 days
2. Monitoring and evaluating the launch cases, quickly adjusting during the 40-60 days campaigns and infusing those learnings into a broader strategy
3. Sharing our strategy and market results with potential funders, securing capital and scaling to an open launch
Need #1
Message & Brand Strategy
Need #2
Consumer/Audience Acquisition
Based on your first choice of the eight technical categories you selected above, what is your specific project need? Please be specific!
We have already identified our mission, values and value proposition. However, due to straddling the world of social impact and financial sustainability/profitability, we're still looking to improve how we profess ourselves to different audiences.
We've won a few pitch competition, and have also lost some. We've met with folks that only want to hear about our financial bottom-line. And others who only care about how JustAccess will help others. Many opportunities and relationships have been properly cultivated, while others have served more as learnings on how to improve our approach.
We could use support in how to clearly and succinctly share our mission, values and values proposition - as well as, audience specific service flows - with respective users and stakeholders.
We would then like to take these learnings and use them for consumer/audience acquisition, marketing and seed fundraising.
2.
Clear and fruitful communication
3.
Excitement around creating value
Will support from American Express be focused on your organization overall or a specific product/service? Please describe.
Support will be focused on the organization overall.
Have you focused on the above area previously? If so, please explain, including whether you have worked with outside consultants before.
We have an Advisory Board and three Directors. Only those folks have worked on this area, thus far.
Are you able to commit 3-5 hours/wk over 10-12 weeks?
Yes
Are you able to meet virtually or at a convenient in-person location?
Yes
Are you able to meet in the city where your organization is based?
Yes
1.
Better understand out brand (internal)
2.
Better proffes and share our brand (external)
What has been the impact of your solution to date?
We're currently pre-launch. To date we've:
1. Won a few pitch competitions
2. Cultivated a groups of allies, within Toronto's innovation and social venture circles, who strongly support our organization
3. Developed V1 of the platform
4. Designed and innovative and socially impactful service flow that furthers our mission of improving access to justice, while setting us apart from existing crowdfunding platforms (none of which deal with legal issues)
5. Started forming relationships with possible launch partners/litigants
What is your project future impact after receiving professional support from American Express?
Going live, achieving our mission, furthering our mission and increasing access to justice.
All of the above noted comments/sections, plus... better understanding who we are, who we should be working with, and who should be funding our initiative until it becomes financially sustainable.
This Entry is about (Issues)
Created on 03/2/2013 by atwoodsa
Ittavi (an acronym for “it takes a village”) seeks to end conflict, improve transparency and simplify the process of paying child support while saving parents time and money.
Parents can now spend less time managing child support and more time focused on raising happy, healthy children.
Organization: Ittavi
Visit websitemore ↓↑ hide↑ hideOrganization Country
United States, CA, Santa Clara, Santa Clara County
Country where this project is creating social impact
Is your organization a
Hybrid
The information you provide here will be used to fill in any parts of your profile that have been left blank, such as interests, organization information, and website. No contact information will be made public. Please uncheck here if you do not want this to happen..
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideName Your Entry
Ending Child Support Conflict
Select the stage that best applies to your solution
Growth (your pilot is up and running, and starting to expand)
What problem is your organization committed to solving? In particular, share what is innovative about your approach.
Ittavi (an acronym for “it takes a village”) seeks to end conflict, improve transparency and simplify the process of paying child support while saving parents time and money.
Parents can now spend less time managing child support and more time focused on raising happy, healthy children.
What are your organization's top three priorities in the next year?
Public product launch
User Acquisition
Additional funding - Angel or VC
Need #1
Digital Marketing Strategy
Need #2
Consumer/Audience Acquisition
Based on your first choice of the eight technical categories you selected above, what is your specific project need? Please be specific!
We need assistance defining and executing a digital marketing strategy that will reach our unique markets (single, divorced, remarried parents) and startup / entrepreneur / funding targets. The strategy should be built to meet our goals for the year - customer acquisition & getting additional funding
3.
Collective Responsibility
Will support from American Express be focused on your organization overall or a specific product/service? Please describe.
Since Ittavi only has 1 product the focus will essentially cross both the company and our product, Ittavi Child Support Manager.
Have you focused on the above area previously? If so, please explain, including whether you have worked with outside consultants before.
We have begun to define our strategy but due to lack of resources have been unable to effectively define and execute the strategy.
Are you able to commit 3-5 hours/wk over 10-12 weeks?
Yes
Are you able to meet virtually or at a convenient in-person location?
Yes
Are you able to meet in the city where your organization is based?
Yes
1.
Successful launch with increase of press / media coverage by 50%
2.
Acquire 1000 customers by the end of 2013
3.
Meet funding goal of an additional $675,000 in angel funding
What has been the impact of your solution to date?
Today we have over 50 beta users that all state that our product, Ittavi Child Support Manager, has help them save time and money while dramatically reducing the conflict that occurs between themselves and the other parent. This is allowing them to focus their energy on raising happy, healthy children.
What is your project future impact after receiving professional support from American Express?
The future impact is to acquire additional customers who can benefit from our product, untimely reducing conflict between single, divorced and remarried parents. By reducing the conflict associated with child support parents can focus their energy on raising happy, healthy children.
This Entry is about (Issues)
Ittavi (an acronym for “it takes a village”) seeks to end conflict, improve transparency and simplify the process of paying child support while saving parents time and money.
Parents can now spend less time managing child support and more time focused on raising happy, healthy children.
Created on 09/12/2012 by shsadmin
To be treated with dignity for a lifetime, an end-of-life plan is a process that needs to be facilitated with sensitivity, and written in Plain Language.
Organization: Shuswap Hospice Society
Visit websitemore ↓↑ hide↑ hideCountry where this solution is creating social impact
Canada, BC, Salmon Arm and surrounding area
Region in BC where your solution creates social impact
Thompson Okanagan.
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
How long has your organization been operating?
More than 5 years
The information you provide here will be used to fill in any parts of your profile that have been left blank, such as interests, organization information, and website. No contact information will be made public. Please uncheck here if you do not want this to happen..
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideSelect the stage that best applies to your solution
Idea (you're poised to launch)
How long have you been in operation?
Operating for more than 5 years
Which of the following best describes the barrier(s) your solution addresses? Choose up to two
Access, Quality, Equity.
The Need: Describe the need for your solution and the size and characteristics of the community(ies) your solution is engaging
32,000 people die in BC annually, which affects over 160,000 people.As our population ages, the prevalence of chronic and life-limiting illnesses is increasing. The population of seniors is escalating. Frequently, dignified care of the dying is hindered because caregivers cannot identify and therefore, honour, the underlying wishes of their loved one. British Columbians and Canadians need to take charge of their future health needs before they can no longer express their wishes. The challenge is that not only is this a difficult subject to think about, but the Advance Care Planning Guide published by BC contains high-level information, examples, stories, legal forms and suggested formats which are overwhelming and not easily understood by those struggling with literacy issues.
The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!
The Shuswap Hospice Society would like to encourage and enable British Columbians to complete an Advance Care Plan by creating interactive workshops and materials that are in Plain Language and easily understood. The workshops would be offered to Hospice Volunteers, physicians, health care professionals, lawyers, families, caregivers and individuals. The need for end-of-life care is a complex health care, social and economic issue.In the event that a person becomes incapable of expressing their own decisions, a personal Advance Care Plan provides the direction needed by caregivers and professionals. An Advance Care Plan is intended to be a breathing, changing document that follows a person through life, and reflects changes as time goes by.
The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include the primary activities involved in your solution.
A qualified adult educator will design and implement workshops, a reproduceable manual, and materials on Advance Care Planning in Plain Language. These will be used to train Hospice Volunteers, professionals, families and caregivers, ethnic and aboriginal groups, and seniors in the steps to create a plan.
The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others working to address the same needs as you and indicate what sets you apart from them.
There is information regarding Advance Care Planning provided by Health Authorities, BC Seniors, and local, provincial and national Hospice Palliative Care Associations. However, the aspect of literacy, especially for seniors, ethnic, and aboriginal groups has not been addressed.
This Entry is about (Issues)
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideFounding Story: We want to hear about your "Aha!" moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution's potential to change the world.
Working in Long-Term Care settings for many years, and now a Hospice employee, I have been surrounded by people, both young and old, who are subject to decisions made by others. Many of those decisions affect a person`s quality of life, and I have found myself wondering what the true wishes of this person would be, if we just had that information. As I have aged, I have realized that if I were unable to communicate my wishes, my children would possibly have to make decisions on my behalf, and yet I have never discussed my innermost thoughts with them. It is a conversation most people tend to avoid, and yet planning one`s death is equally as important as planning one`s life. It appears as though other Canadians are beginning to feel the same way, as an initiative toward Advance Care Planning seems to be underway. However, when I perused a copy of the Guide, MY VOICE, available through the BC Ministry of Health, I felt extremely intimidated by the language and the forms.
Please describe the goal of your initiative; outline what you are trying to achieve
The process of Advance Care Planning needs to be encouraged in British Columbia. Our mission to support the ill and the dying with honour is dependent upon knowledge about their wishes regarding health care, spiritual care, and cultural and ceremonial traiditions. Young people, families and seniors all need to learn the language and skills, and access the legal avenues to develop a plan which will carry through life with them.
What has been the impact of your solution to date?
We are simply in the initial idea stage.
What is your projected impact over the next five years?
A greater percentage of our population will have started the conversation, and created an Advance Care Plan with their families, their physicians, other health professionals, and caregivers.
What barriers might hinder the success of your project? How do you plan to overcome them?
There is a stigma surrounding talk about death which prevents most people from creating a plan. However, by convincing people that an Advance Care Plan is more about lving and quality of life, reducing the high-level language barriers, creating workshops for volunteers and professionals who can assist their clients with a step-by-step approach to end-of-life planning, more people will experience the joy of having their final wishes followed.
Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and track growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact
By six months, one group of participants who have `graduated`from the workshops will have completed an Advance Care Plan.
Task 1
Analyze MY VOICE, and convert the information into Plain Language.
Task 2
Develop workshop format and Plain Language materials to present the steps to an Advance Care Plan.
Task 3
Present workshops to Hospice Volunteers, professionals, seniors, individuals, and families,
Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone
Workshops have been ongoing, and training has begun for other facilitators to reproduce workshops.
Task 1
Pilot workshops and materials and present to focus groups who evaluate.
Task 2
Market and promote Advance Care Planning Workshops.
Task 3
Create strategies to track progress.
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideTell us about your partnerships
Shuswap Hospice Society is an active partner with the Literacy Alliance of the Shuswap, as well as the BC and Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Associations.
Are you currently targeting other specific populations, locations, or markets for your solution? If so, where and why?
Not yet. Still in Idea Stage.
What type of operating environment and internal organizational factors make your innovation successful?
This project builds on an aspect of Hospice support services which is already in existence.
Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren't specified within the list
Created on 09/10/2012 by Free Knowledge Project
Our solution is to offer university classes in a community driven open-access production.
Organization: Free Knowledge Project
Visit websitemore ↓↑ hide↑ hideCountry where this solution is creating social impact
Region in BC where your solution creates social impact
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
How long has your organization been operating?
1‐5 years
The information you provide here will be used to fill in any parts of your profile that have been left blank, such as interests, organization information, and website. No contact information will be made public. Please uncheck here if you do not want this to happen..
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideSelect the stage that best applies to your solution
Established (past the previous stages and has demonstrated success)
How long have you been in operation?
Operating for 1‐5 years
Which of the following best describes the barrier(s) your solution addresses? Choose up to two
Access, Cost.
The Need: Describe the need for your solution and the size and characteristics of the community(ies) your solution is engaging
Over the past three years we have been offering free university level classes in downtown Victoria. We have been in discussions with members from several small communities (often on reserve, but not all) throughout BC about offering these classes there and developing new ones with the communities themselves.
The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!
Our proposal is to develop and offer free, open access, and accessible classes to communities throughout BC. We will continue to record and make these classes available.
The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include the primary activities involved in your solution.
We will mention two ways. First, in Victoria, the project's home base, we prepare and then publicize the offering of free course that runs a minimum of 4 weeks. Students are free to attend and no registration is required. So far, participation has been so strong that others have asked to stage the classes in their communities. The next step would be finalize arrangements with specific communities and travel there to offer the classes, envisioned now as a weekend event.
The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others working to address the same needs as you and indicate what sets you apart from them.
We do not see ourselves in competition with anyone. We view our role as supportive, yet autonomous, of such projects as UVic's Uni 101/102, Victoria's The Wayward School, and Camas' FreeSkool. All of our instructors have taught at universities and are simply offering those courses to those who do not always have access.
This Entry is about (Issues)
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideFounding Story: We want to hear about your "Aha!" moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution's potential to change the world.
There have been a couple "Aha!" moments. The first is from sheer repetition, from the many times when teaching the course "Contemporary Aboriginal Peoples of Canada" at the University of Victoria, Marc Pinkoski was asked by students if he would make the information in the classes more widely available -- particularly directed to their families. The second was when +100 people showed up to the first class.
Please describe the goal of your initiative; outline what you are trying to achieve
Ultimately we would like to continue offering free university classes in Victoria and throughout Vancouver Island and BC. We would like to develop open access curricula for subjects such as BC History, History of Anthropology, and Aboriginal Rights. In the near future we would like to have a teaching and learning centre located in Victoria to promote access to learning and knowledges (humanities, social sciences, law) that are typically distanced from marginalized people and communities.
What has been the impact of your solution to date?
We have had a great impact on Victoria. The classes have been a positive step that has been received and supported in the greater community.
What is your projected impact over the next five years?
I hope within 5 years that we will have offered approximately 25 separate courses on the topics listed. And, I hope we will have a physical location to organize community work and offer as a learning centre.
What barriers might hinder the success of your project? How do you plan to overcome them?
Presently our only barriers are time and money. Our plan is to keep doing the right community project and believe that all barriers will be overcome.
Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and track growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact
Task 1
Establish protocols with 3 (unnamed) First Nations to teach classes. This discussion has begun.
Task 2
Teach proposed 6 week anthropology class in Victoria.
Task 3
Plan as many of the community courses as is possible given interest.
Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone
Task 2
Offer at least one new course. Continue recording and offering on web.
Task 3
Apply for at least five grants.
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideTell us about your partnerships
Are you currently targeting other specific populations, locations, or markets for your solution? If so, where and why?
What type of operating environment and internal organizational factors make your innovation successful?
Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren't specified within the list
Created on 09/6/2012 by katatcoolworld
Through, art, ceremony and story telling, aboriginal, settler and newcomer communities can collaboratively create environmental, political and social change.
Organization: Uts'am Witness Society
Visit websitemore ↓↑ hide↑ hideCountry where this solution is creating social impact
Region in BC where your solution creates social impact
Vancouver, Coast and Mountains.
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
How long has your organization been operating?
More than 5 years
The information you provide here will be used to fill in any parts of your profile that have been left blank, such as interests, organization information, and website. No contact information will be made public. Please uncheck here if you do not want this to happen..
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideSelect the stage that best applies to your solution
Established (past the previous stages and has demonstrated success)
How long have you been in operation?
Operating for more than 5 years
Which of the following best describes the barrier(s) your solution addresses? Choose up to two
Access, Equity.
The Need: Describe the need for your solution and the size and characteristics of the community(ies) your solution is engaging
In the Vancouver area we are all living in un-ceded Aboriginal territory. Both culture, and the environment are being threatened, and never before has there been a need to work together to create change, through non-violent means. The Uts’am Witness Project was born out an urgent need to protect a contested area of the Squamish Nation’s northern Territory from logging. That struggle, originally conceived of as a short term arts, culture & recreation project, to be run out of the Roundhouse Community Centre for one summer, turned into a 10 year project that involved 10,000 people, from the Squamish and other First Nations, from the general public, and even the immigrant communities of Vancouver. While the first Witness weekend faced logger’s blockades, the project successful.
The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!
Over 10 years, Uts’am Witness succeeded in saving the forests of Sims Creek (TFL-38 according to the BC gov't), and restoring the area to it’s traditional name - Nexw-áyantsut (Place of Tranformation) while enshrining it as protected forever within the unprecedented 500 year Sacred Land Use Plan created by the Squamish Nation. Now it is time to adapt and repeat the model.
The first phase of this project lasted from 1997 - 2007 and, through ceremony and dialogue, resulted in the protection of a contested area of Squamish Nation’s northern traditional territory. This time, our focus will be in online engagement and events taking place in the urban setting in Vancouver.
In the context of a new phase of Uts'am Witness this Project engages members of the Squamish Nation, the general public, artists and environmentalists in a cross-cultural dialogue around issues of Land use and protection, this time with a focus on media, story telling and collaboration.
The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include the primary activities involved in your solution.
We want to upgrade our website to include a story gathering and events feature allowing us to re-engage the community involved in Witness over the decade that it was active, as well as to new people. We will combine this with active networking and co-linking with all the many projects Witness inspired so that the website, and social media offshoots become a dialogue hub over these important issues.
All this will be part of the build up to the launch of our book launch in June, when ‘Picturing Transformation Nexw-áyantsut - Uts’am Witness Stories’ - a gorgeous art-quality coffee table book that tells the photographic story of 10,000 citizens working together over 10 years in love, creativity and activism to save a beloved part of the Squamish Nation traditional Territory (Nexw-áyantsut) from logging, is published by Douglas & McIntyre.
In tandem with this, we will be exhibiting both the photographic artwork, and the final carving by Aaron Nelson-Moody in his "Cedar Woman' series. The previous three are placed on the land, this one will be gifted to the Vancouver area.
As the original project proved, the concept travels well, and has the potential to expand beyond even our current modest vision, if it captures the hearts and imagination of people in the lower mainland.
There will be public Witness Ceremonies marking key moments in this new phase, and the carving of this final 'house post' style carving will take place where it can be viewed publicly, contributing to more opportunities for dialogue.
The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others working to address the same needs as you and indicate what sets you apart from them.
All across Canada we have been witnessing groups of citizens, First Nations, and artists forming alliances in the face of the issues raised by Kinder Morgan and Enbridge and engaging in ceremony, in dialogue and in protest to protect their indigenous culture and rights and traditional land. Our project is one more way of creating solidarities, through re-engaging with the communities and processes that found a peaceful resolution to the "war in the woods" during the decade of The Uts'am Witness Project, and to use our own book pre-sale and fundraising process to help groups with a similar stake in the issues.
This Entry is about (Issues)
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideFounding Story: We want to hear about your "Aha!" moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution's potential to change the world.
Our book to be published in 2013 tells the long story in images & text of the inspiring journey that was the Witness Project from perspective of the founders and early organizers. To encapsulate, it is with the artwork "Breach of Protocol" that the origin story of Uts'am Witness took place. In 1995 the legendary mountaineer John Clarke, and artist Nancy Bleck were convinced that the only way to save 'Tree Farm License 38', one of the last intact watersheds in BC from logging, was by giving urban people an experience of wilderness. When they happened to meet Chief Bill Williams, watchkeeper over his Nation's northern territory on the Sandbar at Sim's creek, Nancy knew, this was a moment to ask, not tell. She asked his permission to be there. He replied that he supported what they were doing, but the protocol had already been breached, they had all travelled along the logging road to get to this place.
Their conversation started this collaboration. That is the power of story telling.
Please describe the goal of your initiative; outline what you are trying to achieve
We would like to keep our upcoming book accessible to all, while printing it in Canada and using fairer trade practices to distribute it. We would like to use the build up and promotion of the book to engage audiences around the issues within it, as well as to develop a sustainable revenue base to hold ongoing public Witness events in the lower mainland. The ultimate goals of the book, of the project, is to encourage dialogue and to show models of cross cultural collaboration. The stories that emerge can change the world.
What has been the impact of your solution to date?
In 1997 Witness took place in 'Tree Farm License 38' (according to the government) and was named ‘the Randy Stoltmann Wilderness Area’ by eco-activists who identified is as the next key battleground in what was then being described as BC’s “war in the woods.”
In the end, after a decade-long peaceful process, of community engagement, art, and through ceremony, this last intact watershed in Squamish Nation Traditional territory was protected as part of the Squamish Nation's precedent-setting 500 year Sacred Land-Use Plan, which was formally recognized by the BC Government in 2005, and which set the precedent for many nations in BC to create their own plans. The Squamish Nation bought the Tree Farm License, manages sustainable logging in some parts of their territory, and Sims Creek where Uts’am took place was returned to it's traditional Squamish Name, Nexw-ayanstut, which means ‘Place of Transformation,’ designated as permanently protected sacred place, never to be logged.
What is your projected impact over the next five years?
We believe that in the build up to the Book launch (June 2013), we can re-engage thousands of people through outreach and social media, with the web re-build, and with the launch events (Exhibition, Carving and public Witness Ceremonies) we can reach thousands more. We don't think it's unrealistic to re-engage even more than the 10,000 participants that were part of the first phase (1997-2007) of the project in the next five years.
What barriers might hinder the success of your project? How do you plan to overcome them?
For 10 years Uts'am Witness was almost entirely volunteer run. The co-founders, and over 40 volunteers each summer put in thousands of hours to ensure the project's success. Lack of funding would be our only barrier sustain a new phase of the project, to cover the ‘virutal overhead’ to bring this conversation out of the forest at Sims Creek, and into the urban setting of Vancouver and sustain it over time. One way to do this is to build a more self-managed interactive website, so that the community can participate online and new participants who were not part of the camping weekend can be part of this emerging story. This piece of the overall project will complement the public events and Witness ceremonies that will accompany new art exhibitions and the promotion of the book.
Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and track growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact
By April of 2013 Launch Story Gathering tool on website, engage community via social media in preparation for book launch
Task 1
Raised the money to launch the story gathering tool on our website & for eco-printing of the book
Task 2
Re-engage with supporters on Facebook, Twitter and direct email list
Task 3
Pre-sell 3000 copies of the book on SoKap.com, and partner with at least two non-profit groups to do so (through sub-licensing)
Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone
October 2013: Recoup partner's investment, with profit to sustain ongoing online & project engagement
Task 1
Presell bulk orders to partners for profitable re-sale before June book launch
Task 2
Successfully launch at least 10 stories on website, increase our social media brand presence & launch events module
Task 3
Use our 'brand' power to network with others to build a stronger movement to protect our sacred waterways and forests
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideTell us about your partnerships
The Uts'am Witness Society is a non-profit that was formed during the Uts'am Witness Project, mostly to flow through some one-time funding for the "E-Team" which focussed on Aboriginal youth. That evolved into a permanent project, now known as the Aboriginal Youth Ambassadors run out of the Squamish Lil'wat Cultural Centre. Hello Cool World is a communications company that focussed on alternative distribution and social cause campaigns. We are hoping to partner with previous allies, like the Western Canada Wilderness Committee to seek win-win ways to raise project revenue for campaigns.
Are you currently targeting other specific populations, locations, or markets for your solution? If so, where and why?
Our hope is that the project will resonate internationally, as we already see these alliances naturally forming in today's political climate. The book will come out at a good time. We can sell the book anywhere online in North America, and anywhere at all physically. All aspects of this are part of the solution in terms of dialogue, and even our crowd-funding is storytelling. We are hoping the artwork will be exhibited internationally and in this case we expect that we can sell books. In addition, artwork can be sold, and portions of these sales can also go to the project costs over time.
What type of operating environment and internal organizational factors make your innovation successful?
Our overhead is minimal, and mostly virtual. We may have some warehouse and shipping logistical needs that can be managed via Hello Cool World's fulfilment process for their online store. Our hope also is to re-engage key participants from the first phase of Witness to be part of the organizing team for this new phase, including successful fundraisers, and old & new volunteers. The Uts'am Witness Project was always about conversations, and we are now moving them from around the campfire at Sims Creek to the online spaces as well as the new events that will happen as the book launch rolls out. We can do as much as our resources allow, but the networking potential for movement building will likely prove as innovative, inspirational and as effective as what emerged from the past decade.
Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren't specified within the list
As we are currently without core funding, we can only offer co-promotion. However, once HCW have new web tools built (likely in Drupal 7) we would offer to our like-minded cohorts, and it is our intent that the Ut'sam/Witness "brand' be a tool for cross cultural networking among all those who care about our land and waterways. Our book will also be a resource to share.
Vancouver Canada
49° 15' 40.4136" N, 123° 6' 50.1372" W
CPLSCorp aims to make it easier to engage citizens and communities by connecting those who need to communicate clear information with those who can teach them how.
We will train those who work in community groups and public service agencies to write clear information for the public. These people who serve as intermediaries between the public and business and governments need this help. They face the difficult task of translating government legalese and bureaucratese and business jargon into clear information for the public.
Created on 08/30/2012 by PACE_Society
PACE Outreach Project (POP) aims to reduce violence experienced by street-level sex workers by using peer-based training programs
Organization: Providing Alternatives Counselling and Education Society (PACE Society)
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Providing Alternatives Counselling and Education Society (PACE Society)
Country where this solution is creating social impact
Region in BC where your solution creates social impact
Vancouver.
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
How long has your organization been operating?
More than 5 years
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read more↓↑ hide↑ hideSelect the stage that best applies to your solution
Growth (your pilot is up and running, and starting to expand)
How long have you been in operation?
Operating for more than 5 years
Which of the following best describes the barrier(s) your solution addresses? Choose up to two
Access, Equity.
The Need: Describe the need for your solution and the size and characteristics of the community(ies) your solution is engaging
PACE Outreach Project (POP) aims to reduce violence experienced by street-level sex workers. Survival sex workers are the most visible and vulnerable of all sex workers. They experience the highest number of assaults and sexual assaults of any population group. Violence against survival sex workers is perpetrated by partners, patrons, pimps, dealers, other sex workers, and members of the public. Violence against survival sex workers in Vancouver continues to be a problem. Stigma and criminalization prevent accurate reporting of the number of survival sex workers that encounter violence, however PACE Society supports and engages over 100 members, all of whom self-identify as survival sex workers.
The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!
PACE Society offers a three-prong approach to peer-based outreach as a solution to violence against survival sex-workers. This includes training for PACE Outreach project volunteers (Safety coaches), sexual assault training for PACE members and new outreach staff members, and hands on street outreach by PACE staff and trained volunteers. Studies on violence and sex work have demonstrated time and time again that peer-based outreach interventions work! Dr. Kate Shannon, director of BC-CFE's gender and sexual health initiative, and assistant professor of medicine at UBC states, "sex work led outreach interventions remain an important means of increasing access to health and support services among sex workers pushed to the margins of society". Sheri Kiselbach, PACE violence prevention coordinator and former sex worker reiterates the importance of outreach and prevention strategies led by sex work agencies. "We need to extend these types of services, not cut them back".
The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include the primary activities involved in your solution.
The training program for outreach staff (safety coaches) and volunteers consists of the following:
Session #1 - PACE information, factors defining entry and/or entrenchment in survival sex work, stigma and social judgments, sex work and the law, oppression, personal biases & lateral oppression.
Session #2 – Triggers, grounding techniques, affirmations, personal & professional self-care, vicarious trauma, support vs counseling, active listening, self disclosure, confidentiality, role modeling, debriefing & teamwork.
Session #3 – Outreach roles & responsibilities, Outreach codes of conduct, taking a Bad Date report, assessment & safety scenarios.
Session #4 – Sexual assault training – myths, statistics, the Criminal Code and accessing emergency Care
Primary hands-on activities include street outreach by a dedicated staff member (usually Friday evenings/nights) and support of the Mobile Access Project (MAP) Van that offers a safe space for sex workers to rest, drink water, receive condoms and clean syringes and get referrals to other resources. Staff also take bad-date reports and bring them to police for women wary of directly contacting authorities.
The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others working to address the same needs as you and indicate what sets you apart from them.
PACE works closely with other outstanding organizations with similar visions and experiences in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. PACE was proud to work with the former PEERs program, which focused on a broader sex work population, as well as sex work organizations like HUSTLE and WISH. PACE is represented on committees that include Living in Community, the Local Area Planning Process (LAPP), and a recent City of Vancouver Task Force established to address issues that relate to our members. PACE has also been involved in community advisory boards including the AESHA Evaluation of Sex Workers Health Access. PACE is an integral part of a spectrum of support organizations for sex workers in Vancouver. Program delivery and support services at PACE are limited only by a lack of funding.
This Entry is about (Issues)
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideFounding Story: We want to hear about your "Aha!" moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution's potential to change the world.
PACE Society was formed by former sex workers and their allies who recognized the lack of relevant services and supports to youth, women, men and transgendered individuals involved in the sex industry in the early 1990's. With the tireless efforts and resources of these individuals, PACE Society became incorporated on March 10th, 1994.
With the recent Ontario Court rulings declaring it unconstitutional to prohibit bawdy houses and with the media attention surround the Missing Women's Inquiry, the need for strategies the address violence against survival sex workers could not be more timely.
Please describe the goal of your initiative; outline what you are trying to achieve
Survival sex workers face multiple levels of violence, including bad dates, spousal abuse, harassment and abuse from the public and police brutality. The goal of peer-based outreach is to address violence against survival sex workers and to provide on-the-spot emergency support and prevention-based education workshops around relevant, contextual safety issues in the lives of survival sex workers.
What has been the impact of your solution to date?
Studies on peer-led outreach services through PACE partnerships with WISH have been resoundingly successful. Dr. Kate Shannon, director of BC-CfE's gender and sexual health initiative, and assistant professor of medicine at UBC. "Our results now clearly demonstrate that peer-based outreach by sex workers can also play a critical role in connecting women with health and support services."
PACE currently employs four part-time employees as outreach workers (safety coaches) who go out into the community and work with members.
What is your projected impact over the next five years?
Over the next five years, PACE aims to expand it's peer-based outreach services to not only include violence prevention initiatives but also to address issues that are identified by members as being additional barriers to equality and well-being. This includes but is not limited to access to healthcare, housing, and safe work environments. The specific impact of the peer-based outreach programs will be to further build strong networks of enabled and empowered sex workers who will continue to have a voice in speaking out against abuse and work closely with other community based organizations, including the Vancouver Police Department to eliminate violence against sex workers.
What barriers might hinder the success of your project? How do you plan to overcome them?
Funding is the largest barrier to the success of the project. Grants from organizations like BC Ideas make it possible to continue to support our staff members who dedicate their lives to empowering survival sex workers. Political and legal barriers exist which prevent survival sex workers from coming forward to access emergency care or report violence when it happens. PACE is both politically active through partnerships with PIVOT Legal Society as well as with building relationships with police representatives to address these barriers, not only for the peer-based outreach program, but for all other PACE initiatives
Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and track growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact
A completed four session PACE Outreach Program training cycle and development of alumni outreach worker support program
Task 1
Conduct Session 1-4 of PACE Outreach Project training component to train POP Safety Coaches (outreach workers)
Task 2
Create a network/support group for PACE Safety coaches (alumni who have moved out of support roles to other opportunities)
Task 3
Hire 1-2 additional PACE Outreach Project safety coaches
Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone
Invite stakeholders (community organizations +/- political and police representatives) to participate in sensitivity training
Task 1
Recruitment, training and employment of additional PACE Outreach Project Workers (Safety Coaches)
Task 2
Development of curriculum to be presented to community organizations and political stakeholders to increase sensitivity training
Task 3
Increased programming addressing the next-steps of addressing and preventing violence (housing, health and employment programs)
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideTell us about your partnerships
Previous and ongoing violence prevention initiatives have received support and funding from the Victim Services and Crime Prevention Ministry of Justice.
Are you currently targeting other specific populations, locations, or markets for your solution? If so, where and why?
Survival Sex Trade workers are the sole target for the peer-based PACE outreach project. Other stakeholders are involved in Violence Prevention initiatives that PACE coordinates in the form of safety workshops and sensitivity training for other community organizations by their invitation.
What type of operating environment and internal organizational factors make your innovation successful?
The PACE Outreach Project is successful because it is primarily rooted in a peer-based operating environment. Being an organization run "by, with and for sex workers" means that the membership of survival sex workers determines the allocation of resources to achieve the goal of reducing harm and isolation through education and support. Collaboration with organization with similar visions makes PACE a member of a larger community of advocates and support systems while maintaining a specific and clearly defined target population. For this reason, PACE is able to offer innovative solutions to the problem of violence against sex trade workers.
Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren't specified within the list
PACE's 18 years of experience working in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside has allowed the organization to build relationships with other community agencies, local and provincial government groups, academic research and funding bodies. The recent media coverage around the Missing Women's Inquiry has made violence against survival sex workers an even more timely matter.
Created on 07/17/2012 by VRJS
Restorative justice is a victim-centred, community-focused response to crime that aims to repair the harm done and meet the needs of those affected.
Organization: Victoria Restorative Justice Society
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Victoria Restorative Justice Society
Country where this solution is creating social impact
Canada, BC, Victoria and Esquimalt
Region in BC where your solution creates social impact
Vancouver Island.
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
How long has your organization been operating?
More than 5 years
The information you provide here will be used to fill in any parts of your profile that have been left blank, such as interests, organization information, and website. No contact information will be made public. Please uncheck here if you do not want this to happen..
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideSelect the stage that best applies to your solution
Established (past the previous stages and has demonstrated success)
How long have you been in operation?
Operating for more than 5 years
Which of the following best describes the barrier(s) your solution addresses? Choose up to two
Access, Cost.
The Need: Describe the need for your solution and the size and characteristics of the community(ies) your solution is engaging
Right now, BC's criminal justice system (CJS) is suffering. It is financially and intellectually inaccessible to most people who need it, and excludes victims and the community. It is solely punitive, which is costly and is proven to be an ineffective approach to reducing crime. Victims and offenders are typically among the most vulnerable people in society, and the CJS rarely meets their needs. Victims typically need closure, healing and understanding, and to regain control over their lives. Offenders typically need to have more involvement in their communities and know what resources are available for them (e.g. mental health/addictions treatment, etc.). Regarding the size of the community our solution engages, nearly everyone has been a victim/offender, and we all belong to a community.
The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!
Restorative justice (RJ) is a process to involve those who have a stake in a specific offence and to collectively identify and address harms, needs and obligations, in order put things as right as possible. Basically we bring together victims, offenders and the community (when appropriate and safe) to discuss what happened and what do we do now. It puts victims, offenders and the community at the forefront of responding to crime and empowers them by giving them a voice and creating concrete, meaningful ways the offender make amends. It is a much more simple and straightforward process than the current system and is all about real, direct accountability and community restoration (rather than lawyers speaking for offenders and communities being torn apart). RJ is a rigorous process for offenders while still treating everyone with respect. It is completely voluntary and is delivered by professionally trained facilitators. It can be used as diversion or independently from the legal system.
The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include the primary activities involved in your solution.
A case we did in 2012 began with an adult male who was driving a motorcycle when he was struck by an SUV. The driver was distracted by a cell phone and ran a red light. The man did not initially appear to be seriously injured but died days later in hospital. The driver (an adult female, mother of a young daughter and first-time offender) was charged with dangerous driving causing death. The victim's family had a strong desire to meet her, but because the criminal trial was underway, she was forbidden by her lawyers to speak to them. The family approached us about meeting with the woman. After multiple meetings with everyone (individually), spending months preparing them and finally determining that each of them was ready, we facilitated a two-day dialogue to go over what happened, celebrate the life of the victim and come up with an agreement on how the offender could give something back to the family and community at large. Some of the agreement terms were a commitment to further driver education to improve the offender’s driving skills, planting a tree in the victim’s memory, a commitment to volunteer work with an organization the victim had been involved with, and a letter-writing campaign to raise awareness. The feedback we received from everyone was outstanding: the victim's family and friends said it brought them closure, healing, understanding and a sense of relief. The offender also expressed the sense of relief and closure it brought her, and she was grateful for the chance to know what kind of person the victim was and share her perspective on the incident.
The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others working to address the same needs as you and indicate what sets you apart from them.
Our peers and competitors include the criminal justice system (specifically police and the courts)as well as other restorative justice agencies in BC, although we are a tight community and do not see each other as competition. Restorative justice agencies are typically established according to police jurisdictions so nobody competes for referrals, and we are very supportive of each other succeeding. (In fact, we are part of an umbrella organization called the Vancouver Island Regional Restorative Justice Association.) The criminal justice system aims to identify and punish offenders, which is very different from what restorative justice aims to do, so we feel that no other organizations are working to address the same needs as us. We are a strong, established agency with proven success.
This Entry is about (Issues)
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideFounding Story: We want to hear about your "Aha!" moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution's potential to change the world.
The four founders of our organization were (and still are) all part of a restorative justice (RJ) discussion group in a minimum security prison called William Head Institution just outside of Victoria, BC. After many discussions with inmates and community members about the shortcomings of the current criminal justice system, as well as the potential of RJ to overcome those shortcomings and bring together communities after crime occurred, the four of them wanted to see it in action. In 2002 they created a community organization dedicated to advocating for restorative justice. Over the next few years, they built up a strong foundation in the community, then collaborated with the Victoria Police and Crown Counsel to begin receiving referrals in 2006 and 2008, respectively. From there, we have expanded and now receive referrals from other community partners such as the University of Victoria, the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia, and local middle schools in Victoria and Esquimalt.
Please describe the goal of your initiative; outline what you are trying to achieve
Our organization's goals are to:
-Empower victims by providing them an opportunity to have a voice and ask questions, as well as gain closure and healing after crime
-Get restitution (financial and symbolic) for victims from offenders
-Reduce offenders' criminal behavior by identifying their needs and referring them to appropriate community resources (e.g. counseling, mental health/addictions treatment, having them volunteer, etc.)
-Build strong and healthy community relationships
-Promote civic engagement
-Educate the public about restorative justice
What has been the impact of your solution to date?
We are confident that we are achieving our goals based on the feedback we receive from evaluations.
2011 results:
-90% of victims stated they were satisfied or very satisfied, and 92% would recommend RJ to someone else
-100% of police were satisfied or very satisfied
-92% of offenders were satisfied or very satisfied
2012 results:
-100% of victims & community members and 95% of offenders strongly agreed or agreed that they were satisfied and felt RJ properly addressed the harm done
An example of our impact is a case we facilitated involving the family and friends of a motorist who was killed by a driver distracted by a cell phone, and the woman who hit him. The case went through court as well, but the system prevented the family and offender from ever speaking, which they all desperately wanted to do. Our agency brought them together to celebrate the life of the victim and get answers to what happened. The meeting spanned two days and everyone had amazing feedback after.
What is your projected impact over the next five years?
VRJS continues to grow in terms of the number of referrals we receive, our referral sources, our community partners and our annual budget. Over the next five years we hope to reach more victims every year, offer more advanced training to our volunteers and staff, and educate more police, Crown prosecutors, teachers and community members about the option of restorative justice.
What barriers might hinder the success of your project? How do you plan to overcome them?
Our most significant issues at this time are 1) most people have not heard about restorative justice, and 2) lack of funding/grants that are not project-based with strict limitations on how the money can be spent (ie there aren't many grants for core funding out there). To overcome the first barrier, we plan to continue to do a great deal of public education about the philosophy and practices associated with restorative justice through free presentations, workshops, and training at minimal cost. We will also redo our orientation project for new police recruits. To overcome the second, we plan to research and apply for more grants, hold more fundraisers, and delve into the possibility of corporate sponsorship. We will also build on our approach to solicit individual donations.
Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and track growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact
Our six-month milestone would be to develop and deliver a more in-depth training for our volunteers to better meet client needs
Task 1
Develop training materials
Task 2
Recruit new volunteers from diverse backgrounds
Task 3
Prepare three to four trainers (from multiple restorative justice agencies) to deliver the training
Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone
Receive at least 80 referrals
Task 1
Maintain good relationships with our referral sources by engaging them in ongoing education and communication.
Task 2
Conduct ongoing evaluation and write a report on our success to provide to the community and our referral sources.
Task 3
Hold a meeting with our primary referral sources (police and Crown) to provide education about our organization and services.
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideTell us about your partnerships
VRJS is thrilled to have community partners throughout Vancouver Island and on the mainland. In Victoria, we have partnered with agencies such as the Cool Aid Society, Community Micro-Lending, the Victoria Immigrant and Refugee Centre Society, Ross Place Retirement Residence, South Island Wellness Centre, West Bay Auto Sales, Volunteer Victoria, the University of Victoria, Camosun College and North Shore Restorative Justice. We are also part of the Vancouver Island Regional Restorative Justice Group, a collective of RJ agencies advocating for RJ and sharing resources and best practices.
Are you currently targeting other specific populations, locations, or markets for your solution? If so, where and why?
Restorative justice is an option for anyone affected by crime or other wrongdoings, which is a large number of people. Because it is a victim-centred process, we will be constantly trying to educate the public, police and Crown about how it can be beneficial for victims. Our two staff members are currently instructing an online course for police in Canada about restorative justice, which is in its first cycle and will repeat in September 2012 for another.
What type of operating environment and internal organizational factors make your innovation successful?
We pride ourselves on the great working relationships we all have with one another as well as our community partners. The board is incredibly helpful and active, and the volunteers are extremely dedicated and generous with their time and effort. The two staff members often joke that they spend more time together than apart. All of us are extremely grateful to work with such a driven and well-run organization that feels like a community in itself. With a great deal of support from the Victoria Police Department and Crown Counsel, our agency continues to get stronger and not only work towards our existing goals, but also have the capacity to dream of bigger ones. We are often told that we are one of the most advanced and established restorative justice agencies in the province.
Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren't specified within the list
We would really appreciate any assistance with fundraising/investment, finding skilled volunteers, marketing ourselves better and spreading out to the public, and analyzing our evaluation data. We're happy to help others however we can.
An additional resource we could really use is graphic design and website building/maintenance - our website could really use a makeover!
Created on 04/30/2012 by Marcela Jiménez Ossa
CINDE IS A PEACEBUILDING ORGANIZATION
CINDE PROMOTES HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
Organization: Centro Internacional de Educación y Desarrollo Humano CINDE
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Centro Internacional de Educación y Desarrollo Humano CINDE
Country where this project is creating social impact
Is your organization a
Non‐profit / NGO / Citizen sector organization
Your role in Education
Social Worker, Teacher.
The type of school(s) your solution is affiliated with
Public (tuition-free)
How long has your organization been operating?
More than 5 years
The information you provide here will be used to fill in any parts of your profile that have been left blank, such as interests, organization information, and website. No contact information will be made public. Please uncheck here if you do not want this to happen..
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideSelect the stage that best applies to your solution
Established (past the previous stages and has demonstrated success)
How long has your solution been in operation?
Operating for more than 5 years
The Need: What problem are you trying to solve?
The high rates of violence evidenced in multiple forms and varied scenarios: intergenerational, interfamilial, in educational institutions and the community. The violation of the children and youth’s human rights: physical and sexual abuse and discrimination, which leads to a recurrent violence. The lack of acknowledgement of children and youth as social actors, which generates frustration and violence. In addition to problems directly related to youth on aspects such as self-confidence, respect for others, cultural values, communication practices, and the approaches to understand and solve conflicts.
The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!
- Change children and youth’s attitude, conceptions and political practices, basis of the peace building processes, through the development of human potential and empowerment of children’s and your the affective, communicative, ethical, conflict resolution and political potentials.
- Link children and youth’s networks to share significant experiences of change in peace building and political participation themes, which enables the promotion of a social and political movement for the generation of non violent thinking and direct actions
- Strengthen the leadership, pedagogic and methodological capacities of peace builder children and youth within the multiplication processes with peers of their educational institution.
The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include your primary activities
1. Intergenerational: The meetings with children, youth and teachers are carried out in the same pedagogic space, thus enabling the intergenerational communication, respect and acknowledgement to varied and plural ideas, ways to consider and act in the world. 2. Love and affection, it is a linking action among human beings which creates a proper environment to express agreement or disagreement to others, it enables understanding that conflict is inherent to life. 3. The ritual: The mystic of the ritual intensifies the human capacity to internalize and personify the workshops’ themes. 4. Acknowledge corporeality and leadership from the beginning. 5. Service Leadership skills. 6. The recreational and empathy factor. 7. The multiplying strategy is a very important component to provide the educational process with a context of reality.
The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others also working to address the needs you are and what differentiates you from them. What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?
RED PAPAZ, PRODEPAZ; CONSORNOC; SEPAS. CONSTRUCTORES DE PAZ (Peace builders) is a political initiative with and from children and youth. We believe conflict is an inherent to life and enables personal and collective growth, provided that, resolution never denies the dignity of other individuals. And this is what makes us different from other organizations which nonetheless provide children and youth with solutions. The success of the articulation with organizations working in Colombia generates a learning community on the communities’ best practices for acknowledgement and leverage of development process.
Define your company, program, service, or product in 1-2 short sentences [136 characters]
CINDE acknowledges children and youth as citizens with rights and responsible for change.
Identify what is innovative about your solution in 1-2 short sentences [136 characters]
CINDE impacts on children and youth’s attitudes, values and imagination
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideThis Entry is about (Issues)
What has been the impact of your solution to date?
Between 1998 and 2002, CINDE implemented a political socialization strategy called “Niños y Niñas Constructores-as de Paz”(“Children and Youth as Peace builders”) in Colombia’s coffee-growing region; between 2002 and 2008 the political and citizenship education initiative was carried out in seven departments; in 2007 the project with School authorities from 15 educational institutions in the urban and rural areas of Cartagena was carried out; 2007 second semester, Puerto Tejada Council 8Cauca); between 2008 and 2010 in Lorica and Shagún (Cordoba) municipalities; between 2010 and 2011, In María la baja and El Carmen de Bolivar (Bolivar); and from 2010 the project is being implemented in Cocorná and Granada (Antioquia).
What is your projected impact over the next 1-3 years?
Disseminate the experience in Urabás sub region, the largest region in the Antioquia department with 11.664 square meters, within the national context, it is acknowledged for being part of a larger region, connected by geological, geographical, historical and social links. One of the main difficulties to consolidate Urabá’s development is the situation of violence and displacement. The population undergoing forced displacements due to violence registered in Uraba reaches 213.324 people, which is just a third part of displaced people in the department (29%) being mostly women, children and teenagers.
What barriers might hinder the success of your project? How do you plan to overcome them?
The Bacrim (emerging criminal groups) have a significant presence in Urabá. However, it is important to mention that this region is not one of the most violent regions in the department. The importance of mapping private and public organization working within the area will be an excellent strategy to generate a working group that articulates actions in the sub region and to recognize the public-private sectors, and in turn they recognize us as well as the aim of our initiative to be disseminated in the sub region, which enables a gradual access to the daily socialization of children, adolescents and youth in Urabá
Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and track growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact
Situational diagnosis of childhood, adolescence and youth in Urabá
Task 1
Redesign the proposal with community actors and team based on the needs and capacities identified in the diagnosis.
Task 2
Ex- Ante Evaluation “Scale of Equity attitudes & Active acceptance of the difference” & “Ethics, Democratic coexistence & societ
Task 3
Description of processes to meet the objectives and consideration of all cost to enable a proper implementation.
Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone
500 children, adolescents and youth with leadership skills and sense of belonging as peace builders.
Task 1
Characterization of children, adolescents and youth, and identification of needs and artistic skills.
Task 2
Positive impact on the motivation towards participant’s learning
Task 3
Intermediate evaluation, tool which will enable adjusting the interventions and goals on the go
Founding Story: We want to hear about your "Aha!" moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution's potential to change the world [125 words]
As from 1998 CINDE develops the “Children and Youth as Peace Builders” project to promote new social interaction modes in children and youth growing up in contexts of violence. The project’s aim is to build a peace culture and consequently contribute to achieve a Peace State through the transformation of social subjects in individuals linked to life, the promotion of peaceful coexistence, the effective enjoyment of human rights, gender equity, respect for diversity and multiculturalism, the access to sustainable development and protection of the environment; citizens participation in the spheres of power, human safety, among others.
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideTell us about your partnerships
Departmental government: since one of its action lines is the Regional Integral Project aimed at Urabá’s development and through the Secretary of Social development and the Childhood and Adolescents Management, share some goals with our project: social inclusion.
Partnerships with organizations working in the Urabá area: Corbanacol with whom we have started working in 2010; and the organization Cooperación Internacional (International cooperation).
What type of team (staff, volunteers, etc.) will ensure that you achieve the growth milestones identified in the Social Impact section? [75 words]
In-training professionals from Universities, researchers, technical staff from the social, artistic, pedagogic, communications fields. Professional with expertise in advertising and marketing, IT professional, content manager and web developer. Professional responsible for monitoring and evaluating the project.
Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren't specified within the list
Support:
Virtual courses: Web pages content Developer
Initiative’s dissemination: Media plan: Campaign.
Methodological booklet: Lay out designer and illustrator.
The Law Centre provides advice, assistance and representation to clients who cannot afford a lawyer. Thousands of persons living in the Capital Regional District are served annually. The Law Centre also provides legal education programs to the public. Examples of cases dealt with at The Law Centre include:
TAPS is the only organization in Victoria providing free, face-to-face legal advocacy for people with income assistance, disability benefits and tenancy issues.
TAPS assists over 5,000 people in Victoria each year.
TAPS helps all types of people – from professionals who have just lost their jobs to people who have seen their health decline from living on income assistance.
Created on 03/22/2012 by GNOFairHousing
GNOFHAC is a non-profit civil rights organization that seeks to eradicate housing discrimination through education and enforcement work.
Organization: Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center
Visit websitemore ↓↑ hide↑ hideOrganization Name
Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center
Organization Country
United States, LA, New Orleans, Orleans Parish
Country where this project is creating social impact
United States, LA, New Orleans, Orleans Parish
Is your organization a
Non‐profit / NGO / Citizen sector organization
Your role in Education
Other.
The type of school(s) your solution is affiliated with
Public (tuition-free)
How long has your organization been operating?
More than 5 years
The information you provide here will be used to fill in any parts of your profile that have been left blank, such as interests, organization information, and website. No contact information will be made public. Please uncheck here if you do not want this to happen..
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideSelect the stage that best applies to your solution
Growth (your pilot is up and running, and starting to expand)
How long has your solution been in operation?
Operating for 1‐5 years
The Need: What problem are you trying to solve?
The Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center (GNOFHAC) is a non-profit civil rights organization dedicated to eradicating housing discrimination. Recent studies by GNOFHAC show that housing discrimination is still a frequent occurrence in the greater New Orleans area. For example a 2007 audit showed a 58% rate of discrimination against African-Americans, and a 2009 audit showed widespread discrimination against people with disabilities. Families with children are particularly vulnerable to discrimination; according to HUD, 1,500 families reported that they were discriminated against on the basis of having children in 2010. Because of these statistics, GNOFHAC seeks an innovative strategy for reaching families with information about fair housing and the impact of discrimination.
The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!
The Equal Opportunity Game is a tool for educators and advocates that GNOFHAC developed in partnership with schools, community centers, and youth-serving organizations. The game and associated curriculum educate young people about civil rights, the importance of diversity and equal opportunity, and the impact of discrimination. GNOFHAC believes that youth should be educated about housing discrimination so that they may become advocates for equity and watchdogs for injustice in their communities. Because GNOFHAC intends for students to share their experiences of the Equal Opportunity Game with their parents, guardians or teachers, the workshop also functions to educate adults in the community about fair housing rights. Families with children are particularly vulnerable to housing discrimination and are specifically protected under the Fair Housing Act. Thus the Equal Opportunity Game represents an innovative form of outreach to a population deeply affected by discrimination.
The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include your primary activities
GNOFHAC partners with dozens of educators, schools, youth-serving organizations and advocacy groups to bring the Equal Opportunity Game and its related children's book "The Fair Housing Five & the Haunted House" to youth in New Orleans and as far away as Michigan, Alabama, and Washington, DC. The game is designed to build empathy and cultivate critical thinking about social issues by putting students in the shoes of a person who has experienced the impact of housing discrimination.
In the game, students are assigned characters and must work in teams to find the housing that best meets their characters’ needs. Some of the characters “experience” housing discrimination, and students see the impact discrimination has on access to education, healthcare, jobs, and other resources via “situation cards” that they draw periodically. Students complete journal entries throughout the game to reflect on their experiences. The Equal Opportunity Game builds an appreciation of diversity, and a vocabulary around justice and equity in participating youth. As our next generation of leaders, it is important that youth learn about the impact of discrimination and the importance of equal opportunity at a young age so that they may bring these insights to their communities and work throughout their lives.
GNOFHAC hopes to expand the reach of the project by partnering with schools throughout Louisiana to conduct workshops, as well as by producing copies of the game materials and facilitator guide to distribute to schools and fair housing organizations around the country.
The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others also working to address the needs you are and what differentiates you from them. What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?
GNOFHAC is part of a national network of fair housing agencies, as well as a community of organizations and educators interested in engaging young people in conversations about justice and equity. Currently, there is a dearth of materials about fair housing and housing discrimination for young people and families. GNOFHAC seeks to fill that void with its Equal Opportunity Game and youth workshops.
Define your company, program, service, or product in 1-2 short sentences [136 characters]
GNOFHAC is a non-profit civil rights organization that seeks to eradicate housing discrimination through education and enforcement work.
Identify what is innovative about your solution in 1-2 short sentences [136 characters]
The Equal Opportunity Game is an innovative tool for building empathy and engaging youth in dialogue about civil rights and equity.
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What has been the impact of your solution to date?
Since spring, 2010, when GNOFHAC launched its youth outreach project, staff have partnered with 11 (eleven) schools, community centers and youth-serving organizations to conduct 23 (twenty-three) youth workshops. All together approximately 350 (three hundred and fifty) students and their parents or guardians as well as fifteen (15) teachers have been served by GNOFHAC’s civil rights workshops. Students and teachers have attested to the positive and transformative impact on participants. One teacher reflected, "This workshop, superbly designed and executed, prompted challenging discussion and higher level thinking in our classroom community. We have been using themes and lessons learned as a jumping off point for further investigation and as connection to other areas of the curriculum." Students have said, "I loved the board game, because I think that it was an awesome and fun game" and "I learned a lot about fair housing... especially that discrimination needs to be stopped!"
What is your projected impact over the next 1-3 years?
Over the next 1-3 years, GNOFHAC hopes to expand the reach of the Equal Opportunity Game youth civil rights workshops. By 2015, GNOFHAC will have reached students in all sixty-three (63) New Orleans public schools serving students in grades one through six through workshop facilitation and/or distribution of its children's book "The Fair Housing Five & the Haunted House." In addition, GNOFHAC will develop curricula for high school students about fair housing and begin working in five (5) area high schools. Finally, GNOFHAC will train staff from at least five (5) fair housing agencies around the country to facilitate workshop activities with youth in their districts and build partnerships with local schools.
What barriers might hinder the success of your project? How do you plan to overcome them?
GNOFHAC staff have found it challenging to market its youth workshops to public schools and teachers who have limited time for enrichment activities and must connect all curricula to state Grade Level Expectations and testing standards. GNOFHAC will overcome this barrier by developing a set of materials that outline the connections between workshop elements and required curricula. In addition, GNOFHAC staff have built a partnership with Young Audiences, a national organization whose local chapter coordinates extracurricular programming in a number of area schools, and staff will work to build similar relationships with other youth-serving organizations.
Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and track growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact
Develop and publish a facilitator guide in order to share the Equal Opportunity Game with other organizations and educators.
Task 1
Consolidate existing curricular and training materials and develop new workshop curricula for high school students.
Task 2
Organize focus group of educators and advocates to review and provide feedback on draft facilitator guide.
Task 3
Publish facilitator guide; develop and implement distribution plan.
Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone
Conduct Equal Opportunity Game workshops at three (3) new schools and train two (2) new organizations in workshop facilitation.
Task 1
Conduct outreach to area schools and teachers.
Task 2
Work with teachers at three new schools to tailor curricula to their classroom needs.
Task 3
Distribute facilitator guide; plan and implement webinar-style or in-house facilitation trainings for three organizations.
Founding Story: We want to hear about your "Aha!" moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution's potential to change the world [125 words]
The idea for the Equal Opportunity Game came out of the friendship between a fair housing advocate and a New Orleans teacher. One day at a coffee shop the GNOFHAC staff member was expressing her frustration at the number of housing discrimination complaints received recently from families with children who encountered landlords with formal or informal "no kids" policies. The staff member suggested that there was a need to engage youth in conversations about equal housing opportunity because of the ways in which housing discrimination impacts their quality of life. Meanwhile, the teacher was sharing her interest in implementing a unit on social justice and equity that connected to required English Language Arts and social studies curricula. And thus, a mutually rewarding partnership was born. GNOFHAC partnered with the teacher and her classroom of fourth and fifth grade students to develop the Equal Opportunity Game and implement its flagship workshop in April 2010.
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideTell us about your partnerships
To date, GNOFHAC has partnered with eleven (11) entities, including six (6) schools, two (2) community centers, and three (3) youth-serving organizations to implement youth workshops. These include Audubon Charter School, Langston Hughes Academy, McDonough 32 Elementary School, Alice Harte Charter School, Eisenhower Elementary School, The Urban League, Young Audiences, Ashe Cultural Arts Center, and the Freret Neighborhood Center in New Orleans, LA, as well as the Dumas-Wesley Community Center in Mobile, AL. GNOFHAC also works with a network of partner fair housing agencies nationwide.
What type of team (staff, volunteers, etc.) will ensure that you achieve the growth milestones identified in the Social Impact section? [75 words]
Two full-time GNOFHAC staff members will work to implement project milestones- the Education Coordinator and the Outreach Specialist. In addition, GNOFHAC will utilize volunteers and interns to help with administrative and programmatic activities related to the project.
Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren't specified within the list
GNOFHAC is looking for educators, schools, and youth-serving organizations to partner and share resources with. GNOFHAC would love to share its curricula, materials and children's book with more children and families around the country.
Created on 03/14/2012 by AJPRODHO
AJPRODHO is a non-profit, student-formed NGO working to improve the enjoyment of rights for youth and children in Rwanda.
Organization: AJPRODHO-JIJUKIRWA
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Is your organization a
Non‐profit / NGO / Citizen sector organization
Your role in Education
Administrator.
The type of school(s) your solution is affiliated with
Public (tuition-free)
How long has your organization been operating?
More than 5 years
The information you provide here will be used to fill in any parts of your profile that have been left blank, such as interests, organization information, and website. No contact information will be made public. Please uncheck here if you do not want this to happen..
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Growth (your pilot is up and running, and starting to expand)
How long has your solution been in operation?
Operating for 1‐5 years
The Need: What problem are you trying to solve?
Despite over 67% of Rwanda’s population being under the age of 35, their participation in policy conception, formulation, and implementation remains minimal. Many youth have become hopeless due to absence of enabling policy decisions to address their core problems such as unemployment, limited access to higher education and vocational training, and the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Meanwhile, youth have traditionally remained very submissive and fearful of engaging authority, due to 30 years of dictatorship and totalitarianism, including a government sponsored genocide in 1994, along with having limited government education systems to teach them how to properly conduct policy change, thus creating a culture with almost no youth voice in government.
The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!
This project will focus on scaling up the culture of debate in secondary schools initiated by AJPRODHO since 2007/2008, especially to rural schools. This will specifically be accomplished by focusing more on policy debate, so that these students are nurtured into active citizens of tomorrow. Policy debate shall greatly boost the interest amongst students to learn more on different policies, and even identify existing gaps in terms of policy to trigger debate for their enactment. Students shall be equipped with the relevant tools and skills to research, intelligently discuss, and critically analyze different policies as well as the ability to present ideas in a clear, organized and professional manner, thus assisting them in future political advocacy.
The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include your primary activities
Our project model shall be implemented in 10 pilot Secondary Schools, 5 from Kigali City and 5 from the more rural Eastern Province. From here we will select 2 students and one teacher from each school, who we will teach debate methodology and advocacy during a three-day training seminar. We will use this foundation in order to start debate clubs in each school, with each in charge of organizing monthly debates on policy issues, as well as one inter-secondary school debate tournament. Overall, this should result in students’ views on different policy issues being raised and forwarded to decision makers through policy briefs generated through debates and endorsed to different stakeholders, along with initiating discussions with relevant institutions to promote policy debate in secondary schools. Subsequently, this debate program should help improve students’ political will and efficacy, as they learn about the government system, and how to negotiate it to a greater extent, within a safe, educational environment.
The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others also working to address the needs you are and what differentiates you from them. What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?
We do not have competitors as such, but rather partners on similar issues. An example of this would be Never Again Rwanda, as a local CSO that also organizes debates in secondary schools. In order to avoid duplication of schools, we have a joint committee to select which schools each organization should work with, along with discussing which policies have worked and which have failed with each school. There has been no challenge with this yet.
Define your company, program, service, or product in 1-2 short sentences [136 characters]
AJPRODHO is a non-profit, student-formed NGO working to improve the enjoyment of rights for youth and children in Rwanda.
Identify what is innovative about your solution in 1-2 short sentences [136 characters]
We create an environment where youth become empowered to both educate and advocate for themselves.
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What has been the impact of your solution to date?
Since we started this project in 2007, we have seen a significant increase in both political awareness and efficacy among youth participants. Students have begun to take a more active role in local governance and politics as they have learned how to peacefully and effectively advocate for themselves, thus taking away some of their previous fears of engaging with authority. Along with this, students have learned how to provide clear and easily accessible information to their fellow youth, as they write articles for AJPRODHO’s bi-monthly magazine concerning those political issues that most interest and affect them. This project has also allowed us a greater insight into the needs of youth in Rwanda, thus giving us direction in which to focus our activities.
What is your projected impact over the next 1-3 years?
Over the next one to three years, we expect to see a continued growth in student awareness and advocacy, as each school continues with their debate programs, while we focus on expanding this program to even more schools, thus reaching increasingly more youth. Similarly, the expertise among educators should grow during this time period, as they gain experience in teaching students debate. Along with this, we expect an increase in the number of youth-focused magazines available in Rwanda, as these students build their journalizing skills and realize the importance of creating awareness among their fellow citizens.
What barriers might hinder the success of your project? How do you plan to overcome them?
Keeping the schools motivated to continue with their debate programs after the initial six-month period provides our biggest barrier to the continued success of this project. However, this should be easily overcome as we keep in constant contact with the school, providing occasional funding support and lobbying for the continuation of this program. Along with this, the increased national presence these programs should create for these schools, as they win inter-school competitions and gain recognition, should help build a positive reputation around these schools and incentivize them to keep the debate programs in place.
Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and track growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact
Identification and training of students from 10 secondary schools.
Task 1
Identification of 10 pilot secondary schools for debate programs.
Task 2
Updating training curriculum.
Task 3
Conducting a three day training seminar for one teacher and two students per school.
Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone
Getting students' voices heard by policy makers.
Task 1
Organizing monthly debates for each school, along with a two day inter-school debate competition.
Task 2
Supporting students to package their policy briefs to decision makers.
Task 3
Organizing advocacy/lobbying sessions with the Ministry of Education to support debate clubs in secondary schools.
Founding Story: We want to hear about your "Aha!" moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution's potential to change the world [125 words]
Every day at AJPRODHO we deal with disenfranchised youth who feel as though they have absolutely no say in local politics and governance, especially due to the history of Rwanda. As such, we are constantly searching for new ways to help promote political efficacy and awareness among youth. Meanwhile, debates on policies have long been recognized as being an important tool for informing youth on policies, along with having them actively participate in the entire governance process. Due to this, it did not take much of a leap of mind to go from our more humanitarian rights focus, to attempting to empower youth to advocate for themselves with the formation of local secondary school debate programs.
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideTell us about your partnerships
With this project specifically, we are funded by the Rwanda Governance Board (RGB) and the European Commission. However, some other partners fund other related project, for example, Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA), which supports a project to strengthen youth to monitor and evaluate service delivery.
What type of team (staff, volunteers, etc.) will ensure that you achieve the growth milestones identified in the Social Impact section? [75 words]
In order to achieve our milestones, we will have a small, dedicated group of staff members. At the top will be our Project Coordinator, who will oversee the entire project, making sure that all is running smoothly and reporting back to headquarters. Then we will have a professional debate educator to teach debate methodology to the students and teachers. Finally, we will have ten teachers, one from each school, who will be responsible for carrying out the day-to-day administration of the debate clubs, along with supervising and educating the students further on debate.
Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren't specified within the list
We could use information and mentorship on various methodologies of debate to teach the students, as our program currently only focuses on the Karl Popper debate format.
Created on 02/9/2012 by CIREC
CIREC,es una organización sin ánimo de lucro dedicada a la rehabilitación integral de la población en situación de discapacidad y victima del conflicto armado.
Organization: Centro Integral de Rehabilitación de Colombia CIREC
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Centro Integral de Rehabilitación de Colombia
Organization Name
Centro Integral de Rehabilitación de Colombia CIREC
Country where this project is creating social impact
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
How long has your organization been operating?
More than 5 years
Has the organization received awards or honors? Please tell us about them
*Premio de Beneficencia, Fundación Alejandro Angel Escobar 1985
*La orden al Merito de Progreso en la Categoría de Caballero, Cámara de Comercio Colombo Americana, 1987
*Premio Honorifico Imserso España 1991
*Orden civil al mérito ciudad de Bogotá en el grado de Gran Oficial 1992
*Premio Carlos Lleras Restrepo, A la mejor Gestión de diseño de Producto- 1997
*Premio Comunicación, Integración Social e Investigación, Imserso España 1997
*Mujer CAFAM 2000 (Jeannette Perry de Saravia, Presidente Fundadora CIREC)
*Gran Canciller de la Orden Nacional al Merito Cruz de Plata 2001
*Premio Policarpa Salavarrieta
*Mujer del año categoría Salud otorgada por Master card y la revista Glamur.
*Niarchos Prize Survivorship 2005
*Condecoración de Salud y Merito Asistencial “Jorge Bejarano” 2006
*Reconocimiento por parte del Departamento de estado en los años 2007 y 2011
References - Please provide two references with a two-sentence biography, email address, and phone number for each
*RHANDA NEME: Presidente del Grupo CHAIDMENE Cra 7a No.26-20 Ed Tequendama - rneme@chaidneme.com.co – 57 1 210 56 11
*MIGUEL KRAUSZ: Presidente de GRASCO S.A, Carrera 35 No. 7-50 Piso 2 - mkrausz@grasco.com – 57 1 2 01 59 50
*JEAN CLAUDE BESSUDO: Presidente AVIATUR, Carrera 11 No. 82-01 Piso 4, jbessudo@aviatur.com.co – 57 1 621 46 46
The information you provide here will be used to fill in any parts of your profile that have been left blank, such as interests, organization information, and website. No contact information will be made public. Please uncheck here if you do not want this to happen..
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideSelect the stage that best applies to your solution
Start-Up (a pilot that has just begun operating)
How long have you been in operation?
Still in idea phase, but looking to launch soon
Which of the following best describes the barrier(s) your innovation addresses? Choose up to two
Access, Cost.
The Need: What problem are you trying to solve?
En Colombia, cerca del 6,4% de la población, según datos del Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadística (DANE, 2005), presenta una discapacidad física y el 29.3% de este grupo poblacional, presenta limitaciones permanentes para caminar o moverse.
Lo anterior presenta un panorama en el cual el acceso se convierte en la principal barrera para que la población con discapacidad pueda tener la atención necesaria y un proceso de Rehabilitación Integral. Es por esto, que la TELEREHABILITACION se vislumbra como una solución que permite llegar a las personas que se encuentran en las zonas rurales mas apartadas del país, en dónde más del 98% de eventos relacionados con minas antipersonal ocurren, afectando de manera directa su calidad de vida y su proceso de inclusión social.
The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!
el proyecto de TELEREHABILITACION busca Cambiar la forma de prestar los servicios de salud especializados y las actividades focalizadas en la rehabilitación integral de poblaciones vulnerables tales como: víctimas sobrevivientes de minas antipersonal, personas en situación de discapacidad física, comunidades afectadas por el conflicto armado del país y que se encuentran en condición de desplazamiento ubicadas en regiones apartadas de nuestro país a través del programa SEMILLAS DE ESPERANZA el cual es un programa que utiliza la estrategia de rehabilitación basada en comunidad, RBC, para dar respuesta a las necesidades de este tipo de población en Colombia, promoviendo el desarrollo de la comunidad para conseguir su integración a la vida familiar, social y laboral.
The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include your primary activities
Nuestra iniciativa busca prestar los servicios de rehabilitación integral desarrollados por CIREC soportado en TICs a través de nuestra red de SEMILLAS DE ESPERANZA facilitando la inclusión social de poblaciones vulnerables
Para implementar dicha iniciativa el proyecto se apoyara en la red SEMILLAS DE ESPERANZA y se basara en el desarrollo de un prototipo entre Bogotá y Tibu (norte de Santander una de las ciudades más afectadas por el conflicto y donde la población no puede acceder a servicios de salud especializada y actividades localizadas en rehabilitación) a partir de este prototipo se definirán los lineamientos y requerimientos necesarios para desarrollar este tipo de soluciones tecnológicas dentro de nuestro país en el marco de nuestras demás asociaciones.
Teniendo en cuenta lo anterior, se contemplan las siguientes etapas para desarrollar dicha iniciativa:
1.Fase 1: Diagnóstico, Capacitación y Divulgación (IDENTIFICACIÓN DE LOS REQUERIMIENTOS TIC y SELECCIÓN DEL CAPITAL TIC)
2.Fase 2: Puesta en marcha e investigación (AJUSTAR E INTEGRAR EL SERVICIO DE TELEREHABILITACION Y OPERACIÓN)
3.Fase 2: Prestación del servicio Y consolidación de Resultados (ANÁLISIS Y CONSOLIDACIÓN DE RESULTADOS)
Por último, es importante resaltar, que las fases no son independientes, sino que están relacionadas entre sí, proponiendo así una nueva forma en la prestación de atención en salud de rehabilitación física entre el usuario final y el profesional de la salud, mediante el empleo de las tecnologías de la telecomunicación y de la información TICs.
The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others also working to address the needs you are and what differentiates you from them. What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?
El número estimado para el piloto de TIBU sería de unos 37833 usuarios entre los que se encuentran los procesos de PROTESIS, ORTESIS y AYUDAS TECNICAS, dichos datos son suministrados por informes de las brigadas de salud desarrolladas por CIREC y la red semillas de esperanza.
Colombia en el campo de la telemedicina está realizando una incursión por apropiarse en este tipo de soluciones, tanto del sector financiero como el educativo un ejemplo de ello es la universidad Nacional y la fundación Santa fe, pero ninguna de ellas tiene un conocimiento robusto frente a rehabilitación física como lo tenemos nosotros CIREC, y es por esto que nosotros seriamos los pioneros en implementar telerehabilitacion en el país, basándonos en nuestros procedimientos y en nuestras buenas practicas.
This Entry is about (Issues)
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideFounding Story: We want to hear about your "Aha!" moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution's potential to change the world.
Jeannette Perry de Saravia Desde hace más de 40 años, se ha destacado por su trabajo para ayudar a las personas en situación de discapacidad en Colombia,
Jeannette se ha preocupado por el mejoramiento de las condiciones de vida de las personas en situación de discapacidad y durante los últimos diez años, particularmente a las víctimas de minas antipersonal. Hoy en día su obra ha logrado llegar a los municipios más afectados por el conflicto armado en el país a través del programa SEMILLAS DE ESPERANZA y sus programas de desarrollo comunitario que empoderan localmente a líderes que están atravesando por una situación de discapacidad y los convierte en auto-gestores de una transformación social.
Gracias a los resultados obtenidos en todo este tiempo, Jeannette logró ligar a CIREC con la Comisión Intersectorial nacional para la acción integral contra minas antipersonal, dirigida por la Vice-Presidencia de la República a través del Programa de Acción Integral contra minas antipersonal.
Please describe the goal of your initiative; outline what you are trying to achieve
Prestar los servicios de rehabilitación integral desarrollados por CIREC soportados en TICs a poblaciones vulnerables tales como: víctimas sobrevivientes de minas antipersonal, personas en situación de discapacidad física y comunidades afectadas por el conflicto armado y que se encuentran ubicadas en regiones de difícil acceso geográfico.
What has been the impact of your solution to date?
Actualmente estamos creciendo geográficamente con nuestra red de SEMILLA DE ESPERANZA lo cual ha sido un desafío realmente grande, ya que en nuestro país el conflicto armado aún está latente y hay muchas víctimas minas antipersonal en lugares de difícil acceso geográfico. La creación de esta red ha mejorado la relación en este tipo de comunidades pero a través de esta iniciativa en telerehabilitación se ofrecerá una nueva solución a la prestación de servicios de salud especializados en rehabilitación a las personas en condición de discapacidad física, facilitando de esta forma el crecimientos de nuevos e innovadores servicios de salud a otras organizaciones e instituciones, buscando mejorar la calidad de vida de este tipo de poblaciones aprovechando la tecnología actual.
What is your projected impact over the next five years?
Las actividades continuaran implementándose porque culminado el proceso de fortalecimiento a la capacidad local en cada una de las regiones por parte de CIREC las autoridades locales entidades privadas y comunidades de base tendrán una alta capacidad instalada local que les permitirá prolongar las acciones a partir de la gestión recursos necesarios para la continuidad de estas y la innovación de programas tecnológicos como el proyecto de telerehabiltiacion.
Este proyecto brinda formación capacitación y asesoría a las comunidades de base y las víctimas de los grupos Semillas de Esperanza en la gestión de proyectos para la consecución de recursos que permitirá que se mantenga la acción en el tiempo en donde las comunidades se encargaran de implementar los conocimientos adquiridos.
What barriers might hinder the success of your project? How do you plan to overcome them?
*La conectividad. El proyecto esta basado en Tecnologías de la información y la comunicación y dependemos del tipo conexión a utilizar (ya sea satelital o a través de las redes celulares) generara un impacto significativo en la prestacion de este tipo de servicios*La posición geográfica de los municipios afectados de Colombia. Nuestro prototipo se implementara en regiones rurales de difícil acceso por ello se seleccionó a Tibu como punto de partida, debido al trabajo tan arduo que presenta la organización al momento de prestar sus servicios de rehabilitación integral y sus brigadas de salud en este tipo de lugares y al gran número de pacientes que se encuentran en esta región y le es difícil desplazarse a ciudades para desarrollar su proceso de rehabilitación.
*la falta de conocimiento
Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and track growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact
el proyecto de telerehabilitacion tiene las siguientes actividades proyectadas para el desarrollo en 6 meses.
Task 1
Evaluación de la situación actual del país frente a la conectividad
Task 2
Análisis y definición de los requerimientos para la prestación de los servicios en telecomunicaciones
Task 3
Desarrollo del prototipo de telerehabilitación e implementacion del servicio localmente.
Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone
A partir de la rehabilitación soportada en TICs se generaran los siguientes hitos y actividades
Task 1
Establecer una metodología y un cronograma de actividades para la implementación de un servicio de Rehabilitación a distancia.
Task 2
Conformar un grupo de recursos humanos con conocimientos multidisciplinarios para la consolidación del proyecto
Task 3
Documentar y conceptualizar este tipo de prestación de servicios de salud a través de telerehabilitacion
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideTell us about your partnerships
El Centro Integral de Rehabilitación de Colombia y su programa Semillas de Esperanza reconstruyen desde 1990 el tejido social en poblaciones que han resultado afectadas por el conflicto armado colombiano, a partir de una estrategia basada en comunidad que optimiza los recursos regionales y construye alianzas que permiten generar desarrollo local, favoreciendo a víctimas del conflicto armado interno, especialmente aquellas víctimas y sobrevivientes de las minas antipersonales (MAP) y MUSE y sus familias.
Are you currently targeting other specific populations, locations, or markets for your innovation? If so, where and why?
What type of operating environment and internal organizational factors make your innovation successful?
Cirec aporta al proyecto documentación, metodologías y un prototipo tecnológico de referencia al momento de prestar servicios en telerehabilitación al sistema de salud nacional.
•Definira los parámetros y los requerimientos necesarios de infraestructura tecnológica para replicar este tipo de servicio a nivel local y nacional.
•Se conformar un modelo económico, reglamentario y ético para prestar servicios de salud especializada y actividades focalizadas en el campo de la rehabilitación integral bajo telerehabilitación sirviendo de marco de referencia para otras organizaciones que deseen implementar este servicio.
Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren't specified within the list
Infraestructura tecnológica Local, comunicaciones y soluciones tecnológicas.
Created on 02/5/2012 by Paulina del Carmen
Quality information on new treatments being used already in some parts of the world - linked to top hospitals and clinics worldwide
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n/a
Is your organization a
For‐profit
How long has your organization been operating?
Please select
Has the organization received awards or honors? Please tell us about them
References - Please provide two references with a two-sentence biography, email address, and phone number for each
The information you provide here will be used to fill in any parts of your profile that have been left blank, such as interests, organization information, and website. No contact information will be made public. Please uncheck here if you do not want this to happen..
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideSelect the stage that best applies to your solution
Idea (you're poised to launch)
How long have you been in operation?
Still in idea phase, but looking to launch soon
Which of the following best describes the barrier(s) your innovation addresses? Choose up to two
Access.
The Need: What problem are you trying to solve?
Doctors and researches come up with new treatments in different parts of the world, and they start working on them in the clinics/hospitals they work in. Access to this new treatments to people worldwide is limited, and the spread of those new treatments is slow to other countries
The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!
A cloud based, fee-paid, information and booking system that can be accessed by patients from anywhere in the world, in many different languages; that sources information from the most innovative doctors working in hospitals and clinics wherever in the world they might be.
The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include your primary activities
*A doctor develops and tests a new procedure
*The details of the procedure and the doctor and hospital are posted
*Patients worldwide pay a fee and access information on the procedure and the doctor
*Patients can choose to pay a doctor fee and send exams etc on-line to doctor to see if they could benefit from the new treatment
*Based on doctor's feedback patients decide to book an appointment with doctor
*Site has association with other companies to make the trip also easier
The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others also working to address the needs you are and what differentiates you from them. What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?
*Many organizations, hospitals, universities, that provide partial information for free. We will create a trusted brand and provide quality.
*Sites with traditional and non-traditional information published like www.newcures.info
*Government organizations like http://clinicaltrials.gov/ which provide information on trials. We would focus on treatments that have passed the trial stage and have not become mainstream yet.
*Organizations like www.shopdoc.com that list doctors in different specialties and locations. We will focus on the best and most innovative clinics and hospitals worldwide
*Word-of-mouth and sending doctors information requests or booking with them without a prior on-line interaction. Our system will help so the customer will be willing to pay the fee
This Entry is about (Issues)
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideFounding Story: We want to hear about your "Aha!" moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution's potential to change the world.
As I was discussing with a friend a couple ideas I have about telemedicine - which in principle are more complex than this one - I just thought: "what if I start focusing on the information side first?". Then I discussed with 2 friends that have doctors in their families - one mentioned his brother is practicing a new type of surgery and the procedure is not known here - he has refered people to him. My other friend said her brother had developed some device and would need to spread the use - though this last one is not exactly the core of my plan it is a potential extension of it. She as many other friends 'potential' users of the idea have been very supportive of it.
Please describe the goal of your initiative; outline what you are trying to achieve
Faster and more global access to new treatments developed in medicine - true, would serve initially people that can pay for it, but I believe innovations like this have a cascading effect to the whole society
What has been the impact of your solution to date?
What is your projected impact over the next five years?
To have created a trusted central point of information that almost starts feeding itself (quality control will always need to be there) because doctors see the benefit of sharing their new treatments through it, and patients are using it more and more to get access to the latest treatments available independent of national rules, trials and regulations. Maybe doctors will be using it also to plan updates to their skills and practices.
What barriers might hinder the success of your project? How do you plan to overcome them?
Quality - we will establish a process that will be followed everywhere in the world before anything gets published; we will ensure complete transparency to users - as of potential risks of treatments and the many or few cases that so far have been treated
maybe some governments or hospitals will be weary of the idea - mistrusting quality and concerned by the protection of people from 'fake doctors' or 'not 100% proven risks'. This site will work only with legal hospitals and clinics around the world. This site is a tool for information and contact only - the patient will visit the doctor like any time now and will make his own judgement about his/her credibility. Currently, people do the same just information is not so easily accessible.
Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and track growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact
Have the product in place and buy-in from 5 to 10 credible hospitals
Task 1
Create a list of hospitals and clinics worldwide (define the initial countries to be sourced)
Task 2
Prepare the site mock version, and the sourcing and quality process to be presented
Task 3
Get buy-in from source of information and create the product
Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone
launch the first pro-type of the site with at least 20 different new treatments in 2 languages
Task 1
Hire 'consultants' to help continue recruiting hospitals/clinics
Task 2
Start marketing process - tracking use and numbers - start directed publicity funding
Task 3
Identify 'the' quality on-line medical translation to work with
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideTell us about your partnerships
I am looking for a couple partners - someone with medical experience and someone with internet marketing experience in the e-commerce and/or healthcare sector
Are you currently targeting other specific populations, locations, or markets for your innovation? If so, where and why?
The project would not be geographically targeted - from the source of information yes, from the available languages yes, but access would be hopefully global
What type of operating environment and internal organizational factors make your innovation successful?
The success factors will be clarity of purpose, create but flexible plan and targets, ability to share a vision with the source of information, market and gain trust within users of service, and maintain low operating expenses
Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren't specified within the list
Created on 01/12/2012 by Free Knowledge Project
In May of 2010, Free Anthropology offered its first university level course, entitled "Anthropology and Indigenous Peoples in Canada." Over the next 2 years, Free Anthropology has grown to cover other disciplines and topics, including Canadian Studies, BC History, and Aboriginal Rights, and formed a non-profit "educational society" under the banner The Free Knowledge Project. Our goals are to offer free, open, and accessible education and alternative methods of learning to members of communities that often face barriers to some forms of learning.
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Please confirm that this project could benefit First Nations, Métis and Inuit Peoples
Yes
What categories best describe who your group or organization serves (check all that apply)
First Nations people.
What best describes your group or organization
Community group or youth group.
How long have you, your group, or your organization been operating?
1‐5 years
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideTell us the story of your idea or project
In May of 2010, Free Anthropology offered its first university level course, entitled "Anthropology and Indigenous Peoples in Canada." Over the next 2 years, Free Anthropology has grown to cover other disciplines and topics, including Canadian Studies, BC History, and Aboriginal Rights, and formed a non-profit "educational society" under the banner The Free Knowledge Project. Our goals are to offer free, open, and accessible education and alternative methods of learning to members of communities that often face barriers to some forms of learning. Since beginning, we have offered three versions of "Anthropology And Indigenous Peoples in Canada" (a five, six and nine week course) taught by Dr. Marc Pinkoski, one version of "Anthropology and Development" taught by Metis scholar Dr. Robert Hancock, and one version of "Indigenous-State Relations, taught by Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Professor Michael Asch. Topics covered include: BC and Canadian history, representations of Indigenous peoples in science and law, aboriginal rights, colonialism, treaties, and development. These five classes total 31 public lectures and they have been audio and video recorded and made available for free on our website.
In the summer of 2011, Free Anthropology, in conjunction with the Dzawada'enuxw First Nation, used funding from the BC Capacity Building Initiative to offer an intensive three-day anthropology course to community members. That money provided funding for four community members to travel to Victoria to participate in the course. Now, for this grant, we are proposing to offer the course to interested community members and the band council in the village of Gwayi (Kingcome Inlet). The objective is to offer the course "Anthropology, Kwakwaka'wakw, and Law" at no or little risk to the community and at their request. The money would pay for travel to the community, preparations, recordings of the classes, handout materials, and assist in the overall administration of this project.
If granted the full $5000, we would also be secured to offer another local, general-knowledge history/anthropology class to the public -- for free -- in Victoria, BC. That is, there are two aspects to this proposal, with the second helping to support the continuation of an on-going project in Victoria, BC that is helping to build the curriculum and focus of the classes. This money would help us build or extend the community component and is proposed in partnership with the Dzawada'enuxw First Nation.
Define your idea / project in 1-2 short sentences
With the Dzawada'enuxw First Nation, we are proposing to offer an intensive anthropology course in their remote, home community of Gwayi, (Kingcome Inlet).
Select the stage that best applies to your solution
Established (it has been running for a while, has grown and know it is making a difference)
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Please tell us about the social impact of your idea or proect
We seek to offer low barrier university level classes to communities with limited access to this information for little to no risk to the communities themselves. We discuss themes such as the history of BC and Canada, Aboriginal rights, treaties, and social policy. The classes are typically free and open. We know that these public community conversations are needed to address the glaring gaps in the public's knowledge regarding the history of Canada and Indigenous peoples and to help build relationships of learning by building education projects in dialogue and as an on-going process.
Your Future Goal(s): Tell us what you hope to achieve with your idea or project in the next year
We will offer, record, and dissemate three free courses in Victoria and develop one new "on-location" course.
In 5 years, what will be different as a result of your idea/project?
We hope that we will have a free learning center in Victoria that works to address issues of access to information and barriers to learning. This project would continue to focus on anthropology, Canadian Studies, Aboriginal rights, settler obligations, treaties, and work to address high-school History, Social Studies, and English curriculum. One particular focus is to help provide schooling(high-school and university) to single parents.
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideTell us about the people/ partnerships that are already involved and why they are important to your idea or project.
We are volunteer run and have received funding from: Vancouver Island Public Research Group, the University of Victoria's Student Society, and the Awesome Sh!t Club. The private class was funded through the BC Capacity Building Initiative. We continue to be supported by the Solstice Cafe with respect to venue and equipment; and we are supported by many local Indigenous and non-Indigenous "students" in the Victoria area.
Our relationship with the Dzawada'enuxw First Nation is important for several reasons. Typically, Dzawada'enuxw are represented as Kwakwaka'wakw (Kwakiutl) and are among the most analyzed groups in the discipline of anthropology. We are working with the Dzawada'enuxw First Nation to address this literature and its effects in law, education, and policy.
If there are other people/partners that you will reach out to tell us who they are and why they will be important to your idea or project.
We are presently working on proposals to the City of Victoria and the Capital Regional District of the Province of BC.
Describe the kinds of support you receive (other than money) or will need to support your idea or project (e.g.: donated, space, equipment and volunteers)
We are volunteer run and receive free space and equipment for our venue. We have received positive feedback from numerous business, non-profits and community groups.
Do you currently have funding for your idea or project?
Yes (answer the next two questions)
Created on 09/15/2011 by 5thpillar
5th Pillar’s anti corruption tools empower EVERY citizen to be a corruption buster!
Organization: 5th Pillar
Visit websitemore ↓↑ hide↑ hideCountry where this project is creating social impact
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
How long has your organization been operating?
1‐5 years
The information you provide here will be used to fill in any parts of your profile that have been left blank, such as interests, organization information, and website. No contact information will be made public. Please uncheck here if you do not want this to happen..
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5th Pillar – Empowering Citizens to Tackle Corruption
Select the stage that best applies to your solution
Scaling (the next step will be growing impact on a regional or even global scale)
How long have you been in operation?
Operating for 1‐5 years
THE NEED: Describe the need for your solution and the size/dynamic of the community (ies) you will engage
A largely absent rule of law, ineffective enforcement of law, compromised judiciary, and general public complacency to corruption, have contributed to an entrenched culture of corruption in India – from delivery of basic public services to large-scale misappropriation of public funds for private use.
The scale and magnitude of corruption (http://goo.gl/X3WQ2) provides context for current public anger around corruption.
The recent non-violent protest against corruption led by a 74-year old Gandhian Anna Hazare, unleashed a spike in people’s emotional energy of unprecedented proportions, and jolted the nation out of decades of passive tolerance and apathy to systemic corruption.
Significant work lies ahead to channel and transform citizen sentiment into more sustained, meaningful outcomes. The need of the hour is to harness the awakened national consciousness to sustained individual ACTION, empowering every citizen to be a change-agent/crusader against corruption in their personal & professional circumstances, and catalyzing sustained collective momentum against an entrenched malaise in the system.
THE SOLUTION: Please explain what your solution offers and how it is innovative. How will you put your solution into the hands of users or beneficiaries? Be specific!
5th Pillar as a grass-roots citizens’ coalition works to empower citizens to seek transparency and accountability in governance, catalyze civic participation/pressure for a collective crusade against corruption. (http://goo.gl/NzoiP) With demonstrated success in its field-based anti-corruption work, complementary communication/media platforms that serve as a catalytic tool to extend its impact & reach nationally is a current imperative.
Zero-Rupee Note (ZRN): a simple currency-like tool has the words ZERO RUPEES with the zero-corruption pledge “I will neither accept nor give bribe” on it. Citizens can use it at the point of bribery to access fundamental rights and public services without having to succumb to the act of bribery. It communicates to corrupt public officials that the citizen is not alone, but is backed by institutional support, that facilitates disciplinary proceedings against corrupt practices in public service delivery. We have seen demonstrated success, particularly in semi-urban & rural settings. ZRN triggers a sense of shame and fear in the minds of the corrupt official, reminding him/her of the legal implications of taking a bribe.
2) Corruption Reporting Platform: enabling citizens to be whistleblowers, and report incidents of corruption/bribery via phone, email, SMS or 5th Pillar’s Online Corruption Reporting Tool powered by Kiirti. Depending on the nature of the corruption report, the information processed through the online system flows to 5th Pillar’s relevant anti-corruption Vigilance Coordinators for support and/or remedial action.
THE MODEL: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference through use of information technology and media
• Zero Rupee notes have been made available for download and printing in various Indian languages on http://india.5thpillar.org/ZRN so any citizen can download and produce at the locations where demand for bribes occur. An old lady was asked for a bribe by an official at the Tahsildar’s Office (State Revenue Department), to obtain her land title which in turn was required to secure an educational loan from a bank to be used to admit her grand-daughter in college. After more than 18 months of waiting for her land title document (since the bribe amount was unaffordable), she learnt about 5th Pillar’s ZRN and walked into the same corrupt official’s office with this tool. To her surprise, she was offered a seat to wait, with her land title deed processed in less than an hour.
• A student who had attended 5th Pillar’s “Freedom from Corruption” campaign in her college, reported a corrupt policeman allowing private car-owners to park in ‘No Parking’ zones outside the Thanjavur Big Temple in Tamil Nadu, and collecting bribes for the same. The student uploaded a video containing footage of the traffic policeman receiving a bribe from one of the drivers. 5th Pillar forwarded the video to the appropriate officials in the Police Department accompanied by a complaint to initiate disciplinary action. The traffic constable was suspended, and no similar occurrences of bribery at that location have been reported.
THE MARKETPLACE: Who are your peers and competitors? What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?
Given the magnitude and systemic nature of the issue of corruption in India, 5th Pillar considers like-minded organizations as complementing (and not competing with) its own efforts in the war against corruption. Some of the peers working on an anti-corruption agenda are the Anti-Corruption Movement (an informal coalition of citizens against corruption), Transparency International (India chapter), ‘Lanjam Kodathor Eiyakkam’ (Association of Citizens who don’t pay bribes). While most of their work is targeted at an older demographic, 5th Pillar aggressively targets its structured programs to children in schools, youth in colleges and young professionals and entrepreneurs. The goal is to create a new generation of citizens who will be active role models as they enter the work force and become productive members of business, government and society without being active or passive participants in corruption.
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FOUNDING STORY: We want to hear about your “Aha!” moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution’s potential to change the world.
In 2006, when I arrived at the Mumbai International airport, a customs official pulled me aside under the pretext that I had a ‘lot of electronics that were subject to customs duty’. When I explained that I was well within the ‘allowable’ limits that I could carry as a NRI, the official asked me to wait aside and informed me that I had to see his superior who was neither going to arrive at his desk, nor was there any effort to take me to him. I then pulled out a Zero Rupee Note which I was experimenting with at that time, and handed it out to the official who had originally stopped me, indicating that I had to leave as I had immediate official commitments after I exited the airport. I offered to come back, if I still had to meet with the superior official. After taking a detailed look at the ZRN, the official’s tone and body language changed dramatically to the extent of becoming over-friendly in his interactions, and seeing me off with much cordiality. This was the ‘Aha’ moment when I realized that the ZRN, if placed in the hands of a helpless citizen, can save him/her from being harassed by corrupt officials and could serve as an effective anti-corruption tool.
Specify both the depth and scale of your solution’s social impact to date
ZRN: The organization has distributed more than 2 million printed ZRNs since its introduction in 2007. Countries like Nepal, Ghana, Mexico, Argentina and Peru contacted 5th Pillar for consent to use the Zero Currency Note concept, and adopted it to fight corruption in their respective geographies.
Corruption Reporting Platform: We have received reports and helped resolve issues related to basic services such as securing birth/death certificates, ration card, voter ID card,etc. This platform has game-changing potential for the anti-corruption agenda to tackle large-scale corruption involving the nexus of politics and business.
5th Pillar’s anti-corruption initiatives such as 'FREEDOM from CORRUPTION' awareness & sensitization program for Youth, free training/workshops on the RTI ACT and practical tools to tackle corruption has penetrated over 1200 colleges and schools, reaching over 500,000 students, mobilizing them into the zero-corruption pledge “I PROMISE TO NEITHER ACCEPT NOR GIVE BRIBE”.
A cumulative total of 600,000 people have attended 5th Pillar’s anti-corruption awareness/training workshops.
What is your projected impact within the next 1-5 years? Is your idea replicable? If so, how?
• The plan is to replicate 5th Pillar’s program success in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh to few other states in India – Karnataka, Rajasthan, Kerala, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Delhi, Haryana. Discussions and efforts are in progress to recruit Chapter Coordinators and Trainers in these geographies.
• We intend to increase citizen usage of the Online Corruption Reporting Tool beyond its current nature of usage to report bribery in public services delivery, to also serve whistle-blowing interests involving large-scale corruption.
Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and mark growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact
Launch Chapters in 3 of 6 targeted geographies; increase awareness & usage of the CRT to get citizens to be active participants
Task 1
Recruit 3 Chapter Coordinators (Delhi, Maharashtra & Karnataka) & train them on anti-corruption programs, tools and processes
Task 2
Identify a strong social media partner to help with campaigns
Task 3
Launch a social media campaign
Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone
Build a network of 'nodal agents' to receive SMS corruption alerts from online-access-challenged & feed it into online CR Tool
Task 1
Recruit remaining 3 Chapter Coordinators (Kerala, West Bengal, Rajasthan) and train them on 5th Pillar anti- corruption programs
Task 2
Recruit/train volunteers from our network to serve as ‘nodal agents’ to citizen-watchdogs on the wrong side of digital divide
Task 3
Make system adjustments to CRT to enable linking SMS alerts to ‘nodal agents’ assigned to specific departmental corruption cases
How many people have been impacted by your project?
More than 10,000
How many people could be impacted by your project in the next three years?
More than 10,000
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideExplain how your company, program, service or product is structured
Non-profit
What barriers have hindered the success of your project to date? How do you plan to overcome these and other challenges as you grow your solution?
• Sustained funding. Unlike other social change activity where outcomes can be measured, anti-corruption work is one where the results are not easily measurable. Impact multiplication and expansion plans will remain a challenge in absence of sustained institutional support
• A majority of the older age-group who have been victims of corruption have lost faith in the system. These citizens dampen the spirits of youth during group discussions. Our strategy has been to drive our structured programs to school/college students & young professionals who we have seen to be very aspirational, motivated and passionate to drive positive systemic change
5th Pillar continues its communication with the older group (through newsletters, online groups) highlighting success stories as hope for change
How do you see the information-technology and media sectors shifting over the next decade? How will your solution adapt to and/or drive that changing environment?
Technology has democratized the creation, distribution and consumption of information. In countries like India where 70% of its population lives in its rural heartlands, the digital divide is glaring. However, with an agenda to connect 250,000 panchayats via fibre optics and broadband by 2012, much of India’s underserved communities will become a part of the information society. ICT injects greater transparency in public service delivery. Those that don't adapt to serving their constituencies with transparency and integrity will face natural extinction.
Failure is not always an option. If your solution fails to gain traction in the next two years, what other applications of the idea could you explore?
Having seen demonstrated success with the ZRN (including continued interest internationally), and early signs of meaningful adoption of the Online Corruption Reporting Tool, we are confident that these tools have potential to be game changers if proliferated and adopted on large scale. Platforms like WikiLeaks are a testament to demonstrated potential
Expand on your selections, explaining how you will sustain funding
Funding continues to be a challenge despite proof of impact and success we have seen on the ground as a direct result of our anti-corruption work. Many of our well-wishers who have who have helped sustain our efforts, have expressed a desire to maintain anonymity, symptomatic of fear of the forces within the system that could potentially implicate them for supporting the anti-corruption cause. While fund-raising still remains a fire-fighting activity, impact multiplication and expansion plans will remain a challenge without sustained institutional support.
Tell us about your partnerships
•Partnered with Transparency International to host the first anti-corruption Summit
•Partnered with Forum for Electoral Integrity/Election Commission of India to tackle electoral corruption, monitor code of conduct & ensure integrity in the process during the TN State Assembly Elections, April 2011. The ruling party was washed out of the elections by a clean sweep reflective of the people’s will against corruption expressed through their votes
•Continued partnership with UNCAC to facilitate implementation of the anti-corruption conventions in India
What type of team (staff, volunteers, etc.) will ensure that you achieve the growth milestones identified in the Social Impact section?
In each state where we intend to operate, we need 3 team leads to manage 1) the anti-corruption programs & initiatives 2) program management with colleges and schools and 3) Vigilance coordination efforts and a network of dedicated volunteers committed to the anti-corruption cause, to execute programs in the field
We need a dedicated resource to monitor and track online corruption complaints and see it through remedial action
Changemakers is a collaborative and supportive space. Please specify any community resources you would need to grow and sustain your initiative. Select all that apply
Investment, Human resources or talent, Marketing or media, Pro-bono help (legal, financial, etc.).
Specify any resources you might offer to support other initiatives. Select all that apply
Collaboration or networking, Innovation or ideas.
Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren’t specified within the list
5th Pillar is very interested in collaborating with individuals/ organizations that have an interest/expertise/resources that can be mutually leveraged for anti-corruption work in India. 5th Pillar is also keen to inject the anti-corruption agenda within the context of other NGOs/participating organizations of the Ashoka network, to cultivate an operating ethic and code of conduct that espouses zero-tolerance to corruption in the context of their individual missions being pursued.
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideDefine your company, program, service or product in 1-2 short sentences
5th Pillar represents THE PEOPLE who seek freedom from corruption by transforming people power into 'social capital'.
Identify what is innovative about your solution in 1-2 short sentences
5th Pillar’s anti corruption tools empower EVERY citizen to be a corruption buster!
Created on 09/14/2011 by doloreslavalle
Acceder a la información mejora la calidad de vida. Conoce tu derecho a saber !
Organization: Centro de Estudios para la Información Ciudadana - ong en formación, trámites presentados ante la Inspección General de Justicia
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http://twitter.com/#!/info_ciudadana
Organization Name
Centro de Estudios para la Información Ciudadana - ong en formación, trámites presentados ante la Inspección General de Justicia
Country where this project is creating social impact
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
How long has your organization been operating?
1‐5 years
The information you provide here will be used to fill in any parts of your profile that have been left blank, such as interests, organization information, and website. No contact information will be made public. Please uncheck here if you do not want this to happen..
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Acceso a la Información mejora la calidad de vida. Conoce tu derecho a saber
Select the stage that best applies to your solution
Start-Up (a pilot that has just begun operating)
How long have you been in operation?
Operating for less than a year
THE NEED: Describe the need for your solution and the size/dynamic of the community (ies) you will engage
En la Ciudad de Buenos Aires y área metropolitana, en general, la comunidad desconoce su derecho de acceso a la información pública para solicitar documentación al poder y sus beneficios. Ignora que puede dirigirse al Estado y averiguar datos que modificarían sustancialmente la calidad de vida de personas, escuelas o comunidades. Ejemplos, enterarse de subsidios para escuelas ; remedios oncológicos de elevado costo de distribución gratuita por el Estado (que no realiza campañas de difusión masiva para conocimiento de la sociedad) o la potabilidad del agua que consume un barrio. La ausencia de demanda de información permite al Estado ignorar este derecho. El trabajo de cabildeo realizando en ocasiones anteriores en el Congreso nacional, brindando conocimientos técnico-jurídicos a asesores y legisladores mostró ser insuficiente para lograr la sanción de una ley que regule este derecho así como lograr su conocimiento por la comunidad referida.
THE SOLUTION: Please explain what your solution offers and how it is innovative. How will you put your solution into the hands of users or beneficiaries? Be specific!
La implementación de iniciativas creativas facilitará el conocimiento masivo y real del derecho de acceso a la información y sus beneficios a nuevos destinatarios : los habitantes de la metrópolis de BA.
El objetivo consiste en trabajar capacitando maestros de escuelas, profesores universitarios y alumnos de la ciudad de Buenos Aires y área metropolitana. Se motivará la presentación de solicitudes de información pública, apuntando a un cambio cultural poniendo este derecho en conocimiento de la comunidad referida, que permee a todas las capas sociales mediante la entrega de material didáctico de primera necesidad, lúdico y otros que colabore en generar interés y atención en la escuela y el hogar (lápices, calendarios, juegos, etc). Con la información obtenida se generará una base de datos online para consulta al público, cuyo acceso será compartido con las instituciones educativas.
THE MODEL: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference through use of information technology and media
Una base de datos online que puede ser consultada por maestros, profesores y alumnos para chequear si ya existe un pedido de información similar al que desean realizar o no, contribuye a agilizar el trámite de solicitar información, que en la Argentina se realiza por medio de presentaciones en papel. Asimismo, allí se puede compartir información útil para la comunidad. Por otra parte, las redes sociales que utilizamos, Facebook, Twitter, conectadas entre sí, pueden difundir rápidamente las novedades de resultados de pedidos presentados. Se intentará conectarlas a los teléfonos celulares de los participantes, ya que la mayoría de las clases sociales cuenta en su hogar con esta tecnología, algo que no siempre sucede con Internet.
THE MARKETPLACE: Who are your peers and competitors? What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?
Hay algunas ong´s importantes que se dedican esporádicamente al tema, sin tener un proyecto definido a largo plazo. Ellos son : Poder Ciudadano, CIPPEC, Asociación por los Derechos Civiles y ACIJ. Estas ong´s trabajan en el cabildeo con políticos para alcanzar la sanción de una ley de acceso a la información pública y/o litigando ante los tribunales judiciales. FOPEA podría competir con esta iniciativa ya que brinda capacitación en la temática, pero dirigida a periodistas específicamente.
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FOUNDING STORY: We want to hear about your “Aha!” moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution’s potential to change the world.
desde 2002 trabajo escribiendo y transmitiendo conocimientos técnicos a asesores y legisladores para lograr la sanción de la ley de acceso a la información en Argentina, objetivo pendiente. Como abogada trabajo en comunicación política y tengo contacto con profesionales, periodistas y colegas que ignoran que pedirle información al Estado es un derecho constitucional. Siempre me pregunté cómo transmitir este derecho a todas las capas sociales, cuando ni los profesionales lo conocen. En 2010 el ITAIP, autoridad que controla el funcionamiento de la ley de acceso a la información de Tabasco, México, me invitó a dar una conferencia magistral. Visitando el ITAIP vi un calendario con la inscripción « tienes derecho a saber » e inmediátamente pensé « esto puede estar en cualquier hogar, es útil y didáctico ». Allí entendí que la misión es trabajar con escuelas y universidades, ofreciendo capacitación pero también útiles escolares para mantenerla fresca y activa
Specify both the depth and scale of your solution’s social impact to date
Desde hace 3 años doy una clase sobre derecho de acceso a la información en la Universidad Católica a 30 alumnos de periodismo de investigación, que realizan luego un pedido de información. Soy tutora de una alumna de comunicación social especializándose en el tema. La motivé para solicitar información en Argentina y México ; la contactaron del organismo oficial mexicano para filmar un video explicando su visión sobre su sistema electrónico de pedidos. Ahora también utiliza el sistema chileno, superando los 50 pedidos propios. Dí clase en un colegio secundario y 120 alumnas de 15 años se sorprendieron al enterarse que podían dirigirse al Estado a requerir información. Tengo un grupo en Facebook (Acceso a la Información Pública) con 180 miembros de distintos países y la página Información Ciudadana conectada al Twitter donde subo información del tema. La escala y el impacto son diversos según los grupos, calculo 600 personas.
What is your projected impact within the next 1-5 years? Is your idea replicable? If so, how?
Espero capacitar más profesores, maestros y alumnos, idea que puede replicarse en otras provincias y países. La capacitación siempre es bienvenida en todos los ámbitos académicos, y si además se le agrega algún elemento útil (juego, material escolar o universitario) suma en interés, atención y memoria. Las personas pasan a sentirse protagonistas de la vida cívica en lugar de individuos olvidados por el Estado.
Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and mark growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact
Ampliar los ámbitos académicos –escuelas, universidades- donde ofrecer capacitación
Task 1
Identificación de universidades, escuelas, profesores y alumnos con interés en recibir capacitación en acceso a la información y
Task 2
Preparación de materiales informativos
Task 3
Contactar a las escuelas y docentes identificados en 1) para ponerlos en conocimiento de las ventajas de la capacitación y motiv
Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone
Conseguir financiamiento para diseño y compra de materiales y útiles didácticos y escolares ; motivar presentación solicitudes
Task 2
contactar fabricantes de kits escolares y conseguir colaboración
Task 3
distribución de los kits mencionados
How many people have been impacted by your project?
101 - 1,000
How many people could be impacted by your project in the next three years?
1001‐10,000
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideExplain how your company, program, service or product is structured
Non-profit
What barriers have hindered the success of your project to date? How do you plan to overcome these and other challenges as you grow your solution?
El principal obstáculo fue no recurrir a los elementos claves del marketing para difundir el conocimiento del derecho de acceso a la información pública y haber insistido en un target de capacitación que no era el adecuado, no llegando a los verdaderos beneficiarios del derecho de acceso : los ciudadanos.
Pienso recurrir a diseñadores y especialistas en marketing para la construcción del kit didáctico y escolar. Los conocimientos técnicos ya existen y la capacitación irá mostrando si la combinación de ambas cosas (kits+conocimiento) son la verdadera solución
How do you see the information-technology and media sectors shifting over the next decade? How will your solution adapt to and/or drive that changing environment?
Los valoro sobremanera, son multiplicadores increíbles. Además funcionan perfecto para transmitir conocimientos a las nuevas generaciones que no tienen la costumbre de relacionarse con el formato papel, sino con las nuevas tecnologías. La solución necesita de estas innovaciones tecnológicas porque potencian el número de capacitados y la retroalimentación que pueda recibirse de ellos.
Failure is not always an option. If your solution fails to gain traction in the next two years, what other applications of the idea could you explore?
Chequear la calidad y contenido del material que se entrega ; si la capacitación es la adecuada ; si el target de capacitados se benefició o no. Hacer una encuesta luego de cada capacitación
Expand on your selections, explaining how you will sustain funding
El grueso de la ayuda económica se necesita para financiar el diseño y la compra de los kits escolares y otros materiales didácticos. Luego se destinarán recursos para financiar las capacitaciones, aunque éstas pueden desarrollarse en forma gratuita, como hasta la fecha.
Tell us about your partnerships
Trabajo como contraparte de la Fundación Konrad Adenauer en proyectos de comunicación política (conferencias de prensa) y acceso a la información pública. Asimismo, Información Ciudadana tiene vínculos informales con ong´s como el CARI (Consejo Argentino para las Relaciones Internacionales) con quien organizamos actividades esporádicamente. Con la Universidad Católica, ADEPA (Asoc. De Empresas Periodísticas Argentinas),el Círculo de Periodistas Parlamentarios trabajamos conjuntamente en la organización de conferencias de prensa, pero sin vínculo formal.
What type of team (staff, volunteers, etc.) will ensure that you achieve the growth milestones identified in the Social Impact section?
Profesores universitarios, maestros, periodistas y abogados, con quienes ya trabajamos, así como también voluntarios que tengan conocimiento cabal de la temática o que puedan colaborar con la parte logística y quieran sumarse posteriormente.
Changemakers is a collaborative and supportive space. Please specify any community resources you would need to grow and sustain your initiative. Select all that apply
Investment, Human resources or talent, Marketing or media, Collaboration or networking, Innovation or ideas.
Specify any resources you might offer to support other initiatives. Select all that apply
Human resources or talent, Collaboration or networking.
Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren’t specified within the list
Se necesita ampliar el financiamiento para llegar a más escuelas y universidades para capacitar más maestros, profesores y alumnos, pero sobre todo para motivarlos para realizar pedidos de información, a través de la entrega de materiales ingeniosos, y también generar una base de datos con información pública que crezca con el tiempo y facilite el intercambio. Podemos ofrecer los conocimientos técnicos y prácticos de la presentación de pedidos de información y su seguimiento en sistemas distintos como Argentina y México. Estamos acostumbrados a trabajar en red, sobre todo con las redes sociales 2.0, que multiplican la difusión de nuestra labor.
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideDefine your company, program, service or product in 1-2 short sentences
Información Ciudadana es una ong que difunde y enseña a preguntar por la información pública
Identify what is innovative about your solution in 1-2 short sentences
Acceder a la información mejora la calidad de vida. Conoce tu derecho a saber !
Work in favor of massive citizen´s knowledge of their right to know and access to public information, through training in schools and universities.
Created on 09/14/2011 by sansum
Involving public in the form of social network for policy development and understanding.
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facebook.com/sanjeevsuman
Country where this project is creating social impact
Is your organization a
Not registered
How long has your organization been operating?
Less than a year
The information you provide here will be used to fill in any parts of your profile that have been left blank, such as interests, organization information, and website. No contact information will be made public. Please uncheck here if you do not want this to happen..
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideSelect the stage that best applies to your solution
Idea (you're poised to launch)
How long have you been in operation?
Still in idea phase, but looking to launch soon
THE NEED: Describe the need for your solution and the size/dynamic of the community (ies) you will engage
India is worlds largest democracy.The most pressing issue for this democracy is engaging people to the process of policy formulation. The discontent was very visible with the currnt agitation regarding a bill.The problem with the agitation was that most of the people were not even aware of the provisions of the bill.There is an agency working towards the same with the right intent.The problem with the agency is that even with the intent it is limited to a niche category of people.The people involved have been legislatures,lawyers and few passionate people.
THE SOLUTION: Please explain what your solution offers and how it is innovative. How will you put your solution into the hands of users or beneficiaries? Be specific!
The solution I propose:
-create a platform for acts,pending bills and consultation papers
-make all of them simpl,easy to understand and how they are going to impact you as the person to be served
-create specefic sectors
-create region specefic
-create forums to discuss
-making people understand how the laws will be formulated and apply to communities
- create suggestion box for pending bills and consultation papers
-show the public profile of representatives ie legislatures in respect of their bill performances
-show the parliament profile for the same
-create mobile database to track ur specific bill.
- create easy solutions for business,property,family,will and other day to day legal issues to attract crowd.
- back it up with offline forums in schools,colleges,social meetings in cities and village panchayats
- create sector specific and region specific groups
-Discussions where participants help each other understand the issues
The main objective is demystifying the bill,classifying its content and impact population and again classifying the people incharge of passing the bill,their opinion,impact people opinion and expert opinion.The whole platform shall work in the form of an active social network.
THE MODEL: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference through use of information technology and media
example of the new land acquisition bill:
-The bill is presented on our platform in the most simple manner specifying the points the bill contain.
- We create the online discussions for the bill.
- We let people know and discuss how the bill will impact them
- The people discuss it and form a advocacy groups through our platform
- Land acquisition is basically a struggle between ever expanding people in or moving to cities without lands with rural people without land.
- We take the discussion to the cities and villages through our offline discussions and tracking their views.
- schools and colleges play the role of a learners and volunteers and normal participants as public.
-Reports are created with suggestions and objections forwarded to the government.
-government gets the views of all the people whom the bill shall impact directly or indirectly.
-People could track what each of their representative is doing or saying for the bill and how their suggestions were incorporated.
- keep the resource section for articles and some expert opinions to get better opinion.
Thus we created a lobby of citizens who could influence the passing of bills and object to provisions after the knowledge of the bill and engaged the youth for the same.
THE MARKETPLACE: Who are your peers and competitors? What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?
PRS is an established organisation. It works more as a government assistant and with less public participation. They have huge backing. No other strong organisation.
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FOUNDING STORY: We want to hear about your “Aha!” moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution’s potential to change the world.
Anna Hazare agitation where we realised how people suddenly woke up for a single legislation when they got a plattform to express themselves.The other thing we saw was that many people didnt know the provisions of the Bill and how it was to impact them.
Specify both the depth and scale of your solution’s social impact to date
What is your projected impact within the next 1-5 years? Is your idea replicable? If so, how?
-we wish to create a public advocacy group or lobby group to object and provide solutions to the public policy.
- We wish to create 400-500 offline centres and 2-3 million users online in 3-4years
Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and mark growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact
Task 1
create a easy to use interactive platform
Task 2
generate a buzz for the initiative
Task 3
tying up with colleges,village panchayats and other social groups
Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone
Task 1
partnership with ngos at local level
Task 2
partnership with mainstream media
Task 3
tying up with schools as learning tools
How many people have been impacted by your project?
Please select
How many people could be impacted by your project in the next three years?
More than 10,000
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideExplain how your company, program, service or product is structured
Non-profit
What barriers have hindered the success of your project to date? How do you plan to overcome these and other challenges as you grow your solution?
The most important challenges that could come in the way of growing up are:
-people not finding it comfortable and useful
-staying neutral
-not having specefic networks
-financial abilities
we plan to start with a very strong and people specific interface with an ability to engage the user both online and offline.We intend to be specific and focus practical issues.The project shall always take every view and keep the lobby creation factor away with the help of a site moderator.We plan to tie up with specefic agencies along with government to keep the network all inclusive and proactive.The self sustaining model shall be dealt with users and high value resources being charged for.
How do you see the information-technology and media sectors shifting over the next decade? How will your solution adapt to and/or drive that changing environment?
The it along with media is getting more localised,personal and specific.This is in sync with our objectives as we intend to be growing on the same line. Penetration is another issue big thing happening with media and it which shall help our organisation.The problem could be the high number of options available where sustainablity shall depend upon how much relevant your services are the quality of engagement that is being provided.
Failure is not always an option. If your solution fails to gain traction in the next two years, what other applications of the idea could you explore?
- Create a youth policy debate series at regional level with our tie ups in college focusing on sustainable and devlopment polices.
Expand on your selections, explaining how you will sustain funding
We would need initial funding of around $15000 and hope to break even in 2years.Other funding shall be welcome and help us grow and we dont seek any further funding from any organisation instead support in other forms.
Tell us about your partnerships
What type of team (staff, volunteers, etc.) will ensure that you achieve the growth milestones identified in the Social Impact section?
lawyers,law students,college students,journalist,project writers,social workers
Changemakers is a collaborative and supportive space. Please specify any community resources you would need to grow and sustain your initiative. Select all that apply
Investment, Human resources or talent, Marketing or media, Research or information, Collaboration or networking, Pro-bono help (legal, financial, etc.), Mentorship.
Specify any resources you might offer to support other initiatives. Select all that apply
Human resources or talent, Marketing or media, Research or information, Collaboration or networking, Pro-bono help (legal, financial, etc.), Innovation or ideas, Mentorship.
Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren’t specified within the list
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideDefine your company, program, service or product in 1-2 short sentences
To Policy simple to understand .Create public platform to involve public to understand,discuss and track laws which impact them.
Identify what is innovative about your solution in 1-2 short sentences
Involving public in the form of social network for policy development and understanding.
Created on 09/12/2011 by Apps4Charity
The NIH Shuttle App will allow NIH patients to track the shuttle routes using the already existing GPS on the shuttle, Google Maps & the Android Platform. This app will improve the quality of the patients visit because they will be able to track the shuttle routes in real-time. The patient will know if the shuttles breaks down or are running late. The app will help the patients track weather conditions & help prevent excess time in poor weather conditions. This will be a free download & donated by Apps 4 Charity.
Organization: Apps 4 Charity
Visit websitemore ↓↑ hide↑ hideOrganization Country
United States, FL, Duval County
Country where this project is creating social impact
United States, FL, Duval County
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
How long has your organization been operating?
Less than a year
The information you provide here will be used to fill in any parts of your profile that have been left blank, such as interests, organization information, and website. No contact information will be made public. Please uncheck here if you do not want this to happen..
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhat change do you want to bring to the world?
The NIH Shuttle App will allow NIH patients to track the shuttle routes using the already existing GPS on the shuttle, Google Maps & the Android Platform. This app will improve the quality of the patients visit because they will be able to track the shuttle routes in real-time. The patient will know if the shuttles breaks down or are running late. The app will help the patients track weather conditions & help prevent excess time in poor weather conditions. This will be a free download & donated by Apps 4 Charity.
What are the primary activities of your project?
This app will improve the quality of the patients visit because they will be able to track the shuttle routes in real-time.
1) The patients will know if the shuttles breaks down or are running late. 2) The app will help the patients track weather conditions & help prevent excess time in poor weather conditions.
3) This will be a free download & donated by Apps 4 Charity.
What is innovative about your initiative? How is it a new contribution to the field?
The NIH Shuttle App will improve the patients visit to the clinic:
1) Reduce patients missing their shuttle
2) Reduce patients transportation stress & anxiety
The app can contribute to the NIH transportation efficiency:
1) There is potential to reduce travel expenses by giving the patient more information about the NIH Shuttles routes lead can to less patients missing their shuttle.
2) Reduce patients transportation stress & anxiety
What stage is your project in?
Idea phase
Tell us about the community that you engage? eg. economic conditions, political structures, norms and values, demographic trends, history, and experience with engagement efforts.
The NIH patients & their families by helping improve the patient transportation efficiency.
Share the story of the founder and what inspired the founder to start this project
I was riding on the NIH Shuttle from BWI to NIH in the middle of January.
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideThis Entry is about (Issues)
Please describe how your project has been successful and how that success is measured
We are not associated with the NIH. I am a patient there & I manage a non-profit called Apps 4 Charity. Apps 4 Charity would like to donate this app to the NIH. The success of this project will be measured in the amount of donations raised to cover the cost the development for the app & the number of downloads.
How many people have been impacted by your project?
More than 10,000
How many people could be impacted by your project in the next three years?
More than 10,000
Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact
In 6 months we need to complete the following:
1) Be in communication with the NIH about the development of the app
2) Raising funds to develop the app & maintainability
Task 1
Be in communication with the NIH
Task 2
Raise funds to develop the app
Task 3
Find a developer to create the code
Identify your 12-month impact milestone
In 12-month we need to complete the following:
1) Have a working prototype version
2) Beta testing, troubleshooting & debugging
Task 2
Beta testing, troubleshooting & debugging
How will your project evolve over the next three years?
The app will have to be managed as a smart organization & e business practices will have to been implemented. The app will have to evolve to keep up with patient needs.
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhat barriers might hinder the success of your project and how do you plan to overcome them?
Sustainable funding is going to be the biggest challenge. Government approval will take time & lots paperwork.
Tell us about your partnerships
This project will require the following partnerships:
1)Apps 4 Charity
2)Investors
3)Developers
4)NIH
5)NIH shuttle service
Current annual budget of project, in US dollars
$1,000‐$10,000
Explain your selections
The NIH Shuttle App will requires donations & investors from many different sectors.
How do you plan to strengthen your project in the next three years?
To develop e business model that will allow the app to evolve & sustain regular update maintainability with patients needs.
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhich barriers to health and well-being does your innovation address?
Please select up to three in order of relevancy to your project.
PRIMARY
Lack of physical access to care/lack of facilities
SECONDARY
Lack of insurance/financing options for healthcare
TERTIARY
Lack of access to targeted health information and education
Please describe how your innovation specifically tackles the barriers listed above.
The app will provide easier access to the transportation facilities information. Sustainable funding is required to maintain the app. As the app evolves it will provide more access to the targeted NIH information.
How are you growing the impact of your organization or initiative?
Please select up to three potential pathways in order of relevancy to you.
PRIMARY
Enhanced existing impact through addition of complementary services
SECONDARY
Grown geographic reach: Multi-country
TERTIARY
Repurposed your model for other sectors/development needs
Please describe which of your growth activities are current or planned for the immediate future.
This project is currently in the idea phase & now is the time for discussion.
Do you collaborate with any of the following: (Check all that apply)
Government, Technology providers, NGOs/Nonprofits, For profit companies.
If yes, how have these collaborations helped your innovation to succeed?
1) Government: NIH
2) Technology providers: Developer has not been named
3) Nonprofits: Apps 4 Charity
4) For profit companies: Investors
Created on 08/15/2011 by duketive
The solution is a portable reporting device, customised software, data storage services and various push report options.
Organization: Vortics Communications Pte Lts
more ↓↑ hide↑ hideOrganization Name
Vortics Communications Pte Lts
Country where this project is creating social impact
Is your organization a
For‐profit
How long has your organization been operating?
Less than a year
The information you provide here will be used to fill in any parts of your profile that have been left blank, such as interests, organization information, and website. No contact information will be made public. Please uncheck here if you do not want this to happen..
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideEntry Form title
Workplace Safety and Health Management System
Select the stage that best applies to your solution
Start-Up (a pilot that has just begun operating)
How long have you been in operation?
Still in idea phase, but looking to launch soon
THE NEED: Describe the need for your solution and the size/dynamic of the community (ies) you will engage
The aim is to create awareness to public with our social responsibility campaign “ Safety@SG”, in mid-September, which will leverage on social media and mobile applications, to engage and educate our citizens to report any unsafe acts and provide them with content that will educate them. Our main business is, Vortport a portable, highly interactive and time sensitive incident management and reporting system, to generate, track and record work related accidents, disease/illness and unsafe acts/conditions onsite, WSH reporting also enhances the corporate social responsibility (CSR) profile of companies by integrating economic, social, ethical and environmental concerns in business operations.
THE SOLUTION: Please explain what your solution offers and how it is innovative. How will you put your solution into the hands of users or beneficiaries? Be specific!
Currently used solutions are pen and paper format that requires the transfer of pictures from camera ane ect.
Vortport potential is a niche un-served market that is in line with government guidelines that instills corporate governances and greater ownership to stakeholders. We will have the first mover advantage in serving these focus industries.Vortport a portable, highly interactive and time sensitive incident management and reporting system, to generate, track and record work related accidents, disease/illness and unsafe acts/conditions onsite, WSH reporting also enhances the corporate social responsibility (CSR) profile of companies. This solution will launch in late November.
Vortport can be leveraged as an indicator of good business performance by help companies in profiling their WSH policies and practices in their annual reports. Companies which have good WSH performance benefit from reduced loss time in production and this translates to better productivity and business performance.
Vortport is position as a tool to assist individual organizations workplace safety committee or safety officers/personal. It allows them to generate reports and do trending analysis based on Workplace Safety and Health Council (WSHC) guidance on Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) Reporting this creates transparency on WSH performance that could be leveraged to drive further improvements. This also creates confidence in investors that the company is taking active measures to improve its safety and health performance and thereby its productivity.
THE MODEL: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference through use of information technology and media
Vortport portable workplace safety and health reporting system which currently innovates form current processes for internal usage will empowers users to deliver accurate, timely and improved workplace safety and health reports on the move. The solution is a portable reporting device, customised software, data storage services and various push report options.
Vortport telematics information structure is scalable and portable for the use of other applications like building infrastructure reporting, this provides for business growth into other areas of implementation. Build as a web-based application, information and content access are granted to any computing system with internet access.
THE MARKETPLACE: Who are your peers and competitors? What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?
There is no major competition for this niche market solution available in the market, the competition are establish software development companies that have the capabilities and resources to copy and expedite the development and ready to market process. This will give Vortics Communications the first mover advantage. We have a patent-pending for our solution.
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FOUNDING STORY: We want to hear about your “Aha!” moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution’s potential to change the world.
Fresh out of military school, where safety and health were a culture that was embedded in us. I started my first job in marketing and sales, I told myself what am I doing here selling other peoples products and solutions, I wanted more than a day job, I want to make my own job. Than the challenge came, Fresh and new in the market, what experience can I back up upon to fuel my dream. Than it strike me, to use technology to improve safety and health culture in Singapore.
Specify both the depth and scale of your solution’s social impact to date
The key business areas are construction, manufacturing and shipbuilding & repairing. These organisations form a total of 16,689 registered entities publish by Ministry of Manpower Number of Factories by Industry - 2000 to 2009.
What is your projected impact within the next 1-5 years? Is your idea replicable? If so, how?
To make all workplace a safe place and decrese of workplace death/injuries.
Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and mark growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact
Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone
Task 2
Safety and Health Information Potal/Activities/Media
How many people have been impacted by your project?
More than 10,000
How many people could be impacted by your project in the next three years?
More than 10,000
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideExplain how your company, program, service or product is structured
Business
What barriers have hindered the success of your project to date? How do you plan to overcome these and other challenges as you grow your solution?
Bigger competition who are able to replicate our project fast, we have a patent filling date for our patent.
How do you see the information-technology and media sectors shifting over the next decade? How will your solution adapt to and/or drive that changing environment?
Mobile computing, which easy finger tips access. It set to work on tablets.
Failure is not always an option. If your solution fails to gain traction in the next two years, what other applications of the idea could you explore?
Development of smart energy solutions, we are also working on the project now, but not all our resources are focused on that solution.
Expand on your selections, explaining how you will sustain funding
Will be reasonably priced to ensure SME‟s are also able to adopt this tool. The standard sell package consist of a handheld device and our services are projected at SGD$8500, with addition handheld device going for SGD$3000. Based on timeline set for Vortport ready to market is 6 months from being incorporated, we project a total of 58 units sold in 1 year with a gross sale of SGD$493,000.
Tell us about your partnerships
What type of team (staff, volunteers, etc.) will ensure that you achieve the growth milestones identified in the Social Impact section?
Currently incubate in a educational insitute, with accees to facilities, tools and manpowers.
Changemakers is a collaborative and supportive space. Please specify any community resources you would need to grow and sustain your initiative. Select all that apply
Marketing or media, Research or information, Collaboration or networking, Innovation or ideas.
Specify any resources you might offer to support other initiatives. Select all that apply
Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren’t specified within the list
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideDefine your company, program, service or product in 1-2 short sentences
Vortics Communications develops and provides focused turnkey solutions in virtual, portable and telematics technologies.
Identify what is innovative about your solution in 1-2 short sentences
The solution is a portable reporting device, customised software, data storage services and various push report options.
An independent citizen-authored blog about law and politics, and what life is really like in the platteland.
The largest association of electronic media in Serbia, dedicated to the improvement of conditions for media development and freedom of expression, as well as protection of interests of its members.
Blog by Portuguese-American, Amsterdam-based, alternative-activist-journalist, independent podcaster, public speaker, rogue media theorist specializing in online journalism, social movements, and a healthy disrespect for journalistic conventions.
Socialeuropeanjournalism.com was created to the need to pursue and open the debates of social and civic journalism to a wider audience. In autumn 2011, a communication based on those exchanges will be presented to the members of the European Parliament.
The independent media portal fully dedicated to EU affairs. EurActiv has an original business model, based on five elements (corporate sponsoring, EurActor membership, advertising, EU projects, and content syndication). It is well funded and the content usage is free.
TAI is world’s largest network of civil society organizations working to ensure that people have the right & ability to influence decisions about the natural resources that sustain their communities. Working in their respective countries, TAI partners from national coalitions assess the performance of their governments to provide the public with: access to information about government decisions, public participation in decision-making, and access to justice when their rights to information, participation, and a clean environment are violated.
This is a project-cum-campaign by media students, that aims to bring social change in the media. The media has the capability to impact and change society. This is best done through its social coverage and continuous investigative reporting.
I-MAK is a team of lawyers and scientists increasing access to affordable medicines by making sure the patent system works.
Created on 06/15/2011 by PeaceTones
PeaceTones aims to redefine the world music industry, creating a fair trade and community development business model that breaks down knowledge and access barriers to allow artists in developing countries to build viable and sustainable businesses. We strive to create a truly global marketplace through which musicians in low-income, post-conflict or post-disaster communities can sell their music to world markets online, keep the majority of profits from their music, and return a portion of their profits to their communities on an ongoing basis.
Organization: PeaceTones
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Country where this project is creating social impact
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
How long has your organization been operating?
1‐5 years
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PeaceTones: Fair-Trade-Music. Empowering Communities Through the Arts.
What change do you want to bring to the world?
PeaceTones aims to redefine the world music industry, creating a fair trade and community development business model that breaks down knowledge and access barriers to allow artists in developing countries to build viable and sustainable businesses. We strive to create a truly global marketplace through which musicians in low-income, post-conflict or post-disaster communities can sell their music to world markets online, keep the majority of profits from their music, and return a portion of their profits to their communities on an ongoing basis. PeaceTones works with musicians because music connects people in a way that very few other products can. Musicians hold a special place in their communities as mentors, role models and catalysts of change.
What are the primary activities of your project?
PeaceTones works directly with musicians as they are powerful agents of change within their communities. Working with local partners, we hold legal and marketing workshops for musicians in low-income communities. Topics range from basic contracts and intellectual property law to social networking and getting music on iTunes and Amazon. We also inform students on local resources (e.g. legal aid). Workshops involve games, role-playing, and stories to create an engaging and non-threatening learning environment. We incorporate a contest, held through Facebook, into our workshops as an incentive for participation and as a means to practically apply tools learned in the workshops. The contest engages audiences around the world in the process of selecting the next PeaceTones musicians, and in turn gives publicity to many unknown local artists. Contest winners become PeaceTones ambassadors, record an album with PeaceTones, and 90% of profits from album sales go directly to the musicians and a local community development project of their choosing that is vetted by PeaceTones.
PeaceTones then works with the artists to market the album both within their home country and internationally. The end products are an arts community with a greater sense of legal empowerment and marketing skills using technology, a large group of artists that have been given international recognition through the PeaceTones contest, and a PeaceTones ambassador that has launched a music career, received financial compensation for their talent, and is able to contribute to their community in a meaningful, sustained way.
What is innovative about your initiative? How is it a new contribution to the field?
New Music Model: In an era when the behemoths of the music industry are struggling to sustain arcane business models, PeaceTones focuses on the cutting-edge tools independent musicians and record labels are using to get noticed, create a fan base, and be profitable. We subscribe to the Music+ model, giving customers more than just music, but a greater reason to buy. Every PeaceTones album comes with a story of talented musicians that struggle to make a living because war, poverty or natural disasters have inhibited their ability to be heard. PeaceTones customers buy our music not out of charity, but because they are getting a great product that is directly enabling an artist and their community to earn deserved income.
Trade Shift: We promote international commerce, but we buck two trends of trade: 1) profit-taking by middle-men; and 2) the belief that developing countries’ competitive advantage is in exporting natural resources, which are often concentrated in the nation’s affluent. PeaceTones teaches musicians to protect their rights and to sell their music online without a talent agent, promoter, or manager, by using social media marketing and direct-to-fan sales methods. The products we promote are based on intellectual property (e.g. unique musical compositions), goods usually attributed to developed nations. Our focus on digital, proprietary business ensures less profits going to intermediaries and production, less environmental impact, products with ongoing revenue streams, and product marketing and sales across national boundaries to a global audience.
What stage is your project in?
Operating for 1‐5 years
Tell us about the community that you engage? eg. economic conditions, political structures, norms and values, demographic trends, history, and experience with engagement efforts.
Our projects begin by reaching out to our fellow non-profits across the world and analyzing where we would have the greatest resonance and opportunity for success, focusing on countries that have experienced recent destabilizing events. The communities we work in, therefore, have a great amount of potential in terms of large youth populations, rich cultural and artistic communities, burgeoning access to technology, but deeply entrenched poverty. The legal and political infrastructure is often fraught with nepotism and corruption, leading to a great deal of disenfranchisement.
Our experience with engagement has been extremely positive. Our first initiative was in Sierra Leone, a country that has had significant internal strife and that exhibits almost all of the characteristics listed above. Our following project was in the favelas of Recife, Brazil, where we worked mostly with young people. Growing up, they were intimately familiar with guns, drugs, and poverty, but with PeaceTones’ help, they have built a music studio to express themselves. We then began a project in Balan, a remote village in Haiti with a vibrant musical community. We initially planned to move to a different country following Balan, but following the Haitian earthquake of January 2010, we held another PeaceTones initiative in Port-au-Prince, which has been our most successful yet in terms of participation, publicity, and results for the artists themselves. Currently, we are in the beginning stages of a project in Kibera, Kenya.
Share the story of the founder and what inspired the founder to start this project
In 2005, Jeff Aresty founded the non-profit Internet Bar Organization, PeaceTones’ parent and began immediately exploring ways of working with civil society organizations to promote the Rule of Law in frontier economies. He realized that no product is easier to transmit throughout a global market using the Internet than digital content, including music. In practice, however, a number of hurdles (both logistic and legal) create a gap between the musicians of the developing world and listeners worldwide. By helping to bridge that gap, he believes that musicians and global distributors will both win: musicians will secure an income while distributors and consumers will gain access to great new content. Helping to connect the culture of frontier countries to the global marketplace will enrich everyone, will promote fairness and mutual understanding, and will advance the Rule of Law. Through the PeaceTones Initiative, Jeff sought to establish the logistics chain needed to connect frontier countries to the modern marketplace, and to educate musicians and their communities about the legal realities of digital business. The objective is not to simply to reach out to the cultures of frontier countries, but to teach their communities how to use law and technology build their own economic bridges, access available global resources, and resolve their own disputes.
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Please describe how your project has been successful and how that success is measured
PeaceTones has continued to grow the number of countries and communities we work in, the number of partners we collaborate with, our brand recognition, and most importantly, the number of artists we have impacted. We have also been successful in our ability to adapt our business model to changing dynamics (e.g. cultural, technological) to have the greatest possible impact. For example, PeaceTones began choosing its music ambassadors through partnerships with local NGOs. We democratized and digitized the process by migrating to an online contest format to incentivize artists’ exploration of online social networking and marketing, and also to create the greatest buy-in from the pubic at the beginning of the process, which has improved visibility for a greater number of artists, as well as promoted the PeaceTones brand. As a result of this change, we had better publicity (e.g. interviews with PeaceTones on Haiti national TV and Public Radio International’s “The World”), greater numbers of participants in educational workshops, and a greater amount of international participation. In our latest project, ‘Haiti Sings,’ we posted music videos of 20 musicians and had them campaign for votes on their songs. We also had over 12,000 hits on the contest site from over 50 countries and saw our Facebook ‘likes’ quadruple. We have also been extremely successful in translating the PeaceTones message of peace, community and empowerment to the artists we work with. After working with PeaceTones, our artists have devoted themselves to community development projects, including building a recording studio for local artists, starting a foundation to support skill-building and education for children, and supporting a local birthing clinic.
How many people have been impacted by your project?
1,001- 10,000
How many people could be impacted by your project in the next three years?
Fewer than 100
How will your project evolve over the next three years?
PeaceTones hopes to evolve by shifting from a model where we are the primary purveyors of legal empowerment and knowledge on using technologies for global commerce to one in which local PeaceTones constituents, partners, and ambassadors are main disseminators of our message. Our role will shift to concentrate more on giving these teachers and community advocates the tools they need to be successful, for example ongoing trainings on new technologies, facilitating partnerships with technology providers, and increasing the global brand and message of PeaceTones to enhance their credibility and visibility with their communities. We will also take on a greater role in developing new tools for our teachers and advocates, including learning materials for children and digital learning games.
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A significant barrier in our work is the lack of basic information communication technologies (ICTs), most notably the absence of regular, reliable and accessible Internet in the communities in which we work. We plan to overcome this hurdle by partnering directly with those organizations that are providing hardware necessary for connecting to the Internet. By partnering directly with these organizations, we can offer legal and technology training at the inception of our musicians’ access to the Internet. Working at these initial stages will help communities to reap the greatest rewards from global connectivity and help to establish a foundation for the use of technology as a tool for opportunity, knowledge, and poverty alleviation.
A fickle music market has also been a barrier to success in the past. While a PeaceTones music ambassador may be well received in their local community, their global marketability may be limited. As discussed previously, PeaceTones has adapted its business model to account for market tastes by incorporating the market from the inception of a PeaceTones project by using a contest format rather than a nonprofit-networking format in choosing music ambassadors. By using a contest format, PeaceTones is better attuned to global market demand.
Insufficient financial resources are also an ongoing barrier to carrying forward PeaceTones projects. While we are able to offset costs with multiple revenue streams from music and merchandise sales, the majority of these proceeds go directly to the communities we work in, thus it is necessary to achieve greater economies of scale in the work we are doing to achieve greater overall cost-efficiency, brand recognition, and buy-in with larger established partners.
Tell us about your partnerships
We partner with NGOs in every new host country we work in. These NGOs help us to identify communities of high need, identify other collaborative partners, (e.g. media, facility providers), publicize workshops, and run workshops with translation and other necessary services. Because relating to musicians on the ground is such a fundamental component of a project’s success, and ultimately of building successful local businesses, our partners play a pivotal role in our success. The fact that we operate in conflict and disaster-impacted zones makes these partnerships all the more necessary, and our thankfulness all the more eternal. More than simply providing a means of friendly and accepted initial contact, PeaceTones partnerships enable us to better communicate our message of empowerment.
PeaceTones also works with a network of lawyers and legal student volunteers in the US and across the world, who provide us with pro-bono services such as contract-drafting, legal advice and legal translation services. These partnerships are critical in that they provide us with affordable expertise, and more importantly, in that they expose lawyers and legal students in the US and in other developed countries to the complex legal issues that those in developing nations are facing.
Current annual budget of project, in US dollars
$100,000‐250,000
Explain your selections
Individuals support our projects by not only giving donations, but by recognizing the work we are doing, listening to PeaceTones albums and songs, telling their friends about the amazing music we offer and therefore increasing brand recognition. We have fundraised for past projects with individuals such as these by selling songs and albums, selling PeaceTones merchandise and also by selling concert tickets to shows performed by our PeaceTones musicians in the United States. NGOs have also been very generous in providing us with in-kind support, translation and organization services, connections to media and other promotional tools, and in advising us on fundraising and non-profit management. Grants from foundations, such as the World Justice Project, constitute a key resource for our work as they fill the resource gaps that remain after individual and sponsor contributions. It is with the help of grant money we are able to cover staff and administrative costs associated with training, recording and mentoring our musicians. Businesses have also been key in giving in-kind support, such as law firms that have helped us with creating training materials and in giving legal advice. The support we must covet is that of customers. Operating as a social-enterprise, we prize our customer relationships and their purchases of PeaceTones music and merchandise. Ultimately, it will be our relationships with our global customers that determines our success, and for this reason, we make it clear how much we value them by offering excellent customer service and world-class products.
How do you plan to strengthen your project in the next three years?
PeaceTones will strengthen its mission by continuing to adapt and learn from new projects, by augmenting our knowledge of global music markets and by continually updating our partner communities with this knowledge. Specifically, we plan to incorporate more learning tools directly on our website, such as WikiTones, a music and technology wiki where artists can learn real-world, cutting-edge methods for promoting music online, and also share their own experiences. We also plan to strengthen our brand recognition by building out a college-affiliate program whereby student-led clubs and organizations will discuss, study, and advocate for global micro-commerce initiatives. With this demographic being the largest consumer base of music and the biggest influencers of market tastes, as well as increasingly interested in international social movements, these groups will act as key partners in future projects (e.g. by contributing to WikiTones, voting in contests, buying music). PeaceTones will also strengthen local partnerships in areas we work by creating permanent resources of legal and online marketing knowledge, including training local teachers of workshops, building computer-skill programs, and creating on-location libraries with relevant materials. We are also evolving in terms of technology, for example in working with partners to create digital learning games. We also plan to create a network of our empowered communities so that they may learn from each other about best practices for marketing themselves and promoting their brands to the global community.
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhich barriers to employment does your innovation address?
Please select up to three in order of relevancy to your project.
PRIMARY
Lack of access to information and networks
SECONDARY
Restricted access to new markets
TERTIARY
Lack of skills/training
Please describe how your innovation specifically tackles the barriers listed above.
Technology can amplify music across a dance hall, past sovereign borders and into a global marketplace. An artist’s ability to benefit from their craft need not be restricted by the number of tickets that can be sold, the ability of their community to pay, or by a lagging political economy. PeaceTones teaches artists to market their proprietary media in digital form, create economic international business relationships, and tap into willing and wanting consumers by utilizing the modern Silk Road, the Internet. PeaceTones also begins international distribution relationships with artists across the world and uses its brand and message to help give artists a springboard to new markets.
Are you trying to scale your organization or initiative?
If yes, please check up to three potential pathways in order of relevancy to you.
PRIMARY
Leveraged technology
SECONDARY
Other (please specify below)
TERTIARY
Grown geographic reach: Multi-country
Please describe which of your growth activities are current or planned for the immediate future.
We plan on implementing new technology applications to release PeaceTones music to the world in innovative ways (e.g. online concerts, mobile), as well as to teach musicians and teachers about e-commerce and legal protection. Additionally, we are currently developing partnerships with music education and Internet access providers in developing nations. These partnerships will allow us to branch into new communities and use our contest model to give recognition to economic and legal empowerment through technology and music. We also plan to continue to market our music ambassadors, including our latest artist, Wanito, who will be releasing his international debut album in the fall, and to expand our PeaceTones ambassadors by holding a PeaceTones program in Kibera, Kenya.
Do you collaborate with any of the following: (Check all that apply)
Technology providers, NGOs/Nonprofits, For profit companies, Academia/universities.
If yes, how have these collaborations helped your innovation to succeed?
University students and professors have helped us to develop workshop materials, run workshops, and market and promote the PeaceTones brand and its music ambassadors through both grassroots marketing and formal partnership. We have worked with both internationally renown as well as small local NGOs in the locales we work, ranging from the film NGO, Shine a Light, to the World Justice Project. We have also worked with businesses, ranging from professional musicians that have mentored our artists to develop high quality musical products, to amateur musicians that donate in-kind with promotions dedicated to the PeaceTones message, to large law firms that have donated their expertise to support our continued message of using the law to support and protect music.
Created on 05/26/2011 by Abhishek.dwivedi
When the rules start to govern us or gets too enforced in the system,it leads to formation of harsh boundaries which segments the society. Some people eventually end up on the other side of this boundary, often known to us as JAILS.
Organization: FOUNTAIN of JOY
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Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
How long has your organization been operating?
Less than a year
The information you provide here will be used to fill in any parts of your profile that have been left blank, such as interests, organization information, and website. No contact information will be made public. Please uncheck here if you do not want this to happen..
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SAMAHIT - submerging in the main stream
What change do you want to bring to the world?
When the rules start to govern us or gets too enforced in the system,it leads to formation of harsh boundaries which segments the society. Some people eventually end up on the other side of this boundary, often known to us as JAILS.
SAMAHIT is a project to ensure the social acceptance of these fellow citizens, who have lost path in there lives. Not only they live a Socially challenged life but are also de-motivated. We would like to support them in bringing forward their ability to bounce back and capability to be a part of the society.Using "Design Thinking" in adding value and creating a rather positive perception of the business.New products and services that propagate the idea of these inmates re-joining the mainstream not banking on the symapathy of others but on their own ability.
What are the primary activities of your project?
the project is to be piloted at the Sabarmati Central Prison in Ahmedabad.Initially, we will be exploring new variation of products, from their existing skills(e.g.: T-shirt printing for people working in the screen printing press).Once established as a brand for promoting and achieving a the submerging to the process of going to the mainstream, we would be conducting workshops for inmates to utalise their local resources and establish them selves.
What is innovative about your initiative? How is it a new contribution to the field?
As an approach towards the prisoners, there has been always the sympathetic one which often tends to make the buyer look down towards the product.As a design led approach we want to ensure that the products made in the jail are of the superior quality, more importantly we are exploring new products that can be made in the existing setup. this not only helps us to reach out to newer market but also propagate the social message we want to deliver.
As a practice in many jail industries prisoners based on their marginal skills are made to produce products in which there is a great tolerance for error or high acceptance(e.g.: RUGS,BREADS,POWER-LOOM,etc).We have developed products and process that will ensure superior quality at par with markets.Our idea is to help the inmates claim their position rather than being passed on as a pity.
What stage is your project in?
Idea phase
Tell us about the community that you engage? eg. economic conditions, political structures, norms and values, demographic trends, history, and experience with engagement efforts.
SAMAHIT, is an effort to help people getting back to the mainstream. We are working with prison inmates, who are engaged with prison industries.most the people here are people from socially and economically backward classes and thus, crime is the easiest and fastest way to earn money. most of them are not trained in any kind of skills.Socially they are the least looked upon people.There traditional occupation are farming or labor work which puts them even less of use in the limited resources of jail environment.What is really interesting here is the keenness shown by these inmates to learn newer skills, which gives us hope in trying out new design ideas, as design is always at our disposal for making the process easier and fruitful.
Share the story of the founder and what inspired the founder to start this project
the founder is a young designer, who is highly motivated and inspired to bring about change in the social paradigm by using design thinking.It is my core belief that if we work in close association with the human system that we have around and use is to buildup the bigger social machinery.I have traveled around the countries and met and lived with enormous people and have had conversations for hours with people of all walks of life to understand and know the human factor, that really keeps these things moving and ticking.It is my constant odreal to search for means to create a better world. with design thinking I think I have the perfect tool to explore newer horizons and come up with sustainable answers to issue of social development. During my graduation studies i was asked to choose communities for social entrepreneurship, I was intrested in working with communities which are not well accepted in the communities due the there natural behavior ,limitations or even by the choice of their profession. I started to work with Eunuchs, sex workers and prison inmates. while there were a lot of people working for the sex workers, the eunuchs were not the most interested in improvising on their living standards or means of earning. However, in prisons there were people who wanted to make some better of themselves and there was lack of proper guidance for improvement.
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Please describe how your project has been successful and how that success is measured
As part of the research phase of the project there were suggestions made to the prison authorities and steps have been taken by them towards improvement. There is a increase in the infrastructure facilities in the prison industries,they have come up with a new sales point which was a building constructed after the project. also the daily wages of the inmates have been increased 60%.Opportunities are been rolled out to various interested people who want to work with the prison industries.
How many people have been impacted by your project?
Fewer than 100
How many people could be impacted by your project in the next three years?
More than 10,000
How will your project evolve over the next three years?
If we work at out current rate we can ensure that all the jails in the province will have small effective industries which will not only cater to the different needs of different markets but will also provides the inmates sustainable livelihood opportunities and their position in the society.
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhat barriers might hinder the success of your project and how do you plan to overcome them?
one of the major barriers we see in the implementation of the project is the attitude of the prison inmates.prison inmates might not share the same motivation levels and outlook, as every prisoner has a different story and comes from a different background.
So the biggest challenge is bringing them on a common platform, where they are willing to work together, for shared prosperity. This would require a deep level understanding of the community and of the factors which can help bringing in the harmony amongst them.
A Design led approach, is the key to see the unseen in such a scenario. It will help us knowing the community better and understanding their strengths, aspirations and their motivation.
Tell us about your partnerships
we wish to equip the prison inmates with the desired know how of different business processes and techniques for which we would be partnering with organisations in specific domains. This would not only help in capacity building and but also imparting the knowledge in sync with the market trends.
Current annual budget of project, in US dollars
$1,000‐$10,000
How do you plan to strengthen your project in the next three years?
we wish to do this through bringing in back their lost identity and raising their confidence level, by providing them with new platforms and most importantly by bridging in the gap in the whole system of society.
The tag of being a Prisoner is no less than a taboo in Indian Society, which hampers ones attitude and even alters ones outlook of life. This is also fueled by the way these people are being looked at in the society. "Being a threat" to the society is a common feeling people associate prison inmates with which is not the actual case. Society should see the other facet of this community, which we feel this initiative would help introducing.
Starting with one business idea, we wish to understand different skills these inmates hold or can learn which will helps in creating sustainable livelihood opportunities for them.
We would like to start such initiatives in different jails, in other parts of the country, and for the same, we wish to build alliances with organisations and government for their support.
Motivation and willingness to work together will strengthen the project in the coming years. Bringing an identity to this sect of community, will not only bring an awareness in the society and helps in changing the attitude of the common man towards these people, but will also helps in bringing back the lost hope in life.
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhich barriers to employment does your innovation address?
Please select up to three in order of relevancy to your project.
PRIMARY
Lack of efficiency
SECONDARY
Lack of skills/training
TERTIARY
Other (Specify Below)
Please describe how your innovation specifically tackles the barriers listed above.
Approach employed to understand the whole system and its functioning will lead us to insights which will help tackling the intangible issues present in the system. How to raise or bring in Efficiency would be understood through a design research by user profiling and understanding mindsets of the inmates.
bringing in professional help and assistance would help increase the skills.
Tertiary barrier- Rudimentary Social Norms, would be tackled by addressing the need of their Identity and position in the society.
Are you trying to scale your organization or initiative?
If yes, please check up to three potential pathways in order of relevancy to you.
PRIMARY
Grown geographic reach: Within host country
SECONDARY
Grown geographic reach: Within host country
TERTIARY
Grown geographic reach: Within host country
Please describe which of your growth activities are current or planned for the immediate future.
Primary growth activities are currently planned. This is to pilot the idea at Sabarmati jail in Ahmedabad and then taking it forward in other jails.
Do you collaborate with any of the following: (Check all that apply)
If yes, how have these collaborations helped your innovation to succeed?
[Editor's note: Terra Nova, along with the two other winners in our Property Rights competition, are at a World Bank event today to share the innovative work that distinguished them from a pool of more than 210 entries from around the world.]
Brazil. Land Rights. Poverty.
What picture do these words bring to mind?
For many, it conjures up City of God-like images of crowded violent favelas and communities living in chaos. With over 12 million Brazilians living in 3.2 million informal dwellings without access to public services, that dark visualization wouldn’t be far from the truth.
Yet to Andre Albuquerque, founder of Terra Nova and winner of the Property Rights: Identity, Dignity & Opportunity for All competition, it means much more – it means hope.
Created: 01/11/11 by Anonymous
Listen to this second conversation with Tim Hanstad, President and CEO of Landesa, about how microplots show that a little land can go a long way, how to work with governments, and what we can learn from China.
In part one, Hanstad talks about how increasing personal dignity is the key benefit of securing land property rights, and about women and land rights.
Come back here to listen to the third installments of this three-part audio podcast in which Hanstad speaks out as a powerful voice for land rights.
Hanstad is a judge in the Property Rights: Identity, Dignity & Opportunity for All competition.
Created on 11/17/2010 by Jackeline Florêncio
The project developed by Terra de Direitos refers to a set of legal and policy strategic interventions, coordinated and implemented at multiple geopolitical levels (three different regions of Brazil), and replicated nationally, aimed at ensuring the human right of black slave-descendant communities (maroons) to traditional land regulation.
Organization: Terra de Direitos
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Organization Address
Rua Des. Ermelino de Leão, 15 - cj. 72 - Centro Curitiba, PR — 80410-230
How long has this organization been operating?
More than 5 years
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideName your project.
Human Rights, Citizenship and Justice for traditional maroon communities: promoting territorial rights
Describe Your Idea
The project developed by Terra de Direitos refers to a set of legal and policy strategic interventions, coordinated and implemented at multiple geopolitical levels (three different regions of Brazil), and replicated nationally, aimed at ensuring the human right of black slave-descendant communities (maroons) to traditional land regulation.
Country your work focuses on
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhat makes your idea unique?
The multilevel performance (local, regional and national) guided by the perspective of the diffusion of a new culture of land and territorial rights, with the support of qualified attorneys in moments of social tension, represents, without a doubt, the differential performance of Terra de Direitos. In regions where we have offices (Paraná, southern region, Pernambuco, Northeast and Pará, Amazon, northern region), the organization tracks dozens of administrative procedures for maroon land titling, lawsuits concerning disputes over land and natural resources used by these communities, cases of community-leaders' criminalization and performing constant dialogues and meetings with relevant public agencies to meet the demands of these groups. The option for continuous in situ monitoring of conflicts and territorial demands of maroon communities reflects the institutional view that any contribution to the effective human dignity should be preceded by concrete knowledge of the reality of denial experienced by many sectors of Brazilian society. The experience gained with this action in individual cases, in three different regions of the country, led Terra de Direitos to a different vision for the implementation of land regulation public policies, which subsidizes the intervention, nationwide, in structural measures of such policies and of the judiciary system. Through this advocacy and the national variety of local instruments of action, the organization promotes subsidized actions, coordinated and comprehensive, which makes the proposal an innovative action.
Do you have a patent for this idea?
No
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Tell us about the social impact of your innovation. Please include both numbers and stories as evidence of this impact
It is possible to speak in specific social impacts, consistent with the reality of each local reality as well as global social impacts, resulting from the impact at the national level, which affects the maroon issue as a whole. On the specific scope, the organization provides legal advice to 25 maroon communities in three regions where it operates, boosting administrative procedures for land regulation. These activities have already caused the publication of two decrees of recognition and the production of seven anthropological reports. It also promotes political and legal training, empowering the maroons, who act as multipliers, for community development and qualification of their interventions. Thereby, courses were held for forty in Santarém-PA, one hundred in Parana, and forty in Pernambuco. In advocacy, Terra de Direitos led to the opening of four investigations against the slowness of the oficial land regulation process, and against irregularities in the construction of large infrastructure projects that directly impact the communities and may deprive them from their terrotiry. Besides that, the organization fosters the political articulation of maroon and assists the actions arising from their self-determination, such as political and legal support to set up their own organizations. Nationally, along with other organizations, influenced public policy through a lawsuit against the 4.887/2003 Decree. We also supported the creation of the Statute of Racial Equality. This way we simultaneously help the return of this incidence to the maroon communities, closing the cycle that begins and ends in the communities themselves.
Problem
The problem to be faced is the lack of effectiveness of public policies on access to land by the maroon communities. Only recently have the right to maroon territories been stated in national statutes, such as the art. 68 ADCT of Brazilian Constitution in 1988, and the ratification of Convention 169 of WLO. Yet, there still exists a gap between the achievements and the concrete dimension of legal titles, because of its residual character, such policies are implemented slowly & do not have enough budget forecast for execution. From 2003 to 2009, only eight received their land titles by maroons from INCRA (federal body in charge of land regulation). Legal norms that aim to regulate land titling makes the process slow, costly and difficult to conclude. In addition, INCRA has no sufficient technical staff nor anthropologists to map and regulate more than 1,100 recongized communitites. The people's ignorance in the formal aspects of the procedure also makes it difficult to access and impact on justice. Our proposal aims to reduce the gap between the formal guarantee of title and its implementation, helping communities to overcome bureaucratic barriers & fighting racial discrimination.
Actions
The actions defined by Terra de Direitos articulates regional activities, which consider the specific localities, with national activities, which involves maroon rights in their totality. Among them are: 1) legal advice on the ground to maroon communities, with follow-up processes of land titling, mediation of territorial conflicts, 2) legal advice on a national level, as in 3239-9 Decree, serving in the defense of the laws governing the titling of maroon areas against the revocation requests from business and agrarian sectors, and 3) political and legal training of maroons, promoting a qualified public policy incidence and access to justice, 4) incidence and advocacy with the local, regional and national public agencies regarding strategic issues for the national field of maroon rights, and the monitoring and participation of Law projects concerning the subject, in the National Congress, and organs responsible for maroon land titling (INCRA, state land agencies), 5) realization of complaints about violations of the territory and the criminalization of maroon leaders.
Results
1) We have completed legal advice in situ for about 25 maroon communities directly in the three regions where the Terra de Direitos operates, doing follow up of around 25 administrative procedures, which will benefit approximately 2,500 families; nationwide, primarily in the Supreme Federal Court, we have contributed to monitor law regulations, 2) We have completed training in human rights of former slaves, totaling a minimum of 6 activities per year, through workshops, brochures and informational meetings for guidance, demystifying the technical terms and formal procedures and creating joint strategies to tackle the barriers to titration, 3) we have influenced federal, state and municipal agencies responsible for ensuring the right to territories of rural black communities (Palmares Cultural Foundation, INCRA, Instituto de Terras state / PA) and National Congress, through the preparation of reports, intervention and monitoring of infrastructure projects that directly and indirectly affect the maroon communities as well as conflict mediation.
How many people will your project serve annually?
101‐1000
What is the average monthly household income in your target community, in US Dollars?
$100 ‐ 1000
Does your project seek to have an impact on public policy?
Yes
If so, how?
The influence is through the impact with the local and national government agencies responsible for titling, INCRA and the State Institute of Land / PA, pushing for the Administrative Procedures to move forward. Likewise, it promotes the incidence in the Public Ministry, the Human Rights Secretariat and the Palmares Cultural Foundation, to intervene with the state and national spaces, seeking to give effect to the titration. Terra de Direitos also influences public policy in that way, enables and empowers young people and leaders, instructing on the legal and political character of government, and at the same time qualifies them to have impact, to get to know the structures, the ordinance, technical procedures, so that they can be more effective. More, it prevents relapses in the laws that establish the landmarks of the titration process in coordination with other civil society actors, disseminating successful experiences of INCRA and other government agencies, allowing them to be replicated elsewhere.
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhat stage is your project in?
Operating for more than 5 years
Does your organization have a board of directors or an advisory board?
Yes
Does your organization have any non monetary partnerships with NGOs?
Yes
Does your organization have any non monetary partnerships with businesses?
No
Does your organization have any non monetary partnerships with government?
Yes
Please tell us more about how partnerships could be critical to the success of your innovation.
The partnerships with civil society organizations working with human rights issues of traditional black communities and joint actions strengthen the incidence on government agencies responsible for land regulation public policies as well as expands the exchange of experiences and pro-activeness. Likewise, the maroon associations themselves are considered partners of the innovation proposed here, in that the maroons in front of the autonomy that we encouraged at Terra de Direitos, help, search and demand the state's duty towards the regulation of their territories. Thus, the maroon associations are, dialogically, recipients of the innovative actions of Terra de Direitos, and also propel them to the extent that, by replicating the methodology of the experiments, they perpetuate their action in another region, replicating, for their benefit, their success in the titling process.
We would like to learn more about how your initiative is financially supported. Please explain your business plan/revenue model
The implementation of the action deals with the performance of three lawyers, one in each state (PA / PE / PR), summing $ 50,824.00 / year toward the cost of individual expenses. The lawyers are responsible for the actions of legal advice, training and incidence. Estimated revenues for maintenance of physical structures totaling the amount of $ 14,118.00 per year. The training activities require the incidence and estimates of revenue to fund other expenditure items, as listed below: 6 Meetings / workshops / year publishing and printing Pamphlets 1000 - $ 5,600.00 / three years. Tickets: $ 6,353.00 / Annual Room and board: $ 5,083.00 (60.00 x 24 persons x 6 meetings / workshops) Instructional materials: U.S. $ 1,411.00 (20 participants x 20.00 x 6 Meeting / workshops). Travel expenses for visits to communities, monitoring procedures, participation in hearings from public bodies: Airfares: $ 3,353.00 / year (6 tickets x 950.00) Land transportation: $ 2,942.00 ( 20 tickets x 250.00); Room and board: $ 1942.00 / year (30 per day x 110.00). The total share is $ 86,026.00 / year or $ 263,678.00 / three years. The prize offered by Changemakers competition represdents approximately 20% of three-year revenue forecast. For these actions, the plan must rely on the revenue contribution of institutional design equivalent to the remaining 80%.
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhat was the defining moment that led you to this innovation?
Terra de Direitos was established in August 2002 by the initiative of a group of lawyers, university professors, researchers and leaders of social movements, who felt the need to have an organization that promoted human rights, especially through the popular legal aid in cases of rights violations on grounds of violence, incriminations, absence or ineffectiveness of public policies on access to land, territory, justice and biodiversity. The organization develops its work on four lines of action: Politics and Culture of Human Rights; Justiciability of Human Rights and Democratization of Justice, Land, Territory and Socio-Spatial Fairness, and Biodiversity and Food Sovereignty. Briefly, we can say that our work is the defense, repair and promotion of human rights through the popular legal aid, which includes activities in litigation (law itself), the incidence and advocacy with public bodies, mediation of conflicts, and training / capacity building of communities about their rights.
Since its founding, the organization is constantly evaluating its performance lines to adapt them to economic social and political groups with which it operates. Work with maroon communities has been intensified since the beginning of 2003, when several cases of violations of the territory came to the organization through requests from the communities, seeking to empower the legal mechanisms, expand their knowledge about the policies for access to the territories, especially with the emergence of the federal program called Brazil Quilombola. The action planning always takes into consideration the reflections of the communities, the transformative potential of the activities, challenges and obstacles of the scene and identifying the tools and spaces for advocacy. One can therefore say that since the beginning of 2003, with the emergence of Brazil Quilombola program and with the demands of diverse communities, Terra de Direitos felt the need and importance of developing a plan of action aimed at defending the human rights of these traditional groups. Thereafter, the shares were being improved by the innovation that we propose today, which has a multiplying potential because it applies in different regions of the country, builds a reasoned dialogue to focus on public policy in their areas, county and national, and includes several partnerships - tens of maroon communities, human rights organizations, public officials committed to human rights, etc.. - which guarantees sustainability for the future.
Tell us about the social innovator—the person—behind this idea.
The innovative action was designed by the Terra de Direitos’s team which operates in the line of action: Land, Territory and Socio-Spatial Equity. The coordination of this area is performed by Darci Frigo, who composes the executive coordination of the organization. Darci is a lawyer since 1992, graduated from Catholic University of Parana. He is a renowned advocate of human rights in Brazil, awarded by the Robert Kennedy Foundation. He has been acting with land issues for almost 30 years. He worked in the Pastoral Land Commission and was a founder of Terra de Direitos. Is also part of the design team, the executive coordinator Luciana Pivato, attorneys Fernando Prioste, Florencio Jackie, Caroline and John Caraiba Camerini. Luciana works for Terra de Direitos since she was a law student. She graduated in 2003 and in 2005 she specialized in Criminal Law and Critical Criminology. She is the organization's lawyer in the offices of Parana and Pernambuco. She has always worked with human rights defenders, such as landless workers and maroons. Fernando Prioste began his work at Terra de Direitos in 2006, the office of Pernambuco, where the main objective of the project is to provide legal advice to rural social movements and maroon communities. Since 2009, Fernando took over as general counsel and is one of those responsible for the Land and Territory line of action. Carolina graduated from the Federal University of Parana, where she also completed her Masters. She works at Terra de Direitos since 2008, where she began doing legal counseling to defend the right of communities to land and urban socio-spatial equity. In 2009, she worked in the office of Para, where the organization offers legal counseling to fight for land movements, peoples and traditional communities. John began his work at Terra de Direitos in 2009, when he also completed his master's degree from EMU; has extensive knowledge about the right to environment and traditional land. His performance also occurs in the office of Para. Jackie also began his career as an intern in the organization of law. In 2009 he graduated in law at the Federal University of Pernambuco and took the advocacy role. His performance also focuses on legal advice to communities and maroon traditional rural social movements. Finally, we note that all lawyers are activists in the area of human rights, with knowledge and ability to work with social movements and traditional communities. Because it is a collective idea, the action becomes even more consistent because it encompasses the knowledge and the accumulation of several people, including many not mentioned here, as is the case of directors, partners and employees of the organization.
How did you first hear about Changemakers?
Newsletter from Changemakers
If through another source, please provide the information.
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhich (if any) of the following strategies apply to your organization or company (check as many as apply)
Formalizing and documenting property rights (i.e. titling, leasing or certification), Legal education and awareness.
Please explain how your work furthers one or many of the above strategies (if you selected “other”, please explain your strategy)
The provision of collective title to the maroon territory is driven by the impact on public agencies responsible for the titling as well as by the legal advice held by lawyers of the organization. Legal education in human rights happens through political-legal trainings, with workshops, seminars, events and distribution of textbooks and teaching materials.
Created on 11/8/2010 by Bsam
Use law to empower women to acquire knowledge on family laws - marriage, inheritance, domestic violence, land and children. Knowledge leads to claiming rights for themselves and relatives. Being a farming community, women’s access to and control over land is secured. Empowerment leads to participation in decision making at the family, community and district levels.
Organization: Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF Ghana)
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Organization Name
Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF Ghana)
Organization Address
P. O. Box LG 488, Legon, Accra,
How long has this organization been operating?
More than 5 years
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideName your project.
Securing Women’s Property Rights in Land, Marriage and Inheritance in Onyansanah
Describe Your Idea
Use law to empower women to acquire knowledge on family laws - marriage, inheritance, domestic violence, land and children. Knowledge leads to claiming rights for themselves and relatives. Being a farming community, women’s access to and control over land is secured. Empowerment leads to participation in decision making at the family, community and district levels.
Country your work focuses on
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhat makes your idea unique?
Development of a people should lead to long and healthy lives, to be knowledgeable, to have access to resources needed for a decent standard of living and to be able to participate in the life of the community (UNDP). Conjoining legal literacy with governance is the unique approach of this project. While addressing ignorance of the law, which hinders peoples’ access to justice; participation and representation in processes/mechanisms of decision making at the informal (nuclear family, extended family and community) and formal levels (unit committees and district assembly) ensure holistic empowerment, i.e. enabling local people to take control of their lives, expressing their own demands and finding their own solutions to their problems.
Do you have a patent for this idea?
Yes
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideThis Entry is about (Issues)
Tell us about the social impact of your innovation. Please include both numbers and stories as evidence of this impact
Our organization led local authorities and district assembly members in Ga West and Dangme East Districts to commit on women’s access to land. Local authorities have agreed to allocate lands free or at reduced prices to women farmers, some farming groups and some individuals have been able to have access to pieces of land with better security than previously. Women groups in the Dangme East District have been able to secure 3 hectares of land for farming purposes from traditional authorities.
(Story 1) There are very few women participating in formal decision making structures in the Ga West District. This is because community people are socialized into thinking that decision making is the preserve of men. Sarah Ahele was among a group of twenty five (25) persons trained in the district by WiLDAF as legal literacy volunteers. As a legal literacy volunteer, Sarah dedicated her time to participating in community meetings. Recognizing her dedication to serve her community, the district leaders appointed her to serve in the security and justice committee of the Ga West District Assembly.
(Story 2) The traditional family system of the people of the Ga West District is patrilineal. Thus, in matters of inheritance, males in the family inherit more of the property than women. Juliana Ablordeh, also a WiLDAF legal literacy volunteer from Yahoman community in the Ga West District used knowledge of the inheritance laws to get the family to share the deceased father’s property among the mother, sisters and brothers.
Problem
First of all, for the majority of women in Onyansanah, marriage is a very important means of accessing or acquiring land. Many women of marriageable age are encouraged to get married just to get access to land for farming purposes. Secondly, most women and some men do not own the lands they are using for farming purposes. The lands were occupied by tenants or caretakers without any formal documentation on. Despite existence of a law on intestacy that seeks to distribute property equitably among all surviving spouses and children of a deceased, many people do not know this law and therefore lose property. Women in particular are usually evicted from the matrimonial homes and often get very little or no property following death of a husband. Finally, because of the significance of the patrilineal system of inheritance, communities often serve in the interest of men compared to women.
Actions
Empowerment: We provide training and information for women to increase knowledge about discriminatory practices that deprive women of property.
Rights Awareness: We have legal literacy volunteers to increase public awareness on the property right lows. We teach property rights of women in relation to their marriage, divorce, death to inherit lands from partners and parents. Publicity materials will be developed to support public awareness including posters and brochures.
Advocacy: There are two levels of advocacy under the project. (i) Activities geared towards traditional leaders to provide land to women for farming and building purposes without the customary bottlenecks. (ii) Engaging with the district assembly including lobbying of individual assembly members on effects of land demarcation for commercial purposes on women’s economic livelihood; as well as the need for the Assembly to work with traditional leaders to achieve gender equality targets of the Assembly.
Results
Empowerment: Empowered women claim their rights to property within marriage, at dissolution of marriage, at death of a partner or relative; and for farming purposes.
Decision making: Women get involved in decision making at the nuclear family, extended family, community and district levels.
Sensitization of women’s rights: Traditional leaders sensitized on importance of giving land to women to farm. Youth groups aware of human rights and property rights. The larger community also is aware of women’s rights.
Availability of human resource skilled in alternative dispute resolution and legal literacy: The pool of knowledgeable legal literacy volunteers in the community provides education to address ignorance of the laws on property.
Women participate in Legislative Advocacy: People of Onyansanah will have their voices heard in the advocacy for laws on Property Rights of Spouses and the new Intestate Succession Bills.
How many people will your project serve annually?
101‐1000
What is the average monthly household income in your target community, in US Dollars?
$50 - 100
Does your project seek to have an impact on public policy?
Yes
If so, how?
1. Advocacy
WiLDAF advocates for positive change at the local, national, and international levels, and maintains an institutional presence at major international institutions, such as the UN Human Rights Council. We monitor, advocate, and make presentations on behalf of our network members on issues of concern to women in Ghana and Africa. In particular, WiLDAF seeks to ensure the full implementation of both domestic and international legal mechanisms which protect the rights of women and girls.
The advocacy campaigns of WiLDAF Ghana and our various partners were instrumental in ensuring the 2007 enactment of Ghana’s Domestic Violence Act and the inclusion of a provision on cohabitation in the Property Rights of Spouses Bill.
2. Research
WiLDAF coordinates the compilation and exchange of a wide range of studies and reports which address the status of women and girls in Africa and provide a basis for further action and advocacy. We conduct research into the effectiveness of existing mechanisms designed to protect women’s rights, and evaluate law and policy reforms that may better protect and promote the rights of women and ensure their increased participation in public life.
3. Networking
WiLDAF Ghana is committed to collaborating with government and non-governmental organisations across the country, utilizing unified action and the sharing of information to more effectively campaign for the rights of women.
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhat stage is your project in?
Operating for 1‐5 years
Does your organization have a board of directors or an advisory board?
Yes
Does your organization have any non monetary partnerships with NGOs?
Yes
Does your organization have any non monetary partnerships with businesses?
No
Does your organization have any non monetary partnerships with government?
Yes
Please tell us more about how partnerships could be critical to the success of your innovation.
Technical assistance: (i)Experts in aspects of access to justice (gender based violence, law, working with the judiciary and the police); Political participation including how citizens can appreciate their roles and responsibilities in governance and development of their communities, districts and country (ii) Organizational development in relation to enhancing staff competencies, marketing/publicity/image raising of WiLDAF; (iii) Support to WiLDAF’s pool of network members who work in areas including effective networking/coalition building, understanding gender, health including reproductive rights and HIV/AIDS among others. (iii)Advocacy in particular undertaking effective advocacy at the community, national and international levels
Interns: To share their experiences and learn from the Ghanaian way of doing rights-related work.
We would like to learn more about how your initiative is financially supported. Please explain your business plan/revenue model
WiLDAF is supported in its Access to Justice Program by a number of donors including Ghana Research and Advocacy Program, Cordaid, Ken and Oli Johnstone Foundation and Olof Palme Foundation. Sadly, all the above donor grants end in December 2010. WiLDAF’s Governance Program is supported by the Department for International Development of the United Kingdom and the European Union.
The larger Rural Women’s Empowerment Project, which is also in its final phase, is supported by WiLDAF’s West Africa Regional Office in Togo. The Rural Women’s Project is in the Ga West and Dangme East Districts.
Funding Challenge: Currently WiLDAF has a funding challenge which adversely affects continuation of laudable projects under the Access to Justice Program many of which are located in rural communities. These include projects on violence against women and community justice.
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhat was the defining moment that led you to this innovation?
Currently, there is a constitutional review process going on in Ghana. The government-established Constitution Review Commission has undertaken consultations nationwide, which have focused on meetings with women and men. Additionally non-profit organizations including a women’s network have also carried out consultations with many people. However, the latter consultations have been elitist and mainly centered in the cities.
WiLDAF also undertook consultations but focused on rural women. We ensured that rural women’s voices are heard in the constitution review process because this is a process that affects everybody living in urban and rural areas, educated and uneducated. To be able to do this effectively, a simple easy to read booklet was developed with simplified information on gender equality areas of the Constitution that require review. In all 266 women from 10 rural communities were reached. Views from these women were collated and submitted to the government- established Constitution Review Commission.
Views of women from the WiLDAF consultations, which demonstrate a lack of capacity and knowledge on laws, working of government and policy making, are what inspired us to put together this project. Selecting one community as a pilot within the Ga West District for in-depth work on legal literacy and decision making will support WiLDAF’s quest to ensure that there is a pool of trained human resource for legal literacy in many communities across the country.
Tell us about the social innovator—the person—behind this idea.
Bernice Sam, a product of Georgetown University, Washington DC, is the social innovator. She has dedicated all of her work life (1995 to present) to assisting women to know about the laws that affect their lives, that of their children and to better improve their communities. Ms. Sam’s work straddles three levels – she has worked in rural areas, has worked at the national level advocating for laws/policies that promote women’s rights and at the international level where she takes her advocacy to the United Nations, the Commonwealth and the African Union.
Bernice Sam is currently the Chief Executive Officer/National Programme Coordinator of Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF Ghana). She rose to this position after having worked as the first legal officer of WiLDAF some 15 years ago. Since 2004, Ms. Sam’s efforts as the head of WiLDAF Ghana increased the annual turnover of WiLDAF from US$300,000 in 2004 to US$1,000,000 in 2008.
Ms. Sam holds a Masters of Law Degree from Georgetown University; A Bachelor of Law Degree from the Ghana Law School and a Barrister of Law Degree from the University of Ghana.
A quote from a book by Northwestern University Professor D. Soyini Madison best captures the dedication of Ms. Sam to women’s rights.
“We do not impose the letter of the law because sometimes it’s in contrast to what they know practically. We leave them to make up their minds about how they can modify some of their customary practices. You communicate this in their own terms and then they meet as a community with their leaders to discuss it. And I have done this over and over again and it is beautiful because you have people coming back to tell you how that little information you gave them has changed their lives”.
Bernice Sam in Acts of Activism: Human Rights as Radical Performance page 197 by D. Soyini Madison, Cambridge University Press, UK. 2010
How did you first hear about Changemakers?
Newsletter from Changemakers
If through another source, please provide the information.
Approximately 50 words left (400 characters).
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhich (if any) of the following strategies apply to your organization or company (check as many as apply)
Formalizing and documenting property rights (i.e. titling, leasing or certification), Legal education and awareness.
Please explain how your work furthers one or many of the above strategies (if you selected “other”, please explain your strategy)
(i) Train fifteen community people (70 percent women and 30 percent men) as legal literacy volunteers to educate the community and support cases on property right issues (ii) Create awareness on property laws (marriage, divorce, inheritance etc) (iii) Advocate for traditional leaders to provide lands to women for farming purposes
Created on 11/3/2010 by zeenachangemaker
Involve fisherfolk in the registration and licensing process. Engage local and national governments in recognizing fisherfolk’s role (in coastal resources management) and subsequent enjoyment of rights and benefits resulting from their collective action to address rapid depletion of coastal resources, continued degradation of habitats and consequent poverty in coastal communities.
Organization: Tambuyog Development Center, Inc.
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Organization Name
Tambuyog Development Center, Inc.
Organization Address
No. 23-A Marunong St. Bgy. Central, Quezon City
How long has this organization been operating?
More than 5 years
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideName your project.
Municipal Fisherfolk Registration and Licensing: Reclaiming Common Property Rights
Describe Your Idea
Involve fisherfolk in the registration and licensing process. Engage local and national governments in recognizing fisherfolk’s role (in coastal resources management) and subsequent enjoyment of rights and benefits resulting from their collective action to address rapid depletion of coastal resources, continued degradation of habitats and consequent poverty in coastal communities.
Country your work focuses on
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhat makes your idea unique?
As issues of the fisherfolk remained at the periphery, Tambuyog called attention to declining fishery resources and unabated poverty in coastal communities through interdisciplinary research, creative information and education campaign, community organizing, policy advocacy and constituency building.
Tambuyog believes that communities ultimately are the best resource managers because they have the greatest stake in the preservation of resources which they depend on for survival. The gap between the ideal and the present capacities to manage reources remains, but through exchange and synergy of indigenous/local knowledge with scientific investigation, and continuous capacity building/ consciousness raising, communities may be able to slowly manifest ownership of the coastal resources. This assertion to “ownership”, “claim”, or “entitlement”---called community property rights---is at the heart of Tambuyog’s vision of empowering coastal communities and marginalized sectors of the fishing industry.
An important result of Tambuyog’s work after more than a decade is the substantial amount of data it has gathered on the political, social and economic situation in coastal communities, and the status of various aquatic resources and the coastal environment. Linking the biological with social, economic and political analysis, Tambuyog developed an alternative model or approach to development—community-based coastal resource management (CBCRM). The CBCRM approach centers on the role of communities in the management of their resources—too often overlooked by government programs—and their rights to enjoy the benefits resulting from their collective action.
Do you have a patent for this idea?
No
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideThis Entry is about (Issues)
Tell us about the social impact of your innovation. Please include both numbers and stories as evidence of this impact
Impacts on fisheries policies will greatly affect the fisheries sector, mainly when policy recommendations have been adopted particularly in resource rent, as this is the basis for all other resource management policies relevant to small scale fisheries.
Tambuyog helped in establishing the muncipal registration and licensing in Calatagan, Batangas in 2007. With its support to the local partner fisherfolk organization, Samahan ng Mangingisda ng Calatagan (SAMACA) and strengthening the capacity of its FARMC, the Municipal Fisheries Ordinance (MFO) of Calatagan was adopted. Fisherfolk Registration and Licensing was a crucial component of this law that ensured fisherfolk’s rights being recognized. Tambuyog had a MOA with the Calatagan LGU and was successful in integrating marginalized fisherfolk’s concerns as reflected in the Coastal Resource Management Plans and their fisheries development plan.
Calatagan’s experience in ensuring the registration of its fisherfolk, thereby helping reclaim fishers’ rights particularly in priority use of coastal resources, and recognizing not just their roles but as abled resource managers and fishery law enforcers became a model for fisheries law enforcement in other coastal communities. SAMACA and its representation in the FARMC have made substantial leaps in addressing problems of small-scale fishers (ranging from 2000 to 50,000 fishing households, with the efforts of Tambuyog, using this initiative.
Problem
Recognition of resource rent corresponding to management and development costs of resources is crucial in working towards sustainability and equity in resource utilization. The bioeconomic model posits that unlike production in manufacturing and agriculture sectors, fisheries is mainly natural production wherein cost of extracting resources would cover operational expenses, normal return to labor and normal return to capital but not resource rent, equivalent to the “bounty of nature”, which is captured by those who obtain these resources ahead or instead of others.
Outcomes in resource rent capture are dependent on prevailing property rights regimes, whether state, private or community-centered. Thus, Tambuyog works for community property rights, wherein organized small scale fishers exercise a bundle of rights over coastal resources in various forms ranging from community-based forest management agreements (CBFMAs), fisherfolk-managed marine protected areas (MPAs) or fishery development plans, over municipal waters spearheaded by fishery and aquatic resource management councils (FARMCs).
Actions
Directing Community Property Rights towards social consensus on recognition of resource rent as basis of sound fishery management address issues of sustainability, employing market forces to act as incentives for judicious utilization, and equity – making resource users pay for the cost of managing and developing resources from which they benefit. Integral to this approach is the application of valuation tools to arrive at a computation of resource rent, which shall be basis for fees, permits, licenses and other management instruments.
Collaborative activities are done hand in hand with BFAR and local governments in the
Conduct of information, education and communication including actual involvement of fisherfolk in actual registration process thru “one stop shops”, developing IEC materials, and documentation activities. Fisherfolk organizations helping local government thru Municipal Agriculture Officers in actual registration process including dissemination of information materials, conduct of local fora/discussions on importance and benefits of fisherfolk registration, and ensure actual registration.
Results
Current local initiatives that had been successful will be scaled-up for replication and adoption in other coastal communities.
1st year – increased number of fisherfolk registered including women fishers, recognized by government as such and given entitlements such as priority use of coastal resources and enjoy the benefits thereof, access to social protection for fisherfolk and active participation in decision making processes
2nd year – defined resource rent-based licensing as model for local fisheries development plans and delineation of fishing grounds to address resource use-conflict among fisheries stakeholders
3rd year – adoption of policies on resource-rent based licensing at the national and local levels with active fisherfolk participation through their representation in Fisheries and Aquatic Resource Management Councils (FARMCs)
How many people will your project serve annually?
1001‐10,000
What is the average monthly household income in your target community, in US Dollars?
$50 - 100
Does your project seek to have an impact on public policy?
Yes
If so, how?
Institutionalized integrated fishery management structures
Tambuyog believes that CBCRM ultimately rests on the foundation of community property rights, the issue of scale, both physical and social, exerts an enormous influence on the long term viability of fishery governance regimes especially in managing productive assets.
Ecosystems and resources such as coral reefs, seagrass beds, mangrove forests and fish stocks are embedded in larger systems nested on one another up to transnational level. It has become the practice for fishery managers/organized fishers to designate traditional fishing grounds e.g. Manila Bay, subjects of management intervention for the former and as arenas for political engagement for the latter. The concept of nested systems forms the basis for ecosystem and fishing ground-based approaches to fisheries management.
This roughly parallels political subdivisions from the barangay, municipal, provincial, regional (subnational) and national level, each of which has its own scope of power and responsibility over people and resources. In fisheries, most relevant are the municipal and national levels, which have been vested by law with jurisdiction over waters (including the land – sea interface) in question.
Thus the need for an integrated approach to fisheries governance centered on discrete management units where relevant ecosystems and resources as well as concerned sociopolitical actors are brought together. This can be gleaned from the recent designation of BFAR of eighty-four (84) marine fishery management units and (FMUs) as well as ten (10) lake FMUs encompasses the totality of the country’s fishery resources.
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhat stage is your project in?
Operating for 1‐5 years
Does your organization have a board of directors or an advisory board?
Yes
Does your organization have any non monetary partnerships with NGOs?
Yes
Does your organization have any non monetary partnerships with businesses?
Yes
Does your organization have any non monetary partnerships with government?
Yes
Please tell us more about how partnerships could be critical to the success of your innovation.
Formation, expansion and strengthening of small scale fisher networks
Major successes of Tambuyog's efforts were mainly attained because of strong partnerships with fisherfolk organizations, federations, civil society groups and government (national and local) as it works on policy advocacy, research, and capacity building, as well as social enterprise work.
Tambuyog has established its niche in sustainable fisheries development work over the years and is a recognized NGO for advancing municipal fisherfolk's rights and welfare.
Parallel to its work at the local and national level, Tambuyog strives to establish, expand and strengthen small scale fisher networks at the regional level. This is corollary to its belief on the applicability of its analytical and operational framework to the fisheries situation in many parts of the region.
Efforts towards this end have already been undertaken in recent years (mostly under the banner of SEAFISH) and fisherfolk formations at the national level look to NGOs like to Tambuyog to provide the support necessary to enhance the level of organization of small scale fishers across the different countries in the region.
We would like to learn more about how your initiative is financially supported. Please explain your business plan/revenue model
Emergence
Internal capacity development of Tambuyog with focus on areas of negotiation, lobbying, research and publication, and resource generation. Strengthening capacity in enterprise work through incubation of selected social enterprise projects.
Tambuyog will strengthen relations with local government units where it is already implementing projects and develop its partner areas as showcase for sustainable fisheries. It will continue to build coalitions and contribute to revitalization of existing networks, clarify analyses of the institution, build a common vision, and pursue common objectives and strategies.
Expansion
Expand into new areas including collaborations with other fisheries NGOs. Tambuyog will promote achievements and lessons, expand its networks, strengthen its resource generation capacity and venture into commercialisation of selected social enterprises.
Institutionalization
Institutionalisation of fisheries governance in fishery management units, continued expansion into new areas in collaboration with networks and institutionalisation of lessons learned from social enterprises development. Regionally, by recognition of artisanal fishers in discourse on fisheries development policy at the ASEAN level.
Integration
Influence of the sustainable fisheries model (integrating fisheries governance, social enterprise and gender) exerted on all fishing grounds through various networks. There will be integration of social enterprises as well as integration of fishery management and markets (resolving the problem of fragmentation among small fishery producers). At the regional level, this will be reflected in the adoption of an ASEAN common fishery policy.
Increased revenue from diversified sources
Parallel with increased organizational capacity, Tambuyog will significantly increase its revenue generations commensurate to resource needs of its strategic plan and need to diversify its revenue sources.
Apart from grants, it will generate resources from corporate engagement, consultancies and direct fundraising. Over the long term, it will work towards the establishment of an endowment fund for the continuity of its work, and acquisition/development of assets and investments.
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As an economic sector, municipal fishers are generally described as fragmented with little bargaining power in markets (FAO 2004). In the Philippines, this was affirmed with more than 98% reporting that they do not belong to a legal form of organization and operate as individuals (Census of Fisheries 2002). The technology they employ such as simple nets and landlines also reflects the fragmented nature of municipal fishery production and the subsector as a whole.
Nevertheless, community-based coastal resources management (CBCRM) has made inroads and achieved success in specific areas in the country. Changes in the policy framework with the enactment of the Local Government Code in 1991 and the Fisheries Code in 1998 has facilitated the emergence of local level management spearheaded by fisher organizations with support from non-government organizations, national government agencies, and academic and research institutions legitimated by local government jurisdiction and autonomy.
Much remains to be done in terms of enhancing the capacity of fisher organizations especially in the area of transforming gains in resource management into increase household income and welfare.
Increasing Formalization
Overall, a trend towards greater formalization can be gleaned both in terms of policies and practices. Historically, small scale fisheries were considered part of the informal sector i.e. activities outside the formal economy regulated by economic and legal institutions.
However, municipal fisheries production has been monitored and valued as part of the gross domestic product since the 1950s with accurate and timely data deemed invaluable for effective fisheries management. Formalization has also been brought about by the enactment of the Fisheries Code which mandates the establishment of registries of municipal fishers that can be the basis of future licensing systems and the creation of fisheries and aquatic resource management councils (FARMCs).
As coastal communities and fishers increasingly become part of economic development zones areas, various formal and legal institutions continue to come in to regulate market, social and economic activities. This trend is expected to continue in the coming decades.
Tell us about the social innovator—the person—behind this idea.
Founded in 1984, Tambuyog called attention to declining fishery resources and unabated poverty in coastal communities through interdisciplinary research, creative information and education campaign, community organizing, policy advocacy and constituency building.
Tambuyog traces its roots in the communities along Lingayen Gulf in Pangasinan, where researchers from the University of the Philippines conducted research and organizing. Hence, the name tambuyog, a Pangasinense word for carabao’s horn which symbolizes the call for unity. Its founding was a response to the situation where efforts in community development were focused mainly on peasants and the agriculture sector, while the issues of the fisherfolk remained at the periphery.
An important result of Tambuyog’s work after a decade is the substantial amount of data it has gathered on the political, social and economic situation in coastal communities, and the status of various aquatic resources and the coastal environment. Linking the biological with social, economic and political analysis, Tambuyog developed an alternative model or approach to development—community-based coastal resource management (CBCRM).
The CBCRM approach centers on the role of communities in the management of their resources—too often overlooked by government programs—and their rights to enjoy the benefits resulting from their collective action.
In Tambuyog’s belief, communities ultimately are the best resource managers because they have the greatest stake in the preservation of resources which they depend on for survival. The gap between the ideal and the present capacities to manage remains, though. But through exchange and synergy of indigenous or local knowledge with scientific investigation, and continuous capacity building and consciousness raising, communities may be able to slowly manifest ownership of the coastal resources. This assertion to “ownership”, “claim”, or “entitlement”---called community property rights---is at the heart of Tambuyog’s vision of empowering coastal communities and marginalized sectors of the fishing industry.
The concept of community property rights was a product of years of research and analysis led by one of Tambuyog’s founder, Mr. Carlito Anonuevo (deceased).
How did you first hear about Changemakers?
Web Search (e.g., Google or Yahoo)
If through another source, please provide the information.
Approximately 50 words left (400 characters).
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhich (if any) of the following strategies apply to your organization or company (check as many as apply)
Policy advocacy to strengthen property rights or increase security of tenure, Formalizing and documenting property rights (i.e. titling, leasing or certification), Legal education and awareness, Developing/applying technology for surveying, mapping and documenting property rights, Other.
Please explain how your work furthers one or many of the above strategies (if you selected “other”, please explain your strategy)
The overall goal of Tambuyog is to achieve the integration of the main areas crucial for improving the lives of marginalized small scale fishers – governance over fisheries resources and development of fishery social enterprises. Directly aimed at addressing the basic problems of poverty and resource degradation confronted by the fishing industry in general and small scale fishers in particular.
Created on 11/3/2010 by Philip Gain
Tea plantation workers are the most marginalized occupational group in Bangladesh. They own none of the land that has been their home for over 150 years. Descendants of indentured laborers, they live in poverty and a captive situation without entitlements. Land ownership will greatly improve their livelihood.
Organization: Society for Environment and Human Development (SEHD)
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Organization Name
Society for Environment and Human Development (SEHD)
Organization Phone
880-2-9121385; mobile: 01715009123
Organization Address
4/4/1(B) (3rd Floor), Block-A, Lalmatia, Dhaka-1207
How long has this organization been operating?
More than 5 years
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideName your project.
Land to Tea Workers, Generational Occupants without Titles
Describe Your Idea
Tea plantation workers are the most marginalized occupational group in Bangladesh. They own none of the land that has been their home for over 150 years. Descendants of indentured laborers, they live in poverty and a captive situation without entitlements. Land ownership will greatly improve their livelihood.
Country your work focuses on
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhat makes your idea unique?
The tea plantation workers (118,000) and their communities (approximately 500,000) are the most marginalized minorities in Bangladesh. Socially, economically and culturally excluded from the rest of the Bangladeshi society and descendants of indentured laborers, the tea workers have no title to land they have lived on for four generations and they remain captive to “labor lines” on the tea estates. Their situation is aggravated by extremely low wages compared to the wages of the Indian and Sri Lankan tea workers. With ongoing investigation and reporting by SEHD on the conditions of the tea workers, one reality becomes obvious, the tea workers must have titles to the land they live on and the land they till to compensate for their food deficit. The land area for tea cultivation is 115,629.76 hectares (285,727.36 acres)—all government land granted to the companies/owners of 163 tea estates. The annual rent for use of the government land is infinitesimal, viz., Tk.110 (1.5 USD) per acre. Only 45% of the land is actually under tea cultivation. If the tea workers get titles to at least the homesteads and the paddy land they currently use, their lives will significantly improve. A large portion of land granted for tea but used for rubber and monoculture plantations for commercial gains of the owners can also be awarded to the workers. A combination of research, media reporting, advocacy, and court action (i.e. writ in the High Court) can bring change. This is indicated in work already done.
Do you have a patent for this idea?
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideThis Entry is about (Issues)
Tell us about the social impact of your innovation. Please include both numbers and stories as evidence of this impact
SEHD’s research, publications, filming, photography exhibitions, writing of special reports in the newspapers, television programs, dialogue, legal support to tea workers’ union, and training of the leaders of tea workers so far have had significant impacts for the entire workers’ community who are now better paid. In the initial years of work SEHD established solid information bases and trained the community leaders of the tea workers on their rights to property, especially land. With two books, one 45-minute documentary film, a photography exhibition, and many published reports that are widely used, SEHD has opened up a new information frontier on the tea estates. SEHD's information and lobby had clear influence on the Minimum Wage Board of the government in its work on the wage structure of the tea plantation workers. The trade union and community leaders, whom SEHD trained and kept informed about the production price and sale price of tea, became better negotiators with the Bangladesh Tea Association (owners) and different government agencies. Previously, daily cash pay of the tea workers increased by only Tk.2 every two years. In July 2009, it increased from Tk.32.50 to Tk.48 plus increased fringe benefits including bonus. SEHD’s assistance to the first ever elected central committee of Bangladesh Tea Workers’ Union (the only bargaining agent of the tea workers, and the largest trade union in the country) after it was unlawfully dismissed by the government was crucial to get a High Court verdict in its favor, an indication that the access issue of tea workers to property can be taken to the court. With significant information and analyses on tea workers’ conditions widely used and a network established, SEHD is in a perfect position to plan future actions.
Problem
British companies brought workers from different states of India more than 150 years ago to work in the tea gardens in the Sylhet region of what is now Bangladesh. As citizens of Bangladesh they are free to live anywhere in the country. The reality is they have been a “captive labor force” for four generations. The prime reason for this is that they have never owned the homes and land they use. The state owns the land granted to the companies and private owners. The companies and individuals owning the tea gardens will be able to exploit the workers as long as the tea workers continue to live in “labor lines” established on government land, and the owners have full control over the land granted for tea cultivation. This is a ridiculous injustice on tea workers and should be stopped. Furthermore, while the daily cash pay of a tea worker in India is USD1.5 and USD2.5 in Sri Lanka it is around 70 cents in Bangladesh. The cash pay in Bangladesh must double soon to be sufficient. Additionally, the poor education standard of tea company school, and the scarcity of government primary schools means children of tea workers are bound to become tea workers themselves.
Actions
a.Mapping, analysis & documentation: Mapping of government land granted for tea cultivation but used for other purposes will be done. Such land amounts to 45% of total land granted for tea.
b.Court actions: The rights issue of the tea workers to land granted for tea but used for other purposes will be taken to High Court through writ petition(s) or other legal measures. Reputed lawyer(s) will be engaged in such court cases. SEHD already engaged one in a writ petition on behalf of the elected central committee of Bangladesh Tea Workers’ Union receiving a favorable judgment.
c.Training & coalition building: The community leaders of the tea workers, human rights actors, and government officials will be trained on property rights issues. Coalitions will be built among tea workers, human rights groups, NGOs, media & the government agencies.
d.Media campaign
Factor preventing success:
a.Resistance from political, business, and military elites who benefit most from the chiefly available land for tea cultivation
b.Isolated and weak trade union
Results
First year:
•A map of land mismanaged and used by the tea planters for purposes other than tea production and concurrently the land available to be given to tea workers sends a strong message to the government functionaries and owners that the tea workers must get land ownership.
•Training and coalition building provide a social infrastructure and develop solidarity among tea workers and others concerned.
Second year:
•Media exposure of anomalies related to land use and conditions of the tea workers strengthen the voices of the tea workers.
•The government adopts clear policies to initiate public schooling for the children of the tea workers.
•The tea workers become more visible and get greater political protection.
Third year:
•The court passes ruling/directives to the state that eventually creates grounds for distribution of government land among the tea workers.
•The wages of the tea workers is given pragmatic consideration by the Minimum Wage Board of the government and the cash pay, fringe benefits, etc. add up to a level close to the wages that the Indian and Sri Lankan workers get.
How many people will your project serve annually?
More than 10,000
What is the average monthly household income in your target community, in US Dollars?
Less than $50
Does your project seek to have an impact on public policy?
Yes
If so, how?
The state of Bangladesh already has statutes—Land Reform Action Program (LRAP) of 1987 and Agricultural Khas Land Management and Settlement Policy 1997—that guide the government to distribute public land among the landless people. Exposé of the hard facts about the government land that can be made available to the tea workers, as well as court verdicts, mediation, dialogues, and creation of a new generation of skilled trade union leaders and human rights actors will influence the government to adopt/implement policies for the redistribution of public land to the tea workers. Furthermore, these would promote implementation of and amendment to the labour law, increase pay, and take measures for public schooling for the children of the tea workers.
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhat stage is your project in?
Operating for 1‐5 years
Does your organization have a board of directors or an advisory board?
Yes
Does your organization have any non monetary partnerships with NGOs?
Yes
Does your organization have any non monetary partnerships with businesses?
Does your organization have any non monetary partnerships with government?
Please tell us more about how partnerships could be critical to the success of your innovation.
We have already developed a strong network among the tea workers’ communities, labor unions, human rights groups, law professionals, and the media to work on tea workers’ issues. Our publications, film, and visuals have gained credibility and provided us the ability to attend critical issues regarding the tea workers and the tea industry. However, we face difficulties particularly in dealing with the Bangladesh Tea Workers’ Union, the only bargaining agent for tea workers with 80,000 members. Isolated from the national level trade union movement, the tea workers’ trade union remains weak and under strong influence of tea companies and the government functionaries. To overcome this we are promoting the idea of having more than one union in the tea industry. We also have done groundwork to develop partnerships with the valley/panchaet committees in different tea growing areas. In our recent public events, representatives of the owners and government have actively participated, an indication that they have respect for our work. Our active partnerships with all these groups is very important for achieving the goal to have the tea workers gaining ownership of land and property.
We would like to learn more about how your initiative is financially supported. Please explain your business plan/revenue model
About five years ago SEHD started to seriously concentrate on the issues concerning the tea workers as part of it’s regular investigation, research, and filming. SEHD’s main program, “Environmental Research and Documentation (ERDP) has been funded by Misereor in Germany as well as ICCO and CORDAID in the Netherlands. In 2007, we competed for a grant from the Australian High Commission, Dhaka under its Human Rights Small Grants Scheme 2007-2008 to work exclusively for the tea workers and the indigenous peoples of Bangladesh. We got the grant [used in 13 months in 2008-2009], which allowed us to create and strengthen a new generation of skilled human rights actors and community leaders particularly among the tea workers and the indigenous peoples. We implemented all activities with a modest grant that we got from the Australian Government. This has been very helpful for us to articulate issues of the tea workers in particular.
With the resource constraint of our main project, we are now looking for additional resources so that we can effectively engage in work for tea workers’ rights. Sales from books, documentary films, and photos that we have on tea workers brings us some revenue, part of which will be spent for work among the tea workers.However, we also believe that when the workers see the aspiration of getting land becomes a reality they will also support this initiative financially with subscription.
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhat was the defining moment that led you to this innovation?
I had an initial impression about the condition of the tea plantation workers and their communities. But as I started to visit the tea gardens to do a systematic investigation about them and tried to understand how the tea industry is run, I began to learn stunning facts about the tea workers and the industry.
One day, some four years back, Rambhajan Kairi, a young trade union leader who previously was a tea worker, was giving me a tour through the graphic tea gardens in Maulvibazar, a district that has the highest number of tea gardens. We stopped by one place to talk to the women who were working. I also took pictures of them in the garden. In the meantime the manager of the garden arrived and angrily told Rambhajan Kairi that he had made a big mistake bringing me to the garden. A school teacher in a company tea garden school who was standing by, whom we did not know, was also blamed and lost his job (!), which he got back through our intervention. I tried to explain to the manager that it was not anybody’s fault. I came to see the tea gardens and if he had any grievance, it should be with me. With anger he said no one was allowed to take pictures of the tea gardens or the workers and that I should leave his garden immediately. I realized a man with camera is a suspect and is very unwelcome to the tea gardens. I was shocked. It was at this moment I realized that the story of the tea workers must be told to the rest of the country. We initiated an in-depth investigation of their situation. We began to work on a documentary film and photography exhibition(s) on the condition of the tea workers. After three years of investigation, research, filming, and photography, we developed books, reports, film and thousands of photographs and went public in 2009. The owners became angry at the exposure but participated en masse in book launching, photography exhibitions, and seminar on the tea workers that we organized.
We continue to come across stunning facts and stories about the workers and the tea industry relating to land abuse, profit margins that the owners make, and manipulation within the tea workers’ union, and understand there is lot more work to be done.
Tell us about the social innovator—the person—behind this idea.
During the past two decades I have worked as an investigative reporter, writer, and editor. I also established [in 1993] the Society for Environment and Human Development (SEHD), a non-profit Bangladeshi organization to promote investigative reporting, engage in action-oriented research, assist people think and speak out against injustice. Since establishment of SEHD we have been through complex times and risks while attending to issues of national and community interest. However, we remain vocal about the danger of control of nature that happens in different facets and we have always advocated political protection of the marginalized and excluded groups.
As an investigative reporter I have worked on many issues at personal risks. Achievements in some instances have been landmark as in my work on forest and indigenous peoples. Twenty years of reporting in this particular field has generated scores of investigative reports, several books, documentary films, and photography exhibitions with a focus on the negative effects of monoculture plantations funded by Asian Development Bank and World Bank. These two international financial institutions have completely withdrawn from the forestry sector in Bangladesh since 2007. This is a satisfying development for me as we had been telling these international financial institutions that they were ruining the forests by funding forestry projects. The most recent area of my investigation has been the miseries of the tea workers. Our investigation and analysis have played a clear role in the significant increase in the cash pay of the tea workers who are now more visible.
The investigative research that I have been associated with has broadened the access of the public and media to information; influenced public policy and the policy of the international financial institutions; and assisted people make informed opinions and choices on different issues. As of 2010 my productions include 30 books, a few hundred investigative reports, five survey reports, five documentary films, five photography exhibitions, and a few hundred thousand photographs—all available for public use.
Furthermore, an important mission in my life and for SEHD has been to train a new generation of professional journalists, community leaders, human rights activists, environmentalists, and young minds. So far we have trained about 1,000 journalists of more than 100 newspapers and almost equal number of community leaders and activists.
Three important fellowship awards—Ashoka, Alfred Friendly Press Fellowship, and Yale World Fellows Program—affirmed my ideas and assisted me enormously to achieve the accomplishments I can mention today.
How did you first hear about Changemakers?
Personal contact at Changemakers
If through another source, please provide the information.
Approximately 50 words left (400 characters).
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhich (if any) of the following strategies apply to your organization or company (check as many as apply)
Policy advocacy to strengthen property rights or increase security of tenure, Other.
Please explain how your work furthers one or many of the above strategies (if you selected “other”, please explain your strategy)
SEHD develops strategic materials (books, reports, documentary films, images; see www.sehd.org to get an idea about) out of it investigations and action-oriented research that the organization itself and others use for advocacy with intellectual clarity and facts in hand. Its another strategy is to trains/fertilizes mind through skill sharing.
Created on 11/3/2010 by FrontlineSMSLegal
FrontlineSMS:Legal uses mobile technologies to extend, improve, and coordinate dispute resolution systems, increasing access to justice in the areas that need it most. FrontlineSMS:Legal designs locally appropriate tools that enable legal service providers to remotely create digital legal records, automate client intake and management workflows, and extend information distribution.
Organization: FrontlineSMS:Legal
Visit websitemore ↓↑ hide↑ hideCountry
United States, DC, Washington
Is your initiative connected to an established organization?
How long has this organization been operating?
Less than a year
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideDescribe Your Idea
FrontlineSMS:Legal uses mobile technologies to extend, improve, and coordinate dispute resolution systems, increasing access to justice in the areas that need it most. FrontlineSMS:Legal designs locally appropriate tools that enable legal service providers to remotely create digital legal records, automate client intake and management workflows, and extend information distribution.
Country your work focuses on
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhat makes your idea unique?
FrontlineSMS:Legal is the only organization that is actively exploring the ways that mobile technologies can improve legal systems. We are developing and adapting open source tools to extend access to the legal services and systems. These tools will empower more stakeholders to communicate more quickly, cheaply, and effectively, then any other legal platform. FrontlineSMS:Legal does not directly lobby governments, provide legal services, or adjudicate land claims. Instead, FrontlineSMS:Legal enables those who do to do their jobs better.
Do you have a patent for this idea?
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideThis Entry is about (Issues)
Tell us about the social impact of your innovation. Please include both numbers and stories as evidence of this impact
Legal systems, perhaps more than any other government service, rely on in-depth communication. It makes sense, then, that a lot of the challenges involved in accessing justice are communications problems. According to a seminal report issued by the United Nations’ Commission on Legal Empowerment for the Poor, 4 billion people lack meaningful access to the legal resources they need.
There are a number of incredible people, organizations, and governments working to fix this problem in different ways. Many of these systems have had limited success among great challenges, but none have had scalable success in reaching the “last mile.” At the same time, the UN estimates that there are (currently) 5 billion active mobile phones in the world, making them the single most popular communication platform ever.
FrontlineSMS:Legal builds tools designed to lower the barriers to communication between legal systems and the people they serve. At a quantitative level, FrontlineSMS:Legal will pilot at a Justice House that processes 65,000 cases a year. During that time, we expect to lower costs, reduce the processing time of each case, and improve satisfaction, all while increasing case volume. Colombia currently has almost 70 Justice Houses, with plans to build dozens more. With Colombia's population of 43 million people, in this one project alone, FrontlineSMS:Legal could bring access to justice to millions of people.
Admittedly, legal systems are local processes and so scaling will be a gradual process. Still, if FrontlineSMS:Legal improves access to even 1 percent of the target population, we will have reached 40 million people.
Problem
According to the UN, 4 billion people are forced to endure abuse and neglect because they have no other recourse. In Colombia, conflict and natural disaster have resulted in some of the highest internal displacement rates of any country in the world. In addition to the problems caused by conflict, the IDP situation highlights the inadequacies and inefficiencies in the record keeping systems in Colombia's land titling system. In addition, a lack of record redundancy and security, has forced thousands of people to surrender their property to violent, wealthy, and/or simply opportunistic claimants. Both Colombia's government and citizens face enormous barriers to sustaining effective legal and land titling systems, including limited financial resources, a lack of physical infrastructure, uncertain public sentiment, and complex processes. These are complicated by barriers to communication such as distance, time, cost, and lack of efficiency. Many people, believing that legal systems won't be able to deliver the help they need, simply never engage. Yet, those who never engage are likely to remain without claim and, thus, displaced.
Actions
Our approach is to develop easy-to-use software that meets the needs of local stakeholders. I'm writing this from Colombia, where I'm meeting with representatives of formal and informal justice systems, as well as talking with regional leaders about land titling issues.
Our next step is prototyping the tool set, which combines an SMS gateway, customizable digital forms, a back-end database, and case management software, to facilitate and coordinate land titling processes. As part of that, we'll be testing the ability to: create real-time maps; create redundant, digital land records; improve communication and satisfaction with citizens; automate and standardize fragmented workflows; increase participation; and decrease the costs of service provision.
We expect our main challenges to be infrastructure, change management and political will.
Results
As FrontlineSMS:Legal is still in the pilot phase, our results are largely speculative. However, at a social level, concurrently improving both administrative land registry systems and the dispute resolution systems associated will foster the evolution of the entire system.
Year 1: Pilot in a Municipality/Departamento
Standardization of Information Gathering
Digitization of Titling Records
Creation of an Online Map of Property Titles
Establishment of Dispute Resolution Workflow
Year 2: Scale to Region
Increasing Standardization/Digitization of Records
Expansion of Online Map of Property Titles
Centralization and Redundant Server Storage of Titling Records
Creation of a Consumer-facing SMS Query System
Extension of Dispute Resolution and similar digitization of process
Year 3: Scale to Country
This step involves moving each of these initiatives to the national level
How many people will your project serve annually?
More than 10,000
What is the average monthly household income in your target community, in US Dollars?
$100 ‐ 1000
Does your project seek to have an impact on public policy?
Yes
If so, how?
Our intention is to affect public policy indirectly. We have no specific agenda, nor is there any wish to insert our own perspective into the local political process. FrontlineSMS:Legal recognizes, however, that in order for any technology platform to be successful in the provision of government service, certain things will need to be addressed (i.e.- the legal significance of structured SMS). Additionally, FrontlineSMS:Legal supports standardization of process and information, toward efficient decentralized and centralized governance. Recognizing that standardization is not an apolitical process, we expect to foster that type of impact, however, we will not provide substantive guidance, outside of technological impacts of various decisions, in order to influence those decisions.
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhat stage is your project in?
Operating for less than a year
Does your organization have a board of directors or an advisory board?
Does your organization have any non monetary partnerships with NGOs?
Yes
Does your organization have any non monetary partnerships with businesses?
Does your organization have any non monetary partnerships with government?
Please tell us more about how partnerships could be critical to the success of your innovation.
Initiatives and system design must be led by the people who will use them. FrontlineSMS:Legal only designs and builds tools. Our partners are our customers, and they will determine the success of both their own systems, as well as the tools that facilitate their operation.
We would like to learn more about how your initiative is financially supported. Please explain your business plan/revenue model
We essentially provide three core services: Consulting, Customized Product Design, and Support. As many organizations need help understanding technology, workflow adaptation, and change management, FrontlineSMS:Legal derives revenue from organizations who wish to gain the most from our tool set. Our driving value proposition is the efficiency gains, both quantitative and qualitative, available through a successful implementation of the tool set. FrontlineSMS:Legal's business case is simply that paying us to design and implement an installation of our tools lowers the overall cost of service provision while improving efficiency and volume. This is an argument that is both applicable and appealing to a wide range of legal service and land titling organizations.
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhat was the defining moment that led you to this innovation?
It's tough to say that there was a moment, or one explosion of inspiration. This idea is the accumulation of my entire life's work and interests. I've grown up around conflict resolution innovators, and so have always been invested in how people resolve disputes, both through formal and non-standard means. The first panel I ever organized in law school was about the intersection of law and conflict resolution structures, essentially new applications of Alternative Dispute Resolution. But, I'm getting ahead of myself.
I was a journalism major in college and became fascinated with the way that information moved throughout a society. Afterward, I worked in the Senate for a year, watching how our government provided services to individuals at the local level. Learning that I needed to learn more, I began a joint law and conflict resolution master's program, where I immediately began exploring their intersection. I went on to found a self-organizing, inter-campus network of graduate level conflict resolution student groups that meets to this day. While in school, I worked for a law firm that specializes in peace processes and constitution drafting, doing massive amounts of comparative analysis of governance structures and adjudication processes. I wrote my master's thesis on value of applying of emerging information technologies to journalism in Armenia, in order to avoid soft censorship while working for an international development company. Convinced that they weren't interested in technology, I went to a technology company. There, I was involved in the technology community response to the Haiti earthquake, where the cohort I encountered helped me explore the breadth of what is possible through mobile technologies. Learning that my employer wasn't interested in international development (despite hiring me under those auspices), I left.
The idea for FrontlineSMS:Legal is essentially the combination of all the things that I've done to this point. We build technology tools focused on developing countries that improve governance by leveraging the complementary strengths of multiple dispute resolution mechanisms.
Tell us about the social innovator—the person—behind this idea.
I think that's my above answer. In case I'm off-base, here's a bit more:
I'm someone who believes strongly in incentives and their power to influence behavior. I care more about success than credit, and I'd rather be engaged in doing something I love than getting rich doing something I hate. I went to law school for the frame of reference, but I was never going to be a litigator. That being said, my perverse sensibilities think that litigating on the side might be a lot of fun.
I view my business kind of like a case, I suppose. I've compiled a lot of evidence and I know the issues, both in fact and in law. But what resonates, what I think will carry the day for this idea is the moment when you feel it. Not me, you. When it dawns on you, I mean really hits you, how galling it is that 4 BILLION people don't have access to the system that determines how we live. It's poverty, but it's not just poverty- it's excommunication. The kind of isolation that offers no solace for children forced into homelessness, women who can't escape lives of systematic abuse, or men who suffer for refusing to take up arms. And then, when the second idea lands: that for the first time in history, there is no good reason that it has to be that way.
How did you first hear about Changemakers?
Through another organization or company
If through another source, please provide the information.
Approximately 50 words left (400 characters).
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhich (if any) of the following strategies apply to your organization or company (check as many as apply)
Formalizing and documenting property rights (i.e. titling, leasing or certification), Legal education and awareness, Developing/applying technology for surveying, mapping and documenting property rights.
Please explain how your work furthers one or many of the above strategies (if you selected “other”, please explain your strategy)
Created on 11/2/2010 by GRASSROOTS IDEA
Promoting access to land for 100 War affected women in Northern Uganda who are landless, suffered properties loss and are living with AIDS. This is an opportunities for women to collectively return and secure home, becomes economically empowered with the aftermath of war and HIV/AIDS, gain power to improve income and campaign against the barriers to women land rights.
Organization: Gulu Womens Economic Development and Globalisation
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Organization Name
Gulu Womens Economic Development and Globalisation
Organization Address
P.0 BOX 1257, Gulu Northern Uganda
How long has this organization been operating?
More than 5 years
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideName your project.
Promoting Access to Land and Property for war affected women in northern Uganda
Describe Your Idea
Promoting access to land for 100 War affected women in Northern Uganda who are landless, suffered properties loss and are living with AIDS. This is an opportunities for women to collectively return and secure home, becomes economically empowered with the aftermath of war and HIV/AIDS, gain power to improve income and campaign against the barriers to women land rights.
Country your work focuses on
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhat makes your idea unique?
Insecure land tenure and property rights for women are both contributing to the spread of HIV/AIDS and weakening their ability to cope with consequences of AIDS. These links are particularly acute in Northern Uganda where the twin tragedy of intense conflicts, poverty and HIV/AIDS was witnessed with the long conflict. Land is one of the most critical economic assets for the people of northern Uganda after the war has destroyed all Asset and infrastructure serving as the main source for families.
This project is unique as it recognized the barriers faced by women to own land, have access, control and decision making opportunities over land as well as other critical assets.
This project works to promote women’s access to land ownership and decision making processes at grassroots for the returning women and women living with HIV/AIDS and widows through a community preventive led approach centred at sub-county and Parish levels where GWED-G work with the already existing human rights volunteer to ensure land ownership for 100 landless women to enable their return and resettlement process back home. The project will also secure land for women to use collectively as women groups and gain their economic empowerment. The project will work to procure 1 hand tractor that shall be used by women to open their land collectively.
This project will built on the already existing gaps realised from the ongoing project where a preventive led community campaign and education on women’s property and inheritance rights is being.
Do you have a patent for this idea?
Yes
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideThis Entry is about (Issues)
Tell us about the social impact of your innovation. Please include both numbers and stories as evidence of this impact
This project will address the dispossessions of war affected women, widow, women affected and infected with HIV/AIDS, and those who suffered already property loss from their family land which has been exacerbated by abuse and violence caused by war, and stigma associated with HIV/AIDS.
The women supported under this project will hold properties in their names and work collectively as groups. This will alert the other women to stand and defend their property rights in local disputes resolutions forum. Routine family and community mediations as alternative mechanism to address property violations and re-enforce positive community practice like giving land to women by elders and families, daughters inheriting land from their fathers, women allocated land by community to use as groups to reinforce food security and livelihood interventions will be promoted.
This project is working with a target of 100 landless women that should gain their land ownership, 30 women will gain land procured for them to be able to resettled themselves within the return settings, and 60 women shall acquire land and use it collectively for farming to gain the produce for increased income and later such income can regenerate more land for their settlements.
The project will procure farm tools and also 1 hand tractor that women will use to facilitate their routine farm works. From routine awareness and preventive level education provided by the human rights volunteers, more women will gain knowledge and understanding on their rights to properties and discriminations and stigma shall reduce.
Problem
The problem with women in northern Uganda is more than double fold, they are women who lost all they have to the war including children, husband and properties. Until now the women are suffering from the shocks of domestic’s violence, property grabbing and loss, land wrangles, high numbers living with HIV/AIDS, the vulnerability is causing high risk in poverty, food insecurity and increase landlessness. They are mostly widows, child mothers, stand alone women and women affect ted or infected with HIV/AIDS.
Their ability to claim and enjoy property and inheritance rights depends on their access to economic and social resources required which is limited. In Acholi sub-region land is own through customary system under the custody of clan/family heads and elders, in this system women do not inherit or own land. These do not guarantee direct rights to land ownership and properties by women in Northern Uganda.
Actions
• Routine documentation of cases of property grabbing and land wrangles for war affected communities over 115 cases registered.
• Conduct community dialogue sessions with 20 local leaders, (Parish chiefs, local council I-III, women and religious leaders, women living with HIV/AIDS networks) to support women secure properties.
• Secure land to 30 vulnerable women who are landless.
• 60 women put into groups of 15 women – 4 groups for them to acquire land and use it collectively.
• Work and train 5 male groups as role models to promote women’s property rights at return sites.
• Local leaders training on mediation skills to promote women property rights conducted
• Referrals of land violations for redress.
• Strengthened advocacy and campaigns for policies and laws that protects women and girls.
• Procure one hand tractor that women shall use collectively to promote their agriculture
Results
• Increased knowledge and understanding on women’s rights to property and inheritance rights.
• Reduced cases of land wrangle and grabbing from women
• Increased community actions against violence and stigma caused due to land loss
• Women begin to achieve independent control over land through joint titling with the issues of separate shares certificates.
• Women claiming their land rights collectively or individually.
• Visibility of women groups and movement fighting for their land rights at all levels.
• Over 100 women own land and acquire rights of land in their own names.
• Women are represented on the community and land holding structures.
• Increased income for women from the productions of food products and sales of their products.
• Women will begin to work jointly with the district land board on issues of acquiring their land titles and ownerships.
How many people will your project serve annually?
1001‐10,000
What is the average monthly household income in your target community, in US Dollars?
Less than $50
Does your project seek to have an impact on public policy?
Yes
If so, how?
Yes. The project will advocate for legal change to make women’s property rights equal with men, this will include the inheritance rights, equal division of matrimonial properties in the event of divorce and separations. Mobilize grassroots women to engage on lobby efforts including issues on HIV/AIDS.
We will continue to documents women land rights and ensure that women are included as co-owners of properties with their husband; we will mobilize grassroots women to advocate for and protect their rights against customary land tenure systems.
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhat stage is your project in?
Operating for 1‐5 years
Does your organization have a board of directors or an advisory board?
Yes
Does your organization have any non monetary partnerships with NGOs?
Yes
Does your organization have any non monetary partnerships with businesses?
Does your organization have any non monetary partnerships with government?
Yes
Please tell us more about how partnerships could be critical to the success of your innovation.
GWED-G is already working in partnership with Justice and Peace commission in a project promoting women’s rights to properties and decision making processes. And also GWED-G is a partner to Northern Uganda Human Rights Coalitions. A coalition of 9 domestics NGO working to promote human rights culture and a life in dignity for war affected communities in northern Uganda. From this experience, we have learnt that working in partnership adds value to the already existing projects and programs in terms of learning, gaining experience and shaping the quality of our work. It also gives a stronger voice in terms of advocacy and lobby when you work has partners than working as an individual organizations. Partnership will support and strengthened women movements because the challenge with women institutions is always that they remained small since they frequently lacks funds to expand on their work.
We would like to learn more about how your initiative is financially supported. Please explain your business plan/revenue model
We depend entirely on donors funding, the activities under the project was funded by the African Human Rights educations programs which is ending by December this year and hope that before next year we manage to get funding to continue this projects. Although we were also funded by OSI/OSEA to promote and protect women’s rights project inclusive property rights interventions. As we all realized that women’s rights organization face a lot of funding gaps, this is also much serious with women institutions.
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhat was the defining moment that led you to this innovation?
GWED-G has been working in the field promoting and protecting women rights, promoting preventions and response to SGBV, and working on gender mainstreaming projects for some years now and there are questions that we are already working with in the region which is around the full empowerment of women. We recognized women themselves need to take actions to demand for their equality and denounce violence perpetrated against them.
Land is one of the most critical economic assets and the only one left for the people of northern Uganda serving as the main source of production, food security, and social security for many families, Women constitute up to 70% of the agricultural labor force, but they own less than 10% -2%.
In northern Uganda there are multiples issues that need to be addressed to generate complete support towards grassroots women empowerment and equality especially in areas contributing to the greater recognitions, realization and protection of women’s land rights and increase attention and actions for women rights in relations to HIV/AIDS. The Peace, Recovery and development program (PRDP) for Northern Uganda hardly demonstrated any efforts to address the challenges faced by women in the reconstruction processes including land, despite Northern Uganda has the biggest percentage of women headed household in Uganda (30.8%).
The Uganda Police Annual Crime report in 2009 recorded 165 deaths due to domestic’s violence. 7,360 cases of defilement were reported while there were 619 cases of rape. Sex related crimes accounted to 9% of all crimes. Gender and sexual based cases are always reported as assault, and in 2009 Police crime report reported 21,186 cases of assaults, and 11% of all crimes were committed in northern Uganda. In a study conducted by Law Reform in 2006, 78% of the respondent from Northern Uganda responded that violence against women and committed at homes and added that women are victim due to their poor status in communities and lacks of properties makes them remained vulnerable to violence.
Therefore coupled with women’s lacks of access to property, compounded with increased levels of sexual and gender based violence and the fact that HIV infection are severe in women makes this innovation a driven priority projects to be perused to support the women in the region.
Tell us about the social innovator—the person—behind this idea.
I, and the 2 project officers, we frequently encountered problems of land wrangles and property grabbing by women. Women frequently reports cases to us and we would take more than a week mediating one case with the paralegals and stakeholders. But what has motivated me more is when a women was forcefully evicted out of her husband land by the relatives because her husband died while they were yet in the camp, and as a widow returning back to the matrimonial land was the beginning of war and another displacement in her live. Because she didn’t understand the boundaries to her husband land, everything seems to be owned by the relatives, as if her husband was not part of that family. The children were rejected as burden because almost everybody in that family already overwhelmed with responsibilities. Tracing back to her parents she was not accepted because she was formerly married and could not come back. Another issue that shocks me was for child headed families who were born in the camps and all their parents died while they were in the camp. It was impossible to return home but they did so because their neighbor in the camps decided to return and they left together in the village of those families. Reaching there they ended up being brain winners by tiling land and working labour to allow them settled. They couldn’t construct grass thatch house for themselves but communities did for them. These events indicated to us that there are many IDPs who are totally landless and required support interventions from civil society’s organizations.
How did you first hear about Changemakers?
Email from Changemakers
If through another source, please provide the information.
Approximately 50 words left (400 characters).
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhich (if any) of the following strategies apply to your organization or company (check as many as apply)
Policy advocacy to strengthen property rights or increase security of tenure, Formalizing and documenting property rights (i.e. titling, leasing or certification), Legal education and awareness.
Please explain how your work furthers one or many of the above strategies (if you selected “other”, please explain your strategy)
Through the creations of awareness, many women begins to ask questions to understand how they can aquire their land titles and also demand for legal ownership.
Created on 11/2/2010 by Saodat
The problem is concerned with realizing the land reform in Tajikistan. Instead of to use the reform as the possibility for reducing the poverty and providing the poor population access to land resource which will give them possibility to increase their incomes the possibilitthe reform is conducting so that both land and labor resources are left under government control, which effects women mostly.
Organization: Public Organization Saodat
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Organization Name
Public Organization Saodat
How long has this organization been operating?
More than 5 years
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideName your project.
Land Reform in Tajikistan
Describe Your Idea
The problem is concerned with realizing the land reform in Tajikistan. Instead of to use the reform as the possibility for reducing the poverty and providing the poor population access to land resource which will give them possibility to increase their incomes the possibilitthe reform is conducting so that both land and labor resources are left under government control, which effects women mostly.
Country your work focuses on
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhat makes your idea unique?
The complex approach of problem decision through the proposed project makes the given idea unique. So that in the result of project realisation: women`s legal awareness will be increased; they will acquire knowledge and skills on protection of rights to property; women`s e social status will be increased in target communities; 100 Dekhkan Farm members will receive access to water through procurement and management of EWDS (efficient water distribution system);WUA (water user`s association) will be established headed by women; women will receive consultative support in decision of legal issues; Rural populAtion will receive knowledge and skills in preparation of legal documentations and decision of these problems; Women will become more confident in decision of legal problems in the result of trainings and consultations\extention services; mass media will be actively attracted with the purpose of covering the problems on provision, observation and protection of rights, liberty and interests of citizens and members of dehkan farms.
Do you have a patent for this idea?
Yes
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideThis Entry is about (Issues)
Tell us about the social impact of your innovation. Please include both numbers and stories as evidence of this impact
Direct beneficiaries from trainings 560
direct beneficiaries from consultations 360
Indirect beneficiaries from trainings 2800
Indirect beneficiaries from consultations 1800.
Problem
The Government of Republic Tajikistan is carrying out the Land Reform during the several years which is directed to creating the condition for equal development of varies forms of farms on land, and also for forming the multistructure economy and for rational use and protection of land with the purpose of increase the agricultural production produce. Of course in any of reform process, appear the specific problems connected with the adaptation of population for the new condition of their activity.According the data of State Statistic Committee the 80% of population in Sogd oblast earn for living by husbandry, and out of them 65% of people are the members of dehkan farms. All these 65% people live in rural places and particularly women work at the fields as their husbands immigrated abroad for earnings.the position becoming complicated by that that in republic the traditions are powerful and they are by nature directed to restriction of subjective rights and to suppression of women’s and dehkans’ liberty, and also this part of population has not the finance possibilities to pay for skilled legal assist service and for the high level of corruption among the state employees.
Actions
1. Organizational capacity building on legal awareness in village.
1.1 The formation of target group in Spitamen and Ganchi regions
-presence/number of women
1.2 Organization of joint work (collaboration) with representatives of local bodies.
• Number of representatives of local organs cooperating with PO saodat;
• Number of joint meetings in the course of project realization;
2. Carrying out informational-awareness activities on rising the legal education of rural women and rendering advisory support in solving problems of women’s infringing rights.
• 2.1 Conducting of trainings on legal issues, gender equality jointly with attraction of rural women and men and stakeholders. Conducting of 28 trainings per
20 people for vulnerable part of population at places.
• 2.2 consultancy of rural women. Registration log/consultations,
• Photos/reports, reports, statistic data of consultations консультаций.
Number of women received consultations and description of the problems to what extent it benefited.
• 2.3 Making of legally significant documents Registration log and description of the problem, copies of made documents.
• Number of applied wome
Results
a. 560 women beneficiaries passed trainings on legal awareness.
b. Rural inhabitances received knowledge and skills in preparation of legal documentations and decision of these problems.
c. 120 women received consultative support in decision of legal issues.
d. Women become more confident in decision of legal problems.
e. increase the social status in target communities, including rural women and advancement of own interests al different levels using knowledge and advocacy;
f. wide awareness of problems in the villages is made through local mass media
g. 100 D/F members receive access to water through procurement and management of EWDS by women;
h. 40 rural women gained knowledge and skills on protection of rights to property;
i. Establishment of WUA headed by women.
How many people will your project serve annually?
101‐1000
What is the average monthly household income in your target community, in US Dollars?
Less than $50
Does your project seek to have an impact on public policy?
Yes
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhat stage is your project in?
Operating for less than a year
Does your organization have a board of directors or an advisory board?
Yes
Does your organization have any non monetary partnerships with NGOs?
Yes
Does your organization have any non monetary partnerships with businesses?
Does your organization have any non monetary partnerships with government?
Yes
Please tell us more about how partnerships could be critical to the success of your innovation.
the partnership is not freseen in the frames of the given project idea.
We would like to learn more about how your initiative is financially supported. Please explain your business plan/revenue model
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhat was the defining moment that led you to this innovation?
In the period of its functioning, program and project realisation PO Saodat revealed such problems, which led to this innovation:All the hardships of agricultural works in the fields fall on the women, who are also burdened with of running their households. Typically they encounter the following problems:
In spite of legal equality, women continue to have unequal access to economic resources, including land, in comparison with men, this is caused by low levels of awareness (particular amongst women) regarding adopted laws and legislative acts for land reform and about their rights and the mechanisms for protecting these rights;
Women are more excluded from the decision making processes at the community level, since the men in the family are absent and they have a low social and legal status in the community;
Women endure the hardship of physical manual labor. The work of women becomes harder and takes much time because of degradation of ecology and soil. The mechanization of agriculture will promote to reduce of women manual work and will increase abor productivity, wages and also women will be able to pay more attention to family needs;
Local women face with many obstacles in access to education, sanitary and hygiene and other services and on matters of reproductive health and family planning there are low levels of prophylactic usage and poor sanitary conditions. Women have increased health risks caused by insufficient nutrition and the level of stress local women face increases the likelihood of suicides;
With the increase of expenses for education of children, medical service and other needs the income from agricultural activity and secondary sources has been and remains insufficient for vital activity of women in the villages;
Tell us about the social innovator—the person—behind this idea.
How did you first hear about Changemakers?
Web Search (e.g., Google or Yahoo)
If through another source, please provide the information.
Approximately 50 words left (400 characters).
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhich (if any) of the following strategies apply to your organization or company (check as many as apply)
Please explain how your work furthers one or many of the above strategies (if you selected “other”, please explain your strategy)
Created on 11/2/2010 by Saathi Helpline
We aim to ensure rights to life and health of these populations through legal literacy; legal aid referrals, handholding and partial financial support; and litigation free community-based solutions. Community involvement in guaranteeing property rights to women infected or affected by HIV is a key aspect of our initiative.
Organization: Solidarity and Action Against The HIV Infection in India (SAATHII)
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Organization Name
Solidarity and Action Against The HIV Infection in India (SAATHII)
Organization Phone
91 33 2484 4835 (Kolkata Branch Office), 91 674 255 2845 (Bhubaneswar Field Office)
Organization Address
229 Kalitala Main Road, Purbachal (N), Kolkata 700 078 (Kolkata Branch Office)
How long has this organization been operating?
More than 5 years
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideName your project.
Legal Aid Units for PLHIV and sexual minorities
Describe Your Idea
We aim to ensure rights to life and health of these populations through legal literacy; legal aid referrals, handholding and partial financial support; and litigation free community-based solutions. Community involvement in guaranteeing property rights to women infected or affected by HIV is a key aspect of our initiative.
Country your work focuses on
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhat makes your idea unique?
Our effort is to ease the process in resolving human rights concerns faced by people living with HIV (PLHIV) and sexual minorities. In India, the HIV epidemic has exposed social and legal impediments that contribute to denial of the rights of PLHIV and individuals and communities vulnerable to HIV infection. PLHIV and sexual minorities face stigma and discrimination in several spheres – not just health and social, but also legal. Unfortunately, government and civil society HIV response in India has not focused adequately on the socio-legal perspectives. SAATHII’s Legal Aid Units are in response to this gap.
The thrust of our idea is to activate community intervention in ensuring justice for PLHIV and sexual minorities within a human “rights and responsibilities” framework. Though the Legal Aid Units were initiated by SAATHII, they function in conjunction with two state wide civil society coalitions in Orissa and West Bengal focused on advancing the health and rights of PLHIV and sexual minorities. The process of ensuring community ownership and sustainability of the units is an area where we hope to make a difference compared to other civil society legal aid initiatives. Reference: http://saathii.org/calcuttapages/coap-lau-concept-note-final.pdf
Do you have a patent for this idea?
No
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Tell us about the social impact of your innovation. Please include both numbers and stories as evidence of this impact
The social impact of our innovation is expected in several areas:
Spreading legal literacy and making the legal machinery accessible to the average individual.
Educating legal stakeholders on the knowledge gaps they have with regard to gender, sexuality and HIV. Please refer http://saathii.org/calcuttapages/vahista-cini-lgl-stakeholders-study-fin...
Poverty alleviation through realization of property, shelter, employment, health and education rights. Especially for the most vulnerable like women, children, transgender persons and PLHIV
Generating social inclusion by tackling stigma and discrimination: Please refer http://www.saathii.org/calcuttapages/Burdwan%20Society%20of%20People%20L...
The two Legal Aid Units had taken up 61 cases of human rights violations for documentation and legal aid as of March 2010.
Actions
Actions:
• Make people their own advocates: The most important step we adopt is to enable individuals to know the purview of their legal rights and responsibilities. Wherever possible, they are guided to fight a situation for themselves.
• Sensitizing general community and other relevant stakeholders, and gaining their buy-in for solving human rights violation cases.
• Emphasis on litigation-free settlements
• Psycho-social support – enabling the individuals to tackle personal and social inhibitions, persist in finding sustainable socio-legal solutions, ensuring that they become empowered as a person to face future obstacles better
Obstacles:
• Lack of exclusive legal provision to address issues of these communities: Absence of specific legal provision creates problem towards a quick settlement of their problems. Time consuming legal recourse kills their patience and ultimately many give in.
• Legal stakeholders need considerable education on issues concerning gender, sexuality, HIV prevention, care, support and treatment, and laws like Section 377, IPC.
Results
• Generation of case law on issues concerning gender variance, sexuality diversity and HIV in a changing socio-legal scenario (2010-12)
• Engagement of government and civil society legal interventions in issues concerning sexual minorities and PLHIV (2010-12)
• Greater recourse to litigation free legal interventions (2010-2013)
• Community (coalition) ownership of the Legal Aid Units, with minimal support from SAATHII (by 2012-13)
How many people will your project serve annually?
101‐1000
What is the average monthly household income in your target community, in US Dollars?
$100 ‐ 1000
Does your project seek to have an impact on public policy?
Yes
If so, how?
• Critical analysis of the existing legal framework
• Policy research
• Facilitating community led advocacy
• Contribution to national campaigns on HIV/AIDS Bill and Section 377, IPC
• Expanding capacities of government legal aid cells at the state and district levels
• Community based monitoring of the legal machinery
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhat stage is your project in?
Operating for 1‐5 years
Does your organization have a board of directors or an advisory board?
Yes
Does your organization have any non monetary partnerships with NGOs?
Yes
Does your organization have any non monetary partnerships with businesses?
No
Does your organization have any non monetary partnerships with government?
Yes
Please tell us more about how partnerships could be critical to the success of your innovation.
As mentioned earlier, gradual but certain community involvement and ownership of our legal aid initiatives will be critical to long term sustainability of the Legal Aid Units. This means that the units need to survive even after completion of SAATHII’s Coalition Based Advocacy Project (supported by Interact Worldwide and DFID Civil Society Challenge Fund) under which they were initiated. This in turn implies that the partnerships fostered through the coalitions are crucial. These have to grow and be strengthened enough to take over the responsibility of running the units. This requires increasing the stake that SAATHII’s coalition partners have in the units. This could also be in tangible terms of their key members being involved in the day to day running of the units. Towards this end, SAATHII is also looking for partnerships with other donors, legal educational institutions, government systems and other civil society bodies that can contribute gainfully.
We would like to learn more about how your initiative is financially supported. Please explain your business plan/revenue model
A basic concept note exists and budgetary provisions in the Coalition Based Advocacy Project are available. The budgets mainly cover partial financial support to clients of the Legal Aid Units, and payments for lawyers and other legal aid consultants. Link for the concept note: http://saathii.org/calcuttapages/coap-lau-concept-note-final.pdf
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhat was the defining moment that led you to this innovation?
Tell us about the social innovator—the person—behind this idea.
The idea of a Legal Aid Unit was a SAATHII team initiative. No single person can be credited for being the sole innovator.
How did you first hear about Changemakers?
Personal contact at Changemakers
If through another source, please provide the information.
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhich (if any) of the following strategies apply to your organization or company (check as many as apply)
Policy advocacy to strengthen property rights or increase security of tenure, Legal education and awareness, Developing/applying technology for surveying, mapping and documenting property rights.
Please explain how your work furthers one or many of the above strategies (if you selected “other”, please explain your strategy)
A basic concept note exists and budgetary provisions in the Coalition Based Advocacy Project are available. The budgets mainly cover partial financial support to clients of the Legal Aid Units, and payments for lawyers and other legal aid consultants. Link for the concept note: http://saathii.org/calcuttapages/coap-lau-concept-note-final.pdf
Created on 11/1/2010 by yoyong.sumilao
How legal empowerment and the knowledge of human rights were used as tools by us the Sumilao farmers to analyze our situation and identify strategies to resolve our problem of landlessness. This empowerment process made us decide to take the long walk for more than 2 months, more than 1,700 kilometers, from Bukidnon, Mindanao to Manila to claim our ancestral land that was taken away from us.
Organization: PANAW Sumilao Multi-Purpose Cooperative
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Organization Name
PANAW Sumilao Multi-Purpose Cooperative
Organization Address
Sitio Fatima, Barangay San VIcente, Sumilao, Bukidnon, Mindanao, Philippines
How long has this organization been operating?
1‐5 years
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideName your project.
Walk for Land, Walk for Justice: The Struggle of the Sumilao Farmers
Describe Your Idea
How legal empowerment and the knowledge of human rights were used as tools by us the Sumilao farmers to analyze our situation and identify strategies to resolve our problem of landlessness. This empowerment process made us decide to take the long walk for more than 2 months, more than 1,700 kilometers, from Bukidnon, Mindanao to Manila to claim our ancestral land that was taken away from us.
Country your work focuses on
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhat makes your idea unique?
I, together with 55 farmers-marchers from a Higaonon tribe brought our case to the center of power in Manila adopting a non-violent strategy by walking on foot for more than 1,700 kilometers. We braved the heat of the sun, the storms, muddy roads, lack of sleep and faced security threats. The most difficult part is that every step is a step away from our families leaving them without assurance that they will have food to eat.
We studied our case and the law through paralegal seminars with lawyers from BALAOD Mindanaw, an alternative law group based in Mindanao. We learned that we have the right to the land but we have to struggle to claim it. We also learned that it is by working together as one group that will make us succeed because we have been fighting for our land for more than 12 years.
The Sumilao walk to Manila told our story to all communities we passed by, sharing our case especially among farmers who are also claiming their lands. Churches, schools, other organizations provided a place to sleep and food to eat when we stop for the night. This exposed agrarian reform problems and generated support from the public.
This placed great pressure to government. We won our case and at the same time brought agrarian reform policy reforms to the forefront. It also inspired other farmers to walk to manila to push for the resolution of their cases.
Do you have a patent for this idea?
No
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideThis Entry is about (Issues)
Tell us about the social impact of your innovation. Please include both numbers and stories as evidence of this impact
- paralegalism strengthened our capacity to launch what can be considered as the most peaceful yet most difficult form of campaign. Fifty five of the Sumilao farmers decided to walk for more than 1,700 kilometers and it took us more than two months to reach Manila to personally bring our claim to the President. This benefited more than 163 families that belong to our organization. The Sumilao walk was able to raise the level of political engagement that shook government and other sectors to take action. Paralegalism resulted in eloquently telling our story to the communities we met while walking. We are even able to site the legal and factual basis of their claims.
- the government awarded us 144 hectares of agricultural land we are now cultivating. we now have our own land to till. we are now able to send our children to school, in fact some students were given scholarships in nearby universities.
- the Sumilao march raised the consciousness of schools, parishes and communities that they participated in pushing for the enactment of the agrarian reform extension and reform law (CARPER law)
- the sumilao march brought to the forefront agrarian reform in the Philippines and the need to protect agricultural land for food security. the sumilao march resulted in the public pushing for the enactment of the extension and reform of agrarian reform law in the philippines that will still acquire and distribute more than 1Million has of agricultural land all over the country
- the sumilao march inspired other farmers similarly situated to undergo a paralegal formation program. It capacitated them to launch their own campaigns (Banasi farmers, Calatagan farmers, etc) and also actively participated in campaigning for the passage of the CARPER law
- we met organizations that became our support groups and currently we are working with them developing our enterprise development program. these organizations are also training us on social entrepreneurship.
Problem
Courts and the legal system were used against the farmers. Cases like theft, arson, etc are filed against farmers to force them to vacate their lands or to abandon their rightful claims to their lands. Policies are likewise being thwarted to benefit the powerful.
Legal assistance especially in the provinces remains to be expensive and unavailable. With this situation, it becomes an imperative for the poor to understand the law and use it to their advantage.
These capacities are crucial for the poor to pursue significant policy changes that are favourable to them. Like most rural poor groups who struggled to claim their rights like the Sumilao farmers in Bukidnon, the Banasi farmers in Bicol, it has been proven that using their strength in numbers as well as their knowledge and skills in the law have challenged the state to recognize their rightful claims and contributed significantly to their empowerment.
Actions
This is a partnership initiative between us, the Sumilao farmers and BALAOD Mindanaw, an alternative law group, that seeks to expand the gains of the Sumilao experience to other farmers groups in Bukidnon who are still struggling to claim their lands under agrarian reform or are defending their rights to the land. This project pursues the victories of the sumilao case. Paralegalism is a strategy that involves the application of law and mechanisms available in the current legal system to claim rights that the poor know is justly theirs and adopts certain methodologies that are not prohibited. Paralegalism requires that the rural poor, lacking in power and resources, are always challenged to think out of the box and in their most creative ways bring to the forefront the injustice committed against them.
Like us the SUmilao farmers, our knowledge in the law helped us to unite and adopt different strategies to claim our ancestral land. We went on hunger strike in 1997 and lost in a case in 1999. Our understanding of paralegalism gave us the hope and the resolve to make sacrifices and decided in 2007 to walk for more than 1700 kilometers to Manila and eventually won our case.
Results
We expect the following results:
- paralegal training of different farmer-paralegals of the province of Bukidnon in partnership with BALAOD Mindanaw to enhance their capacities to push for the resolution of their land claims. The training will also provide orientation of the CARPER law as well as identification of strategies that will be adopted by the farmers
- land titles under agrarian will be distributed to farmers as a result of adopting paralegal strategies. this will also contribute to increasing the family income that will help the farmers support the needs of their respective families
- the empowerment of the farmers will also result in a more dynamic engagements with local governments as they find solutions to the land tenure problems
- the legal empowerment program will help farmers push for policy reform initiatives that will promote food security, protect prime agricultural lands, resolve landlessness among the rural poor.
How many people will your project serve annually?
More than 10,000
What is the average monthly household income in your target community, in US Dollars?
Less than $50
Does your project seek to have an impact on public policy?
Yes
If so, how?
- the legal empowerment processes ensures that agrarian reform is implemented for the benefit of the rural poor. adoption of legal and metalegal strategies by the farmers will make sure that government will acquire agricultural lands and distribute them to beneficiaries together with land titles issued under agrarian reform. farmers will have lands on their own to cultivate thereby contributing to improvement in their income and living conditions so that they are more capable of providing for the needs of their families.
- like the sumilao farmers who were very instrumental in the enactment of the law that extended agrarian reform instituting significant reforms as well as the enactment of laws that makes prime agricultural lands as non=negotiable for conversion, farmers-paralegals will be involved in pushing for the passage of the national land use act that will protect agricultural lands, forest lands, ancestral lands, among others. this will promote food security and will protect the ecosystem of the country. it will also make sure that prime agricultural lands remain to be subject to distribution to landless farmers in the country.
- engaging the courts by the farmers will also have an impact in the development of policies that addresses access to justice by the poor. paralegals will be involved in policy reform initiatives like the recognition and protection of the indefeasibility of titles acquired under agrarian reform; clarifying the jurisdiction of courts; as well as providing social context education to cases pending before courts that involves the poor.
- the sumilao walk did not show the sacrifices of the farmers to get their rightful claim, it also is a manifestation that the law need not be a monopoly of lawyers; that farmers can also develop the capacity to articulate their case and to defend their rights. this has great impact on the policy regarding access to justice and allowing the poor to participate in nation building
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhat stage is your project in?
Operating for more than 5 years
Does your organization have a board of directors or an advisory board?
Yes
Does your organization have any non monetary partnerships with NGOs?
Yes
Does your organization have any non monetary partnerships with businesses?
Yes
Does your organization have any non monetary partnerships with government?
Yes
Please tell us more about how partnerships could be critical to the success of your innovation.
our partnership with the NGOs like BALAOD Mindanaw helped us acquire the necessary legal and paralegal skills that we used to analyze our situation and arrive at decision to make that historic walk to manila. BALAOD Mindanaw and their lawyers facilitated our community processes that strengthened the resolve of our organization to act together. lawyers and other volunteers walked with us and suffered with us. our partnership with other NGOs who supported our walk provided us with enough food and place to sleep as we move from one town to the next.
our partnership with the government especially at the local levels like the provincial and regional offices of the DAR helped in providing clarifications to the case pending before the office of the president. the attitude of the local mayor who was himself a landowners influenced the other barangay folks to become indifferent to our case.
We would like to learn more about how your initiative is financially supported. Please explain your business plan/revenue model
As this is a partnership initiative with BALAOD Mindanaw, the Sumilao paralegal program that brought about the sumilao walk for land and resulted in us winning the case takes financial support from different sources. the lawyers are primarily supported by BALAOD Mindanao including most of the expenses in trainings and litigation and we intend to share this competition with them. BALAOD Mindanaw is an alternative law group and has their own financial plan and resource mobilization initiatives. our counterpart during trainings is normally the venue which is our cooperative center or vegetables that we are able to gather from our yards and we contribute to augment the supplies during trainings or court hearings.
when we decided to walk to manila, we initially asked the members to contribute so that we will have something to leave to our families. we brought with us two sacks of milled corn that can sustain us until such time that we are able to generate financial support. big and small contributions came along the way the most touching is an old woman who was standing along the street and saw our group pass by. she took a 20 peso bill and bought a kilo or rice from a sari sari store. when we were close to where she was standing, she approached us and gave to us the 1 kilo of rice. there were others who gave us blankets, medicine, packed food and others who volunteered to take photos and videos to share our story to the public. when we were about to cross the islands, there were individuals who collected donations to pay for the boat trip. students organized their own fundraising campaigns that sustained us while we were holding camp outside the building of the Department of Agrarian Reform in Manila. Farmers in neighboring towns brought their produce and shared some of them to us. because we were walking the whole time, most of the support came in the form of food, water, medicine, and vitamins.
after we won and already got the 144 hectares, we decided to cultivate portions of the land as communal farm and parts of the the income of the land is used to support our advocacy activities including attending activities that help other farmers in their struggles to get their own land.
this is what we intend to share with other farmers' groups in Bukidnon as they pursue their land claim through paralegal empowerment.
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhat was the defining moment that led you to this innovation?
In 1995, titles to the 144 hectares land in sumilao, bukidnon which we consider as part of our ancestral land as Higaonon tribe were already issued in our name, the sumilao farmers under the agrarian reform program. we were not informed about this. instead a case for the cancellation of our title was filed against us because the government approved the conversion plan of Mr. Quisumbing, a big landowner who wants to convert the land into hotel and golf course. we first met the alternative lawyers in a paralegal seminar in 1996 where we learned that we have the right to our ancestral land. we learned about paralegal strategies and in addition to responding to the case attempted to enter the land. we were forcefully driven out so we decided to go on hunger strike in october 1997 for 28 days in front of the agrarian reform building that forced the president to resolve the issue in our favor. mr. Quisumbing brought the case to the sumpreme court where we lost our case. That did not dampen our spirits, instead, that injustice moved us to learn more. Mr. Quisumbing sold the property to San Miguel Corporation that plans to operate a state of the art piggery. We realized that what they did violated the law so we filed a case against san miguel. Knowing that filing a document is not enough, we decided to embark on a very difficult, most peaceful act to stake our claim to our land.
we know that anything that we will do since it is far from Manila, the center of power, will not be heard. we do not have enough resources but we have in our hearts the conviction that we have a rightful claim. lacking in resources, we decided to walk in october 2007. that gave us the opportunity to share our story everywhere we go especially among other farmers who are similarly situated.
The understanding of the law; the violations committed by the big landowners; the disrespect for the title that was already issued in name -- these injustices became a defining moment that led us to embark on this historic walk.
For the next two and half months 55 members from our organization walked and walked stopping only when we had to stop for the night. we carry a member who get sick or become too tired using a cloth tied to bamboo poles. it was impossible to imagine that we will get to our destination. in the evenings, we assess the day and plan for the next day. we wake up at around 4am and walk for approximately 35 kilometers per day. we brought nothing but aspirations and 2 sacks of milled corn carried by a vehicle from a volunteer who was taking our video and our photo while we were walking. we continued to study our case and the law with the alternative lawyers as we continued. Eventually, more and more people became aware of the walk that they walked with us from one town to the next to show their support.
when we reached manila, more than 5,000 people walked with us to the President;s office to personally present our case. the government made us wait and that all the more pushed us to continue walking. we ended our march in march 2008 when our rights to the 144 hectares of agricultural land was finally recognized.
Tell us about the social innovator—the person—behind this idea.
Many people were behind the idea of the sumilao walk that resulted from the paralegal empowerment processes we went through.
At the onset, the alternative lawyers and BALAOD Mindanaw who worked with us helped us to understand our case, learn about legal empowerment and human rights, and facilitated our discovery to the different legal and metalegal strategies.
As a people, our organization held a deep seated belief that conflicts will be resolved only by adopting peaceful means, however difficult. when we were planning about what to do after going through a hunger strike, after entering our land but forcefully being driven away by armed men shooting at us, by organizing so many dialogues and rallies on the streets, we thought we do not have options anymore. However, our paralegal training taught us to think out of the box.
Some of our leaders who raised the idea were inspired by Gandhi of India. Others based it on their inspiration from the Bible. Others were simply motivated by the fact that we have to bring our case to Manila but we do not have money for transportation.
There were many suggestions that came out during the process. The idea of walking to Manila was raised several times. At first it was not entertained. But as days went by, this option became clearer and clearer to us. We thought that we can handle it since we are used to walking for the whole day in our farms. We were also confident because we know our rights, we are very familiar with our case, we can even recite the laws violated and we were acting as one.
We began preparing our messages so that anyone who will see us will immediately know what we wanted to say. One of leaders, Rene Penas, whom we consider as one the greatest farmer-paralegals who also went on hunger strike became the leader of the marchers. A year after the successful walk, he was killed with multiple gunshot wounds on his way to a farm to conduct consultation with farmers who were also having problems with their land claims. Although most of us participated in the process and were active in operationalizing our plans, Rene can be considered as one of the inspiration that guided us. His death continues to inspire us to continue working towards access to justice so that farmers will own the land they till.
How did you first hear about Changemakers?
Through another organization or company
If through another source, please provide the information.
Approximately 50 words left (400 characters).
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhich (if any) of the following strategies apply to your organization or company (check as many as apply)
Formalizing and documenting property rights (i.e. titling, leasing or certification), Legal education and awareness.
Please explain how your work furthers one or many of the above strategies (if you selected “other”, please explain your strategy)
paralegalism raises the consciousness of the rural poor to become aware of their rights so that they themselves will be empowered to move and act to resolve their problems. it is the most powerful tool in educating the farmers to be the actors themselves and to be responsible in finding solutions to the injustice they are facing as well as push for policies that will promote their rights.
Created on 11/1/2010 by rinaalan
To improve and nurture a diverse range of stakeholders (including government, civil society, private sector, donors and of course local communities - with special attention on women and ethnic groups) capacity, knowledge, and participation in decision-making on land-related issues so that rural communities can exercise their rights to manage the land they use in a sustainable and equitable manner.
Organization: Village Focus International
Visit websitemore ↓↑ hide↑ hideIs your initiative connected to an established organization?
Organization Name
Village Focus International
Organization Address
PO Box 4697, Vientiane, Laos
How long has this organization been operating?
More than 5 years
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideName your project.
Rights to Land, Information, Networking and Knowledge in Laos (also known as 'Rights-LINK')
Describe Your Idea
To improve and nurture a diverse range of stakeholders (including government, civil society, private sector, donors and of course local communities - with special attention on women and ethnic groups) capacity, knowledge, and participation in decision-making on land-related issues so that rural communities can exercise their rights to manage the land they use in a sustainable and equitable manner.
Country your work focuses on
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhat makes your idea unique?
In Laos, this initiative is absolute unique. Only in the last couple of years has the government been willing to engage with non-governmental actors on any issue related to law, much less an issue so fundamental to the sovereignty of the nation (with emphasis on the long struggle for independence resulting in the Lao People's Democratic Republic in 1975).
In our work, we first invest in local people who live directly off the land as the prime movers of a topic extremely sensitive to government leaders. Second, we deal with government officials head-on: we draw a range of government agencies at all levels into engagement with NGOs and other stakeholders, which is both unfamiliar but enlightening/empowering for them. Third, we engage with officials and local leaders in a way that addresses both the need to recognize government authority but that also appeals to their common sense; both see the need to frame all land development with relation to the principal need for food security and see the dramatic changing landscape around them, both in terms of loss of biodiversity and prime agricultural land AND dramatic pressures from outside investors, including Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai and others.
The main development hypothesis of the Rights-LINK project is that in order to improve governance of land and natural resources mechanisms need to be in place for individuals, communities and civil society to meaningfully contribute to policy reform and dialogue regarding land and natural resources. This includes: Component One - providing information and knowledge to key stakeholders on land rights and responsibilities (e.g. our Legal Guidebook attached), Component Two -providing better legal support and feedback channels to seek redress, and Component Three - developing coordination mechanisms between and among different actors at all levels, including efforts to build capacities of key government agencies, the national university, the Lao Bar Association, and others.
Do you have a patent for this idea?
Yes
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideThis Entry is about (Issues)
Tell us about the social impact of your innovation. Please include both numbers and stories as evidence of this impact
Rights-LINK focuses on a range of stakeholders on local and national levels. For example, VFI's 'Village Rights to Manage and Use Land and Forests" guidebook (http://rightslinklao.org/eng/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&i...) was disseminated to every district in Laos, and to dozens of NGOs and other actors. Impact is nation-wide: more that 6 million people. Realistically, these and other materials are having direct impact on key governmental actors responsible for land use planning and management.
More important than the documents reaching key stakeholders is role the project plays in opening channels of communication, linking key policy makers to local people. To illustrate this, VFI/the Rights-LINK project was the secretariat for the recent "Turning Land Into Capital" meeting, which was the National Land Management Authority's (NLMA) attempt to focus attention on the three primary ways to use the land to contribute to national development (1. Exploitation (mining, etc.), 2. Development (hydropower, plantations, etc.) and 3. No Exploitation (REDD, Ecotourism, Conservation, etc.)). The Minister of Foreign Affairs was the keynote speaker, which included National Assembly representative on food security; Minister of NLMA; Minister of Justice; Provincial governors; Provincial Heads of Land Management; UNDP Chief Economists; INGOs; Key donors (SDC, GTZ), etc.
While the NLMA went into the meeting expecting a joint statement on specific ways to best gain investments from the land, key meeting finding focused on the fundamental need to address food security for local people, to carry out land titling (including communal title) and comprehensive participatory land use planning for villages, and to nurture feedback channels.
Problem
Issue 1: Increasing land use conflicts as a result of population pressure, government policy on relocation and increasing investments for agriculture development has had a negative impact on food security and poverty, unequal distribution of land and environmental degradation.
Issue 2: Local government officials and village leaders lack capacity, resources, tools and methods to properly support and implement land management-related activities at the local level.
Issue 3: Farmers and local government officials lack awareness and access to information on land and legal rights and responsibilities and often do not understand their rights and responsibilities.
Issue 4: Processes to improve governance of land and natural resources at the local level that allow for greater participation are not well documented or tested.
Issue 5: Coordination and harmonization among donors, government agencies and INGOs remains inadequate, which leads to overlapping agendas and initiatives and inefficient use of human and financial resources.
Issue 6: There are few feedback mechanisms and two-way communication channels between local level implementation and policy and planning levels.
Actions
Action Area 1:
Promote knowledge, access to information, consultation, and collaboration of key stakeholders on land and NRM-related issues (farmers, communities, local officials, policy-makers and civil society professionals) to improve governance of NRM at all levels.
Action Area 2:
Assist local people and communities so they are better equipped to deal with rapid market and socio-economic changes taking place and become active participants in land and NRM
Action Area 3:
Support local and national government agencies and facilitators (local NGOs, NGOs) so they are better able to deal with rapid land use and NRM changes in Laos
Risks:
Channels to seek legal redress are just emerging in Laos, so the risks include:
-Disagreement of government agencies on how LINK Resource Centre will be managed
-Lack of willingness of local government agencies to fully participate in the effort
-The power and influence of concessions/investments a hindrance to implementation
Results
1: Platforms to improve coordination/communication for all actors established to link local land issues to decision-making levels
-Resource access on land/NRM provided to centres in Laos and the world
-Best practices on land/NRM collected, documented, disseminated
-Networks, platforms and feedback mechanisms for improved coordination established, tested
2: People have improved livelihood opportunity, information access, and can seek legal advice on land rights/responsibilities
-Para-legal approaches developed on legal rights re: land/NRM
-Education materials developed at village level explaining rights for information & redress
-New approaches to land/NRM to ensure equitable use and transparent decision-making
3: Gov/civil society/private sector are willing/able to address land & NRM issues equitably & transparently
-Land information made accessible to/used by university teachers & students.
-Local officials/village authorities have capacity to address land issues and solve different types of land conflict
-Gov, INGO staff and private sector are able to address land issues in own work
How many people will your project serve annually?
More than 10,000
What is the average monthly household income in your target community, in US Dollars?
Less than $50
Does your project seek to have an impact on public policy?
Yes
If so, how?
Ultimately, the sustainable use of natural resources depends on a conducive and applied policy and legal framework. In Laos these exist on paper but are implemented in different ways at the discretion of local authorities. Thus, the project will support activities both at the level of policy and implementation.
Mechanisms employed to strengthen linkages to policy and practice include:
-Working with/through policy research institutes at NAFRI and the NLMA to provide information directly to policy makers
-Developing fora and platforms at the district and provincial level to share experiences in implementing different polices
-Capitalizing field experience to disseminate this to policy makers through multiple channels
-Testing new policies and legal provisions at the local level
-Developing mechanisms to inform/answer questions from the National Assembly on local land use and management
-Strengthening mechanisms so local groups can voice their own concerns to policy makers and officials.
The project is working to link different land and NRM actors, with attention to legal rights. The project will link actors to different knowledge and processes so they can make their own decisions regarding land and NRM, and will work equally with government and non-governmental partners.
At national level, the LINK Centre is a neutral platform, where all actors can access/share information on land rights and responsibilities, to shape policy decisions. At provincial level, platforms/networks are established to improve linkages between different actors. At the local level, the project builds upon informal, customary institutions, test local strategies, and feed issues to policy makers.
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhat stage is your project in?
Operating for 1‐5 years
Does your organization have a board of directors or an advisory board?
Yes
Does your organization have any non monetary partnerships with NGOs?
Yes
Does your organization have any non monetary partnerships with businesses?
Yes
Does your organization have any non monetary partnerships with government?
Yes
Please tell us more about how partnerships could be critical to the success of your innovation.
Partners are fundamental to the project:
Nat'l Land Management Authority is the strategic partner and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) plays a lead role.
-NAFRI-NAFES: Development of materials/information on land use planning and rights, testing planning processes for agriculture and forestry, policy feedback
-Dept of Forestry: dissemination of village rights and responsibilities, development of materials on forest use and management.
-PAFO/DAFO: Land use planning, forest management and development
-Donor partners: It is expected that after the first phase of implementation more donor partners will support the project
-Development partners: this includes projects, civil society organizations and INGOs that are working in sectors related to land and natural resource management
-Government partners: including all key government agencies that the project will engage such as MPI, Ministry of Energy and Mines, etc.
-Private sector partners: agribusiness, mining, hydropower & emerging business associations like the Lao Chamber of Commerce
We would like to learn more about how your initiative is financially supported. Please explain your business plan/revenue model
The first phase of support for Rights-LINK comes from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and will focus on building a solid foundation for future activities. It is expected that after the first 3-year phase, financial support will be sought from other sources (donors, foundations and even private sector). It is expected that sustainability in this sense will mean 10-15 years. It is expected after this amount of time that mechanisms for participation in land management decisions will be developed and the major work of Rights-LINK could be finished. It is important to recognize that this Rights-LINK will need to evolve over time and not be fixed only on one topic or issue.
If implemented properly, key civil society partners, as well as key donors, will allow the project to scale up and increase the geographic focus and impact of the project, as well as chances for project sustainability.
Several other donors have expressed interest in the project and VFI continues to discuss possible support in the near future. These include:
-Oxfam NOVIB (Netherlands): A particular interest in national advocacy issues;
-MacArthur Foundation (U.S.): interested in conservation issues and conservation incentives related to livelihood development;
-Open Society Institute of the Soros Foundation: Interested in legal advocacy, conflict management, and para-legal initiatives; and
-WWF Germany: a specific interest in XeSap National Protected Area in Salavan and Sekong provinces
Exit Strategy: The exit strategy for Rights-LINK will evolve over the first phase of the project but will include the following possibilities:
-The LINK Centre will, after the first phase (or when deemed appropriate) become a Non Profit Association (NPA), to be operated as an open, self-reliant, inclusive centre with the mandate to promote knowledge, access to information, consultation, and collaboration of key stakeholders on land and NRM
-Phase one and subsequent phases will emphasize capacity building of government partners and key civil society partners, so as to mainstream the central tenets of the project into normal engagement with local communities.
-Successes in Phase 1 of the project will attract the attention of other civil society actors as well donors and add value to the project and assist in scaling up initiatives throughout the country.
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhat was the defining moment that led you to this innovation?
Please read Social Innovator section (below) first.
There are two defining moments in this story: one personal and one organizational. Using the term 'moment' is also misleading, since the moments were more akin to a process of learning/adapting to observed need and opportunity. VFI continue to adapt and improve through a never-ending series of 'moments', because we want to better understand the priorities of local people and facilitate the communication/networking of diverse and vested groups.
With that as a backdrop, allow me to summarize the 'defining moments' of the Rights-LINK Lao project, including the creation of VFI and our evolution during these past 10 years.
The first years of VFI focused on service delivery for a dozen villages in southern Laos. We had a 'one village at a time' approach to development, where village issues were considered and addressed on their own merits. We had no interest in scale but rather issues specific to each individual village.
In 2003 our Lao field staff began to focus on comprehensive land use planning and legal advocacy for villages, since they observed ever-increasing natural resource exploitation. Before land use planning and land titling became widely promoted in Laos, we developed a 'Village Rights’ guidebook, with focus on rural people. The use of the term 'Rights' as it applies to local people was (and is) a fairly radical notion in Laos, where forestland and natural resources are owned by the state.
VFI began to aggressively work with the government to promote the development of this manual and pushed itself into the national debate about benefits sharing for local people, in a way that emphasized the authority of local officials but encouraged open dialogue/networking with civil society, the private sector and other stakeholders. In 2007 we began dialogue with a number of NGO partners to establish the Land Issues Working Group, then became a founding member of the Legal Issues Working Group, both parts of the INGO Network.
In 2008 our work came to the attention of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), a donor committed to Natural Resource Management and Governance. Rights-LINK addresses both and, after a year of study/partnership building, VFI launched the Rights-LINK project.
Rights-LINK is explained in other sections, but the most important and innovative part is the nurturing and support of local people and groups – at all levels – to build networks and communication channels where none existed before.
Tell us about the social innovator—the person—behind this idea.
Personal -
I am a small town boy from northern Michigan, USA and grew up in a very close, conservative, religious family. I spent my youthful energy playing sports and dreaming of a future in the NBA. College fed my interest to explore the world and led, to make a rather long and circuitous journey short, to the Peace Corps in the Philippines. If there was ever a defining moment in my life, I suppose it was the moment I was assigned to live in Itbayat, Batanes Province, perhaps the most remote and fascinating island in that country of 7100 islands. I lived and worked on Itbayat for 5 years; the first 3 as a Volunteer and the remaining 2 for a local NGO.
Itbayat is a farm of 3000 people in the middle of the ocean. It is an uplifted atoll with 100-300 meter cliffs and no beaches. The people are hardworking and as resilient as one can imagine. They became my family, my mentors, my confidants during this time. The people of Itbayat exist on what they grow, even while living within the typhoon belt of the Philippines. Most products, tools, building materials, come from the island’s natural bounty, even when it isn't particularly bountiful.
I learned far more from these hardy and kind people than I ever gave in my role as a water systems volunteer. Almost every day I learned that some fundamental preconception I held as truth was wrong and my understanding of the people or the projects needed to be reevaluated. These 'moments' taught me to listen, and then to listen again. As empathetic as we are it is unlikely that we can imagine living where all food must come from a family’s effort in the fields. It was impossible to live with them and not be moved and inspired. So, after graduate school, I brought this attitude with me to Laos as the director of an international NGO.
In 2000 I co-founded VFI - the first international NGO created in Laos, with several Lao and one American colleague. VFI is my home. We continue to struggle with project cycles and budget shortfalls but we continue to evolve, to learn, to innovate, much like the vulnerable people we are committed to serve in the far corners of this country.
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read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhich (if any) of the following strategies apply to your organization or company (check as many as apply)
Legal education and awareness, Other.
Please explain how your work furthers one or many of the above strategies (if you selected “other”, please explain your strategy)
Nurturing network building to facilitate joint action. Rights-LINK has taken a lead role in the INGO and local NGO networking groups, made links to the National Assembly, created a 'Southern Network', operate the LINK Resource Centre, all to link govt, INGOs, local NGOs, the private sector, donors and local communities and emerging local user groups (women's groups, producer groups, etc.).
Created on 10/31/2010 by jp_dabral
The timber mafia had usurped the ‘Hak Hakook’ rights of people to get wood from the forest for their traditional usage. The system was being misused by timber mafia in connivance with corrupt forest officials. Our initiative is to make guidelines for a transparent system and accountability of officials so that the people once again get their lawful forest rights.
Organization: Himalayan Chipko Foundation
Visit websitemore ↓↑ hide↑ hideIs your initiative connected to an established organization?
Organization Name
Himalayan Chipko Foundation
Organization Address
C-112, Flat No. 5, Pandav Nagar, Delhi-110092
How long has this organization been operating?
1‐5 years
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideName your project.
Stopping Timber Mafia from misuse of ‘Hak Hakook’ forest rights
Describe Your Idea
The timber mafia had usurped the ‘Hak Hakook’ rights of people to get wood from the forest for their traditional usage. The system was being misused by timber mafia in connivance with corrupt forest officials. Our initiative is to make guidelines for a transparent system and accountability of officials so that the people once again get their lawful forest rights.
Country your work focuses on
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhat makes your idea unique?
Misuse of Hak hakook (which literally mean ‘right of rights’ in Urdu) happened due to a nexus between criminals and corrupt forest department officials. Since the people were afraid to confront this timber mafia, we decided to file public interest litigations in Supreme Court of India to expose the scam and enable the poor villagers to get their forest rights. We filed five PILs and are in the process of filing two more to highlight how in only in a dozen villages 7000 trees were felled illegally. If properly investigated the scam would easily be of a few billion rupees. Not only are we praying Supreme Court of India for punishment of the guilty but also wanting to make guidelines which make the system transparent and the forest department officials accountable in case of misuse. The system will be made more people friendly. It will ensure that in future the people get their forest rights and are aware of what is happening in the 'system'.
Do you have a patent for this idea?
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideThis Entry is about (Issues)
Tell us about the social impact of your innovation. Please include both numbers and stories as evidence of this impact
For 10 villages about 7000 trees have been cut illegally. Imagine the amount of forest property that is due to the marginal farmers of Uttarakhand that is going to the timber mafia illegally. A proper investigation will expose this billion dollar loot of the forests which is happening in the pretext of forest rights of the people of Uttarakhand. None of this wood is going to the beneficiaries. Infact they do not even know about it.
Our initiative will bring greater transparency in the application and sanction process of HakHakook as well as in the monitoring of the tree felling. The officials will be made more accountable and be held for any irregularity in their jurisdiction. Fixed period for the application will be made in the villages where a forest department official will also be present.
Problem
The primary problem being addressed by us is that people on whose behalf trees are being cut should get the benefit that is due to them. The marginal farmers and villagers will now get their forest rights. We are also exposing corruption in the government and a criminal–bureaucracy nexus. We are also saving the environment.
Actions
We have already filed five PILs and the Central Empowered Committee of Supreme Court of India has agreed to made guidelines for Hak Hakook which will bring transparency and accountability. But they have so far not agreed to punish the officials involved in the scam. We will fight for punishment to the officials who have violated the law. The slow judicial process is causing problems for us. There is no point if it takes ages for the Supreme Court to decide the matter relating to the punishment of the officials.
Results
People will be better informed about their rights relating to the forest property. There would be transparency in the system. There would be accountability of the officials. The villagers would get the forest wood which is entitled to them.This will depend on how fast the Supreme Court decides our case.
Thousands of trees will be saved.
How many people will your project serve annually?
More than 10,000
What is the average monthly household income in your target community, in US Dollars?
Less than $50
Does your project seek to have an impact on public policy?
Yes
If so, how?
With the framing of guidelines we will directly impact on public policy.
The beneficiaries will now be able to know the exact date when the meeting will be held in the village for noting the ‘Hak Hakook’ requirement of the individuals. A forest department personnel will also be present in the meeting. The exact location of the tree felling will be notified to the beneficiaries. The felling will be done in the reserved forest closest to the village. Forest Department officials will be accountable for the movement of the wood and in the event there is any illegal felling then they will be held responsible. The wood will not be allowed to be transported to the market and will get transport permit from the site of felling to the village of the beneficiary. It cannot be taken for processing outside the village of the beneficiary. The forest right will not be transferable or used for commercial purpose.
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhat stage is your project in?
Operating for 1‐5 years
Does your organization have a board of directors or an advisory board?
Yes
Does your organization have any non monetary partnerships with NGOs?
Yes
Does your organization have any non monetary partnerships with businesses?
Does your organization have any non monetary partnerships with government?
Please tell us more about how partnerships could be critical to the success of your innovation.
After the Supreme Court guidelines are made and implemented we would have partnerships with various NGOs to spread the message in their areas of operations. The media will be used for greater outreach. All those who have contested elections will also act as deterrents to the elected village heads against any misuse. We shall provide them with the required information.
We would like to learn more about how your initiative is financially supported. Please explain your business plan/revenue model
We have so far not received any 'funding' for our activities. We have also not been sanctioned FCRA registration because of which we are unable to get any foreign funding. We keep our activities limited and the volunteers and board members and their friends and relatives give donations to keep us going. Most of the volunteers do not factor their expenses to the Society.
read more↓↑ hide↑ hideWhat was the defining moment that led you to this innovation?
My initiative saved thousands of trees from illegal felling by exposing misuse of forest rights in Uttarakhand.
Before Indian Forest Service looked after forests and wildlife, villagers protected them from forest fires and other calamities and in return grazed their cattle, lopped trees for fodder and collected dry wood for fuel. They had ‘hak hakook’ rights to certain amount of wood (only dry & uprooted trees) each year for their traditional uses like building houses, making ploughs, marriage ceremonies and cremation of dead etc. These rights were formalized during British rule.
Now this is misused. The timber mafia obtained permission for cutting thousands of trees in the pretext of ‘Hak Hakook’. The smugglers cut many more trees than the sanctioned number usually far away from the villages making it unviable for the villagers to transport the wood to their villages. Moreover, the rules for transit and transportation of wood being very cumbersome made it impossible for the poor simple villagers to get the permission easily.
• The wood was cut in market required sizes. The marginal villagers had no clue. The village ‘pradhans’ made applications on their behalf and gave to Forest officials for a consideration.
• After sanctioning, the applications were sold to the mafia. Today, only the 'timber mafia' have access to the wood derived from hak hakook. The poor villagers who actually need the wood never get it and are too scared to speak up.
• More trees were axed than the permitted number and the stumps set on fire to hide evidence. Even green trees were felled. Even Sal (Shorea Robusta) trees which cannot be grown in nurseries were cut. This was in connivance with Forest officials and not surprisingly the police (as the trucks transporting the wood passed through check-posts).
• Forest Department denied any illegal felling. The Central Government enquiry corroborated the facts mentioned by me.
• The Central Empowered Committee (CEC) of Supreme Court after hearing my objections and assured to make the system transparent and the officials accountable. But they refused to punish the involved officials. Nor have they allowed an investigation by a Central Agency.
None were prepared to take on the timber mafia. I decided to intervene through the innovative process of PILs. Democracy does not mean a powerful legislature, executive and judiciary. It means an empowered people. I will show how it happens.
I want Indian Forest Service officials to be punished and accountable in case of misuse. I will raise this issue in the final hearing of the Supreme Court.
Tell us about the social innovator—the person—behind this idea.
Dabral an MBA gave up a senior executive position twenty years back to fight for people’s causes. He challenged the formidable timber mafia through PILs in Supreme Court.
In the Tehri Dam transmission line he saved 85 % of the 90000 trees sanctioned for felling by the government for construction of the transmission line. A ‘Chipko’ style movement drove away the forest contractors. The politician-bureaucrat-mafia nexus of timber mafia weakened the movement by weaning away the poor, needy locals and greedy selfish politicians with threats, bribes and petty contracts. Dabral was offered Rs. 10 million in exchange of silence. When bribes failed, death threats started. He personally argued his case in Supreme Court against a battery of senior advocates representing various government departments. Eventually, Central Empowered Committee of Supreme Court restricted the felling of the trees and saved 85% of the sanctioned 90000 trees. Now for all transmission line construction in the country, tree felling is not allowed on the entire ‘right of way’. It is only allowed under the conductors and the area where towers are constructed.
Through other PILs he:-
• Stopped the felling of Deodar (Cider) trees by Forest Department in Tarakeshwr, a unique micro-eco-system and Government withdrew the contract.
• Tried to make laws so that contractors do not roll the excavated earth down the slopes of the fragile mountains. Eventually, the timber lobby which gets permission of cut trees on the route of the road also manages to cut all the trees below the road.
• After nearly a fourth of the 800 elephants died in a decade in Uttarakhand Himalayas, Dabral filed a PIL after which the incidence of elephant deaths and tree felling in the sanctuary has reduced considerably.
• Unscientific resin tapping by contractors resulted to irreparable damage to pine trees. Oozing resin droplets ignite during forest fires. The bio-mass burns in a few minutes but the resin droplets create a cavity in the trunk. Eventually the tree collapses. Forest Mafia removes it. Higher incidence of forest fires have become an annual feature since 1987. It allows forest officials to record that the trees planted get destroyed by forest fires. Dabral seeks a ban on tapping of resin in the pine forests to save the environment of the Himalayas.
• Dabral has exposed the misuse of the system of ‘Hak Hakook’
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