(29 November 2007) The Social Innovation Fair, organized by the Economic Commission for Latin America and Caribbean (ECLAC) with support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, will take place Tuesday 4 to Friday 7 December in the Plaça da Alfândega, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, sponsored by the Porto Alegre Mayor's Office, State government, Santander Cultural Center and Rio Grande do Sul Federation of Municipalities.
Representatives of 17 most innovative projects presented over the past two years to the Experiences in Social Innovation competition will be on hand. The event seeks to identify and promote the creative replication of social projects within a framework of active community participation, as a means of strengthening citizenship and achieving greater social cohesion in the region.
Enrique V. Iglesias, former President of the Inter American Development Bank and current Secretary-General of the Ibero-American Secretariat, will deliver a presentation on social development in Latin America on Wednesday 5 December as part of the Fair.
The 12 projects from eight Latin American and Caribbean countries at the fair are finalists in the 2006-2007 round of the competition. Each participating project will present its experiences before a Committee of Notables. The five top prize-winners of the 2005-2006 round will also attend.
All the finalist projects demonstrate creative approaches to obtain improvements in health, education, nutrition, environmental protection, income-generation, gender equity and corporate social responsibility.
On Friday, 7 December, at 12:30 p.m., the Awards Ceremony will be held. The first place winner will receive US$30,000; second place, US$20,000; third, US$15,000; fourth, US$10,000; and fifth, US$5,000.
The 12 finalists are:
A telephone helpline for senior citizens: Argentina
A peer-group conflict-mediation programme for high school students: Argentina
Housing with families for rural students: Bolivia
Literacy training and solidarity AlfaSol: Brazil
Income generation projects of an association of small farmers in the Amazonian region: Brazil
A programme to eradicate child labour and provide protection for children and teens: Brazil
Strategies to reduce maternal morbi-mortality and perinatal and infant mortality: Brazil
Comprehensive care and protection for children in socially vulnerable conditions living with HIV/AIDS: Colombia.
Treatment of waste waters to increase farming community income: Ecuador
Alternatives to gang violence and opportunities to work: El Salvador
Education and prevention of child labour: Mexico
Mainstreaming of students with special needs into regular schools: Peru.
The call for entries to the upcoming 2007-2008 round of the competition opens on 7 December.
For more details, contact Pilar Bascuñán in Brazil at e-mail: pilar.bascunan cepal.org . Mobile 51 93250098 (local Brazilian calls) or (55 51) 93250098 (international calls). |
