In September 2021, the implementation of the winning projects of the Innovation Fund for Latin America and the Caribbean began. This fund was intended for civil society organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean that work to strengthen civil society through innovation. Five organizations from the region were selected and received up to USD 10,000 each to address challenges related to one or more of the following areas: Sustainability; Transparency and Social Responsibility; and, Promotion of the Enabling Space.
Continue reading to find out more about the winning projects!
Transparency Brazil (Brazil) set out to create a Chatbot for Access to Information:
“Considering that the volume of negative responses to requests for information filed based on the Brazilian Access to Information Law has been increasing and, therefore, the ability to prepare and file an appeal is critical, we created repLAI, a chatbot that automatically identifies the arguments presented for the denial of information and provides an appeal template to counter it. The user just has to paste the (often complicated) response received and repLAI will know what the appellant should say.”
Pueden encontrar el repLAI en el sitio web de Achados e Pedidos: http://achadosepedidos.org.br/.
El Observatorio de políticas Públicas de Guayaquil (Ecuador) decided to provide training on the construction of the participatory budget in Ecuador:
“The Covid-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc in all dimensions of social, political and economic life. And as such, it has also affected the relationship between governments and civil society due to the physical restrictions that have weakened the processes of citizen participation. Considering this public problem that affects transparency, accountability and democracy in general, as Observatorio de Políticas Públicas de Guayaquil we thought about how we could contribute to provide an innovative solution to this negative situation so that citizen participation, and especially the construction of municipal budgets, could be strengthened.
Thus we devised this project that sought to train in inclusive methodologies and digital collaborative technologies to be used in the construction of participatory budgets in 10 municipalities of Ecuador by the year 2022.”
To learn more about the organization, visit their website.
The Red de Innovación Local (Argentina) executed the project “Local Innovators Contest”:
“The Local Innovators Contest is an initiative that accompanies teams made up of municipal leaders and social innovators from all over Latin America to co-design a transformative solution to a local problem based on the systemic methodology, related to diverse topics such as citizen participation, waste management, environmental issues, social inclusion, health and food security, among others.
A total of 80 teams made up of approximately 290 people participated in this competition. More than a thousand citizens and other local representatives accompanied the process. They also had the support and advice of more than 50 experts in each area. As a result, 50 solution initiatives were obtained in 46 cities in 11 Latin American countries. These projects were the final representation of the collaborative work between two sectors: social and municipal, added to the contributions of the population affected by the problem.”
For more information, click here
Accionario (Mexico) focused on creating an online platform to accelerate campaigns:
“In recent months, Accionario has been working on the design and launch of “LabCamp.org”, a free, open and collaborative online training platform designed by and for activists in Latin America who need to learn how to design and implement advocacy campaigns in an agile and simple way. The platform has micro-videos (1 min) and materials such as work canvases to facilitate the learning of Accionario’s campaign acceleration methodology. Starting in February, we expect hundreds of activists, organizations and movements to access the platform and together we will generate a community of people who seek to generate change in the region.”
To learn more about this initiative, please visit the following link.
In the case of Red Uruguaya de ONGs Ambientalistas (Uruguay), his project also focused on the creation of a platform:
“The Environmental Monitoring Platform is a project that was conceived as a tool for citizen environmental monitoring, promoting spaces for dialogue, data transparency and offering a management and exchange tool for public institutions visualizing in an integrated way the environmental challenges and their solutions by the agencies. In this stage of the project, the platform was modernized, generating spaces for exchange with multiple actors, which has allowed us to redesign it to provide greater ease of installation to be replicated in other countries, facilitating integration with other systems. One of the achievements is that it will be part of the implementation of a national environmental complaint management system, which enables the reception of complaints through multiple channels, expands the public information available and allows citizen monitoring of the management of the complaint and its resolution.”
To access the platform, please visit the following link.