Month: April 2021

After a successful campaign in April, as part of the GlobalGiving Accelerator 2021, RACI has become a permanent partner of GlobalGiving. This achievement was the result of raising more than US$5.000 from 60 different donors towards its Organizational Fund.

GlobalGiving is a non-profit organization that connects donors with CSOs around the world. The Accelerator consists of an instance of virtual training and the realization of a campaign, the objective of which is to increase the fundraising skills of non-profit organizations around the world.

RACI participated in the program with a Fund for Organizations, which is intended to help the member organizations of the Network to face the cost of membership, which translates into capacity building, obtaining new resources, and articulating with stakeholders. relevant to sustainable development for many CSOs in the country. As a result of their efforts, the Network was able to publish a campaign, demonstrate its ability to generate new support and, finally, join the GlobalGiving platform.

To learn more about our campaign, visit https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/51195/.

 

92273_certificate

RACI has been selected to carry out one of the first three case studies in Argentina based on the CIVICUS document “Rebuilding for Good”, together with WACSI in Ghana and CPDC in Barbados. This document consists of a series of recommendations that aim to investigate what changes are necessary for governments to work better together with the Civil Society. The idea of this project is to devise and co-create an innovative long-term strategy to generate an international framework, which has inputs from local experiences.

Rebuilding for Good has a series of recommendations and measures that governments can adopt to expedite and support the tasks of Civil Society within a critical context due to COVID-19. This document was based on initiatives of Civil Society networks working in more than 80 countries and consists of six main points:

1. Remove restrictions; enhance the value and contributions of Civil Society;
2. Help Civil Society to meet and reduce operating expenses;
3. Make regulatory requirements more flexible;
4. Include Civil Society in stimulus funds and grants for COVID-19;
5. Create the necessary infrastructure to promote the work of Civil Society;
6. Promote the capacity of Civil Society to develop sustainable alternatives.

From RACI, two multisectoral dialogues were carried out with representatives of the public and private sectors, academia, Civil Society organizations, and international cooperation, to analyze these points mentioned and think about possible solutions around the established points.

At each meeting, an intense debate was held with proposals and diagnoses that each one made from their role and their institutional membership. It was a space open to dialogue and the exchange of points of view regarding the document.

On June 1 we will be holding an open event to continue talking about this initiative and propose ideas and long-term lines of action. More news to come soon!

TECHO is a Civil Society Organization that aims to end poverty in informal settlements in Latin America and the Caribbean, through joint action between volunteers, male and female neighbors. The implementation of a working model focused on community development, the promotion of awareness and social action, and political advocacy aims to build a just society without poverty. 

 

ACTIVITIES FOR 2021

By 2021, the organization summons young volunteers to join different projects and programs together with residents of popular neighborhoods in the 10 provinces in which it is present: Buenos Aires, Santa Fe, Córdoba, Neuquén, Río Negro, Misiones, Tucumán, Corrientes, Chaco, and Salta. 

In this way, TECHO will continue with its emergency housing construction program: initially, a neighborhood survey process will be carried out to find out the housing situation, then the criteria for assigning these homes will be defined together with the community, and finally, volunteers and neighbors will build the new homes for the families.

The Organization will also continue to accompany neighborhood workgroups, which consist of assemblies to build and carry out, together, improvements in access to services and the community habitat, such as the construction of sidewalks, community water tanks, among other initiatives. 

In addition, this year they launched two new programs: the legal training cycle and the political training cycle for referents from popular neighborhoods, promoting training spaces in the settlements.

People interested in joining the volunteer service can sign up in http://actividades.techo.org, or contact TECHO through their social networks or by sending an email to voluntariado.argentina@techo.org 

 

Networking

One of TECHO’s pillars is networking to promote comprehensive solutions to overcome the poverty situation in popular neighborhoods. We are convinced that the articulation between different actors of civil society is essential to transform reality. If you are interested in working collaboratively with TECHO in the development of community projects in settlements, contact us. 

 

Your donation builds 

From TECHO we can make work in the communities a reality thanks to the support of individual donors and companies. The members of the organization make a monthly contribution for the development of activities, while the companies accompany us through different proposals such as corporate volunteering, social marketing campaigns, and other alliances. Learn more at www.dona.techo.org.ar.

 

JOIN THE TECHO’S COLLECTION

 

TECHO is a civil society organization that aims to end poverty in informal settlements in Latin America and the Caribbean, through joint action between volunteers, male and female residents. The implementation of a working model focused on community development, the promotion of awareness and social action, and political advocacy aims to build a just society without poverty.

 

COLLECTION 2021

For more than 10 years, the organization has carried out the #ColectaTECHO, an annual event that is held to make visible the situation of poverty in which more than 4 million people live in settlements in Argentina.  

With this event, the organization aims to raise funds to continue developing the joint work carried out by volunteering with the residents of the popular neighborhoods.

This year, the collection will take place on May 7, 8 and 9 in more than 35 cities in 10 provinces where TECHO is present: Buenos Aires, Santa Fe, Corrientes, Chaco, Misiones, Tucumán, Salta, Córdoba, Neuquén and Rio Negro.

Due to the context of COVID-19, face-to-face and/or virtual activities will be carried out, depending on the health situation of each locality, following strict protocols that allow us to take care of everyone’s health.

People interested in joining the volunteer service or making a donation for the collection can do so by entering colecta.techo.org.ar. In this link, you will find more information about the event and forms of participation. 

There are different ways to support TECHO: interested persons can join as partners, making a monthly contribution (which is automatically debited from the debit or credit card), or also make a one-time donation through bank transfer or the Mercado Pago application.

The funds raised allow the organization to continue building emergency housing for the families that need it most, and also to continue developing other projects that contribute to the improvement of the habitat in the settlements of Argentina.

 

Networking

One of TECHO’s pillars is networking to promote comprehensive solutions to overcome the poverty situation in popular neighborhoods. We are convinced that the articulation between different actors of civil society is essential to transform reality. If you are interested in working collaboratively with TECHO in the development of community projects in settlements, contact us.

 

Contact information

TECHO Argentina

Address: Sarandí 65, CABA 

Phone: 011 5218-0861

Mail: info.argentina@techo.org 

Web page: https://www.techo.org/argentina/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TECHOargentina 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/techo_argentina/ 

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/techo—argentina/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TECHOarg 

 

In 2020 we have witnessed one of the most disruptive phenomena so far in the 21st century: the COVID-19 pandemic, the health crisis, and social isolation. During this time, from RACI we have worked to accompany Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) by providing resources that allow them to adapt to this new and challenging context. In this framework, we have also mapped the state of CSOs and their enormous contributions in sustaining numerous vulnerable communities throughout our territory.

Another of the initiatives that we have developed was the creation of an International Observatory of Civil Society. Developed in its beginnings in alliance with the Group of National Associations of CIVICUS (AGNA), we have constituted a working group of young researchers composed of university practitioners and RACI volunteers, who monitor the state of Civil Society in the various regions of the world ( America, Asia-Pacific, Africa, Middle East, and North Africa and Europe). RACI’s proposal for this observatory is to offer a view and possible clipping of various notable aspects of the world’s Civil Society from the specific prism of our region, from Latin America, from the Global South.

Based on secondary sources such as reports, communication campaigns, open letters, dialogue tables, and other instances offered by the networks and CSOs that operate in each region, more than 30 researchers document relevant information to better understand governments and society’s relationships. Civil in each case, the responses of the donors and the initiatives of the Organizations in the framework of the difficult times that we are going through. The working group is led by Luana Esquenazi, Director of the RACI Research Area, with the assistance of Tomás Kiernan, and today monitors more than 80 countries around the world.

In times of chaos, uncertainty, and restrictions of the enabling space for almost all Civil Societies in the world, it is imperative to document this process, printing new perspectives that collaborate in a more complex understanding of the Social Sector, identifying common vectors and ruptures, and thinking about possible lines of action in the constitution of a stronger and more unified sector.

At RACI we are very excited about the evolution of this initiative and will soon present the first report with some of the most salient aspects identified so far!

Those who want to participate can send an email with their Curriculum Vitae and a brief letter of motivation to volunteers@raci.org.ar.

On May 1st RACI will open the call for membership 2021, aimed at adding new Argentine Civil Society Organizations to this diverse and vibrant collective. The process will run throughout May.

With the mission of creating a space for dialogue and exchange towards sustainable development and social transformation, RACI continues to convene new organizations to strengthen this space for working together. In this context, being part of the Network opens to each organization a range of possibilities of joint and comprehensive work towards the problems of the country and the world along with more than 150 organizations. This is how, through advocacy, research, capacity building, and information dissemination, Civil Society develops and optimizes its capabilities and skills.

To become a member of RACI, applicant organizations must be non-governmental, non-partisan, and non-profit Argentine social organizations working in the country. In addition, they must be registered under Argentine legal regulations and must have been in operation for at least 2 years. Finally, it is important that these organizations participate in the membership briefing or have a previous meeting with the RACI team, to be aware of the commitments that membership implies.

In the current context, the role of Civil Society organizations is fundamental and their actions must have ever greater scope and impact. The protection and improvement of civic space is a mission where the actions of each organization generate multiplier effects throughout the network. The transformations cannot wait and RACI is the place to co-create them in an articulated manner.

All information about the call for membership can be found at https://raci.org.ar/membresia/. For inquiries, organizations may contact membresia@raci.org.ar. 

As part of RACI’s monthly visits to learn more about its members, this month we had the opportunity to virtually visit Fundación Cruzada Patagónica (Patagonian Crusade Foundation). For more than 40 years, this organization has been dedicated to ensuring equal opportunities in employment and education for rural populations in the western areas of Patagonia. As a fruit of its actions, in schools, in offices, or rural areas, Cruzada Patagónica contributes to the socio-economic development of the territories. This time, we asked one of our volunteers, Gabriel Alejandro Orozco, to give us his perspective on this experience. 

As part of RACI’s intern and volunteer program, I had the opportunity to digitally immerse myself in the work of such a long-standing and impactful organization as Cruzada Patagónica. While under the current circumstances the visit was conducted remotely, I consider it an opportunity that allowed me to approach more deeply the team behind each project, program, and personal growth story.

The journey began with an overview of the history and current activities of Cruzada Patagónica by Paz Ramis, who not only develops international cooperation projects for the organization but is also part of the families that gave it institutional life. This instance allowed all those present to have a comprehensive perspective of the organization’s vision and its resilience in times of uncertainty through public-private partnerships. Then, the Institutional Communication Coordinator, María Victoria Belinche, and the General Administration Referent, Daniela Martínez, joined the conversation. In this second part of the tour, we learned in detail about the agrotechnical education, renewable energy, and entrepreneurship projects implemented by the Foundation, as well as its current challenges in terms of digital inclusion and the expansion of its activities in Río Negro.  

I am grateful to RACI for organizing this visit and to Cruzada Patagónica to have opened its doors to all those who seek to enhance their territorial development efforts and pursue new horizons. I am convinced that all the work carried out so far and the one projected in the future within the framework of RACI will lay the foundations for each person to be able to realize their potential from their place of origin.

If you wish to know more about the work, publications, and ways of collaboration of the Patagonian Crusade Foundation, you can visit https://cruzadapatagonica.org/webfcp/.

At the end of 2020, Innovation for Change LAC Hub (I4C LAC) – with the support of Tides Center- launched the COVID-19 Emergency Fund for Latin American and Caribbean Civil Society Organizations (CSO).

RACI received and evaluated a total of 186 (one hundred eighty six) project proposals from various countries in the region. Most of the proposals received came from Argentina with 42 proposals, followed by Colombia with 33, México with 23 and Dominican Republic with 12 proposals.

In terms of subject matter, there was a clear preponderance of proposals on access to information; followed by monitoring access to public services and, thirdly, proposals focused on Transparency and Accountability with Public Funds used during the pandemic.

The proposals were evaluated with the same scoring system based on objective criteria where the following categories were analysed: strategic fit of the project with the objectives of the announcement; project structure; possibility of linking with other stakeholders; risk and budget analysis.

Having concluded the evaluation process, the 15 winning organizations of the COVID-19 Emergency Fund for Latin America and the Caribbean have already been selected. Each of these organizations presented innovative projects, strongly committed to increasing the capacity and resilience of CSOs to operate and defend civic space.

The selected organizations and projects are:

• Chile Transparente, Capítulo Chileno de Transparencia Internacional, from Chile, presented the project “Caza Chanchullos,” whose objective is to detect irregularities in the management of public funds and report them to the Comptroller General of the Republic and the Public Ministry so that those responsible for the misuse of State resources are punished, in addition to contribution to greater citizen control regarding the expenditures made by State Institutions.
• Asociación Centro de Estudios de la Diversidad Sexual y Genérica (AMATE), from El Salvador, presented the Project “Social Action for an inclusive government response to COVID-19 in El Salvador” which seeks to influence through actions to monitor the use of public funds and access to public services, in the context of emergency response generated by the COVID-19, so that different government institutions comply with social standards that prevent damage to population groups historically marginalized from public projects.
• TECHO Internacional, from Chile, presented the Project “Open Settlements: the impact of COVID on Popular Settlements in Latin America and the Caribbean,” which aims to make the impact of COVID-19 on popular settlements in Latin America and the Caribbean visible, by updating a digital platform that contains the information already collected by thousands of volunteers and inhabitants of the settlements, in order to contribute to the construction of definitive solutions that improve the quality of life of millions of people who live in these territories.
• Fundación Nuestra Mendoza, from Argentina, presented the project “Transparency that Feeds”. This aims to generate a mechanism of Transparency and Accountability on the purchase and distribution of food by the Provincial Government, in order to make the use of resources more efficient (both the State and CSOs since many times these overlap in territory), to prevent the Right to Proper Nutrition from falling prisoner of political patronage, and to promote the local production of healthy foods (promote food purchases from local actors).

• Fundación León, from Argentina, presented the project “Access to information on poverty during COVID-19 in Tucumán, Argentina.” It aims to strengthen access to information on poverty in the province of Tucumán.

• Centro de Implementación de Políticas Públicas para la Equidad y el Crecimiento – CIPPEC-, from Argentina, presented the project “Quality of Access to Information on public services in popular neighborhoods of CABA”. With this initiative they seek to contribute to improving the quality of the right of access to public information (DAIP) on public services (water, electricity, urban sanitation and internet) perceived by Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) based in popular neighborhoods ( selected) of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires (CABA).
• Proyecto sobre Organización, Desarrollo, Educación e Investigación (PODER), from México, presented the project “Strengthening the capacities of community organizations to access information on the impacts of extractive industries and infrastructure megaprojects.” In this, PODER will work with grassroots organizations in communities affected by extractive activities (mining) and infrastructure megaprojects, to strengthen the capacities these organizations have of understanding the dynamics of these megaprojects and their impacts on the community fabric, local economies and the environment. PODER will also develop training activities on industries, the use of public information sources, and organizational strengthening to advocate for a greater participation of affected communities and for greater transparency about these projects that affect them.

• La Corporación para el Desarrollo Humano y Social – Facilitar, from Colombia, presented the project “Youth: Let’s Talk About Transparency and Accountability under COVID-19”. They seek to sow political awareness in the young people of the municipalities of San Cristóbal and Soplaviento, and in general of the Canal del Dique subregion, through training, social communication and the promotion of transparency and accountability under the COVID-19 in a virtual radio program of young people and for young people.
• Federación de Organizaciones No Gubernamentales para el Desarrollo de Honduras –FOPRIDEH – from Honduras presented the project “Building citizenship through social oversight exercises to manage municipal budgets assigned to the COVID19 pandemic.” With this, they intend to promote and strengthen citizen enforcement actions, through exercises of social oversight on the management of municipal budgets assigned to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

• Asociación Cátedra de la Paz y Derechos Humanos “Mons. Oscar A. Romero”, from Venezuela, presented the project “Young community monitors for public advocacy.” Monitoring for Public Advocacy is a project that seeks to strengthen a network of young monitors through training in strategies for leadership, organization and monitoring of public services, as well as problems related to malnutrition associated with poor diet, gender violence and youth violence. It aims to carry out face-to-face or virtual public advocacy campaigns in order to provide solutions to problems that were notably increased by the COVID-19 pandemic and the humanitarian emergency in Venezuela.
• Fundación CIRD, from Paraguay, presented the project “Promotion of Citizen Control to the Rendering of Accounts of the Equity Funds of the Ministry of Public Health and Social Welfare.” They aim to leave installed capacity in the citizenship to promote and monitor the Rendering of Account of the Equity Funds destined this year for the health contingency due to COVID-19, of the Local Health Councils (CLS) provided by the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MSPBS) of the cities of Itauguá and Fernando de la Mora of the Central Department, to encourage the correct use of these funds and prevent corruption.

• Instituto Makarapy – together with APIB – from Brazil, presented the project “Platform and System for the Safeguarding of Data of Brazilian Indigenous Peoples”. Its objective is to structure both a platform and an information system in order to protect the databases produced by indigenous peoples during the COVID-19 pandemic, thus guaranteeing the necessary structure for the continuity of community and participatory monitoring.

• Datalat – in representation of the Red Ecuatoriana de Datos Abiertos y Metadatos (REDAM) – from Ecuador, presented the project “Overcoming the pandemic with quality data.” It seeks to promote the openness of government data to improve the quality and access to public information by all social sectors through training activities and promotion of the new open data policy and guide in Ecuador, supported by Civil Society, in force since April 2020. This project will impact both public entities and public data (supply), on how Civil Society that uses the information to exercise the right of access to public information and generate actions with it (demand).
• Fundación para el Desarrollo de Políticas Sustentables – Fundeps- from Argentina, presented the project “Transparent emergency purchases: making visible the use of public funds in pandemic at the federal level”. The initiative aims to make visible how was the use of public funds for purchases that occurred in the context of emergency derived from COVID-19 in different provinces of Argentina.
• Centro de Estudios y Apoyo al Desarrollo Local – CEADEL, from Guatemala, presented the project “COVID-19, a barrier for the educational progress of children, adolescents and young people in Chimaltenango.” They aim to determine, through a diagnosis and monitoring, the access and quality of education for children, adolescents and youth in 6 rural communities of the municipality of Chimaltenango during the pandemic.

Once again, we extend our gratitude to all the Organizations that submitted their proposals to this Call.