(Guatemala City, 13 November 2009) A Brazilian community that monitors public spending and transparency in the use of public local funds, thus minimizing corruption, won first place in the Experiences in Social Innovation contest organized by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) with support from the Kellogg Foundation.
"It mobilizes the community to check government purchases, preventing fraud, corruption and the waste of public resources, which are a common scourge throughout Latin America," said Norah Rey de Marulanda, spokesperson for the Selection Committee in charge of choosing the prize-winners.
The Social Observatory from Maringa is developed by the Ethically Responsible Society (SER), a community organization of people without partisanship that monitors the spending of public resources in the municipality of Maringa. It promotes citizen involvement and during its first nine months of supervision, saved the municipality five million dollars.
The Award Ceremony of the V Social Innovation Fair was attended by ECLAC Secretary Laura López, Alvaro Folgar, representing the Dean of University of San Carlos, Guatemala, and local authorities. The exceptional quality of the 13 finalist projects made the decision of the jury a tough one to make.
The Bi-national remittances- investment project, implemented by Mexican women with the support of the Foundation for Country Productivity (FUPROCA), won second place. This food cooperative allows peasant women that produce Nopal in Oaxaca to invest the remittances they receive from the United States and later to export it as "nostalgic" food. It received second prize for "its capacity to increase the income of farming families and attract the investment of migrants in the United States who support the idea and seek the return of their capital".
A project that allows indigenous temporary migrants to receive quality health care in Costa Rica came in third place. Integral health care for the highly mobile indigenous population, from Coto Brus, is driven by the local Department of Health. The award recognizes the project as a pioneer initiative in that it is a public institution that attends the health needs of a border mobile population that was previously invisible.
From garbage to rehabilitation, a hope of integration won fourth place. In the region of Coquimbo, Chile, the NGO UPASOL serves rural disabled persons, covering 80% of their medical and rehabilitation costs, by processing and selling recycled materials. It improves waste management and educates the community on its economic value and relation with the environment. Plus, it generates job opportunities for the disabled.
A group of Argentine grandmothers that visit schools reading to students and encouraging their love for books, earned the fifth place. Storytelling Grandmothers, an initiative supported by the Mempo Giardinelli Foundation, encourages an emotional binding and a liking for reading in children. Furthermore, this voluntary interaction opens new perspectives for older people within their community.
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