(8 May 2007) A total of 64 projects from 14 Latin American countries have been selected from among 805 applicants to move on to the next stage of the "Experiences in Social Innovation," 2006-2007 competition, organized by ECLAC and the W.K.Kellogg Foundation.
The competition, launched in 2004 and now in its third cycle, identifies and publicizes projects that take new approaches to social development and foster best practice for the benefit of the region's poorest.
The 64 initiatives under consideration for 2006-2007 awards come from: Brazil (19), Argentina (7 ), Mexico (7), Colombia (6), Peru (4), Chile (4), Costa Rica (3), Ecuador (3), Paraguay (3), Bolivia (2), Honduras (2), El Salvador (2), Guatemala (1) and Venezuela (1).
Sixty percent correspond to local and nationwide non-governmental organizations (NGOs); 10% to community-based organizations; and 10% to municipalities and other governmental offices.
Twenty percent focus on income generation; 17% on education; 15% on rural development; 14 % on health; 11% on volunteer work; 9% on youth programmes; and 3 % on corporate social responsibility.
Selected projects have been asked to submit additional information for evaluation by the competition panel. Semi-finalists will be announced in August and will be followed in September by field visits. Finalists will attend the Social Innovation Fair, to be held in December in Brazil, where this year's prize-winners will be announced. First place receives an award of US$ 30,000; second prize; third, US$ 15,000; fourth, US$ 10,000; and fifth, US$ 5,000.
Previous Award Winners
Winners and finalists from the previous rounds of the Social Innovation Competition come from diverse social concerns and backgrounds. From the Peruvian highlands, a community-based response to domestic violence won first place in the 2005-2006 competition. Second prize went to an Argentine project with juvenile lawbreakers, and third prize to a Peruvian trout-farming cooperative in the Andes. Prizes also went to a municipal health project in Paraguay and to a programme to integrate vision-impaired students into public schools from Brazil.
First place in the 2004-2205 round was awarded to Haiti's "Leche Agogó" programme, which combines traditional knowledge and modern technology to distribute milk in difficult conditions; second place went to project to grow traditional Andean foods in the Argentine north. Other prize-winning projects include a drug-prevention programme with marginalized youths in Guatemala; and, from Brazil, a cooperative of organic family farms and a community health project.
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