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Urban
Environmental Management in Bogota: from community practice to political dialogue
(Enda America Latina)
This project is designed to promote the participation of women in the formulation, negotiation and management of projects dealing with urban agriculture and compost production. Training programmes, meetings and exchanges will bring about organisational, technical and political changes in the formulation and experimentation of projects dealing with organic waste management and productive green areas. The project is managed in partnership with Fundac, a community kindergarten association.
History of the project
The project is based in a process, which has been shared, between ENDA and FUNDAC
for the past 8 years, and a group of women, located in peripheral areas of the
city. Three categories of the population are affected by the project. For their
populations, basic human needs are not met, and public and social services are
inadequate.
Specific Objectives
- To develop productive urban green areas and to use organic wastes through:
(i) an increase in the number of vegetable gardens locally managed, (ii) an
increase in the number of products and surface areas, (iii) the appropriation
of techniques by local community groups, and (iv) the composting of organic
wastes.
- To reinforce the training and the organisational capacity of women's environmental
groups, and assist them in the formulation of environmental projects dealing
with organic waste management and urban agriculture.
- To improve the capacity of community groups to influence municipal policies
by introducing themes such as productive green spaces and the local treatment
of organic waste within the context of decentralised development schemes, and
to work towards a public recognition of community groups active in the urban
environmental field.
- To favour exchanges between community groups and strengthen networks of actors
working on environmental issues.
Resources
Human resources:
- 1 co-ordinator, 1 agronomist, 1 promoter, 1 secretary.
Other resources:
- Workshops, pedagogical materials, meetings, forums on the environment, national
and international exchanges, various equipment.
Achievements
- Extension and development of productive green spaces / organic waste treatment;
- Identification of existing vegetable gardens and all forms of rural production
within the city, around kindergartens and co-operatives;
- Strengthening of, and support to, urban agricultural techniques;
- Set up of three manual composting stations for the groups who want them (collective
or individual);
- Contacts with governmental bodies;
- Presentation of the work to environmental authorities;
- Negotiations on the use of agricultural breeding grounds and the use of compost
to improve the environment;
- Follow-up of participatory processes in the definition of municipal waste
management policies and the encouragement of green spaces;
- Participatory study of environmental policies, plans and programmes in the
District and Localities;
- Exchange visits: in other cities in the country (MedellÌn, San Gil,
Buacaramanga), in other countries in Latin America (Bolivia and Dominican Republic);
- Meetings: IIIrd meeting of district women's popular organisations and meeting
between women leaders and the new generation;
- Organisation of four local forums on the environment.
Expected results
- The improvement of practices favourable to environmental management by women's
groups and participants in general;
- The encouragement of the exchange of experiences dealing with the urban environment
(especially in support to productive green spaces and the treatment of organic
wastes), emphasising the induced effects of education on children in kindergartens
and youths in the district.
- The creation of direct links between community actors having common practices
not yet related;
In the community field: the increase in the capacities of proposal, negotiation
and dialogue of social actors, especially women, engaged in environmental projects
on a local or district level.
In the technical field: training by
previous participants of new women participants in organic cultures and composting;
improvement in the quality of organic cultures which, in addition to offering
a pedagogical role and the production of vegetables, would also produce small
trees in order to contribute to the reforestation of the neighbourhood;
- In the institutional field: the recognition of community participation and
social management processes, in which institutions consult, learn, take into
consideration and share common knowledge; when dealing with community organisations,
institutions learn to plan while taking community realities into consideration
rather than by interpreting existing legislation.
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