Redefining Development Through Innovative Governance

by Jordi Sánchez-Cuenca


Ecuador's polycentric National Plan. Source: SENPLADES

Since 2008, Ecuador has adopted institutional reforms that challenge conventional definitions of human development. The process began with the approval — by referendum — of a new Constitution that approaches development not as an end, but as a means of achieving a collective state of "Buen Vivir" (Good Living), or "Sumak Kausay" in Kichwa. The concept is rooted in aboriginal philosophy, emphasizing environmental conservation and social organization based on mutual solidarity. It is evident in Ecuador's constitutional support for human rights and nature's "right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate."

More interesting than the concept is the way the state is reorganizing for its implementation, building upon existing structures while dealing with the injustices and externalities of a neoliberal order that has dominated for the past 20 years. The new approach has brought macro-economic stability and growth through popular infrastructure projects, part of a strategy aimed at "Buen Vivir" for the population as a whole. Although such initiatives — which also include mining and increased production — are controversial, the government is also adopting comprehensive reforms in support of the Constitution's innovative approach to development.

Source: Municipal Government of Ibarra

Ecuador's National Secretariat for Planning and Development (SENPLADES) has created a set of guidelines for local government in implementing longterm strategies rooted in the new Constitution, including the "Guide to the Formulation of Sectorial Public Policies" [August 2011, PDF, in Spanish] and the "Guide to the Formulation of Development and Land-Use Plans" [May 2011, PDF, in Spanish].

The "Guide to the Formulation of Sectorial Public Policies" presents clear standards for sectorial ministries in drafting public policy. It incorporates human rights as a cross-cutting issue, with support from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. The "Guide to the Formulation of Development and Land-Use Plans" is a reference for local government in preparing development projects, which must be registered with SENPLADES to receive funding.

Both guides are part of the government's efforts to fully implement the "Buen Vivir" approach to development through participatory learning processes at the national and local level. These initiatives are making government more effective and development more centered on human and environmental well-being.

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Women’s Voices from Quito

by Jordi Sánchez-Cuenca


Source: Municipality of Quito

Since Nov. 25, 2011, coinciding with the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, the Municipality of Quito in Ecuador is leading an innovative and inspiring campaign called "Cartas de Mujeres" (Women's Letters). With support from UN-WOMEN, GIZ and other public and private organizations, the campaign invites women from all social backgrounds to share testimonials about their lives and write about a better world without discrimination and violence against women. The campaign's aim is twofold: making society aware of the crude reality that many, if not most, women live in our sexist world and contributing to debate and public policy toward eradication of this pandemic.

The campaign was an initiative of the city of Quito, but has reached a national scale — it has gathered more than 11,000 original letters, according to the latest counts. The campaign is already exhibiting its results in Quito's Contemporary Art Center. Once it is over, the most representative stories will be disseminated through radio and television and even become cinema productions. The most important expectation from the campaign, though, is that the city's government policies on gender will be inspired by real problems and effective solutions coming from these letters.


Source: Municipality of Quito

The letters exhibited make readers realize the burden that sexism means for the society as a whole, not only for victims of discrimination and violence. These stories show how discrimination and violence against women destroy whole families and inhibit or hinder half of the population from developing their talents and contributing to development.

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A Playful Take on Serious Matters: The Center for Urban Pedagogy

by Rebecka Gordan

Collecting my thoughts after six months as an architectural reporter in New York City, one of my most memorable encounters was undoubtedly with the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP). I wrote three articles on this Brooklyn-based organization, two in print and one online. What makes this non-profit so special is the way it combines art, design and visuals toward its well-targeted goal: to demystify the complex mechanisms of the city. With a strong emphasis on public participation, the relatively small core of staff starts several projects by teaming up with another NGO, specializing in a certain issue in the city. Together they track a critical issue that needs further explanation.


Last summer, 15 Bronx public high-school students came together to break down the Community Benefit Agreements, CBAs, which are unofficial agreements between a real-estate developer and a community. The result: an educational poster.

One outcome of this strategy is the project Making Policy Public, which includes a series of foldout posters that are published four times a year. Created in close collaboration with policy advocates and design professionals, these posters are giving much-needed answers to vulnerable groups in the city. One issue, for example, called “Vendor Power!” explains the rights of New York’s circa 10 000 street vendors. Another recent triple-launch focus on non-citizens, youth, and formerly incarcerated people–outlining the situations they face on the fringes of the criminal justice system with titles such as “I Got Arrested! Now What? and “Immigrants Beware!”


The foldout poster Vendor Power! was designed by Candy Chang and included in the National Design Triennial at the Cooper-Hewitt in New York.

CUP is also engaging the community through workshops and other teaching tools. On a slushy Friday last February, I participated in one such workshop, in connection with the launch of the Affordable Housing Toolkit, part of CUP’s Envisioning Development Toolkit series. In an empty corner store on the Lower East Side, CUP staff member John Mangin explored the mechanisms of the city’s affordable housing policy together with a group of housing advocates, who aimed to use the kit to educate the tenants they already worked with. Opening the red box we found a colorful felt chart, an informational book, and a postcard with the address to an online map. The purpose: to teach participants about income demographics, rent levels and the technical definitions of affordable housing–thereby empowering them to dare to ask the crucial question: “Affordable to whom?”


The Affordable Housing Toolkit, from 2010, was designed Glen Cummings of MTWTF. 

John Mangin, who has a background in policy and law, said that in the last few years the government has been getting better at recognizing its obligation to educate the public. Nevertheless, many decisions are made without adequate public participation, even if there are channels written in the city and state law for public participation to happen. “Our mission is kind of twofold,” he said. “First, we want to help people understand how things work. But secondly, we would like people to want to participate. And that’s where the designers and artists come in.”


CUP staff member John Mangin explains the educational felt chart.

But it is not only graphical experts that make CUP’s urban education so engaging. Another branch is the youth education programs, varying in length with a reach of over 500 students each year. Here, the students themselves create the educational artwork, ranging from videos to comic books, models and exhibitions. In the longer “Urban Investigations” the students make site visits and conduct interviews with the help of a teaching artist. The programs are focused on specific questions: Where does our garbage go? Can illegal basement apartments be legalized? Why are there homeless people when some buildings stand empty?


In the spring of 2008, students from New Settlement’s Bronx Helpers interviewed officials and researchers on the food that is sold in the bodegas of Bronx. The project resulted in the film “Bodega Down Bronx.”


In the project Re-inventing Grand Army Plaza, from 2008, students from College Now investigated what it would take to be allowed to build on the old square in front of Prospect Park, Brooklyn.

Three weeks after the toolkit workshop, I rode my bike to an old cannery in Brooklyn to meet with Christine Gaspar, CUP’s Executive Director. Surrounded by semi-finished sewage models, piles of Lego, golden paint bottles and rulers, she explained why she decided to join CUP in 2009, after providing architectural and planning services to low-income communities recovering from Hurricane Katrina: “The more people that actually understand how the city works, the more people can be represented in shaping it–whether it is through their vote or holding the developers or elected officials accountable for their actions,” she said. CUP’s persistent work–creating playful products on serious matters in collaboration with those that want and need to know–makes an important contribution to the democratization of the city. As Christine Gaspar put it: “We cannot put money in people’s hands–but we can give them power through knowledge.” And while the CUP staff are continuing their work in their little office in the Gowanus plant, hopefully similar strategies will follow in other cities.

Credits: CBA poster developed together with CUP Teaching Artist Hatuey Ramos-Fermin, and Teaching Assistant Prudence Katzewas. Image on street vendor from CUP. Image on toolkit from CUP. Image on John Mangin by felt chart from CUP. Image on students conducting interview from CUP. Image on students at table from CUP.

Gender and Water, Part Six

by Jordi Sánchez-Cuenca

This sixth post on the topic Gender and Water in the water and sanitation Program in which I am involved is about the role of Ecuador’s national government technicians in integrating a gender approach in national programs, policies and laws. Through the Program, Ecuador’s National Water Secretariat (SENAGUA) will be supporting local women leaders in influencing the management of watersheds. The Program is also inviting these women, as strategic allies, to watch the compliance of water-related rights in their localities.



The Ministry of Urban Development and Housing (MIDUVI) will be creating precedents of community-run water utilities (JAAPs) that are exemplarily managed by empowered women. We also intend to strengthen women organizations with the aim of making social control of JAAPs and municipal utilities more effective. The Ministry of Public Health (MSP) will empower local women organizations and leaders so that most initiatives and measures of water quality control come from women.

In most countries there are laws, national policies, local ordinances and plans aimed at reducing gender inequalities. However, very few allocate the necessary resources, either human and/or financial, that are needed to bring about significant changes in the relations between men and women, from the household to the community and the economic and political life. The Program is itself an example of this limitation. The experience described in this series is an initiative of the regional office of UN-HABITAT and is funded mainly with resources not foreseen in the Program’s budget, despite that the Program has a strategy, specific indicators and some small direct actions supporting local women organizations.

I do not expect national institutions to create a specific budget and professional team for mainstreaming gender in their plans and policies. However, this experience is setting a small precedent and it will open the eyes of some influencing professionals, hoping that in the future they will support mainstreaming gender initiatives in other national programs, policies and laws, with sufficient resources and specialized teams.

An extended version of this post will be published on CoLab Radio.

Credits: Image of an indigenous woman watching a protected area in Ecuador’s “paramos,” the most important source of fresh water in the country, from luchaporelagua.com.