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Brazil was the host and the winner of the third cycle of the Experiences in Social Innovation Project, organized by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) with the support of the Kellogg Foundation. This year, the final stage of the contest took place in the city of Porto Alegre, in the state of Rio Grande Sul, from December 4-7. Four-Leaf Clover – Strategy to Reduce Maternal, Pre-Natal and Infant Morbidity and Mortality Rates, a program developed by the Municipal Department of Health and Social Action of Sobral, Ceará, Northeast Brazil, took first place and a cash prize of US$30,000. “The winning project had all the essential elements of a successful social project: it improves social conditions in a community, it contributes to economic and social development and it can be easily replicated in other towns,” said José Luis Machinea, executive secretary of ECLAC, during the award ceremony.
Second place went to the education program Family Student Lodging, from Bolivia, and third prize was awarded to the rural development project Treatment of Waste Waters to Increase Farming Community Income, from Ecuador. Fourth place was also taken by a rural development and farming initiative: the RECA Project, developed by the Association of Small-Scale Agro-Silviculturists, in North Brazil. Fifth place, meanwhile, was shared by two projects: Argentina’s Program for Violence Prevention Among Youth in Non-Traditional Education Groups and Schoolchildren at Social Risk by Means of Conflict Management and Resolution and Mediation by Peers, run by the Alternative Social and Educational Foundation of San Carlos de Bariloche, in the province of Rio Negro; and Brazil’s Program to Eradicate Child Labor and Protect Adolescents in Domestic Service in Belo Horizonte, in the state of Minas Gerais.
The runner up will receive a cash prize of US$20,000, the third place prize is US$15,000, while fourth place gets US$10,000 and the two projects in fifth place, US$5,000. According to the Experiences in Social Innovation award’s regulations, the cash prizes must be spent on the projects themselves.
Press coverage raises visibility The presence of journalists from each of the finalist countries in Porto Alegre, and also others from Latin America, contributed to one of the goals of the Experiences in Social Innovation Project being met: to lend visibility to the innovative initiatives.
“The press deserve our special gratitude, since their work at this event is illustrating that there is no lack of creativity or willingness to improve social conditions in the region,” said José Luis Machinea (photo), the executive secretary of ECLAC, at the closing ceremony.
Get more information about Experiences in Social Innovation Project at the web sites www.eclac.org and wkkf.org.Read More