Influencing Policy
Our efforts have focused on establishing strong and lasting links with the authorities, organisations and communities with which GREAT works in Cali and Havana.
In Cali, GREAT has been developing an articulation work between different urban actors such as the Secretariat of Social Housing and Habitat and the organised community of four popular neighbourhoods of the commune 18, to consolidate the first pilot project of integral habitat improvement with an intersectional approach in the city. The methodological design was also developed as a key component for citizen participation and representation in the formulation of more inclusive urban public policies in accordance with local realities.
On the other hand, PopuLab has been able to facilitate the articulation of the MIH (Integral Improvement of Habitat) with public, academic, third sector and community processes that aim to build peace with a rights-based, differential and intersectional approach, in order to serve both vulnerable urban communities and multiple subjects of reparation who came to the cities in search of new life opportunities. The above contributes to the construction of a reference framework for the new national programme Barrios de Paz proposed in the National Development Plan 2023-2026 as part of the current government’s strategies to achieve total peace in Colombia.
Cali has adopted the intersectionality approach for the City Habitat Integral Improvement Policy.
The Secretariat of Social Housing and Habitat participated in the event City, Territory and Peace held in Cali in November 2022. As part of this event the Laboratory of Popular Neighbourhoods of Cali “PopuLab” was launched. This public event brought together the community of District 18 and other representatives of the local government.
Launch of the “PopuLab” Laboratory of Popular Neighborhoods of Cali
In Havana, GREAT has established a partnership with the commission of the Plan Perspectivo de la Bahía de La Habana (PPBH, Spanish for Havana´s Bay Development Perspective) with the support of Universidad de La Habana. Involved in the commission are the Havana´s Historian Office and its Planning Department (Plan Maestro) and the General Directorate of Transport of Havana. Also partners of GREAT are the Recycling Entrepreneurial Group (Grupo Empresarial del Reciclaje) whose mission is to recover, process and market recyclable waste from industry, commerce and residential areas. The PPBH commission has scheduled for 2023 the publication of a series of complementary urban management tools such as: the Havana´s Bay Mobility Plan, the Emergency plan for sanitation and environmental management, a Special plan for advanced infrastructures development and a Special Plan for the development of Informal Settlements located within the perimeter of their jurisdiction. One of the settlements is San Nicolás, where GREAT is based. The purpose of the partnership is to translate the co-produced research results and the principles brought by the GREAT project into these urban management and planning tools. Also, the National Planning Institute (INOTU) has identified GREAT as one of the key projects contributing to a national strategy on informal settlements. Related to this is the invitation to two GREAT Havana team members to join the experts team of the policy drafting project “II Improvement of living conditions , habitat Conditions” which is part of the National Development Plan 2030 (PNDES2030)