“Co-creating solutions to promote Cities of Opportunities”. This is the motto with which RIL, Ashoka, Via Education and CoLab present the sixth edition of the program that transforms the way of designing high-impact initiatives and public policies in hundreds of cities around the world.
United in Ayni | Communities of Local Innovators, the organizations propose that local officials and social innovators form networks capable of reducing structural inequalities and offering better opportunities for millions of people. The mission for 2022 is to open more and more doors in cities through collaborative work.
Systemic innovation
He Cities of Opportunities program It has five thematic axes: 1. Full childhood; 2. Life Proyect; 3. Habitat and infrastructure; 4. Job and vocational opportunities; and 5. Training and cognitive development. Over six months of virtual and local work, under the systemic innovation methodology, the purpose is for 100 cities around the world to face the challenge of reducing the lack of opportunities and combating the intergenerational reproduction of poverty.
On April 19, 2022, local government teams and interested social entrepreneurs joined the opening event to learn all the details of the initiative. In the following video you can relive the launch:
In the last five years, the program worked in 160 cities in 22 countries with the design of more than 100 proposals with real impact. Throughout the process, more than 1,000 people from the public, social, private and academic sectors were accompanied and trained.
A program with exchange networks
“The gap between the social entrepreneur and the government was closed. Through exchange network meetings we generate a very powerful bond. Synergies were generated and the dialectic of civil organization vs. municipality was broken; We enter as a team. We didn't know if it was going to work, but it became a strength," he said. Alejandro Trujillo, member of the winning team of the 2021 Local Innovators Competition. Precisely, change networks are central to the program (it is promoted by the area of RIL Innovative Cities).
The objective is to put people at the center, unite local governments with social entrepreneurs and involve the entire community to co-create impact solutions. Thus, an attempt is made to develop systemic and innovative thinking in the construction of future public policies. Always generating sustainable development models for each territory and adding the voices of the people most involved.
For inquiries, the enabled email is florenciag@redinnovacionlocal.org.
Once the program is over, the projects will be made visible in the Local Solutions Marketplace, a space to connect innovators with impact funds to collaboratively solve the most pressing public challenges in cities.
