Sharing learning and best practices on long-term integrated sustainability planning
Ushahidi maps the world one SMS/text at a time
Crossposted from pradical.org by Doug Ragan, Senior Associate
I have been struggling to get my head around Ushahidi, Swahili for “witness” or “testimony.”
I knew it was created during the post-election violence in Kenya in early 2008. I had many friends who went through that terrible time, and felt equally horrified and powerless.
Tiffany Tong is currently working in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in Urban Agriculture.
I had an “aha” moment the other day.
I was having dinner with some new friends. The person who sat next to me was an American who worked with the department of social work at the University of Dar es Salaam. Among all the interesting differences she learnt about social work in the US and in Tanzania, one in particular stood out in her mind.
Government-provided social safety networks are practically non-existent in Dar es Salaam – the government simply doesn’t have the funding to provide extra support. While North American social workers often refer patients to appropriate social support networks, Tanzanian social workers have to rely on informal ones.
Due to the social stigma attached to HIV/AIDS, often families will not care for the sick. Instead, Tanzanian social workers will take them to the “ten cell leader”, who cares for ten small groups of sick individuals. The end goal is to try to educate and convince the family to take the patient back into their care.
Then, the “aha” moment came.
Thoughts on international Migration from the World Youth Conference by Brendan Baines.
The World Youth Conference in León, México is an event set up to engage youth around the world on 13 issues of development (one of which being international migration), with a special emphasis on the Millenium Development Goals. After a successful week involving governments, NGOs and individuals from around the world, it concludes today with a dark cloud hovering above. To the north, 72 international migrants were assasinated by what is currently assumed to be drug cartel Los Zetas.
-Is the city eclipsing the nation-state?
The Sustainable Cities interns at El Instituto de Planeación para el Municipio de Colima in Colima, Mexico are investigating the social, economic and psychological impacts of living on the ‘wrong’ side of the tracks. Connecting the port of Manzanillo to Guadalajara, this railway physically breaks the grid of Colima and has divided the city in two, marginalizing the communities on the southern side of the tracks. A single unlit passenger bridge and a vehicular underpass connect the two areas, but both are dangerous and inconvenient for pedestrians to use. This divide permeates aspects of daily life.
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Pradical Guest Blogger: Kevina Power
It was late fall 2005 when we left Kenya for South Africa to host 2 World Urban Cafes (WUCs); one during the 1st African Hip Hop Summit, and one during the monthly Black Sunday event in Soweto. As I write this lots of memories are flooding back… WUCs, Hip Hop, Friends, Soweto… it all feels like a dream, a damn good dream.
Written by Ryan Whitney
Ryan Whitney is a Project Officer for the Sustainable Cities: PLUS Network Africa Program. The program is funded through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and aims to support urban sustainability issues in Dar es Salaam and create learning networks between cities.
Walking in Dar es Salaam
Walking in Dar es Salaam elevates our senses; it’s a mixture of unplanned settlements, vibrant dirt roads, and paved highways. In these spaces, you find a hodgepodge of humanity: Laughing children, lost chickens, and decades-old buses imported from Japan.
Somehow, the disjointed development patters all fit together, shaken-up in an urban mixing bowl, and displaced before us: A newly planned highway bi-sects an unplanned settlement; a mercades-benz rubs shoulders with a rusted bicycle; a bajaji honks as a ‘mama’ hops out of harms way.
Fascinatingly, in unplanned settlements, or those often viewed as ‘forgotten’ by modern planning principles, communities come to life. Neighbourhoods become a maze of dirt paths; defined, unassumingly, by one-story shacks of disjoined shapes and sizes.
Cross-posted from pradical.org
This is a photo collage done for the World Urban Forum in Vancouver in 2006. The photos are part of a larger exhibition focused on youth perspective on the urban environment. The photos exhibition was mounted by EYA and UN-HABIAT. Photos done by KK Law.
Generations of Woodwards Read the rest of this entry »
The YES Network is an initiative started by the Co-operators Life Insurance Company and Sustainable Cities. YES involved six Regina, and surrounding area, high schools for the 2009-2010 school year.
The Eco-Fair held on June 1st involved local organizations and businesses, and featured a windmill competition, workshops, and presentation. For more information, please visit the YES blog here, and read an article published in the Regina Leader Post here.
Kendra and Sara model their fabulous eco-dresses, constructed from newspaper and plastic
Cross posted with Pradical.org
Community Mapping has always been quite an amazing tool – it localizes knowledge, draws on the “mappers” personal and community experiences, identifies interconnectedness – all this coming together and increasing social capital (if you are interested in the concepts of social capital read Robert Putnam’s Bowling Alone; to better understand how it relates to mapping, read up on John Mcknight’s Asset Based Community Development). You can check out some of the work that the International Centre for Sustainable Cities and UN-HABITAT has done on community mapping by checking out their draft asset mapping manual.
