News from the Latin America and Caribbean Region

Since the launch of Rework the World, several countries of this region have been actively engaged in holding series of meetings and workshops that not only seek to identify green enterprises that have the potential to replicate and scale up, but also involve creative and innovative institutions that aim to promote a viable, fair and sustainable environment.

The YES Networks have been focusing and working hard as per the abilities in involving different key stakeholders toward the preparatory meeting for the 5th Global YES Summit that is to be held in Leksand, Sweden from 2 to 5 June of this year. Given below is the summary on the performance of the YES Networks during the period July 2009 – January 2010.

News from Brazil
Host Agency: Opcion Brasil
YES Leader: Daniel Vaz
www.opcaobrasil.org.br
danielvaz@opcaobrasil.org.br

Brazil's participation in RTW was formally launched on 21 November 2009. During this time, the new agency endorsement of YES Brazil, assumed leadership of the process towards Chile and YES 2010, along with the active participation of local partners such as Comjuv, the Prefecture of São Caetano do Sul, Youth Bureau and the Prefecture of the City of Sao Paulo. Recently, the Elos Institute to join this initiative.

During this event, 21 organizations from 10 cities of Sao Paulo had participated along with Samuel Gonzalez, President of Fundacion E (Regional YES Office) who outlined the future steps and announced Brazil as the next venue for the regional meeting for YES 2011 in the LAC region.

In Brazil is expected to identify about 40 green enterprises that may be disclosed both in Chile and in Sweden and which to build the Brazilian delegation. It is expected that forty green enterprises shall get identifies and showcased in both Chile and Sweden, for which delegation building would be required.  To do this, YES Brazil has been working on coordinating a national campaign to identify and provide technical support to existing initiatives in the country in order to build a network of public institutions, NGOs and business around REWORK Initiative. Currently other municipalities and the Federal Government have shown a great interest to support this initiative.                  

As a part of the effort, Daniel Vaz, the National YES Brazil Leader, would be visiting various cities in the north (Brasilia, Recife, Fortaleza) during this month to establish new alliances and a broader national articulation.


News from Chile
Host Agency: Fundacion E Chile
YES Leader: Graciela Duran
gduran@fundacione.org
www.fundacione.org

Fundacion E Chile-, YES Chile, host Agency, organized the Third Latin American Meeting of YES during YES Panama 2008. Since that time, Fundacion E, based in Mexico, has been coordinating with various local partners to organize this meeting. The University of Santiago de Chile is the main Chilean organization that is actively  involved with Rework the World Meeting. Fundacion E Chile has been implementing the E ECO20 project, through which technical advice is sought on a number of selected for the profitability and sustainability of business. The best initiatives will be announced during the second week of March after a strong monitoring process. These and other selected projects in other YES countries networks will be announced during the III Latin American Youth Entrepreneurship.

The next YES Regional Forum will be held in Chile from 8 to 10 April this year as part of the process towards YES Sweden 2010. Forum formally known as YES: III Latin American Youth Entrepreneurship: Creating Sustainable Business would bring together 200 entrepreneurs from across the region to encourage the creation of green projects, and setting an example of integrating different actors involved in Europe and America in the areas of education. The Latin American event already has its own website http://www.yeschile2010.cl/, where one can get more details on the participation of delegations from various countries of the region, with the priority given to those who belong to networks. YES has been an active participant in the RTW process. The organizers are working hard to provide the facilities to the participants like, basic registration, lunch and refreshments. However, there are also scholarships for participants from the networks, taking into account the work they have been undertaking in their countries. The methodology and thematic content of the event is based on the design that has been implemented for YES 2010.

ECCO20 contest in collaboration with a number of public and private sector organizations has identified the top 20 experiences. The categories of work for this country are Eco Food, Eco Technology and Eco Tourism, with a specialist jury who select the winning projects during the different stages of the competition that was officially launched on 4 November 2009. On 13, 14 and 15 January, 2010, out of, 60 people from 41 green companies, 20 winner were announced, out of which only 4 will win a cash prize, to be released in YES Chile and being incubated in Innovo Center at the University of Santiago de Chile. As on date, U$ 27,664, amount have been invested in training, U$ 40,000 in prizes and U$ 10,414 in dissemination, with a total actual investment of U$ 78,078. These resources were provided by private companies and government.


News from YES Colombia
Host agency: Corporacion Emprededores Colombia
YES Leader: Raul Rodríguez 
www.corporacioncec.org.com
presidencia@corporacioncec.org.co

Since 2009, Corporate Entrepreneurs Colombia -YES Colombia host agency has been an active participant in Rework the World Meeting.

To this end, YES Colombia, together with its partners, has   worked in planning the promotional events and data collection, primarily on green ventures so that they can approach young entrepreneurs particularly those who are willing to start the enterprises and who have business ideas.

The methodology of RTW Colombia has been developed on the basis of the lectures given by environmental experts, workshops exposing green ideas and discussions and suggestions from various professionals belonging to different economic sectors. It is noteworthy, that the main concern of the participants has been the existence and implementation of good environmental practices in the production process.

As on date, over 900 young people have attended six RTW Colombia events, producing around 50 abstracts. RTW Colombia has already selected four most promising projects dealing with the issues on environment, CSR, competitiveness, sustainability and associability, and are well set to be released and showcased in Chile and Sweden.

Besides RTW Colombia meeting, several other important events have been held at various departments of Cundinamarca, Tolima, Caqueta and Sucre, as a preparatory framework for the Global Week of Entrepreneurship Colombia with the financial assistance  of national, departmental and private sectors and general coordination of The Corporation Entrepreneurs Colombia CEC. The last and forthcoming event is scheduled for the end of January in the city of Ibague.


News from Dominican Republic
YES Leader: Berkis Polanco
berkisdania@gmail.com

The Rework the World of Dominican Republic started on July 15, 2009 at the premises of the International Plan Office. During this meeting, it was decided that area of focus for this country would be to work on the themes of renewable energy, waste and climate change. Many organizations have been working these thematic areas including YES Dominican Republic, National Youth Secretary, and Plan International, El Artistic, the National Commission on Energy and the Performance organization and by end of February 2010, it is expected that the summaries of the identified good and promising green projects of this country would get ready.


News from Guyana
YES Leader: Mr. Darren Torrington
gavin26_99@yahoo.com

After a series of meetings YES Guyana launched the first RTW meeting in the National Library of Georgetown. This meeting was attended by over 48 people, that include high level people like Mayor Hon. Hamilton Green and the Deputy mayor Mr. Robert Williams of Georgetown, the Head Teachers from two Schools - North Ruimveld and East Ruimveldt, around 10 students from each school and the members of NGOs of Guyana. This event was sponsored by the Mayor and city council of Georgetown and the next meetings scheduled to be held on 4th February.

During the meeting, the honorary speaker, Mayor Hon. Hamilton Green commented on the condition of the city and the steps that needed to be taken to restore the beauty of once known “Garden City”. The Mayor encouraged the students to develop their full understanding and awareness on the concept of ‘global warming’ and its consequences, as a key step to restore the beauty of the city. Amongst the NGOs that participated, ECO1- is currently working on two projects: Dye-Based Solar Cells (DBSC) and biodegradable food boxes for local production with an aim to promote environmental and social sustainability in Guyana.

So far, YES Guyana network has focused primarily on taking an initiative on Resurrection of Georgetown, that aims to revive and restore the greenness and beauty of the  streets of the city in close assistance with the neighborhood schools, Ministries of Education and Work, the Municipality, the City Council, governmental agencies and community enterprises. This initiative seeks to impact the young Guyanese in following ways: a) to develop a sense of responsibility for the care and maintenance of a clean and green environment. B) To contribute and acknowledge their important role in their community. C) To create a city that would make every Guyanese feel proud and 4) to create jobs by ways of planting and maintaining trees.


News from Mexico
Host agency: Fundacion E
YES Leader: Samuel Gonzalez
www.fundacione.org 
Samuel@fundacione.org

Foundation E, the YES Mexico host agency and YES Regional Office in Latin America and the Caribbean, has been working hand in hand with its headquarters in Chile for organizing the Forum YES: III Latin American Youth Outreach: creating sustainable business. In addition to this, the Foundation E also has been working for the organization by supporting the YES 2010, through its team and institutional image. Both the meetings in Chile and Sweden have been disseminating widely in the SME National Week, an event organized by the Mexican government attended by 100 thousand people, including 30 000 entrepreneurs of all kinds. As on date, Mexico already has identified 15 different projects for green enterprises, after having concluded the RTW release in early October 2009. On Feb. 5 there will be another meeting on this process.


News from Nicaragua
Host agency: Opcion Nicaragua
YES Leader: Jaime Aguilar
www.corporacioncec.org.co
presidencia@corporacioncec.org.co

Option Nicaragua, YES Nicaragua host agency is involved in the RTW process since 2009. Through a series of coordination at the national and local level, RTW was launched on 30 September at the Master of Business Administration University of Economics - UCC. This call was made jointly with the National Recycling Forum, the Agrarian University and Option Nicaragua. Several organizations were present and pledged to follow the process of country. The National Network of Entrepreneurs, the Window Program of the ILO, the Association of People with Physical and Motor and other key partners were present. Ursula Carrascal, YES Global Network Coordinator as a key participant talked about the work of YES and giving information about the next meeting of YES Latin America scheduled to be held in Chile next April. So far, Nicaragua has identified 2 projects related 1) to produce organic coffee in small plots and 2) the development and marketing of ecological hammocks. Currently a National Network of Young Social Entrepreneurs has been established thanks to YES Nicaragua with support from UNFPA and the National Network of Municipalities.


News from Panama
Host agency: Panama Verde
YES Leader: Rosy Reyes
www.panamaverde.org
reyesrosem@gmail.com

Panama Verde, the YES Panama host agency launched RTW process on 3 October 2009 in the premises of the Ministry of Social Development with the presence of representatives of various organizations such as USAID, Swisscontact, Scouting, Technology Business Accelerator Panama - ATEP, the National Authority for Micro Enterprises, among others, including the indigenous movement and youth of the country. YES Inc was present in conjunction with YES Panama that not only talked about raising awareness of valuable information about green jobs, but also sharing and learning from the projects submitted by various organizations present during the meeting. These initiatives were based on the themes like water issues, recycling, and ecotourism and risk areas for youth. YES Panama is currently focusing its resources to the III YES Latin American Encounter (Chile).


News from Peru
Host agency: VIDA – Instituto para la Proteccion del Medio Ambiente
YES Leader: Arturo Alfaro Medina
www.vidaecologistas.com
arturoalfaro01@yahoo.es
                                                                                                                                       
RTW Peru was formally launched on August 21, 2009. On the same day, RTW Peru held its first working meeting at the Congress. Since then, more than two meetings have been held- one in the month of October and another in December. During the month of October, a meeting specifically on green sector, entitled Youth Employment Opportunities in the Green Market was held in the premises of the FES Foundation that was attended by a huge number of participants.
The most recent “National Action Workshop RTW” meeting was held on December 7, 2009, during which YES Peru elected four out of sixty identified green enterprises from the country. Just eleven projects pre selected from web search, interviews, exhibitions and RTW meetings where showed up in the National Action Workshop.

The National Action Workshop was attended by over hundred participants from different parts of the countries, where fifty percent of the participants were from within the country coming primarily from rural areas. Amongst other participants were the young people from Bolivia and Argentina who have shown a great deal of interest to join RTW process through their respective countries. This one day workshop provided a theoretical framework on the issues related to green jobs, where presentations on the preselected projects were given by people belonging to civil society, unions, private sector and government. This was followed by dividing the groups as per the themes of RTW being selected the projects coming from CEDESOS (Ecotourism), UNGA (waste), Prelature of Sicuani (renewable energy) and RAAA (organic farming).
The methodology of RTW rests on the establishment of a Committee on Organization, Design and Research which in coordination with VIDA, not only identifies green entrepreneurs, but also conducts meetings to promote the process in the country. This committee comprises of students of Sociology from University Federico Villarreal, the Agricultural Rural Youth Catholic from Peru and the Latin American Association of Tourism Development. RTW along with the Communications Strategy has developed the image of “The Green Penguin” (RTW image that seeks to save the Humboldt penguins that are currently threatened with extinction) for the National Campaign, which expects to identify new green initiatives and entrepreneurs for YES Sweden and YES Chile. The Communications strategy also organizes events and Radio programs (Green Time and Vida Callao) on themes like renewable energy, organic farming, solid waste and ecotourism. In Peru as in other developed countries, RTW works follow the guidelines as laid in “Latin RTW Guide” – a handbook which is based on the structured of World Guide RTW, and this has been successfully adapted by other countries also that have shown a great deal of interest and enthusiasm to participate.  YES Peru is currently working to bring green penguin across the country to enable entrepreneurs in promoting green initiatives that are environmentally sustainable at both national and international level as a preparatory framework for Yes Sweden 2010.

In Peru, the RTW process led by the NGO, VIDA is supported by JARC Peru and ALFOTUR and in strategic alliance with the organizations Friedrich Ebert Foundation, the Office of Congressman Falla Lamadrid, and the IQ Network. There are other institutions also involved: CEDRO, UNGA, GVEP, ANIA, PRISMA, RAAA, CEDESOS, ODAER, Grupo GEA, CIDE, CUT, CCSA, APEMIPE, CTP, Pro Peru Services, OEI, MICROSOL, PREJAL, AJEP, FREDEMAR, and the Association for the Development of Puerto Nuevo, the District Board of Marquez, Community Center Victor Raul Haya de la Torre, Satellite Radio and Coca Cola Company. YES Peru has an actual investment of U$ 15 000 dollars.


News from Uruguay
YES Leader: Alvaro Casas
  
The RTW process of YES Uruguay was formally started on August 28 along with the participation of key officials from the National Directorate of Employment (Ministry of Labor), the Municipality of Montevideo, the Ministry of Development Social and the Ministry of Housing, Land and Environment. On the local of the NGO -“Centre for Popular Participation”, RTW Uruguay got a special space to display YES initiative on “Training of the children of the classifiers of solid waste from the city of Montevideo”- a flagship of RTW project. A training phase is scheduled to be held during the month of February, where the primary beneficiaries of this project – that is, young people between 16 and 21 years, would be trained in alternative occupation related to solid waste management like electricity, construction, etc and others. The key partners of RTW Uruguay are NGO- Gurises Kingdom, Youth for Christ, PROJOVEN and the National Institute of Employment and Vocational Training (INEFOP).