Empathy as Solutions Safari engine

April 20, 2021
Author: Samory Araujo, Head of Solutions Mapping, UNDP Cabo Verde Accelerator Lab

A path that serves as a turning point for UNDP as an institution of human development in the way it perceives, feels and interprets, but also acts in relation to the problems and reality of the people for whom it draws action and or development plans. People have always been the ultimate goal and/or the first target of any activity, but the interpretation of their needs and or issues that afflict their daily lives step to another level when engaged in cyclical learning process with learning cycle , and in the specific case of Solutions Safari acquired an enviable proximity to the daily lives of people and their solutions to face the various challenges they face in the different communities of the globe.

The starting point

In this process, Sense serves as the starting point for:

  • Observe the difficulties people face
  • Know the solutions they use to combat their needs
  • Understand your behavior towards reality.

Sense allows us to observe, capture not only people's behavior towards certain realities, but also understand the environment in which they are inserted, and what their role is in the interaction with their environment and or community. Solutions Safari is the path that goes towards this understanding of people in their habitat and the way they deal with the various challenges; it is the empathic observation of people's daily lives, to understand what motivates their discoveries, but also what may interest them beyond the obvious.  It is fair to say that this process is the plunge into the physical environment of communities and or their people in order to have a deeper understanding of problems, needs, and challenges.

 


Mapping the motivations


Any mapping has to be concerned about the well-being and or the search for solutions to solve the problems and reach the desired development; sustainable development is nothing more than adapting man to his surroundings with an elasticity that allows him to move and or solve beyond the course. It is up to us at this moment to collect this adaptation and elasticity and socialize them in different networks so that they can be assimilated and why not climbing.

In all visits under Safari Solutions on the Cabo Verde islands, we observe that motivation, intuition, imagination, emotional sensitivity, creativity, and innovative thinking make a significant difference, and drive social, economic development and give more quality of life to people in communities. These are factors that at different levels are present both in the solutions found in the different villages and or communities, as well as in a technological solution proposed and or presented by a young innovator at the academic level. Solutions related to the areas of agrobusiness, the Blue Economy and or the digital economy always lack the motivational content to have perspectives for the future; that is, in the field of human development motivation is one of the fundamental axes and support creativity to find solutions.
 


Solutions Mapping as an integration factor


Solutions Mapping has allowed us to create a network of strategic partners, through a collaborative integration system for participatory social responsibility, in which stakeholders, whether they are development cooperation agencies, NGOs, public or private entities encourage and develop mechanisms for integrating the solutions found, knowledge acquired for practical application and create favorable means of growth and engagement in the socio-economic development of communities. Any solution to succeed must be integrated into the needs, experiences, people, and or institutions that work on sustainable development.
 

We conclude, this first phase of reflection on learning cycles by stressing the importance of absorbing what is happening in communities, especially information useful to the development plan creation process, as well as solutions that can provide global insights. It is essential that all ideas, solutions and or innovative actions found in different parts of the globe, remote or not have a space where they can be integrated and perhaps climbed, this is also empathy that motivates.

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