By  @cristiangils, Head of Solution Mapping AccLab, @PNUDColombia

Solutions Mapping is looking to learn from the grassroots innovation made by and for the communities. Based on this bottom-up approach embedded within the territory, we seek a complementary perspective in which communities, in addition to their needs, also provided solutions as active subjects of development. Thus, we attempt to acknowledge those local practices and knowledge in order to be replicated or escalated in other contexts. 

This is why, several Accelerator Labs around the world have turned Solution Mapping into a collective learning process that involves the community and local partners in the recognition of grassroots innovation available in their own territory. This is the case in Mexico, Ukraine, and the Philippines. Those processes are the result of an adaptation of the Shodhyatra or Learning Walk developed by professor Anil Gupta. 

This blog presents the results of a Collective Solutions Mapping exercise led by the Acceleration Lab from Colombia PNUD, within the framework of a mission in La Guajira Department in 2020, aiming to identify insights about the Venezuelan migration phenomenon

Territorial Context

La Guajira, a state located in the north of Colombia, is one of the areas with the largest development intersection gaps in Colombia, it is a focus of different types of exclusion. (See blog “De‌ ‌territorios‌ ‌dejados‌ ‌atrás‌ ‌a‌ ‌aceleradores‌ ‌de‌ ‌desarrollo” ‌). La Guajira takes the fourth place with the highest poverty incidence (51,4%) measured by the Multidimensional Poverty Index (DANE, 2019). Maicao is a border municipality with a population of 190,000 inhabitants. Its main economic activity is informal commerce, where 3 out of 10 inhabitants is a Venezuelan migrant (DANE,2020).

The next story map presents the activities carried out during the field trip, including visits, interviews and collective mapping solutions exercise to comprehend the migration phenomenon.

How was the collective mapping solutions exercise?

The collective solution mapping exercise was carried out in Maicao with a group of 24 students from UniGuajira, a state university. They identified grassroots innovations developed by the Venezuelan migrant community for one day, after presenting the relevance of grassroots innovation. During the experience, we split into 8 groups (of 3 people each) to carry out the exploration in strategic locations of the city. 

Each participant had the following elements to carry out the mapping: 

What had we found?

Each one of these solutions presents both creativity and the response to specific needs and opportunities identified by migrants, in between of several informalities and public space. They find in a fluid territory the opportunity to start their settlement process in a new country. In addition, migrants had contributed to the sophistication and diversification of the informal sector in this city. Some of the solutions identified are shown below:

Modified cart used as an informal juice stand

This vehicle facilitates transportation in the city and the production of fresh food and beverages. It also reveals the production possibilities of the local light industry. Some of those vehicles even have their own power plant.

Water recollection from air conditioners

Maicao is located in a desert area with high temperatures and water shortages, water supply is frequently interrupted. It is very common to reuse ionized water produces by air conditioners, although it is not suitable for human consumption, it can be easily used for cleaning and watering plants 

Pop-Up Cyber Coffee

Public space, especially streets, are intensively used In Maicao. You can find services that are commonly carried in closed spaces such as internet access, buying music, and laminating documents in the sidewalks and streets.

Handcrafts made out of bills

As a result of the hyperinflation of Venezuela and the null value of bills, artisans have conceived a way of creating value from elements or materials that apparently have lost it. 

What have we learned from the Collective Solution Mapping? 

In addition to identifying grassroots solutions, this exercise allowed students to recognize the negative bias towards the migrant population, and it created a new interaction that otherwise, wouldn't exist between students and migrants. Participants were able to connect with the human story behind each grassroots innovation which contributed to generating a change in the perception about the Venezuelan migrants, thanks to the acknowledgment of their contribution to their territory. 

With the collective solution mapping solutions, “Citizens have another perception or reality, which if we look at it from another perspective, can generate an opportunity for everyone” (UniGuajira Student) 

Among the advantages of carrying out a collective solution mapping exercise, we found that it was possible to cover various points of the city in a short period of time, thanks to the fact that we involve participants who knew their territory. In addition, being carried out in an academic context, the participants were more willing to cooperate and even recognized their own biases. The teacher involved in this exercise saw an opportunity to complement her teaching method with a more dynamic and participatory approach that links the students´ learning process with their own territory. 

The Collective Solution Mapping exercise faces some challenges, from having good connectivity, guaranteeing security, sharing the relevance of grassroots innovation in a short period of time, essential to recognize the value of quotidian practices and devices that usually go unnoticed by its own community. 

How can the Collective Solution Mapping of contributing to a lasting development process with and from the communities? 

The process of recognizing, sharing, and discussing the grassroots solutions already available in the territory, is also one of the entry doors for the learning cycles and possible experiments with the Accelerator Labs. Each step of the process generates shared and collective learning within the communities, allowing them to recognize the value of their own innovations and at the same time, acknowledging themselves as an active subject of development.

The Collective Solution Mapping gives the opportunity to link the communities in the practices of the Accelerators Labs, accessing to stories that sustain and give life to each solution. With this approach, It is possible to access information that is not always accessible, and that allows us to rethink development interventions, recognizing and giving value to other types of knowledge, required to scale and accelerate the development at the speed we need. 

The solutions mapping process is the first step on a path that we seek to march together with the communities, in which it is possible to recognize from the institutional perspective the value available in the territories and to leverage on these processes the systemic transformations that the 21st century requires.

We especially thank the students and academic community of UniGuajira for their energy and willingness to carry out the Collective Solution Mapping exercise. We also thank the entire UNDP Colombia team who accompany the Accelerator Lab from Bogotá and even in the most left behind territories

Tools used for this blog: https://storymap.knightlab.com/  and https://gifmaker.me/