Problem Statement

Community leaders in Barranquilla need to collaborate better and more transparently to collectively generate more impact and also ensure their initiatives are more aligned with SDGs.

In Barranquilla, most social organizations and youth-led student groups are not used to collaborate with each other to collectively generate impact in our communities. There is a lack of visibility of the actions and activities led across these different organizations and how these different projects contribute to fulfill the SDGs.

Target group

Community Leaders from non-profit organizations and student groups in the city and metropolitan area.

Proposed Solution

With "La Banca" (http://globalshapersbarranquilla.org/la-banca/), the goal is to raise awareness about the way they present themselves and interact with their ecosystem, changing their mindset/traditional speech to refresh their approach towards a common goal: Acting together creating synergies to tackle regional challenges in our territories. La Banca (The bench): "Connecting Purposes to Transform Realities" was the first edition of a Program created by the Global Shapers Barranquilla Hub in order to enable dialogues that inspire action among the youth of the city around the Sustainable Development Goals.

For this first edition we discussed the importance of the SDG # 17"Partnerships for the Goals" with leaders from different NGOs, student organizations and independent movements, with the aim of mapping out the different projects led by this community and generate long-term alliances to fulfill the SDGs and tackle Barranquilla´s most pressing social challenges.

Hub Activities

Week 1: Let´s get started:

1.1 SDG´s Introduction: General Overview, What´s in it for me? Barranquilla and the SDGs

1.2 Social Organization value proposition definition based on SDG´s Canvas: Who are we? Which SDGs do we strive for? What do we do? Who benefits from it? What´s our main area of impact? What´s my most ambitious goal? How the SDG N°17 statements can support us to achieve our mission?

1.3 Getting to know each other: 5 Minutes Elevator pitch to share each organization value proposition from an SDG´s perspective

1.4 Barranquilla 206 años: As the event was hosted during the city´s anniversary, each participant was encouraged to record a video and post in social media to express how their organizations were helping to contribute to Barranquilla´s sustainable development on it´s birthday.

Week 2: Getting along:

2.1 Networking activity: Spider web team building - Each team learned how everyone is connected somehow and the impacts of inertia and action in a network.

2.2 Enabling connections: Co-creation workshop - teams defined a framework to establish common activities and events to foster collaboration among institutions with similar objectives

2.3 Facing Giants: Organizations were placed into 5 groups to try to understand a bit more about the main challenges that Barranquilla will be facing in the coming years: a. Poverty , inequality b. Quality Education C. Climate change and urban resilience d. Sustainable and inclusive city e. Safety & peace.

Week 3: Acting Together

3.1 Working Session with each group to calibrate individual action plans to include more collaborative activities.

3.2 Design-thinking session to propose integrated solutions to face the challenges

3.3 BAQxSDGs: Each institution signed a “Local pact” to be Sustainable Development Goals ambassadors in Barranquilla metropolitan area.

Short term goals

1. To Map and align social organizations initiatives towards SDGs in the city

2. To raise awareness about the importance of the 2030 agenda and the SDGs fulfillment in the region

3. To generate a strategic partnership with the Chamber of Commerce of Barranquilla as a key partner to work with youth-related activities in the future

Long term goals

Generate awareness, desire and knowledge in order to take action and tackle local regional challenges, aiming to contribute to the construction of a sustainable territory.

Available metrics

- 35 Social organization participated in the different activities throughout the project             

- 105 youth leaders from the different organizations received mentoring on how to scale-up their impact by Design thinking, canvas, elevator pitch workshops.

-1 strategic partnership with the chamber of commerce successfully established to work on future endeavors together such as SDGs socialization in schools and universities of the city.

Collaborators

- Cámara de Comercio de Barranquilla (Barranquilla Chamber of Commerce)

- Coolechera (Snacks)