00:02Welcome to this episode of Voces Reimagined. Today we are going to talk about where are the solutions to
00:08the inequality. When we talk about inequality, we talk about the problems that exist, the
00:14gender gaps, disparities between rich and poor, the laws and political reforms that generate
00:20winners and losers, and that therefore generate inequality. But there is a very important question
00:25also, and it is how we can advance in visibilizing not only the inequalities that exist, but
00:30also the solutions that already exist. Because the solutions that we need to build
00:34Equidad Colombia are not only from the government and the great reforms like the
00:38that we are discussing currently, but are solutions that already exist in the territory,
00:44that already are implemented by social organizations, by social entrepreneurs that support
00:49social development, by artists that with their works transform the perceptions of the citizens.
00:54This is what we can call popular innovation or solutions of base. And precisely, we will
01:00talk today with Christian Hill, economist and researcher, about what is the popular innovation
01:04and why it should be important.
01:07The solutions of base or the popular innovation are interventions created by the same community
01:13or citizens, empirically, to transform and solve the problems of their community without the
01:19support of the state or the academy. These solutions of base are not created in the
01:24laboratories. They are created in the streets or in the fincas. They normally respond to
01:29processes informally of innovation that respond to specific problems. They usually
01:34be of low cost, but not necessarily of low impact.
01:37The popular innovation can take different ways in terms of the context and the problem that
01:42they want to solve. There are cases of communities that have decided to
01:45design the rules of football, so that it is a much more balanced game.
01:50There are farmers who have adapted pedals to trillers, to reduce the physical effort
01:55that is involved in their work.
01:57The popular innovation is not a new topic. It has been several decades in the agenda of
02:01research, departments and faculties around the world. Some have specialized
02:06technologies in popular technologies. There are others with a more broad focus
02:09called grassroots innovation. What important is that every day more organizations,
02:14even the United States, recognize the contributions of the innovations made from the community.
02:21This is a call that when we ask ourselves the question of how to solve the problems
02:25that we have as a society, we also have the exercise of looking at our
02:28surroundings, to recognize other ways of experience, expertise and to start
02:33with the things that already exist. No always have to invent the
02:36wheel and we already have a lot of progress that is important to recognize,
02:40escalate and replicate.
02:41Thank you very much.
Comments