Cali and Santander de Quilichao promote social innovation in drug policies

The team of the Cooperation Program between the European Union, Latin America and the Caribbean COPOLAD III -led by the FIIAPP- the Agirre Lehendakaria Center and the Ministry of Justice and Law of Colombia, have visited Cali for two days to continue promoting the laboratories of social innovation in drug policy that began a year ago. This initiative seeks to address the drug problem in the Sucre neighborhood in Cali and in the Porvenir neighborhood in Santander de Quilichao from a social inclusion approach and within the framework of Colombia’s National Drug Policy, focusing on young people in vulnerable situations.   

The initiative is part of COPOLAD III’s support to the Colombian drug policy, which has as one of its central axes the change of narratives, the reduction of harm associated with drug use and social inclusion.   

Social innovation in drug policy  

The objective of the laboratory is to generate a space for experimentation and shared learning involving the government, associations related to problematic drug use, security forces, health, education and youth, among others, to collaboratively address the challenge of consumption among young people in vulnerable situations.   

Among them, the Secretariat of Culture of Cali, the Undersecretariat TIOS of Cali (Territories of Inclusion and Opportunities), the Secretariat of Security of Cali, the Secretariat of Health of Cali, the Secretariat of Health of Santander de Quilichao, the University of Valle, the Viviendo Corporation, the Ministry of Justice and Law, the Special Assets Society (SAE), the Tiempo de Juego Foundation, the Sapienza Corporation, Café Arboleda and the entrepreneurship and innovation agency Innpulsa.  

Through mapping, listening, collective interpretation and co-creation spaces, local agents have jointly developed more than 40 new solutions that are more connected to social dynamics.   

Cultural and gastronomic initiatives in Cali  

One of the first prototypes to emerge from the community listening process is a community restaurant. The local entrepreneurship network Malo Hablar, the Cumbres restaurant, Sambumbe, cooks from the Sucre neighborhood, and Corporación Viviendo, among others, have come together to co-design this initiative that will begin with a first restaurant in the Sucre neighborhood.  

This space seeks to address food insecurity and social exclusion by providing an inclusive and dignified space where people can meet their basic needs for food and social connection. The restaurant will be connected to gastronomic initiatives and ventures taking place in the city. In addition, other cultural and food prototypes have been worked on, such as the community vegetable garden, the cooperative of gastronomic enterprises led by women, the museum around food, or the publication “What do Sucre and El Porvenir taste like?”, all connected to the Casa Cultural Corazón de Sucre.  

Art as a space for listening and creation  

The two-day meeting concluded with the closing of the “Forest of Memory” workshop, an initiative of the Colombian Ministry of Justice and Law to build and transform narratives in communities affected by the war on drugs and drug trafficking. This artistic tool for listening and sharing allows transforming the territory from the voice of its population and promoting territorial public policies accordingly.   

Through a series of photographs, young people from the community have been able to express the problems from their daily lives and offer solutions to them. This exercise facilitates the construction of alternative territorial narratives that break the stigma and promote the social inclusion of the entire population of the neighborhood.