What Do The Colombian Pacific and New York City Have in Common?
“We have to return the power to ourselves, because it is in us. We have to see ourselves as the source from which power emerges. The power is in us, it belongs to us.”
Lina Marcela Cordoba, Quibdó
The gap between rich and poor continues to widen. Billionaire wealth increased 12% over the last year, while the world’s poorest people lost $500 million a day.
In NYC, the Bronx remains the poorest urban county in the U.S., and Brooklyn, one of the largest concentrations of African descendants in the world, faces some of the country’s worst health outcomes. These facts reveal generations of disinvestment and a structural failure of coordination. But these NYC boroughs already have many of the resources needed to address their greatest challenges, and people of color and women —who are the majority in both boroughs— can and should lead the change to create sustainable and inclusive economic futures for their communities.
In the Global South, Colombia’s Pacific Region is one of the most ecologically diverse areas in the world, with extraordinary natural, human and cultural resources. These assets are affected by the five-decades-long internal armed conflict that officially ended with the signing of the peace agreement in 2016. Since then, both opportunities and challenges have proliferated. In the past four years, 702 social activists have been murdered by illegal armed forces trying to control territories that the old forces left. That sobering reality is compounded by the ongoing disinvestment and structural racism that undergirds the extractive development model damages the natural environment, and reproduces inequality. At the same time, for centuries, Afro and indigenous communities in the Pacific have developed rich cultural and ancestral knowledge systems that are deeply tied to territory and identity. This serves as a powerful form of wealth that exists in the region and includes sophisticated insights and original forms of innovation about how humans can relate differently with natural ecosystems and create alternatives for political and community organizing.
New York City and the Pacific Region in Colombia are 2,500 miles apart. They represent different histories, cultures, and challenges. But there are at least two things these places have in common; the history of African slavery that built economies on black bodies that suffered immeasurably, and the determination of Afro-descendants to drive their own destinies and co-create inclusive and democratically governed economies and shared wealth.
In order to develop the infrastructure and systems to build wealth and ownership for low-income people of color in both the Colombian Pacific and NYC, CoLab is working in partnership with community members, institutions, elected officials, labor leaders, and finance partners to develop a comprehensive, multi-stakeholder strategy for economic development that is integrally connected to the broader movement for economic democracy.
Territorial Innovation Lab, Credit Juan Constain
For example, a 2017 civic strike in Buenaventura, one of the largest cities in the Colombian Pacific, pledged to raise USD $432 million in infrastructure investments to develop key areas. In its governance structure, the fund includes five representatives of the Civic Strike Movement. This week, the candidate from the Strike movement won the mayoralty in Buenaventura. In Brooklyn, a community movement averted a closing of Interfaith Hospital —one of the boroughs largest safety-net hospitals— and led to the appointment of the first African American woman public hospital administrator. The State has pledged $.5 billion in infrastructure investment for the hospital.
With prospects for social and environmental sustainability inextricably linked to an equitable and inclusive development agenda, long-term development planning will need to include the voice and vision of community members, particularly those in the cities’ most marginalized areas. CoLab is supporting the work of the communities themselves in making sure those voices are heard by helping local residents and leaders see for themselves the influence they can have in the economy. Some examples include fostering programs for youth and community leaders that focus on capacity building, prototyping, and capturing stories that demonstrate the role of community-led innovation in generating shared wealth, peace, and wellbeing. We’re also co-creating specific initiatives that train the next generation of community leaders and form long-term strategy alongside them.
Whether it’s the movement to demand infrastructure investment in Buenaventura, ; or The Bronx Development Cooperative Initiative (BDCI) creating the BronXchange, an online marketplace to connect Bronx vendors with the procurement streams of large- and medium-sized institutions; or whether it is the effort in Brooklyn to transform a failing hospital into a thriving source of economic growth for the community, CoLab is supporting movements seeking to replace traditional development models that have not successfully addressed multi-generational poverty with models grounded in local ownership and governance that just might have a chance. We hope these movements can serve as an example for other communities across the U.S. and the world.
Written by: Natalia Mosquera, Inclusive Regional Development National Coordinator, Colombia; and Shey Rivera, Director, Inclusive Regional Development