Context:
Argentina is affected by an unprecedented economic and social crisis, resulting from the accumulation of several systemic problems (debt, bad management, bad economic policies, etc). Poverty and social exclusion have reached catastrophic limits. Challenged by such a crisis, the population has mobilized at the community level. Each day, new initiatives are born in community centers and secondary cities to help families survive and send their children to school. These small-scale local initiatives offer structuralized and sustainable responses to the current crisis. For all kinds of reasons, the Argentinean Community movement is relatively inexperienced. However, in Canada there exists valuable experience, competence and know-how in the Canadian NGO community and university sectors, which can benefit the Argentinean population.
Project:
Alternatives and it’s partners have currently consolidated a project, extended over three years, to transfer Canadian expertise in the field of Community Development. This project will reinforce and develop the companies and networks of Argentina’s cooperative/small scale economy with the goal of enhancing local and sustainable development. For the population living in the district of Solano in greater Buenos Aires the project aims to achieve: greater equity and a reduction in the differences in wages; improved access to services; help in the participation, decision making or other processes.
It is an issue of supporting the Argentinian population in the fight against poverty by battling for greater equity in access to resources, knowledge, and participation in civil society.
By transferring Canadian environmental, agricultural and social development expertise and material to local organizations in Argentina (particularly in regards to methodology developed in Canada based on community building via innovative projects centered on the needs of the local communities) this partnership seeks to improve the local economic capacities of communities affected by poverty. This expertise will be supplied from the faculty of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences at McGill University via its academic option in ecological agriculture.
