Building a network of City, Communities Embassies
Nuevo San Martin – Ciudades en Transition is an initiative of the NGO Q`YAY, Tarapoto. In co-partnership of UrbanEmerge, consultancy bureau, the University of Tarapoto and UCL London. Between 2017 and 2019 we will be building an online network of the several cities and villages in the region of San Martin, online. This network will be supported by, as we like to call them City Transformers; from residents to (creative) entrepreneurs, urban professionals, civil servants, scientists, citizens` initiatives, NGO`S, government, research and educational institutions. In short:
Anyone who is actively engaged in their urban surroundings and is shaping the city in transition. Every capital will have a City Embassy, an organization or local platform that will fulfill a networking role among the City Transformers within their own city. The city Embassies are our local partners and the main vehicle in establishing and maintaining the network.
Nuevo San Martin – Ciudades en Transition will be an open platform that focuses on exchanging and sharing knowledge
and experiences between City Transformers.
Based on the experience with “New Europe – Cities in Transition”, our goal is to build a network of Peruvian Cities and Villages under the name of NUEVO SAN MARTIN – CIUDADES EN TRANSITION. The following activities will be part of our program:
1. Build an Online Platform Ciudadesentransicion.pe will be an online platform where City Makers throughout Peru, (starting with San Martin) exchange experience and practice.
This website works as an open source community where initiators from the participating cities add content and reports from their local communities and put best practices on an interactive Peruvian map.
2. Engage local reporters In each city and village, we work with local reporters, who report about what is going on in the transition movement in their cities and towns. They will scout and monitor local initiatives.
3. Organize Metropolitan field trips. The network will frequently meet offline during Metropolitan Field Trips.
City Makers from all over Peru are invited to participate. The hosting City Embassy develops a program with tours along bottom up initiatives, agencies involved in urban development, the local university and municipality. Each trip will entail on-site visits and a local conference.
4. Conduct Research Through engaging academics and students a research project will be conducted in the participating cities.
The central question in each city, town and village will evolve around the relation between the local authorities and its citizens.
To what extend is local initiative supported and facilitated in each city? And against which economic, social, political,
ideological backdrop does it evolve?
Tarapoto, May 2020
In 2017 the NGO Q`YAY and the consultancy agency UrbanEmerge initiated the cross-sectoral platform for experimentation by City Transformers, giving visibility to innovative projects and enhanced the exchange of knowledge and practice among initiators.
We looked for successful modi-operandi and initiated productive cooperation of the bottom-up movement and the top-down system.
We organised debates, workshops, design sessions, excursions and online activities. Also, we published a quarterly magazine showcasing new initiatives and expertise.
Since 2017 the Nuevo San Martin- Ciudades en Transicion further developed a network of City Embassies within Peru, resulting in a frequent exchange among many cities all over Peru, with the ambition to engage the total of Peru by the end of 2020.
And here we are, May 2020 enjoying a thriving urban reality, that we could not have imagined in 2017.