National university of colombia institute of environmental studies idea

3.2. The CEP Framework (Complex Environmental Perspective).
According to Julio Carrizosa (1996), the relations amongst things and people have to be approached from what he defines the Complex Environmental Vision (CEV). This consists of recognising that in each culture exist dominating environmental visions within which specific values are allocated to each single component of the environment. This perspective is based on the “paradigm of the complex thinking, a philosophic and scientific approximation which insists on facing the problem in the most bold way, generating a vision which should not be simplifying, but explicit and conscious, in which it is accepted that we live in a world full of variables and interrelations”. The CEV “does not naively forget the economic. It just puts it in its place”.³
3.3 The issue of population and the different types of waste that it generates.
The composition and dynamic of population growth act as landmarks generators in the use of urban services and in the capacity of the state to respond in environmental terms to short, medium and long term needs.
Social organisations have different dynamics in each context and face their relations within the complexity of inter-institutional responsibilities. The processes of commercial and residential waste management developed by social organisations, public agencies and private and business sectors have brought into city planning the issue of population growth and its limits facing the sustainable use of resources. This has questions the expansion of cities and the ways they are being managed.
Which has to be, then, the policy of waste management facing the dynamic of population growth? In this sense, the analysis of national and international experiences allow for the opening of a theoretical debate on population growth, the long-term viability of employed technologies (in terms of cultural instruments) and the carrying capacity of ecosystems that are actually bearing the needs of the population.
In the same way, it results as pertinent to analyse the role that citizens have played in the formulation of waste management programmes, as well as the ethical dimension that this problem includes in terms of relationship between human beings and their environment.
The question araises of which is the social group to which the major efforts have to be directed for a change of behaviour in relation to the management of waste. In this perspective, the project will try to define the ‘target group’ that will recieve and apply the results of the research. However, it has to be underlined that the local communities and local authorities (in the Colombian case) of the selected case studies, should the first to benefit from the contribution of the research in terms of improvement of their interaction and development.

4. PROJECT OBJECTIVES
4.1 General objective

To formulate Integrated Sustainable Waste Management (ISWM) models, based on the cultural dimension, through the follow-up of some “Best Practices” presented at Habitat II.

4.2 Specific Objectives
4.2.1. To contribute to the elaboration of the conceptual framework of environmental urban policies, related to waste management, in terms of programme formulation and actions. The approach seeks changes in individual and collective behaviours that deteriorate the quality of public space, the health of citizens and the urban environment.

4.2.2. To define indicators to evaluate the cultural dimension related to the practices of solid and liquid waste management with the aim to establish follow up models that would result useful for changing behaviours of social actors committed with the urban environment management.

4.2.3. To elaborate the basis for integrated transfers and co-operation between cities of the South and the North, on the basis of successful practices of urban waste management. This leads to identify “offers” and “demands” in the selected case studies.

4.2.4. To comparatively analyse the modalities of cultural diversity in the appropriation of technology for solid and liquid waste management.

4.2.5. To help in the building of a new vision, more egalitarian and tolerant, towards waste pickers and groups that play and important role in the collection and management of materials to re- use within the city processes of production and consumption.

4.2.6. To disseminate the results to public agencies with responsibility in the ordering of urban space and within the population for a cultural transformation needed for an adequate management of waste as well as to the communities participating to the case studies for its own evaluation of results.

5. PROPOSAL FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF MODELS FOR A FOLLOW UP TO PRACTICES OF INTEGRATED SUSTAINABLE WASTE MANAGEMENT (ISWM).
This analysis takes place in a time during which urban environmental policies in Colombia are in a initial phase of development. Themes traditionally managed by specific sectors or public service enterprises, such as street cleaning, communications, water and sewage provision, transport and others, begin to be incorporated into urban policy and planning as priorities. They thus come to form a complexity such as that represented by the making of urban culture and environmental citizens education.
The follow up to Colombian and international experiences will have to result in the formulation of models to build “integrated sustainable waste management” (ISWM).
These are key-features which need to be established in order to improve urban sustainability, appropriate technological and cultural offer of exchange and co-operation. ENDA and WASTE are also interested in promoting this conceptual framework useful for the practices. They are implementing in the UWEP (Urban Waste Expertise Programme) of WASTE and PRECEUP (Programme d’Économie Environnementale Urbaine et Populaire) of ENDA. In this sense IDEA as a research centre in the South will incentive an international discussion on the issue in collaboration with IHS of Rotterdam.

6. A FOLLOW UP TO “BEST PRACTICES” PRESENTED AT HABITAT II.
The basis for a co-operation amongst cities in the South and North after Habitat II is needed to establish an efficient exchange of expertise. The evolution, changes, obstacles and improvements of selected ‘Best Practices after the Human Settlements International Conference’ in Istanbul ‘96, as dynamic processes in the urban context.
The research will identify the “offers” of the practices to be used for co-operation at national and international levels, responding to real “demands” from other urban practices. For example, expertise on community organisation, communication strategies or integrated waste management plans, or monitoring systems, can be some of the issues to be reproduced in other cultural contexts and be helpful to set up criteria for the follow-up of urban sustainable practices.
The IDEA national research team will define the conceptual framework and the Terms of Reference as a guideline to analyse the cultural dimension of all cases, considering the inputs from the local workshops and those suggested by ENDA, WASTE, IHS and Portland university researchers.
Once the Terms of Reference will have been agreed by the national and international teams, the cases will be developed and will serve as a basis to build a model for a follow-up of the national and international cases.
6.1 National Case Studies
In 1996, on the basis of the collaboration developed between IDEA and the Dutch NGO WASTE, the first stage of a research programme on micro-enterprises and co-operative groups affiliated to the National Association of Recyclers, reached a conclusion as part of the Urban Waste Expertise Programme (UWEP). This first piece of research sets the basis to evaluate the internal dynamics of the fore mentioned association and the changes that have taken place in its organisation after Habitat II.
The case of the co-operative ‘Rescatar’ in Santa Fe de Bogotá will be analysed as a model of organisation of street garbage-collectors. This co-operative is one of those associated to the National Association of Recyclers (A.N.R.), through which the image of the rag-picker is being transformed highlighting how the service provided by this social group is of great importance for the city.
The A.N.R., awarded as a ‘Best Practice’ in Habitat II, has amongst its affiliates the pre-co-operative ‘PROSPERAR’, which groups 13% of recyclers of the Caldas department capital. The co-operative has carried out important work also managing to significantly improve the standards of living and the quality of life of its members.
Manizales is another of the Colombian cities that presented a ‘Best Practice’ case to Habitat II. This city has promoted an applied concept of ‘Bio-city’, within which a group of co-operatives actually grouping 58.14% of all city waste collectors has developed its activity. A recycling plant managed by local groups has been functioning with the support of the municipality.
It is precisely the case of ‘Prosperar’ which the project will present as an example of ‘best practice’. At present, in fact, Manizales is considered as one of the cleanest cities in Colombia, thanks to the support of the Municipality, the Public Services Enterprises and the Social Foundation which have collaborated in the development of activities by community-based groups and associations.
As a result of this joint activity, today Manizales has an integrated treatment plant for waste which allows for a complete management of the recycling process. This includes great sources of waste generation such as residential areas, commerce, streets, parks and final disposal sites for waste.
The other selected Colombian cases are: The Sewage System Without Solid Dragging which has been promoted by the Ministry for Development and the engineer José Enrique Rizo Pombo in small villages of the Atlantic Coast which deserve further implementation of its successful application, having been selected as ‘Best Practice’ in Habitat II.
Finally, the case of the co-operative ‘El Porvenir’ which deals in Bogotá with street recycling, but in particular with hospital waste. This is a case that illustrates the partially successful experience of a community-based micro-enterprise working in the special area of dangerous waste, highlighting in a special manner the difficulty of this experience face a competitive market dominated by multi-nationals.
Despite the great contribution that these co-operatives and groups have received in the last years a significant degree of social conflict is present both within the groups and in the way society relates to them. The case studies will pay particular attention to this phenomenon in the making of the analysis.
6.2 International Case Studies
The case-study presented by the city of Portland, Oregon represents a highly interesting model of urban environmental management due to its opening-up of the market to private enterprises, together with the implementation of educational and city image programmes. These projects are carried out by the regional authority ‘Metro’ in co-ordination with the municipality.
The university actively participates in the process of citizens education, which is aimed to root the Recycling-Recuperation model within civil consciousness. The city has implemented a Plan of Land Use, targeted at the year 2040, which facilitates the management of waste in residential, commercial and industrial areas. As regards water management, this city-port over the river Willamette, has developed an efficient system of water treatment which deserves to be mentioned as it constitutes a sustainable example to draw lessons from. Researchers Alex Welsh and Reena Cusma are at present working on this case study in co-ordination with IDEA.
The group which will provide the Bangalore, India case-study is lead by a researcher linked to the IHS in Rotterdam which maintains a network of information with community-based groups and NGO in India. The Indian example is particularly relevant to the analysis of the possibility of technological transfer between southern countries, with particular reference to the non-aligned ones such as Colombia and India.
The experience developed by IHS and in particular by Ms Marijk Huysman at the Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS) in Rotterdam with local women in Bangalore can also contribute to this research.
In India low-cost technology solutions in waste management are developing with a high level of community participation, a process promoted by the state and academic research institutions. There are, in this sense, strong similarities with Colombia in the type of strategic alliances that are required in order to implement an integrated project of sanitation and waste management.
The experience developed by Dr. Marijk Huysman at the Institute for Housing and Urban Development (IHS) of Rotterdam concentrates on women from a low-income community in Bangalore. The inclusion of this study in the project is based on the interest generated by the low-cost activities that are there developing with a high level of community participation, together with state and academic support. There are in this sense similarities with Colombia in terms of the strategic alliances and forms of co-operation required to develop a project of integral waste management.
The Dutch case-study typifies an example of excellent integrated waste management from a country where the population has already reached a high sensibility as regards the conservation of the urban environment. Furthermore, there exists a great interest on the part of the Dutch Ministry for Co-operation to support the development of cities of the ‘South’. The internationally-wide research programme “Experiences in urban waste management” , which is part of the Urban Waste Expertise Programme (UWEP), carried out by WASTE, represent an important exchange basis for the present proposal.
This is the occasion to strengthen the South-North co-operation under a new perspective consisting in a project proposed by a southern country, Colombia.
In this way, it appears the possibility to strengthen the relationship North-South, with a proposal elaborated in the South and, furthermore, the facilitation of new South-South relationships and collaboration thanks to the contribution of research centres and NGOs to joined and shared projects.
The participation of ENDA, an international NGO specialised in urban environmental issues, through its Dakar office represent an important contribution to this research with case studies from Bamako (Mali) and Dakar (Senegal), and in particular with PRECEUP project and ENDA-Bogota expertise with community groups at neighbourhood level. Mr. Jean- Jaques Guibbert and Mr. Farid Yaker will co-ordinate the research of the African cases.
Both WASTE (Holland) and ENDA (Dakar and Bogotá) have been collaborating with the Institute of Environmental Studies - IDEA of the National University of Colombia and with the National Association of Recyclers (A.N.R) since the early 1991 and with WASTE since 1995. This alliance amongst NGOs, university and community-based trade unions allows for the enrichment of the research in its environmental policy-making as well as at the empirical and theoretical levels.

7. METHODOLOGY
As project co-ordinator, the team from IDEA will establish some initial working paths and the basis of the conceptual framework that will orient the terms of reference, so that the single case studies could be able to adjust to the national and international contexts. The development of the project methodology will have to be flexible and open to allow for a constructive exchange with foreign researchers, and to realise the adjustments needed for the overall coherence of the whole project.
The project is therefore structured according to the following phases:
7.1. Phase 1: Conceptualisation
Conceptual discussion on the cultural dimension of urban environmental management.

Elaboration of the conceptual framework to implement the follow-up to ‘Best Practices’ in urban

environmental management, beginning with two workshops hold with specialists of the wide

spectrum underlined by the issue. These workshops will be run with the national team and then

articulated to the international team by an e-mail discussion round-table to benefit from the

contribution of these experts and to precise the terms of reference related to the selected cases. From the firts national workshop the teams of national researches and advisors will plan the field work of the colombian study cases, according to the terms of reference defined in the second phase.

7.2. Phase 2: Elaboration of the Terms of Reference
Elaboration of the terms of reference (TORs) to define the meaning and content of a follow

up to the selected ‘Best Practices’. The Habitat Committee for the Follow Up of ‘Best Practices’ will be kept informed of the work progress by communications to the Habitat Foundation in Bogotá, Colombia which was officially constituted in May ‘96.

The findings will be an important source of information for the governments of the countries participating at Habitat II and concerned with its follow up. In this way, it will be realised a contribution to the formulation of urban environmental policies and to the national and international co-operation.
At the national level, the project will utilise the channel represented by the Colombian Federation of Municipalities, ICLEI (International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives) and Colombian Ministry of Environment which are currently negotiating an interinstitutional agreement of co-operation on urban environmental issues .
The terms of reference will be informed by the following criteria:
∑ The case studies will illustrate the cultural diversity within which the processes of waste management are developed.
∑ The case studies will be informed by a common line of research which stresses urban sustainable environments and citizen participation, and will also underline the importance of the educational aspect as a fundamental component of the programmes of waste management presented.
∑ The case studies will identify all those technical aspects that represent a potential opportunity for a transfer of appropriate technology and know-how amongst cities of the North and South. The latter point is a criterion established on the basis of the principle and indication for action contained in Agenda 21 as well as in Habitat II, the overall aim of which is to enrich the networked information on ‘Best Practices’ at the international level.
∑ The case studies will have to point out and analyse the participation of the private sector, with particular reference to the industry and its co-operation with NGOs in the construction of waste management programmes in cities. This will be evaluated in order to establish strategies of co-operation and to point out particular elements of entrepreneurial culture related to the project theme. These strategies will be analysed with particular attention to the possibility to adopt and replicate them in other social-cultural contexts.
7.2.1. Terms of Reference Proposal
On the basis of the fore mentioned criteria, a proposal for the terms of reference is hereafter presented. It will receive the theoretical and methodological contribution from a nationally-based workshop which will take place in August 1997.
1. Social and Environmental context of the experience: Description of the place, geographic, economic and cultural characteristics, etc.
Key-questions:

∑ Is the case dealing with a rural or an urban community?

∑ Does the community have public services, and if yes, which ones?

∑ Which is the predominant economic activity in the region?

∑ Which is the level of coverage in terms of health care, education and leisure?

∑ How are gender relations characterised within the community?

∑ When the theme of waste is the object of an implementation within the Agenda 21 framework. How is it dealt with?
2. Necessities and problems that originated the experience (related to the factual reality of the community under study)
Key-questions

∑ How is it approached the theme of waste management by those who are involved in the community under study?

∑ What did practically motivate the first forms of social organisation on the issue? Was there the influence of internal and/or external agents?

∑ Is the studied experience promoting gender equality or inequality within the community?

3. Description of the ‘practice’
3.1. Objectives

3.2. Beneficiaries

3.3. Human and material resources

3.4. Activities developed

3.5. Communication tools
Key-questions

∑ Whose was the initiative for the realisation of the ‘practice’ study?

∑ How long did it take each stage of the study, and which future ones are planned ahead?

∑ How was the financing of the study obtained?

∑ Which strategy of communication type is being implemented during the ‘practice’ study?

∑ Is the study differentiating the different groups of beneficiaries?

∑ Are the activities and strategies of communication creating new room for participation considering gender differences?
4. Description of the group or organisation in terms of:
4.1. Organisation

4.2. Training

4.3. Experience accumulated in waste management: background information and references

4.4. Access to technical, financial and political information

4.5. Institutional management capacity: personnel, equipment, consultancies, etc.
Key-questions

∑ Is the study dealing with national, regional or local organisations?

∑ Which percentage of recyclers are organised or unionised in your country?

∑ Have these organisations been supported by the state, NGOs or the private sector in any way?

∑ Which is the role of the familial unit within the social organisations that are mentioned in the ‘practice’ study?

∑ Which kind of social security are they entitled to?

∑ Are there norms that regulate waste management at the national, regional and local levels?

∑ How are the groups under study composed in terms of gender, ethnic, class, race and occupational differences?

5. Cultural patterns within the community under study
5.1. Habits and cultural expressions of the community in relation to the life-cycle of waste

5.2. Relationship of the community with its environment

5.3. Mores, beliefs and values face the waste issue

5.4. How did these patterns come about and how were they faced and managed

5.5. Changes that have taken place both in the group and the community towards these themes
Key-questions

∑ Which are the cultural expressions that characterise the community and how do they valorate their local and regional environment?

∑ Which meaning have the concepts of cleanliness, cleaning, order, beauty and joy within the community?

∑ Which peculiarity have the concepts of liquid, solid and gaseous waste managed by the community?

∑ Which is its concept of city and/or community?

∑ Which is the background that has lead the community to assume or not the theme of waste management as an environmental one?

∑ How is sustainability conceived by the different groups that participate to the ‘practice’?

∑ Which are the notions they have of development and self-satisfaction?

6. Relationship between the practice’s actors and other actors in the society within which the practice develops?
6.1. Internal and external relationships (includes public and private agencies)

6.2. Relationship society- organisations participating to the ‘practice’ under study

6.3. Projected and received image

6.4. Human rights situation

6.5. Political and civic participation
Key- questions

∑ What does the community understand for human rights?

∑ Is there any form of discrimination within society towards the organisations which are responsible for the ‘practice’?

∑ Which is their relationship with the state at local and municipal level and which towards the different components of the state?

∑ Which is the relationship of the community/ies with the different social actors linked to its/theirs activities?

∑ Which are the modalities of the actors’ participation to public life?

∑ How do they excert their rights and musts as citizens?