The Second Regional Meeting on “Building the Urban Popular University”

Participants included community leaders from different parts of the Caribbean and Latin America: the Dominican Republic, Argentina, Bolivia, El Salvador, Haiti, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Venezuela and Peru. Facilitators came from Peru, Mexico, Italy, England, Argentina and the Dominican Republic.
As part of this event, the “First International Workshop on Research Collaboration” was held, with Alessio Surian (UPU), Cristina Reynals, Mónica Zagami and Roxana Crudi (Faculty of Social Sciences, Gino Germani Institute, University of Buenos Aires) serving as facilitators. During the workshop, a specially prepared annotated bibliography was presented, entitled: Research Handbook 1: Research collaboration and its elements. Notes on a research strategy for a new era” (International IIGG-FCS-UBA / IAI-UPU Agreement. Buenos Aires, 2007).
The UPU was further strengthened by an agreement signed during the meeting between the Urban Planning Institute of the Free University of Santo Domingo and IAI. The two will work together on developing interaction between academics, students and the wider population in collaborative research and the sharing of experiences of life in the academy and in the city.
During the meeting, those present took part in seminars on “A critical look at development and growth: its impact on the city and its inhabitants” and “Responding to neoliberalism and its urban and environmental consequences: the role of community organization and participation,” both convened by Amparo Chantada. Other seminars included “Neighbourhood self-diagnosis: an instrument for popular education” and “The practice of neighbourhood self-diagnosis: a visit to the barrio of Valiente, Boca Chica,” facilitated by the Red Urbano Popular coordinators.
Self-management and cooperative alternatives in housing strategies were discussed in seminars on “Experiences of housing cooperatives: self-management, self-help and collective ownership,” facilitated by Pippo Labiunda (Cooperativa CORALLI, Italy), Nestor Jeifetz (MOI-SELVIP Argentina), CTU (Venezuela), Carlos Armando, Cristina Almazán (UCISV, Mexico) and Argentina Peña (COOPHABITAT, Dominican Republic).
In the seminar on “The right to housing, land and the city in informal settlements: a critical look at the social function of land ownership, the proposal for a Popular Fund for Housing and Land was presented by Paul Makendonski (CENCA, Peru). Yves Cabannes (UN-HABITAT-AGFE) spoke on “Forced evictions and the role of the UN-HABITAT-AGFE group.”
Pedro Franco (IAI) introduced the Zero Evictions Campaign and Sandra Amparo (Ciudad Alternativa) coordinated a session on “The local context: getting to know the Charter for a Right to the City.” This was followed by a group discussion session on “Making rights a reality: the way forward,” facilitated by Yasar Adanali, Steffen Lajoie, Santos Mota (Red Urbano Popular), Santos de la Cruz (CES) and Manuel Mercedes (CNDH).
“Social leadership and participatory budgeting” involved a meeting and exchange of experiences with social leaders from Bayaguana in Monte Plata Province. It included a presentation by Yves Cabannes, convenor of UN-HABITAT-AGFE.
To round off the activities a Meeting Evaluation Workshop was led by Alessio Surian (UPU), Cristina Reynals (UPU-UBA), Mónica Zagami and Roxana Crudi (UBA).
Participants learned about collaborative research, neighbourhood self-diagnosis, the experience of housing cooperatives such as Coralli, Fedevi and MOI, and the process of participatory budgeting.
From the local and regional perspectives, it was proposed that participants should keep in contact on an ongoing basis, that opportunities for reflection should be created in organisations in their own countries, and that a regional meeting should be held before the end of 2007, involving FOVELIC (Peru) and FEDEVI (Argentina), to evaluate the collective social process started in Buenos Aires (2006). The representative from Bolivia offered to host the Third Regional UPU Meeting in 2008.

The UPU Song
IAI has organised a great event
Looking to help
Together as organisations
To build a space for people
The Urban University will be
What we'll make of it
Countries are already united
So we’re getting there..
Chorus
UPU is a space
For unity and progress
For proposals and actions
In the fight for a solution.
UPU is a space
For unity and progress,
Building power from below
The UPU is here… (Repeat)