Practical
examples - Entrepreneurship
Building entrepreneurial capacity in deprived urban communities
Affluence in the larger cities and coastal areas of Portugal
coexists with concentrations of extreme poverty in derelict neighbourhoods,
sometimes little better than shanty towns. Between 2001 and 2005, approximately
15,000 people living in such neighbourhoods around Lisbon were rehoused in
social housing. The paradox of developed cities is that there are many jobs but
high unemployment, as referred to in the Commission Communication on Cohesion
Policy and the cities . The K'CIDADE project is a long-term pioneer project
testing a new methodology of building entrepreneurial capacity to help these
people take control of their own lives and escape social exclusion.
The Portuguese Minister of Work and Social Solidarity, Vieira da Silva says "two
dimensions of poverty coexist in Portugal: the old poverty linked with lack of
resources and poor qualifications, and the so-called 'new poverty'", which is
linked to trends in migration and suburbanisation. Better housing is not the end
to the problems. According to Carina Maio, a parish social worker "Mira Sintra
no longer has any shanty houses, but it does have many needs in the areas of
employment and other services such as facilities for children." The baseline
studies of these areas show that moving people to better housing without social
or economic backup runs the risk of increasing their isolation and debt.
The K'CIDADE project promoter is the Aga Khan Foundation , one of a group of
nine development agencies, which form the Aga Khan Development Network . This is
the first time that the Foundation has applied its philosophy to the new
realities of urban poverty in developed countries. The foundation's philosophy
is that, with the right support, even impoverished individuals and communities
can become the leaders of their own destiny and provide for themselves. The
President of the Portuguese Republic, Cavaco Silva, said, "The K'CIDADE won't
give [poor people] the fish, but we will teach them how to fish."
Building a community stairway to entrepreneurship
The K'CIDADE EQUAL project is funding 14 closely interconnected actions from
2005-2007 to promote entrepreneurial spirit and a culture of autonomy and
initiative. The project is distinctive in its belief that to achieve successful
activation of disadvantaged groups in the long run, it is important first to
mobilise communities and raise individual and community confidence. This
attempts to tackle the root causes, rather than just the symptoms, of social
exclusion and low entrepreneurialism.
K'CIDADE has established three Community Innovation Centres to launch and
support a range of community projects. These are designed to be "creative and
innovative spaces, planned and managed in the future by the residents". K'CIDADE
stresses the importance of finding suitable opening times and locations in the
communities as a vital step in making services 'easy-to-reach' and overcoming
the real barriers faced by these communities such as low mobility.
More than 6,000 Lisbon residents have been mobilised and 28% of them were
actively involved in the preparation of these activities
The Community Innovation Centres in Alta de Lisboa, inaugurated in March 2006,
and Mira Sintra are run by the Aga Khan Foundation, while House of Mercy is
responsible for the Centre in Ameixoeira. The other EQUAL partners organise
activities in the Centres to help animate them. Strategic support services such
as education, entrepreneurship, internet access and the capacity building of
civil society organisations are provided or facilitated.
The main innovative activities are the promotion of Community Innovation
Projects (CIPs) proposed and lead by residents. The K'CIDADE leaflets and
website ask residents in the target communities to approach them with ideas.
Once interest groups start to emerge, they are helped to plan and implement
their projects. The Aga Khan Foundation has gained considerable experience in
these bottom-up community development plans in the rural areas of developing
countries and does not provide solutions; rather the participants are encouraged
to find their own solutions. External resources are thus used to reinforce local
capacity and not to substitute for it.
Six projects are currently being implemented successfully by local beneficiaries
reaching about 600 people. These projects provide a good platform from which to
mobilise other local people. More than 6,000 residents have been mobilised for
different activities thus far with 28% of them being actively involved in the
preparation of those activities. Conceição Maia, a 37-year-old unemployed mother
with low academic skills was keen to see a leisure activity centre for the
children in her neighbourhood. She approached K'CIDADE with her idea. Although
many of her neighbours were hesitant, with the support and encouragement of
K'CIDADE, Conceição and a group of five mothers are now developing a project to
create and manage a centre to offer their children meaningful recreation and
support to complement the work of the school.
One of the mothers, Georgina Santos, explains that "Without K'CIDADE we wouldn't
have had either the strength or the enthusiasm." Elisabete Castrelas, another
group member, highlighted that "We learnt that 'no' can be overcome and we try
to find alternatives. K'CIDADE made us feel that the project is ours and we have
to work to accomplish it." This group of women are not only improving their own
lives and that of their children, but also influencing their peers by showing a
positive example of what can be achieved through mobilisation.
Building on the positive mood change and increased confidence emerging from
community mobilisation, work can then be undertaken successfully in supporting
business development. Otília Cortez is a 43-year-old African immigrant with less
than 9 years schooling who is now an entrepreneur. She has created her own
business by building on her knowledge and potential in the field of traditional
and ethnic crafts. She explains the factors leading to her success as "the
self-confidence and belief in the success of the business, as well as having a
good support network. I think the key is that when you really want something,
you can accomplish it all!"
Innovative tools to support independent business activities
A first one-stop shop was opened in March 2006 under the Community Innovation
Centre of Alta de Lisboa. These shops provide a support system to potential
entrepreneurs made up of clearly defined stages from profiling and planning to
start-up, consolidation and growth. Each stage provides services such as
counselling, motivation, vocational training, mentoring and facilitating access
to micro-credit that help the entrepreneur acquire the personal competences,
technical skills and resources necessary for success. Systems have been
developed to record the progress made by the entrepreneurs along this itinerary
in a way that is recognised by the entrepreneurs themselves, banks and other
agencies.
Business incubators are being planned specifically to attract people facing
severe disadvantages in the labour market, such as unskilled women, people with
disabilities, ethnic minorities and the long-term unemployed. The incubators
will provide new businesses practical support including physical space,
equipment, technical support and access to a shared managerial services platform
to reduce the risk for the entrepreneurs and increase the chances of success.
Tailor-made action-training courses targeted at small businesses and services
have been set up by the project partnership looking at issues such as confidence
and trust, caring and responsibilities throughout all phases of business
development. Positive entrepreneurial role models are presented by organising
contests and competitions for entrepreneurship among particular groups such as
young people. The project is actively promoting action plans for employability
developed by the local networks in the three territories and the first
job-matching projects are now starting. 25 potential entrepreneurs have started
following these support processes, of which 5 have already started running their
own businesses.
Partnership for change
The project has benefited from the diversity of the internal project partnership
emphasising the importance of cooperation between public and private
stakeholders to foster more sustainable interventions. At the opening of the
first Community Innovation Centre, Roque Amaro, an economist at the Portuguese
Work and Enterprise Sciences Institute, told Ministers, MPs, entrepreneurs and
NGOs participating in the K'CIDADE Advisory Committee, that "I have never faced
such a mixed audience of public and private actors in 25 years of working in
development." For this to work in a way that develops horizontal and vertical
linkages, it is essential to develop an enabling environment. The project meets
this challenge through a strong system of governance; in March, the first
Advisory Committee meeting engaged key national and regional stakeholders from
the public and private sectors.
Beyond the project partnership, K'CIDADE has engaged around 100 local
organisations in a participatory diagnosis to identify key issues and
perspectives. The team have subsequently mobilised nearly 70 local organisations
to think, plan and implement activities for the communities in an integrated and
mutually reinforcing manner. Local partnership and collective approaches are
uncommon in Portugal, but are fundamental to the project's philosophy of
enabling community participation and maximising local assets. Ana Barata, the
manager of a local organisation in the capacity-building process explains that
K'CIDADE's main strength is "combining top-down and bottom-up approaches and
stimulating a common learning process."
Reinforcing networks and the capacities of local social organisations is
essential to engage them effectively in partnership. 81 workers from six
organisations have been involved in capacity building processes leading to the
strengthening of three local partnership networks and 218 local development
agents. Activities such as joint training sessions and workshops for local
development agents, on-the-job consultancy for local organisations and exposure
visits have raised the participating agencies' awareness of the issues at stake
and the project's approach.
The project team complement their skills by ad-hoc agreements with external
actors to bring a specific added value. Hewlett Packard has signed an agreement
with K'CIDADE to test the Micro Enterprise Acceleration Programme to provide
comprehensive start-up assistance and technology access to micro enterprises in
low-income communities. The curriculum targets micro enterprise entrepreneurs in
underprivileged communities who are interested in developing their business, but
may not be able to access information and communication technologies.
Empowering people through information, education and training
Participatory digital resource guides have been developed to give residents and
local organisations better access to information on local resources and
infrastructure. These are now managed by 56 local organisations; K'CIDADE
trained 87 local development agents on how to use and update the guides.
Three internet spaces with 15 computers each have brought new opportunities to
over 600 people, including women, long-term unemployed people and adults over 55
years old. Already more than 120 people have received basic training and
certification in new technologies. Besides helping people acquire job-related
skills, the digital tools have proved to be excellent community mobilisers, with
impacts on other areas of the Programme.
The long-term approach of the project in addressing the causes and not just the
symptoms of social exclusion and the lack of entrepreneurial enterprise is
reflected in the education dimension of the project. The Childhood Association
develops entrepreneurial skills by training teachers in more active models of
education (EDUCARE) which are designed to improve the autonomy, creativity and
responsibility of children, their families and teachers. Children enjoy
themselves while they are taught to investigate, to mobilise resources and to
pursue their own interests.
A publication and videos will illustrate methods and techniques used to reach
out to marginalised and disadvantaged communities and improve education. The
series should prove useful for practitioners, policy-makers and scholars in
illustrating experience and practice in developing education and empowerment for
entrepreneurship.
Mainstreaming methods into future social development work
The problems of marginalisation exist throughout the country. The Portuguese
government would like K'CIDADE to expand beyond the Lisbon area from 2009 and
the Portuguese Prime Minister, José Sócrates, signed a Protocol with the Aga
Khan Foundation in December 2005. The Ministry of Labour and Social Solidarity
has invited K'CIDADE to provide training to social workers from the Lisbon
district and to consider the expansion of the work to other areas of the
country.
Otília Cortez presenting the business creation process to the President of the
Portuguese Republic
A specific advocacy plan has been designed to enable successful mainstreaming
with a synthesis of the lessons learned and knowledge gained. It advocates for
good governance, inclusive, participatory decision-making processes and capacity
building at local and regional levels. A rigorous monitoring and impact
assessment framework has been developed with stakeholder and partner
organisations. Compatible with the methods used for evaluating the EU Structural
Funds, a range of verifiable quantitative and qualitative methods for assessing
capacity building, potential for change, and perceptions of improvements in the
quality of life are used. An initial sample-based, participatory study provided
a baseline set of indicators against which future impact assessments can be
measured to reveal changes in social development.
This framework aims to help communities, technical staff and implementing
partners' increase their capacity to critically re-assessing their progress and
adapt their actions accordingly. Community-defined indicators like community
scorecards and portfolios will provide a key mechanism to balance or validate
professionally defined indicators and engage all the stakeholders, especially
the community members within the monitoring and evaluation culture.
DP name: Urban Community Support Programme - KCIDADE
DP ID:
PT-2004-096
Transnacional Partners: Spain,
ES-ES20040327, E+, Emprende +, Emprende en positivo / UK,
UKgb-139, Strategic Vision for Entrepreneurship for London South Central
(STRIVE)
TCA id code:
3863 STRIVE+
Contact DP: Maria Marques (Fundação Aga Khan)
Tel.: + 351 217229001
E-mail: geral@kcidade.com
Website: www.kcidade.com
Cohesion Policy and cities: the urban contribution to growth and jobs in the regions. COM (2006) 385 final.
The Aga Khan Foundation is a private, non-denominational, development agency, established by His Highness the Aga Khan in Switzerland in 1967. The Foundation seeks sustainable solutions to long-term problems of poverty through an integrated, community-based, participatory approach that reinforces civil society and respects local culture.
The Network operates in social and economic development as well as in the field of culture, has an annual budget of more than 300 million dollars, works in more than 30 countries and has more than 55.000 employees. It has established 171 health facilities, 5 hospitals and 304 schools with more than 58,000 pupils.
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