INSEA

So I’ve officially been here in Brazil for a month now. Pretty unreal how quickly time is going by. I still feel like I’m in the process of settling in: just starting now with classes, moving into my apartment, getting my research started, making friends.

At this point I should probably put up some pictures, but the embarrassing truth is I have yet to take a single photo. I’ll try and take care of that this week and put up another post soon.

On Friday I visited the Nenuca Institute for Sustainable Development (INSEA), an NGO here that focuses on organizing wastepickers and integrated waste management systems here in Brazil. INSEA began just ten years ago as the result of a successful pilot project between Pastoral da Rua (a charity run by the Catholic Church) and the municipal government of Belo Horizonte. That project led to the creation of ASMARE – a recycler association that numbers roughly 300 strong and is now quite famous here in BH. Several people involved in that effort were so pleased with the outcome that they decided to found INSEA in order to continue the project of organizing wastepickers throughout the state of Minas Gerais. With support from the Inter-American Foundation (a US grassroots development agency where I interned several summers ago), INSEA developed programs in six municipalities around Minas. They are currently working to expand their efforts to 80 municipalities across the state, and I’ll be working with them in this effort.

What really impressed me about INSEA’s methodology was its participatory, grassroots structure. When they are beginning a project in a new area, INSEA doesn’t just rush in and try to impose its system on the local communities. Instead, they start by organizing local teams to take control of the projects. Then, INSEA experts work with these teams to carry out two preliminary diagnostics – a technical evaluation of the current waste management system and participatory meetings to learn about the structure and culture of wastepickers in the area. Afterwards, the local team and INSEA workers organize a large seminar with various local actors—wastepickers, government officials, businesses, residents and community leaders—to discuss the results of the diagnostics and ideas for moving forward. The goal of these seminars is to create a support network for the project and to enable the community to buy in to the project, especially in terms of coming to view wastepickers as key protagonists in waste management systems. After the seminar, INSEA and the local team develop a permanent structure of regular forums of “Waste and Citizenship” designed to create a space for long-term public discussion of the initiative and promote sustainability. Then, the local team uses these discussions to develop a plan for recycling and waste management specifically geared to local conditions and sensibilities. This includes three complimentary aspects: outreach campaigns to spread awareness in the community, social organization of waste picker groups and developing the structure and logistics of selective collection of recyclables. Regular monitoring and follow-up are a key part of ensuring the sustainability of these projects. And that’s basically the way the projects work. Of course this is a broad overview – I’ll have many more details in future posts, especially regarding the process of building effective waste picker organizations.

On Monday, I’ll be traveling with some INSEA representatives as they do some field visits to monitor projects around the metro area of Belo Horizonte. I’m so excited to finally get to see how everything works up close. I’m sure I’ll have another update to come soon.

www.insea.org.br