on taxes and the proper spending thereof

[the_future_modernes]

LATIN AMERICA: Community-Based Social Innovation Wins Prizes

GUATEMALA CITY, Nov 16 (IPS) - Community control of public funds will no longer be just an effective local idea, put into practice by social activists and community leaders in a town in southern Brazil. Now that it has won first prize in ECLAC's fifth Social Innovation Contest, it is likely to spread throughout Latin America.

"The prize will help us carry out our central goal, which is to replicate our project, sharing the experience we have accumulated so as to benefit other groups in Brazil and the rest of the countries in the region," Fernando Otero, coordinator of the Social Observatory of Maringá, in the southern Brazilian state of Paraná, told IPS with enthusiasm.

The geographical leap envisaged by the pioneers of this initiative, which ensures transparency in managing local assets, already has a precedent, in that similar observatories have been set up in another 35 Brazilian cities.

"Our methods can be applied anywhere in the world, with some local adaptations, obviously," said Otero after accepting the award alongside other activists at the close of the Fifth Social Innovation Fair, held Nov. 11-13 at the state University of San Carlos in Guatemala City.

"The Ethically Responsible Society Observatory mobilises the community to monitor government purchases, preventing fraud, corruption and the waste of public resources, which are a common scourge throughout Latin America," said Norah Rey de Marulanda, spokesperson for the Committee of Notables in charge of selecting the prize-winners.

The aim of the Observatory, according to its organisers, "is to stimulate the exercise of citizenship, mobilise volunteers to get involved in socially responsible activities, educate people about taxes, the environment, civic rights and duties and culture, as well as develop activities to encourage ethical behaviour among the people of Maringá."

They recognise, on the one hand, the importance of paying taxes, as it is "the only sustainable source of funds to bring about social justice," and on the other hand, the need to "monitor proper and transparent public spending."

They are convinced that if these two conditions are met, any municipality can meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), approved by the United Nations General Assembly in 2000, which include the primary objectives of halving extreme poverty and hunger by 2015, from 1990 levels. MORE