FTurban ingenuity September 13 2012

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foreword

Vital services

ankind’s progress through the millennia has been intimately entwined with the development of cities. from the ancient near east cradles of civilisation to the modern Mmegalopolis, the growth of urban living, with its concentrations of population and talent, has spurred creativity, economic growth, civic society and democracy. In medieval europe, feudal serfs who fled to the city and its more liberal environs could, at one time, gain their free- dom after living there a year and a day, leading to the saying Stadtluft macht frei – urban air makes you free. the words still resonate – albeit in a very different context and with a changed meaning: the city can liberate the individual from a past life and offer an exciting new beginning. today, urbanisation is proceeding at an explosive pace across the globe, bringing great opportunities for progress as well as great challenges, underlined by the slums that disfig- ure so many developing world cities. two hundred years ago a mere 3 per cent of the world’s population lived in cities. four years ago, that figure surpassed 50 per cent, or 3.5bn. theUN forecasts the total will be 5bn by 2030. all this poses an immense challenge to create city environ- ments that enhance the quality of life rather than undermine it. It is against this background that the financial times is publishing a series of three magazines on urban ingenuity, to accompany a global awards scheme run jointly by the ft and Citi, the US financial services giant. the ft/Citi Ingenuity awards: Urban Ideas in action programme will recognise individuals or organisations that have found solutions to urban challenges in four areas – energy, infrastructure, education and healthcare. the research partner for the awards is Insead, the international business school. this is the second ft Urban Ingenuity magazine and covers education and healthcare, the vital human services without which cities cannot thrive. the first magazine, published in July, covered energy and infrastructure, which form the environment that makes city living tolerable. a third magazine will provide the backdrop to the awards, which will be announced in December. the magazines include profiles of the strongest candidates for the awards and contributions from key opinion formers and experts on how to rise to the challenge of advanced urbanisation. accompanying videos are on ft.com. We at the ft, with our global reach and reputation for the exchange of cutting-edge ideas, are delighted to support this important initiative, addressing one of the most challenging issues of our time. n

Martin Dickson Deputy editor, Financial Times Cover photo: afp/getty

ft.com/INGeNUItY | 3 urban ingenuity contents

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6 introduction charity had to gain the children by educating and Urban centres can attract community’s trust entertaining them the best and the brightest.

the challenge is to avoid 20 protect your cHild 32 college possible hite the poor being alienated entertainment for children a mentoring programme -w has been a successful way in the Us is giving students 8 comment to raise health awareness access to higher education the Undp’s helen Clark among parents in egypt says reconstruction in haiti 34 dubrovniK has been a model of 22 gsK new citizen the Croatian city is using community engagement a community project in education to encourage shanghai aims to inform young people to stay 12 HealtH migrants how to access as cites grow more healthcare services 38 power of seeing crowded, projects young people are seizing recognise that prevention 26 education the initiative to improve is better than cure disparities persist between their environment developed and 12 pro mujer emerging 42 sustainable cities a credit provider’s economies oregon towns in need of procedures have been regeneration have tapped life-changing for 28 aprendo the talent of local students women in nicaragua contigo aperuvian comment 16 cHild eye care charity brings 46 new york mayor Michael before it could treat eye hope to bloomberg says city halls disease in Mumbai, a hospitalised must take the lead photos: oswaldo Rivas; Max Cabello; ChaRlie bibby; siMon de tRey

4 |ft.com/ingenuity Special reports editor 12 Michael Skapinker Editor 32 Hugo Greenhalgh Commissioning editor Rohit Jaggi Design Sheila Jack Picture editor Michael Crabtree Production editor Jearelle Wolhuter Sub-editor Philip Parrish Advertising production Daniel Lesar, Daniel Scanlon CONTRIBUTORS MICHAEL BLOOMBERG is mayor of New York City and chairman of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group JAN CIENSKI is the FT’s Warsaw and Prague correspondent 20 HELEN CLARK is administrator of the UNDP and a former prime minister of New Zealand CHRIS COOK is the FT’s education correspondent JAMES CRABTREE is the FT’s Mumbai correspondent APRIL DEMBOSKY is the FT’s San Francisco correspondent ANDREW JACK is the FT’s pharmaceuticals correspondent AMY KAZMIN is the FT’s south Asia correspondent BENEDICT MANDER is the 42 FT’s Venezuela and Caribbean correspondent SARAH NEVILLE is the FT’s public policy editor HEBA SALEH is the FT’s Cairo correspondent ANDRES SCHIPANI is the FT’s Andes correspondent PATTI WALDMEIR is the FT’s Shanghai correspondent HAL WEITZMAN is the FT’s Chicago and Midwest correspondent

Let us know your thoughts Your comments will be appreciated. Please write to Rohit Jaggi, FT Urban Ingenuity magazine, Financial Times, One 38 Southwark Bridge, London SE1 9HL, or email [email protected].

FT.COM/INGENUITY | 5 introduction

Hard times: But “push” as well as “pull” Big city blues in China, factors have always been pivotal many urban in the development of cities. migrants ‘feel along with the best and the Urban centres can attract the best and the afraid and brightest, they have also isolated in attracted the poor who, no longer brightest, but they can also be alienating their new able to sustain an agrarian life, places to live for the poor, writes Sarah Neville environment’ have frequently found themselves on the bottom rung of its harsh economic hierarchies. he metropolis, once growth had accelerated it is the latter group on which a shining symbol dramatically, one in two of us the entrants to the Ft/Citi inge- of achievement were city dwellers. nuity awards: Urban ideas in populated by a lucky once, these urban conglom- action have principally focused. Telite, is fast becoming erations represented safety – through the prism of these the principal model of human the “city on a hill”, whose geo- entries, the shape of the modern organisation for the world. graphical advantage allowed its city becomes clear. it is a place according to the Population inhabitants to repel marauders. where newcomers are often seen han Browning; adeel halim at reference Bureau, in 1800 in an industrialised age, it came as burdens rather than welcome just 3 per cent of the population to embody opportunity, attract- infusions of human capital. lived in cities. By 2008, follow- ing the driven and talented, But to a small and inspir- ing six decades in which urban anxious to make their mark. ing group of leaders, the urban Photos: Jon

6 |ft.com/ingenuity needs of its citizens. In others, that humanity has yet devised, the state has becoming a willing by hosting its first wedding. and facilitating partner in Cheng Xiaoping, a migrant the enterprise. worker, says she chose to get Innovations in this context married there because “the peo- do not rely on technological ple here are like my own family”. advances or one individual’s An undertone of challenge “eureka” moment. Instead, to the authorities is a feature of they arise organically, from the several submissions. A project in pavement up. In at least one Peru provides schooling for chil- instance, this is literally as well Good dren of low-income families who as figuratively the case. neighbours: are undergoing long stays in In India, the Power of Seeing many urban hospital. The founder, a teacher, project helps schoolchildren innovations lost her own small son to cancer engage with their neighbour- arise orga- and resolved to improve the lot hoods. Each adopts a street, nically in of other parents and children in focusing on the mess, poor community similar situations. design and danger in a sliver of groups Many of the children came the city. The initiative seeks to to Lima from small towns create an army of young “change and rural communities. Their agents”, connected as never experience has been of a “large, before to the world around them chaotic and hostile city” where and filled with resolve to tackle they are often “mistreated and what they see. discriminated against”. The twin themes of collec- The kindness and respect tive action and empowerment they encounter through this pro- evident in that submission gramme can help to shape their run deeply through view of the city in which they all the entries. ‘The themes have come to live. In so doing, In China, the the project fills a void left by the GSK New Citizen of collective Peruvian state. Health Care Project action and Amid a far more prosper- integrates migrant ous society, the College Pos- underclass is much more than a populations into city empowerment sible project in the US similarly drain on already hard-pressed life. These people run through seeks to tackle a sense of wasted resources. It is full of potential are disadvantaged in potential. Through strong and talents that can make the many ways, forced all the entries’ role models, the project tries city better for everyone. to take dirty and to prompt young people from The cities that have spawned dangerous jobs that others disadvantaged backgrounds to the innovations submitted for shun and facing significant realise that they are as entitled the education and healthcare difficulties in accessing educa- to a higher education as their categories of the awards could tion, health and housing. richer counterparts. not be more different: from In words that sum up the Each entrant is asked what is the teeming, sometimes dan- hostility that can underlie the needed to make its ideas work. gerous streets of India, to the opportunities cities offer, the In every case, the answer almost incomparably more submission notes that their includes “people”. In other prosperous metropolitan terrain challenges are those of most words, the solutions to what ails of the US. But whatever the urban migrant populations. the city can be found not in glit- economic disparities between They “feel afraid and isolated in tering technology or scientific them, each has found a way to their new environment”. wizardry, but among its citizens. harness the resilience and One of the centres opened With vision, compassion and a compassion of individuals. under its auspices has even sense of responsibility to others, In some cases, the initiative formed the backdrop to a cel- they can redefine not only their fills a yawning gap left by the ebration of the most powerful own lives but the entire urban failure of the state to meet the exercise in tackling loneliness experience. 

ft.com/ingenuity | 7 COMMENT HELEN CLARK

materials through the Carmen Building blocks project’s innovative money transfer scheme via mobile phone. The eyes of this woman, Reconstruction in Haiti following the 2010 earthquake who had never had a bank account before, brightened when has been a model of how to engage communities she recalled receiving that first text message informing her the deposit had been made in her uring my visit to needed to be restored. Haitian mobile banking account. Haiti a few months families and communities have In each neighbourhood, ago, I saw huge been at the forefront of efforts community platforms have been change from the to build more resilient cities. formed where community mem- Ddesolation I wit- Women, who head more than 40 bers themselves decide on the nessed in the capital four days per cent of Haitian households, design and layout of their sur- after the earthquake of January have played a vital role. roundings, and prioritise needs 2010. The streets of Port-au- Community Support Centre such as the establishment of Prince were alive with sellers of for House Self-Repair (known by disaster-resilient infrastructure. handicrafts, fruits, vegetables its French acronym Carmen) has Experience in Haiti, as else- and much else on every corner. been empowering earthquake- where, shows that investing in The earthquake caused affected communities in Port- local solutions and technologies more than 80,000 au-Prince and the works. The results achieved so buildings in Port- Women, who western town of far, though, would have been au-Prince and the Léogâne to take impossible without the unprec- surrounding areas to head more charge of house edented support and funding collapse. Now, 70 per than 40 per repairs, backed by following the earthquake. cent of the debris has cent of Haitian engineering assess- There is still a critical need been cleared, thanks ments and construc- for housing solutions as Haitian to efforts by the households, tion training. This cities continue to expand. The Haitian people, civil have played UNDP and Haiti need is acute in Port-au-Prince, society, the interna- government initia- where more than 2.5m people – tional community a vital role tive has registered a quarter of the country’s popu- and local authorities. around 20,000 lation – live. The UNDP believes Debris has been recycled people, and 5,000 are being Blossoming there is a need for a compre- into non-structural building trained in disaster-resilient revival: the hensive national strategy that materials, out of which memori- homebuilding techniques. Nearly Carnaval adheres to agreed urban plans als, stairs and public squares half the participants are women. des Fleurs in and standards. To help solve have been created. These initia- I was inspired by 48-year- Port-au-Prince this problem, the first housing tives generated temporary work old Gela Richemond, whose this July policy in Haitian history is to be for thousands of people and have house was severely damaged launched this year. provided opportunities for by the earthquake. She joined Haiti’s main cities still face Haitians to set up small busi- the house repair initiative challenges to recover fully and nesses and to promote recycling so that she could develop sustainably. These can and safe construction standards. repair her only be solved with the leader- The UN Development home, earn ship of national authorities, Programme (UNDP) and other money and gain the engagement of the UN agencies also assisted the new skills – putting Haitian people and the government to develop a national her in a position to continued support of strategy for debris management, offer services to others Haiti’s international creating a debris stock exchange with similar needs. partners.  to co-ordinate the reuse of rubble Richemond is for construction. among 1,000 low- Helen Clark is administrator To encourage the return of income Haitians who of the UN Development displaced families, houses, essen- have received a $500 Programme and a former tial services and infrastructure grant to buy construction prime minister of New Zealand PHOTO: REUTERS

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health introduction

Sporting chance

As cities grow more crowded, projects around for fresh policies to meet their the world recognise that prevention of poor specific needs, through projects such as those recognised by the health is better than cure, writes Andrew Jack Ft/citi ingenuity awards. there has been much talk of an “urban advantage” in health. decade ago, a few island in east london but a the argument goes that city allotments were park for east london. We are dwellers, with greater access than the only healthy committed not just to providing people in rural areas to medical activity in a stretch sporting facilities but quality of facilities, lead longer, healthier A of east london life in an area with obesity and lives. but that is far from univer- dominated by factories, pollu- shorter life expectancy.” sally true in richer countries let tion and rubbish. Next month, the result will be the start of alone the developing world. the london legacy Develop- one of the UK’s most ambitious yvonne rydin is director of ment corporation will start work – and costly – urban renewal the environment institute at turning it from a glitzy olympics projects that will provide University college london and hub into a public space with public transport, afford- co-authored the recent lancet modern sporting infrastructure, able sports facilities and even commission report Shaping cit- cultural attractions, homes, personal trainers “prescribed” ies for health. “everybody agrees offices and shops. by local doctors to improve the urban areas have the potential Peter tudor, director for health of residents. cycling and to improve health and we know venues at what will become the walking will be encouraged. how to make cities healthier,” she Queen elizabeth olympic Park, With more than half of the says. “We know what we need to says: “We are going to make sure world’s 7bn people now living in do, but institutions are still not this becomes not an isolated cities, there is an increasing need doing it. it’s really frustrating.” Photo: charlie bibby

10 |ft.com/ingenuity mothers to address malnourish- ment and vitamin deficiency in their children, in the process empowering the community to improve hygiene and the quality of the local environment. Pro Mujer, another project on the shortlist in the health- care category of the awards, initially focused its work in Nicaragua but has now spread to other parts of Latin America. It built on its existing networks that offer financial services to women, providing low-cost medical consultations as well. In Egypt, Protect Your Child has organised competitions for parents, combined with colouring books and cartoons distributed to children, to spread health education messages such as the importance of hygiene and vaccination. Leap forward: the London GlaxoSmithKline’s New Olympic BMX circuit Citizen Health Care project in will become part of a Shanghai is providing health redeveloped VeloPark education and treatment for migrant workers, one of the most disadvantaged groups in China’s While few diseases are “We need to While few rapidly urbanising population. specifically urban, many are work with patients While all these examples more prevalent in urban areas and the public, and diseases are come from poor city areas, there and are exacerbated by high bring services out specifically are two similarities with urban population densities. The surge of hospitals into the health initiatives everywhere: in motorised transport has made places of highest urban, many are the importance of prevention cities a disproportionate locus need,” says Arpana more prevalent rather than simply treatment, of accidents, while emissions Verma, director and the empowerment of local have contributed to a concentra- of the Manchester in urban areas communities and individuals to tion of respiratory diseases. Urban Collaboration make a difference. The primacy of the car has on Health at the University That is echoed by Hugh led to less physical activity in of Manchester. Barton, emeritus professor of urban working life, while the In much of the developing planning, health and sustainabil- demand for building land has world, notably in the informal ity at the University of the West reduced the amount of green slums and shanty towns that are of England and an advocate of space available for leisure. the fastest-growing urban resi- integrated public transport and Cities also host huge inequali- dential areas, better provision of green spaces to encouraging ties, presenting policymakers sanitation, clean water and other walking. “The most fundamen- with ethical and practical con- basic services would make the tal thing is to give power to the cerns. Large concentrations of greatest difference to health. cities,” he says. “Public health poorer residents with ill health In the absence of more sys- specialists now recognise the require specific policies; their tematic, government-led provi- importance of the built environ- proximity to richer, healthier sion in India, the Child Eye Care ment, but builders, planners and neighbours can lead to mental Charitable Trust in the slums governments are still not taking problems and crime for all. of Mumbai has worked with into account public health.” 

ft.com/ingenuity | 11 HEALTHCARE PRO MUJER

Sitting pretty: Pro Mujer has brought Edelma Altamirano freedom from domestic abuse

12 |fT.COM/ingEnUiTy Poverty in check

A credit provider’s procedures have been financially and physically life-changing for women in Nicaragua, writes Benedict Mander Photographs by Oswaldo Rivas

n the shadow of the “If they hadn’t insisted I take majestic, gaseous crater of the test, I wouldn’t be telling this the San Cristóbal volcano, story,” she says matter-of-factly, Nicaragua’s highest, María explaining that although she knew IConcepción Morán leans what the test was, she would never back on a plastic chair on the dirt have bothered to have one, as floor of her backyard in the small “no one encouraged me to”. town of Chichigalpa, calmly Morán has now borrowed recounting the time when her life 42,000 cordobas over six had sunk to its lowest point. months, enabling her to turn her “My house was made of plas- venture into a flourishing local tic, cardboard and a few poles store, selling everything from – I had nothing,” she says in the mobile phone credit to toys, shade of some lemon trees and soap, vegetables and fizzy drinks. her family’s latest batch of wash- She has even put aside savings of ing. “I was stressed, I had high 15,000 cordobas. blood pressure, I used to cry a She says: “It’s not much good lot. Every winter the rains would having money if I don’t have my soak my bed.” health. The important thing is That all changed three years that I do still have that.” For that, ago when she found out about she thanks Pro Mujer. a local microfinance Morán is just one of organisation called ‘It’s not much around 41,000 women Pro Mujer (Spanish who are clients of Pro for “pro woman”), good having Mujer in Nicaragua, and joined a group money if I the second poor- of 20 other women, est country in Latin who clubbed together don’t have America. After being and asked for a loan. my health’ founded in Bolivia She borrowed 3,000 in 1996, Pro Mujer cordobas ($125), paid set up operations in in fortnightly instalments over 1999 in poor neighbourhoods in six months, to invest in a proper Nicaragua, where it has amassed roof and some groceries, which a loan portfolio that stood at she sold to her neighbours. $9.7m in December 2011. But then something else But Pro Mujer, which has happened. Thanks to an innova- also set up offices in Argentina, tive health programme being Mexico and Peru, is about more pioneered by Pro Mujer, which than lending money to mostly lends to its clients on condition poor women in need of funds to that they take some basic health set up small businesses. At the tests, including a cervical smear core of the organisation’s phi- every six months, Morán discov- losophy is also the provision of ered she had cervical cancer. access to primary health clinics ➤

ft.com/ingenuity | 13 Community strides in attacking some of the service: Pro biggest afflictions facing women Mujer wants in the region, such as cancer, to offer more diabetes and hypertension. advanced “We have saved the lives of a treatments lot of people,” says García, intro- ducing the softly spoken woman she is attending as Doña María, who makes a living selling beans in the street. “People don’t look after them- selves,” says María, who adds she is grateful for García insisting she went to hospital to get her gynaecological problems treated properly. “If it wasn’t for her, I don’t know what would have happened. If I’m ill I can’t work.” “Prevention is so much and training in basic business “We didn’t come to lend but to cheaper than the cure,” says skills, health education and self- use loans as a way to promote García. Just with regard to cervi- esteem awareness. education and empowerment. cal cancer, Pro Mujer has carried “The credit is just a means These services are a powerful out more than 30,000 smear to an end, which is to promote way to reduce poverty.” tests in Nicaragua, of which the development of women,” In Pro Mujer’s clean, air-con- almost 3,000 detected malig- says Gloria Ruiz, who runs Pro ditioned offices in León, a city nant or pre-malignant lesions. Mujer’s operations in Nicaragua. of faded colonial beauty in the García adds that Pro Mujer “The wonderful thing about north of Nicaragua, women with wants to provide its services to Pro Mujer is that it provides an air of hope and calm gather to the wider community. As well an opportunity to give women take advantage of the organisa- as basic tests such as body mass training so that they can change tion’s three key functions: the index, blood, urine, pulse and their attitudes.” She adds that provision of credit, training and weight, Pro Mujer is starting to the practice of linking loans with health services. offer more advanced services, health services is unique. In the health clinic, Dr Marta including dental, optical and “It is not just about lending García explains with enthusiasm gynaecological treatment. and debt collecting,” she says. how Pro Mujer has taken great Patricia Padilla, who runs a

14 |ft.com/ingenuity HeALtHcARe PRomujeR

competing microfinance institu- have a high impact, be easily government, even if it doesn’t tion in Nicaragua called ADIM accessible and self-sustaining. really like what we’re doing”, (which translates as the Alterna- “Any programme that achieves says Ruiz, who explains that Pro tive Association for the Integral these three elements will last Mujer can only detect serious Development of Women), is full over time,” she says. health problems, and that treat- of praise for Pro Mujer. Pro Mujer has been uniquely ment for cancer or similar life- “They’re not just good, they’re successful in tackling another threatening diseases must often extremely good,” she says, obstacle faced by microfinance be provided by the public sector. describing the organisation’s institutions in the country – its In the face of such adversity, social work as “excellent”. She left-wing government headed Ruiz, an energetic, constantly adds: “They are very innovative by the populist leader Daniel busy woman, remains commit- and the extent of their client Ortega, says Padilla. It was ted to her job: “There’s nothing base is impressive.” She admires the only microlender to win more beautiful than arriving at Pro Mujer’s ability to continue approval from a government- a community and finding poor growing during the global finan- backed group called the No Pay women who have lost all hope cial crisis, the only microfinance movement that was set up in for the future, and to be able to institution in Nicaragua to do so. 2009. The move- inject energy into ment allowed its them and tell them, members to keep ‘I didn’t have ‘Yes you can!’” making payments faith in myself, Edelma to Pro Mujer – in Altamirano was contrast to other but Pro Mujer one such woman. microlenders. lifted my self- She explains from a Ruiz, an agricul- rocking chair in her tural engineer by esteem hugely’ sparsely decorated training, says this but spotlessly clean is because one of its living room how leaders was a client of Pro Mujer. she used to be a virtual captive, Still, she accepts private beaten by her husband. Then microfinance institutions, a friend at Pro Mujer told her: though many are often accused “You’re no fool – you can make by politicians of charging inter- it alone.” est rates that are too high, are an “I remember it well – it was Nevertheless, she is con- Brisk trade: irritant for Nicaragua’s govern- November 30 nine years ago,” cerned about the sustainability María ment, which has its own microfi- says Altamirano. “I borrowed of Pro Mujer’s non-financial Concepción nance programme, Zero Usury. 2,000 cordobas, which for me operations, suggesting that Morán (above) Ruiz says: “They don’t want was a huge amount of money. unless it expands its health clinic at work to have competition in this, What am I going to do with all services, and thus is able to following and Pro Mujer is a very strong that, I thought? charge more (its clients get up to her recovery competitor.” Padilla reckons that “I didn’t have faith in myself, a 50 per cent discount for some from cancer “since the No Pay movement, but Pro Mujer lifted my self- services), paying doctors may the government has come to the esteem hugely.” Not only did she become burdensome. conclusion that we are a neces- discover after using one of Pro Ruiz says Pro Mujer’s non- sary evil”. Mujer’s smear tests that she had financial operations are “the key” That Pro Mujer’s headquar- level two cancer – from which to breaking the cycle of poverty ters are in New York, and that she has recovered – but she also in which many of its clients are in the past it has received grants had the courage to leave her stuck. Nevertheless, she admits from organisations disliked by husband two years ago. Pro Mujer cannot depend on Nicaragua’s “anti-imperialist” Ruiz says: “We raise unpredictable donations, empha- government such as the United [women’s] spirits – they only sizing the importance of making States Agency for International need a helping hand. To see clients aware they must invest Development, is further cause them with flourishing busi- in their own personal develop- for complaint. nesses, that even their husbands ment, training and health. Ruiz Even so, “the organisation will leave their jobs to help out says non-financial products must has strategic alliances with the with, is truly rewarding.” 

ft.com/ingenuity | 15 HEALTHcArE cHiLdEyE cArE cHAriTAbLE TrusT

Visionary tactics

Before it could treat eye disease in Mumbai a charity had to use other means to gain the community’s trust, says James Crabtree Photographs by Adeel Halim

tanding amid a throng eye syndrome. The condition ent approaches. Its location was of curious children in causes permanent blindness in to be one of the world’s largest Mawle Nagar, a chaotic tens of thousands of malnour- and most challenging slums – slum in the north of ished children across the devel- Dharavi, which today houses SMumbai, I am faced oping world each year, despite around 1m people on 540 acres with a conundrum. being easily preventable with in mid-town Mumbai, making it I have spent the afternoon vitamin A supplements, or even one of the world’s most densely being guided through a series a cup of spinach or a few carrots, populated habitations. of projects by Gopa Kothari, a three times a week. The situation she found was paediatrician with expertise in Our visit to Mawle Nagar is grim: 8 per cent of children in the prevention of child blindness just one scene in a bold 30-year the area weighed less than 60 per who has spent three decades experiment in which Kothari’s cent of the average for their age, working in more than a dozen of organisation has moved from their undernourishment placing the shanty-ridden communities slum to slum, trialling new ways them at severe risk of blindness. that dot India’s financial capital. of persuading residents to pre- Yet many parents needed special Dressed in an elegant yellow vent the condition themselves. It convincing: attacks of blindness sari, she has taken me to visit is a journey that has convinced were often seen as the work of improbably tiny “micro-skill” her of one simple message: help angry gods or evil spirits, she classrooms, where young women people with what they think recalls, to be treated by ineffec- learn to embroider and produce they need first. “Once you have tual faith healers or herbal rem- decorative arts, and to home- established a good rapport,” she edies. The educational materials based cooking businesses and says, “you can talk about what used by previous projects often workshops on the best ways to you want to talk about.” proved ineffective too; many fea- sterilise water. Kothari’s experiment began in tured pictures of African women, But while Kothari’s charity’s 1981, as India’s political leaders which made little sense to moth- is called the Child searched for ways to ers in an Indian slum. Eye Care Charitable ‘Once you have reduce the nation’s Kothari dreamed up posters Trust, almost noth- 40,000 cases of more suited to local tastes. One ing we have seen has established a xerophthalmia featured Ganesh, the pot-bellied anything to do with good rapport each year. Progress Hindu elephant god, holding children or eyesight. was slow. Numer- blindness remedies in each of his “When you you can talk ous large-scale seven hands. Another played on enter a community about what government health patriotism, featuring an image you have to have a you want to’ programmes had of India’s national flag, but with dialogue with the tried to offer vita- its green and orange stripes leaders of the com- min sachets to slum replaced by spinach and pulses. munity, who often feel people children, while exhorting their These materials were put to come to exploit them,” she says, parents to eat more healthily. work as part of a broader pro- when I ask why her organisa- These efforts worked for a while, gramme educating parents about Spreading the tion backs such a hodgepodge of but when the health workers left, health and nutrition, while pro- message: Gopa ventures. “The entry point has to the blindness rates rose again. viding vitamin supplements to Kothari’s charity be their needs, not yours.” After a summit meeting in their children. Elsewhere, local has worked in What Kothari wants to talk New Delhi Kothari was asked to shopkeepers were encouraged to the slums for about is xerophthalmia, or dry head a pilot project to test differ- sell dark-leafed vegetables, while ➤ over 30 years

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HeALtHcAre cHiLd eye cAre cHAritAbLe trust

training schemes in crafts such learning and teaching it,” she as sewing and basket-making says. “The next class I want to helped to boost incomes. Those take is driving, precisely because who needed specific medical help in our community it is not really were taken to a nearby hospital. allowed for girls.” The three-year pilot was The sometimes oblique link hugely successful: severe child between such classes and eye malnutrition dropped from 8 care also becomes clearer. “The per cent to 1 per cent, while child trust made announcements for blindness fell sharply too. Buoyed days before it set up a camp by the success, Kothari decided where it offered cheap eye to expand the programme, and exams, advice and medicines,” it was at this moment that her Shahnawaz says. experiments began in earnest. “My mother had cataracts but “When we first enter an area, had surgery after a doctor at the we will do a survey and find popular contribution, as in many Entry points: camp advised her to do so. Now there are children who are anae- other slums, turned out to be a amid the we all have knowledge about mic, mothers who are malnour- series of “micro-skill” classes, in poverty of how to take care of our eyes.” The ished, people who need cataract which they trained local women Mumbai’s students nod politely when asked surgery, so you know healthcare as teachers, on condition that slums (above) if they know of Kothari’s work on and eye-care is required, which is they ran classes for others. ‘micro skill’ child blindness; one even says, our domain,” she explains. The trust formally left Mawle classes (right) with a knowing smile, that she “But if you ask people what Nagar in 2008 – its projects run have proved eats plenty of carrots. they think, they will come out typically for around four years popular The slum is an example of a with all sorts of things – except before being handed over to the model that, despite its limited for health. For them, water might community – but these classes scale, seems to achieve results. In be a priority or getting a good hut were still going strong when I all the slums in which the trust or increasing their income.” visited, on a damp late monsoon worked between 1981 and 2011, It was in 2003 – more than afternoon in August this year. child blindness rates fell substan- two decades and a dozen slum In one tiny classroom I found tially. More importantly, when it projects later – that the trust first about 20 female students learn- handed its work over to the com- looked at setting up its opera- ing traditional sewing skills, munity, rates stayed down. tions in Mawle Nagar, a mostly presided over by Shabina Munna “Some non-government Muslim area with a population Sheikh, a 21-year-old who organisations can end up being of around 13,000, crammed became certified as a tailor with quite destructive,” says Matias into a small patch of land about the trust’s help five years ago. Echanove, an expert on urban 20 minutes north of Mumbai’s “I used to sit at planning based in Dharavi. international airport. home, totally useless,” The slum is a “Their relationship with the local Early discussions threw up a she says, in front of community can be very political range of problems, most promi- her class. “When I model that, and very difficult. But if you work nently about limited water sup- started teaching I felt despite its through existing organisations plies and dirt roads; as usual, no much more confident and power structures, without one seemed to care much about and good about limited scale, entirely buying into them, you eye problems. “Luckily for us earning something seems to can get round some of this.” there was an election coming up,” for my family. I now But for Kothari, it is the she recalls. After pressure was make about Rs3,000 achieve results simplest lesson that resonates brought to bear on vote-hungry [$54] a month.” most deeply. “Have you got to the politicians, the quality of water A similar, positive effect is underlying causes?” she asks. and roads suddenly improved. clear in a second makeshift “Today you have dealt with one It was only after this that classroom, where Rubina child, but another will come along the trust could push its own Shahnawaz, 20, teaches painting in a few years. To do this you have agenda: talking to mothers about and decorative henna techniques. to find ways to hand over to the nutrition and organising health She giggles at the mention of community. It is the only way.”  camps with doctors to pro- taking driving lessons. “I always Additional reporting by vide treatment. But their most had an interest in art, both in Kanupriya Kapoor

18 |ft.com/ingenuity

HEALTHCARE PROTECT YOUR CHILD

group of young volunteers to Comic relief teach parents and children how to avoid deadly disease. Sitting in his spartan office Entertainment for children has been a in a suburb of Cairo, Mohamed Zaazoue, the 25-year-old doctor successful way to raise health awareness who is the prime mover behind among parents, writes Heba Saleh the initiative, says he wanted to come up with an “innovative and entertaining way” to spread the he evil duo Hemo with pneumonia, the biggest Target health awareness message. and Nemo pounce killer of under-fives in Egypt. audience: “In Egypt there is the idea on Montasser, an But the young boy follows his children in that health education is only for unsuspecting child, doctor’s advice by taking medi- the Cairo doctors,” he says. “So if you are Tas they have on so cation, eating healthy food and slum of Arab ill you go to a doctor, he gives many other children – often learning to wash his hands and al-Tawaylah you a prescription and that’s with fatal results. open windows to let in fresh it. Because people don’t learn Hemo and Nemo are two air – all measures that help him about health there is a very high bacteria drawn as squiggly recover and avoid re-infection. mortality and morbidity from characters in a comic book, and Montasser Yantasser, which preventable diseases. Every they aim to infect Montasser translates as Victor is Victorious, year, pneumonia kills 42,000 is the title of the comic colour- children in Egypt.” ing book used by Protect Protect Your Child started in Your Child, a health September 2011 but has already awareness initia- reached 10,000 families, says tive launched by a Zaazoue, with 14,000 children vaccinated against pneumonia using vaccines donated by Pfizer, the drug com- pany. The cam- paign, carried out under the umbrella of the Egyptian Medical Stu- dents’ Asso- ciation, focuses on poor areas in Cairo and the countryside. Its volun- teers take the message using the col- ouring books, puppet shows and games to schools, nurseries and hospitals. “We decided to start with children

20 |FT.COM/INGENUITY because they are a good entry Soliman, who co-ordinates the point to approach families,” says volunteers helping with the Zaazoue. His plans for the future initiative, is to persuade the include campaigns to educate Egyptian health ministry to the public about diseases that include the expensive pneumo- affect adults. nia vaccine in its free immuni- Hospital waiting rooms are sation programme. ideal places to spread the word, “My biggest challenge is to he says, because parents with get the ministry to include it sick children often have to wait within five years,” she says. “I several hours to see a doctor. also need more people to help The volunteers usually say they so we can reach more places.” are organising a competition, According to Zaazoue, the then they offer health awareness next project is a campaign information before presenting about iron deficiency anaemia. parents with an easy quiz on A new colouring what they have just heard. Life drawing: In the upper ‘We decided book about “Everyone is a winner,” pictures from Egyptian province Montasser said Zaazoue. “We even give the colouring of Assiut, Mahmoud to start with vanquishing the information in a leaflet book used Saad, a medical childrenbecause anaemia and so that they can answer the by Protect student, led a group growing strong questions and win the colouring Your Child of Protect your Child they are a good enough to score book and other health informa- volunteers at a day entry point goals in football tion leaflets.” of awareness at a to approach is in the works. With a core group of 30-40 local school. “After that it people and some 400 volunteers “The girls in our families’ will be gastro- around the country, Protect group acted out a enteritis,” says Your Child is in demand sketch for the Zaazoue. by nurseries and children, and we read The project has also allowed non-government them the story in the its leaders to grow. Soliman groups working in comic book and says: “I have learnt to work poor areas. coloured it with with all sorts of people. They Ahmed them,” he says. accept what we tell them and Farouk, vice- “We also showed ask about so many things, chairman of Misr videos and took not just about disease. It al Irada, an educa- 500 doses of the opens up new ideas for what tion non-govern- vaccine to the we can do next.”  mental organisation children’s hos- that works in the pital. As a result Cairo slum of Arab of the activities in al-Tawaylah, says two the school, parents visits by Protect Your Child started coming to volunteers who vaccinated 550 the hospital to ask children had a positive effect on for the vaccine.” the local population. Despite its short “They gave presents, vac- existence, the initia- cinated children and gave out tive has already secured information,” he says. “People backing from the charity now drop by our premises to ask Save the Children and a when they are coming again. grant from the Sandra This is an area where people Rotman Centre, a health live below the poverty line. They research foundation don’t take their children to doc- at the University of tors. When they are sick they go Toronto in Canada. to the chemist for a painkiller.” One aim, says Rana

ft.com/ingenuity | 21 healthcare gsk new citizen Need to know

Migrants to China’s biggest cities often have poor knowledge of how to access healthcare services. A community project in Shanghai aims to change that. By Patti Waldmeir Photographs by Jonathan Browning

u Yan lives a short feel of a rural village – also 20-minute drive supports the project, providing from Lujiazui, premises for the project’s play- Shanghai’s futuris- room, classrooms and offices, Htic financial district. plus some spin-off funding. She, her husband and their six- Millions of migrants to month-old son occupy one small Shanghai hold office jobs and dark room, down a stinking own homes and cars. Some have alleyway on the banks of a fetid even become multimillionaires. stream. She has no kitchen or But many newer migrants such sink, uses a chamber pot for as Hu, who arrived from Anhui sanitation and cooks family province only last year, struggle meals in a rice cooker. to raise a family without indoor China may build skyscrapers plumbing, and with only the like any rich country, but Hu’s most rudimentary knowledge life is a graphic reminder that, at of hygiene, ante-natal care and the heart of Chinese prosperity, child development, in communi- millions still live in poverty. ties polluted by industrial waste Hu, 25, is part of an urban and environmental toxins. underclass that scrapes by on Her community does have a the fringes – or sometimes in the public toilet, about five minutes’ centre – of China’s biggest cities. walk from her home. She must She is one of 230m migrants go there every morning to dump who have boosted urbanisation her family’s nightsoil – though to the point where last year, for a sign on one gutter, “Don’t the first time, more Chinese lived dump your chamber pot here”, in cities than in the countryside. suggests residents are some- Helping those new migrants times tempted not to go that far. integrate into a city where long- The World Health Organisa- term residents often openly tion says China has made rapid despise waidiren (people from progress in upgrading its sanita- outside Shanghai) is the mission tion facilities, and Shanghai has of the GSK New Citizen Health conducted a campaign to install Care project, funded by Glaxo- prefabricated public toilets at SmithKline, the drug company, many intersections. But many and operated by the Xintu Centre migrants cannot hope to afford a for Community Health Promo- home with an indoor toilet. Life on the tion, a local non-governmental Keeping infants healthy, fringes: Hu Yan organisation (NGO) that special- toddlers entertained and and her son ises in migrant services. The local marriages strong is hard in such Xing Junhao government in Sanlin town – a circumstances. That is where at home in crowded urban community of the New Citizen project comes Sanlin town 100,000 migrants that has the in. From its annual budget of ➤

ft.com/ingenuity | 23 healthcare gsk new citizen

Rmb 1m ($150,000), it provides Vital service: an eclectic mix of services, from the New education on infant care and pre- Citizenproject venting domestic violence, to les- offers respite sons on how to shop online, use from cramped Skype and celebrate Valentine’s domestic life day (the last is to help migrants maintain family relationships, rather than a marketing ploy by confectionary companies). The centre offers English les- sons as a way of getting migrants through the door to hear the pro- ject’s primary message on public health. It helps that the project’s New Citizen Life Centre in Sanlin, housed in a government building, is one of the few free air-conditioned venues in town. Hu has attended sessions at the centre on domestic violence, children’s medicines, antenatal health and even cosmetics for pregnant women. It is not hard to see why she is such an avid student. On the day I visit Hu’s home, she and baby Xing Jun- hao – clad only in a bib embroi- dered with the slogan “Happy

24 |ft.com/ingenuity Xintu director Guo Xiaomu, migrants. “I believe Xintu has herself a migrant, says many good internal controls and a incomers are unaware they may high level of transparency and use public services such as free accountability.” gynaecological screening for The New Citizen project, women. “There are free health staffed largely by migrants, is services, but migrants often do unusual in China in that it asks not know about them,” she says, the target population what they adding that communicating need, rather than telling them this information to the migrant what they ought to have. So after population is one of the primary one recent lecture on foot and goals of the project. mouth disease – conducted in a The government of Shang- Family friendly: village lane so narrow the partic- hai’s Pudong district (where antenatal ipants had to make way repeat- Sanlin town is) has reproductive advice is one edly for itinerant noodle sellers, health centres that are open to of the project’s recycling carts and rickshaws all residents, including migrants, key offerings – staff passed out feedback Baby” – are trying to chase “but they are not very people- forms to find out what residents away heat of 36C with the help centred” and focus more on wanted from such lectures. of a struggling ceiling fan. One distribution of drugs, she says. The 15 toddlers present made neighbourhood toddler, her back The New Citizen project, their likes and dislikes fairly scarred by heat rash, lounges in though sponsored by a drug clear: once the centre’s director the arms of a local granny while company, does not provide finished telling their assembled another squats to make a bowel medical care directly or, for that mothers and other carers how to movement on a magazine spread matter, boost sales of GSK drugs, stop the spread of foot and mouth on the ground. except indirectly through brand disease by burying faeces and “When I first came to the cen- building. The centre’s role is avoiding kissing infected chil- tre, I was coming for a baby wrap health education and to help dren, a young volunteer turned I heard they would give me after- migrants find the state health- on his iPad to show a music video wards,” says Hu. “But I found the care to which they are entitled. on the importance of washing content of the lectures interesting In a country where corrup- hands before meals. Fifteen tiny and useful and then I came a tion scandals have tarnished the faces were glued to the screen, second time.” After each lecture, reputation of many charities, and 15 sets of hands mimicked she received a small gift, and including the Chinese Red Cross, the handwashing motions on her birthday the the New Citizen modelled by the volunteer. centre provided cake project, and its local GSK New Citizen Health and a meal of ‘There are operator Xintu, have Care has opened some satellite noodles to celebrate. free health so far avoided any centres beyond Sanlin town, She adds that hint of wrongdo- and there are plans to expand to contact with other services, but ing. The project’s Beijing. It is a drop in the ocean mothers in the cen- migrants often accounts are pub- of Chinese migrants. But with tre’s cool, toy-filled lished and audited local governments intent on playroom is a bonus. do not know annually, and the US providing better public services Hu is not a legal about them’ consulate in Shang- to migrants – because they resident of Shang- hai recently recog- know social stability could hai as she does not nised the project for depend on it –GSK and Xintu have the all-important hukou, or its work in raising awareness of could lead where government internal passport, allowing her to women’s health issues. will follow. claim the benefits of a Shanghai “I don’t know of any other China will not become a citizen. But the Shanghai govern- project quite like it in Shanghai uniformly rich country over- ment provides basic healthcare that combines healthcare with night, but for Hu and her baby, to migrants and residents alike, education and other services,” even this small bit of help makes and Hu says she thinks she has says Corinne Hua, founder of a difference. n access to the same antenatal care Stepping Stones China, another Additional reporting by as a resident. local NGO that works with Yan Zhang

ft.com/ingenuity | 25 introduction education

micro-environment with better Lesson plan treatment and welfare for all”. But education is a broad concept. the University of oregon’s Educational disparities persist between sustainable Cities Initiative developed and emerging economies, and deploys the expertise of depart- ments such as architecture and city and rural dwellers, finds Chris Cook planning to improve local towns and cities, engaging students and staff. In the process, n education, geography is College possible, a Minnesota- “students learn about real-world destiny. Children in devel- based charity, seeks to raise chil- problems, and cities get the oped economies can expect dren’s aspirations and to dispel input of a group of enthusiastic about a dozen years of “the stereotype that only wealthy, and engaged young people”. Ieducation. In some parts of privileged students are meant to the most offbeat nominee the world, however, getting any go to college”. the scheme uses in this category, however, is an schooling at all is a struggle. young recent graduates, who are organisation that encourages city Within countries, moreover, paid a small stipend, to mentor dwellers to feel they have a stake there are big regional disparities. would-be students. in their own cities. according to Unesco, the United Dubrovnik’s education Navtej Johar, founder of the Nations educational, scientific Vertical programme also hopes power of seeing, says that he and Cultural organisation, to open up opportunities. returned to Delhi in 1992 after ethiopia has a school attendance according to the mayor, andro eight years away, only to find his rate of more than 70 per cent in Vlahusic, the scheme “involves Hard work: “nieces and nephews showed no its cities. But in rural areas, the the city covering teachers’ extra for many signs of being connected to their figure is half that. hours to work with children on children immediate environment”. even in rich nations provision curricular and extracurricular around the Johar says: “It is thus not just is patchy. In england, London activities after regular school world, getting an exercise in sensitisation and children are far ahead of the hours in elementary schools”. an education civic awareness, but is designed rest of the country. In the Us, ana fernández Dodds, whose is a struggle to make the children connect inadequacies within inner-city son died from cancer aged just not only with the environment schooling systems are both long one year, is seeking to help one but also with each other, thereby term and chronic. specific group in her city: the making a network.” Children on alongside that issue is one sick. she has set up aprendo the scheme have, since 2005, of family resources: children Contigo to offer schooling in adopted an element of their city from educated families tend to peru’s largest paediatric hospital. and recorded its history. outperform those from less privi- she says patients “no longer Rather than just changing the leged homes, even if they go to see bleak wards filled with beds city, this scheme hopes to change the same school. for cities where and patients, but rooms in the residents – so that they, in rich and poor live close together, which they play and learn, thus turn, force a transformation in this is particularly problematic. completely changing the urban the urban environment.

 photos: afp; getty

26 |ft.com/ingenuity

education aprendo contigo

Healing skills

A Peruvian charity is bringing hope to hospitalised children by educating and entertaining them. By Andres Schipani Photographs by Max Cabello

Helping hand: Aprendo Contigo’s volunteers help to teach and amuse sick children

28 |ft.com/ingenuity hen 12-year- old Jhon put a question to Harvard WUniversity professor Paola Uccelli, she was shocked. “Miss, what was the toughest test life has ever put before you?” Jhon asked. As Uccelli, a Peruvian expert on child education, says. “It was the deepest question anyone had ever asked me.” Lying in his bed in the inten- sive care unit at the children’s hospital in Lima, Jhon already knows only too well about life’s tough tests. Five years ago, a drunk driver hit him when he chased a football across a road in a shanty neighbourhood in the northern corner of Peru’s capital. The driver fled, leaving Jhon unconscious on the pavement, with a shattered backbone. He has been left paralysed from the neck down, an umbilical cord linking his trachea to a respirator. But recently Jhon has developed a penchant for soap bubbles and the Greek god Zeus: interests that allow him to leave aside, for a couple of hours a day, the grim reality of his hospital confinement. “I love bubbles, my aim in life is to make a big, big one,” he says smiling, his head sandwiched between a Sponge- Bob pillow and a Power Rangers cushion. “That, and becoming an expert on Greek mythology.” Standing next to him, a bubble-making stick in one hand and the other skimming through the pages of a handmade picture book featuring the whole array of Greek gods, stands Marta Cháves. She claims responsibility for Jhon’s smiles and his recently acquired tastes. “As you can see, we are here to play two roles: friend and teacher,” she says. Her green apron is emblazoned with “Aprendo Contigo”, or “Learning with You”. ➤

ft.com/ingenuity | 29 Fuga. Tor ratustotatus eum fugit es il il idesciis au- temos maion ratem. Dunt

Since 2000, this Lima-based a child actually ask questions,” Lifeline: the plans and learning materials, organisation has provided educa- explains Cháves. “Jhon does it – programme as well as developing creative tion and distraction to children he is a clear reflection of most of helps roughly skills through various workshops forced to spend long periods in the children we assist in this hos- 350 hospital- and hobbies. On a daily basis, hospital. In total, the programme pital. They do not only ask ques- ised children the programme assists approxi- has a team of about 200 volun- tions, they question life itself.” every day mately 350 hospitalised chil- teers who dedicate an average of After working for years with dren, most of whom come from four hours a day to children in HIV-infected children abandoned neglected areas in the capital and this situation. They come from by their families, those questions poor rural towns scattered over different ages, backgrounds and are well known to her. “And that the Andean country. nationalities. “The children’s is beyond important. You won’t Despite initial reluctance faces light up when they see their get that in any regular school.” from some of the medical staff, green aprons walking into the Cháves is the organisation’s the programme has grown in rooms,” says Prof Uccelli, who is educational co-ordinator at the leaps and bounds. Since its familiar with the programme. children’s hospital, its largest inception 12 years ago, it has The educational assistants on operation. Aprendo Contigo also helped more than 3,500 in- duty gather every morning at 9 has a strong presence patients and in excess of 20,000 o’clock in a room crammed with in the capital’s cancer out-patients. “I never imagined puppets and children’s books to institute, INEN, ‘The children it was going to grow so much,” go over the day’s lecture notes where the pro- we assist do says one of its creators, Ana and games. “What was the lan- gramme started, and Fernández Dodds. guage of the Inca empire?” and the Hogar Clínica not only ask Aprendo Contigo was born “Who discovered America?” were San Juan de Dios, a questions, out of the death of her one-year- two of the day’s questions. The centre for orthopae- old son, Fabrizio, from cancer. questionnaires are followed by dic and neurological they question At the Anderson Cancer Center prizes, such as a handful of Lego diseases. “We have life itself’ in Houston, where he was being blocks, regardless of whether fun doing what we treated, she saw children the answers are correct. Accord- do, and the children and parents interacting with ing to the assistants, the process sense that,” she says. teachers. “It looked fun. And one stimulates the hospitalised Their main goal is to create day I stopped by and realised children’s appetite for learning an environment of “normality” it was necessary,” explains and playing. for the patient during hospitali- Fernández Dodds. “One of the most difficult sation or treatment. They offer “After Fabrizio died, I realised things in education is making access to well-crafted lesson that was something desperately

30 |ft.com/ingenuity education aprendo contigo

needed here in Peru, so I put my with the children, honestly in the hospital’s corridors the first strength into making it happen.” answering every question they couple of nights,” she says. Each year, the children’s pose, listening to what they have When the doctors realised hospital in Lima treats 40,000 to say. “Every sick child has a Mical had tuberculosis, she patients, from infants to adoles- healthy side. That’s the side we had to be kept in isolation, but cents. Nationwide, the number focus on,” she explains, “I don’t Contreras walked in anyway. “I climbs to 150,000, with 30 per care what illnesses they have. did not care,” she says. “ It was cent of them long stays, like We never ask them that. I always my duty to go in there and spend Jhon. “Aprendo Contigo is filling start with a joke and that works.” time with her.” a vacuum left by the Peruvian She recently received a hand- The programme’s original state,” explains Virginia Garay- Hospital written letter from a 14-year-old name was going to be Aprende cochea, the children’s hospital’s classroom: for girl who is convinced that she Conmigo, or “learn with me’” but dean of medicine. “And it is an Aprendo left the tuberculosis ward only according to Contreras, the edu- example that should be repli- Contigo, because of the friendly company cation process works both ways. cated all over the country.” success is provided by Contreras. The “We are learning from each other, However, with funding scarce measured in letter reads: “I remember the all of us, that’s the beauty of it.” and a budget of $120,000 a the affection day when that weird person, Back in the intensive care unit, year, that will be difficult. “We children feel who was short and chubby, while Jhon keeps blowing bub- sweat blood every year to make for the came forward and paid attention bles, the so-called “Three Prin- it work,” says Marisol Labarthe, volunteers to me… since that day my life cesses” lie in bed, all wearing pink the programme’s fundraiser. She here changed.” pyjamas, under pink blames that on Peru’s almost The author is ‘Every sick Hello Kitty blankets, “non-existent culture” of giving. Mical, who had and suffering from dif- Some large private companies travelled seven hours child has a ferent spinal muscular and foundations provide con- on a rickety bus from healthy side. atrophies. While Alexa tributions of, generally, $300- Chimbote when her moulds some red Play- $500. The organisation offers a mother thought she That is the Doh, Creysi is trying corporate volunteering pro- had throat cancer. “I side we to thread a necklace of gramme that trains local execu- was very weak, and plastic balls, and Analí, tives, and every year it runs a my mother only had focus on’ the only one really Christmas campaign with cards 50 Peruvian soles able to talk, is identify- and calendars using the draw- [$19] in her ing different animals. ings done by the children. “The pocket. She had “That’s a zebra, and that’s an state gives us nothing, not even to sleep orang-utan,” she tells her teachers,” Labarthe says. “But volunteer teacher, Zayra. the flipside is that this gives us For Aprendo Contigo the a lot of freedom of action.” proof that the system works is That is echoed by some the children’s affection. “I like of the volunteers, such it when Zayra and Marta are as Paulina Contreras, a here; it’s the best part of my teacher from the southern day,” nine-year-old Analí says city of Arequipa. She decided to with a shy smile, after kissing switch from the official school Cháves goodbye. system to the less-corseted As the teacher leaves scheme of Aprendo Contigo. the hospital through the “It is fascinating not to be in corridors adorned with a ‘formal’ education scheme,” Bambi tiles, she looks like she says. “I am not tied up to a celebrity: children rush out nonsensical rules anymore. of their wards to hug her, they Here you can explore call her name from almost every options and see what window as she passes by.“Formal really works.” education shuns life. They don’t Contreras stresses use it to the child’s advantage,” the importance of Cháves says. “And we have to give building a strong bond children a chance.” 

ft.com/ingenuity | 31 Education collEgE possiblE

ee Vue is only 26 but Access all areas has already lived a remarkable life. Born in a refugee Bcamp in Thailand to A mentoring programme in the US is giving ethnic Hmong parents who fled students from low-income backgrounds Laos during the Vietnam war, Vue came to the US as a child and the access to higher education they never grew up on the poor east side of thought possible, writes Hal Weitzman Saint Paul, Minnesota. Always very bright, he studied hard and won a scholarship to

32 |ft.com/ingEnuity the Massachusetts Institute of results driven: at its headquar- but McCorkell was admitted to Technology, becoming the first ters in Saint Paul, a large board Carleton College, a small but Hmong to be admitted to the displays up-to-date figures for expensive liberal arts university university. From there, he went the proportion of high-school south of the twin cities. As a stu- to the University of Michigan for students enrolled in the dent from a poor background, his master’s degree and then on programme who have been he secured financial aid and to work as a rocket scientist at admitted to college. graduated with a level of debt Aerojet, an aerospace company The results are impressive: similar to that of his siblings. in Sacramento, California, in the 98 per cent of all the pupils It was a graphic illustra- Orion main engine team. College Possible has worked tion, he says, that going to an Yet despite his obvious talent with have earned admission to expensive college need not mean and determination, Vue says his college, the vast majority of them taking on mountains of debt, story only happened because of to universities where they are on because financial assistance is College Possible, a non-profit four-year degree courses. National available. In fact, for poor organisation that helps young It has also grown fast. In push: College students it can be cheaper to people from underprivileged 2000, its first year, the pro- Possible is attend a top-end private college backgrounds get into university gramme served 35 pupils at two aiming at a with an aid package than to go and find funding to pay tuition high schools in the “twin cities” presence in 10 to a state institution. “But you and living expenses. of Minneapolis and Saint Paul – cities within have to be a pretty sophisti- “My parents didn’t know among them Vue. In the last aca- five years cated consumer to understand the first thing about how to get demic year, it worked with nearly that,” McCorkell says. “A lot of into college, so they couldn’t 8,700 young people at 28 high low-income students look at the help me at all with that,” says schools and 150 colleges. It has price tag and think, ‘I can’t go Vue. “They didn’t realise what a expanded to Omaha in Nebraska there – that’s for rich kids’.” big deal it was for me to get into and Portland in Oregon, and is The organisation changed its MIT until I was featured in the looking at adding programmes in name last year from Admission local newspaper.” Philadelphia and New York, with Possible, in part to reflect that “Without College Possible, I the aim of establishing itself in 10 its focus had expanded from wouldn’t have got into MIT. And cities within the next five years. high schools to supporting once I was admitted, I was only The organisation was singled students in university and able to actually attend because out for praise by Barack Obama, ensuring they continued to I got a Bill Gates Millennium the US president, at a White receive the financial support Scholarship, and I certainly House event in 2009 highlight- they need to study. couldn’t have got that without ing innovative programmes Going to an For McCorkell, College Possible.” that made a difference to their College Possible is Jim McCorkell, College Possi- communities. McCorkell also expensive about trying to give ble’s founder and chief executive, received an alumni achievement college need poorer students is rightly proud of such success award from Harvard Kennedy the advantages of stories. Yet he says the organi- School this year. not mean taking their middle-class sation’s real innovation in the Genial and infectiously on mountains peers. “Look at world of education is not just to enthusiastic, McCorkell says who earns a college have enabled more young people his own life experience fed into of debt degree by the age from poor backgrounds to fulfil the idea. The youngest of five of 24: of kids from their potential, but also to be siblings, he grew up in a low- the upper income quartile, 80 doing so in a much cheaper and income family in rural Minne- per cent are earning a four-year more efficient way than has been sota, a farming area where most degree. For the bottom quar- done before. children of his socio-economic tile, the rate is 8 per cent. That That is because of College background did not go to col- strikes me as very unfair,” he says. Possible’s unique structure, lege. His parents had met in high “We should have the which uses members of Ameri- school and left before finishing, expectation in this country Corps, a US national service pro- his father becoming a house that everyone should be able to gramme, to advise and mentor painter and his mother working go as far as their talent will take high school and college students. in a commercial laundry. them and not be constrained For a non-profit organisation, His four siblings all went to by their family, economic or College Possible is also highly state colleges after high school, racial background.” 

ft.com/ingEnuity | 33 Staying power

With little besides tourism to sustain itself, the Croatian city sees education as the way to encourage young people to build a future in the city, writes Jan Cienski Photographs by Stevo Vasiljevic EDUCATION DUBROVNIK

hen Dubrovnik The first of the new schemes was an inde- is a kindergarten project that pendent mari- uses a textbook produced by time republic Mensa, the high IQ society. By Win the late bringing in an element of learn- middle ages, its main rival was ing through play, this breaks Venice, just across the Adriatic. with the traditional approach Today the Croatian city is trying of focusing on rote learning. The to avoid Venice’s fate – of turning city paid to train teachers and into a global tourist destination organised meetings with parents that is increasingly unattrac- to promote the idea. tive and expensive for ordinary “My husband came back people to live in. very enthusiastic,” says Marja Dubrovnik’s white stone and Djurovic, mother of a five-year- marble walls and medieval city old who is taking part in the pull in more than 2m visitors a programme. year, and are a mainstay of the So far there have been no local economy, but the worry metrics to measure the impact is that the 40,000 locals will of the programme, but Boja find the city too pricey and end Mustac, head of the city’s up living further away, merely kindergartens, says she thinks commuting into Dubrovnik for the pupils have an edge when seasonal jobs. they enter elemen- That is what ‘We must tary school. has spurred Andro At that level, the Vlahusic, the city’s protect the city is also hiring left-of-centre mayor, city. The goal extra teachers to to devise a pro- extend school hours gramme he calls is to attract so that children can “education vertical” young people stay at elementary aimed at improving school for the whole Dubrovnik’s teach- to the city’ day, as well as ing system from allowing the schools kindergarten to university, with to be used during the summer. additional help for graduates to “As Dubrovnik is a tourist find a first job. city, most parents work and “We must protect the city,” schools are empty, so children says 52-year-old Vlahusic, stay in the streets during the sitting in the same room in the day,” says Vlahusic. centuries-old city hall that he In all, the kindergarten and occupied in 1995 as Dubrovnik’s elementary school programmes chief of logistics while the final cost the city about ¤530,000 Serb artillery shells rained a year. down on the old town before Although high schools are the Serb forces were repelled. run by the regional government, “The goal is to attract young the city is subsidising extra people to the city.” classes to help prepare students The programme is a mixed for school matriculation exams, Cutting edge: bag of projects being pushed by which are crucial for winning there is now a Vlahusic, but the general idea is places at university. The goal is greater focus to make education more afford- to formalise after-school instruc- on play over able for people who are often tion by paying teachers out of rote learning only seasonally employed in the city budget and reducing for younger tourism, which provides most of the demand for private lessons. children Dubrovnik’s jobs. This has also reduced the ➤

fT.COm/INgENUITy | 35 EDUCATION DUBROVNIK

Fuga. Tor ratustotatus eum fugit es il il idesciis au- temos maion ratem. Dunt aliciasit et, sum volupta

corruption that, Vlahusic says, results from teachers hiring themselves out to give private lessons after hours. The city is also helping students pay for the cost of uni- versity by offering scholarships and a loan programme that pays a student up to ¤20,000, with the city covering the 6.5 per cent debt waived. The mayor is also interest rate while the student is setting up a Dubrovnik student at college and for one year after club in Zagreb, Croatia’s capital, graduation. where about half of Dubrovnik’s Antoneta Alamat-Kusija- graduates attend university. A novic, 26, a fine-arts student city employee will keep an eye on at Columbia University in New the students to make sure they York, is using the programme, are hitting the books and not which gives her ¤550 a month partying too much. towards living costs in the US. Some of the signs are good. In Leap forward: The mayor estimates 10 per The key is whether Alamat-Kusijanovic’s case, she the pro- cent of those receiving financial students like her will decide to has no firm intention to live per- gramme aims aid will not be able to repay it, move back to Dubrovnik after manently in Dubrovnik, but she to benefit even though the programme graduation. The increase in hopes to use the city as a base for students from caps repayment costs at 20 per the skill and knowledge base of some future film projects. “This kindergarten cent of a graduate’s salary. the city would imply that the is my safe place that I’ll always to university “It may be stupid when seen programme, which costs the come back to,” she says. and beyond through the eyes of the private city ¤146,000 a year, is value Students who do well in their sector, but this is the public for money. studies will have some of their sector,” Vlahusic says. “People

36 |fT.COm/INgENUITy ‘Without this [payroll] programme, it would be really hard to find year-round work’

non-existent or negative, grasp of their impact on student reflecting the overall lack of results, graduation rates or even competitiveness in the economy,” his ultimate goal of keeping the EBRD says. Dubrovnik’s population stable. The city contributes 2,500 “Dubrovnik should mean kunas ($420) a month – about intellectual power – it shouldn’t half the average salary – towards just be a place to come for the pay of any university gradu- millions of visiting cruise-ship ate hired for a one-year trial passengers,” he says. period by a local business. Whether that goal is realistic This initiative has had some is debatable. Dubrovnik’s main impact, especially for recent economic engine is tourism, with graduates, who would usually Bright ideas: government work second. There hope for at most a seasonal tour- parents have is almost no investment outside ist job. So far the city has signed expressed the tourist industry, and even 70 contracts with companies. enthusiasm some projects in that sector are “One of my friends has the for the city’s running into trouble – as seen are much more important in same degree as me but is work- investment by the six years of delays for a Dubrovnik than the city’s walls.” ing in a souvenir shop,” says in school $1.1bn golf course and luxury The mayor and the city Blanka Bradvica, who graduated programmes housing project in the hills over- council take a personal interest in marketing from the university looking the city and a nearby in many cases, something that in Dubrovnik and now works at villa development. is relatively easy to do, with only Dubrovnik Sati, a travel agency. The projects have run into 212 loans issued so far. But this “Were it not for the payroll thickets of red tape for trying to informal, hands-on approach, programme, we would never build in areas that may be visible which avoids some bureaucracy, have hired her, but we’re now from the old town (the same can cause trouble. going to keep her on after the areas that the Serb artillery used Vlahusic is in the midst of subsidy expires,” says Mare in the early 1990s to bombard a corruption trial after being Batinic, director of the agency. the city below). charged with giving a ¤300,000 The programme also helped “It has been a very unpleasant loan to a fellow city council Anja Markovic, head of Drvo surprise to have to wait six years, member without the council’s Mladih Bonsai, a non-govern- but we are hopeful we will even- authorisation. Vlahusic denies mental organisation aimed at tually get permission,” says Ivan the charges but does admit to encouraging volunteering, by Kusalic, head of Razvoj Golf, the making “some small allowing her to hire golf course developer. mistakes”. ‘People are her first employee. Improving access to educa- The final part of “Without this tion is just one of the factors Vlahusic’s programme much more programme, it would that could make people stay in aims to help university important in be really hard to find Dubrovnik. Those locals who do graduates find work. year-round work,” not own their own houses also Croatia’s unem- Dubrovnik says Meri Klaic, face the prospect of seasonal ployment rate was than the the new worker eviction, as landlords kick out 17.3 per cent in June, recently hired by Croats and revamp flats to rent to and the economy is city’s walls’ Markovic, sitting in better-paying foreigners during slowing as the ripples a café just outside the summer tourist season. of the eurozone crisis spread. Dubrovnik’s city walls. But for many locals, even if The European Bank for Recon- The city is also setting up an working abroad were easier, the struction and Development incubator for new businesses, attractions of living within sight predicts the economy will offering 12 companies (with 27 of the deep blue Adriatic and the contract by 0.6 per cent this employees between them) free shimmering white walls of the year, before returning to 1.7 per office space and other help. old town make them want to stay. cent growth in 2013, when The programmes are still “I know that Croatia is joining Croatia joins the EU. at a very early stage – many of the EU next year,” says Klaic. “Growth for the rest of the them are a year old or less – and “But I have no interest in ever year is likely to be either Vlahusic has only the haziest leaving.” n

fT.COm/INgENUITy | 37 education power of seeing

hen India’s British colonial rulers laid the foundation Wstone of New Delhi in 1911, they set out to build an impressive, planned city as the embodiment of the power of the British Empire. A century on, and 65 years after its independence, India has aspirations to be a global superpower. But aside from the Street talking capital’s leafy and well-planned colonial heart – now an enclave for politicians, top bureaucrats India’s capital suffers from a cultural suspicion of and other elites – the chaos of New Delhi reflects decades of public space, but young people are seizing the initiative poor planning, corruption and to improve their environment, writes Amy Kazmin neglected infrastructure. Uncovered manholes claim Photographs by Simon de Trey-White small children’s lives every year. Kerbs are so high that pedestri- ans can hardly step up from the roads. Pavements, where they exist, are broken and covered with litter or abandoned building materials. Drains are clogged with rubbish, which means streets flood in heavy rain, caus- ing traffic jams and creating breeding areas for mosquitoes. For the most part, New Del- hi’s residents are so inured, they hardly even notice the hazards, let alone contemplate the con- tempt their continued presence shows show for the city’s people. “There is no identification or connection with the out- side,” says Navtej Singh Johar, a prominent classical dancer. He returned to New Delhi in the mid-1990s after years teaching and performing abroad, and was shocked by the urban chaos he found. “We’ve put blinders on. We’ve stopped seeing reality.” Despite his dismay, Johar was convinced India’s capital, and its Not minding the other cities, could be improved gap: New Delhi’s if citizens took ownership of residents have the public space and demanded become inured better performance from govern- to neglected ment agencies. Yet to mobilise ➤ infrastructure

38 |ft.com/ingenuity

education power of seeing

Fuga. Tor ratustotatus eum fugit es il il idesciis au- temos maion ratem. Dunt

citizens, he realized he would “I realised if things had to Hazard In parallel with the students’ need to overcome their apathy, change, it was the children who warning: the observations, Johar and volun- which he says is reinforced by had to change,” he says. “Adults city’s broken teers conduct workshops, sessions a traditional Indian cultural were too jaded and exhausted.” streets have with non-governmental organisa- suspicion of public space, where New Delhi’s problems can angered tions and tours to raise students’ people of different classes and easily overwhelm veteran urban Nabisha consciousness about the city, how backgrounds can freely mix. planners, let alone teenagers. But Khalid it functions and the state of its “There is absolutely no in the handful of private schools urban design and basic services. respect, and no identification where he has been welcomed At the conclusion of each with anything that is not yours,” by progressive principals and project, Johar encourages stu- Johar says. “It’s a cultural thing allowed to work, Johar has urged dents to send their accounts of – ‘the outside is polluted’. children to look at the poor state problems to local government “Traditionally, the Indian of their neighbourhoods and rec- agencies along with a demand woman’s role is to keep doing ognise their own role as residents that the manholes are covered, purification rituals to ward off of the city. pavements are fixed and other contaminants from inside the The project’s core approach problems are rectified. house, while the outside is some- is to ask participating students He envisions using social thing to be afraid of – you don’t to choose one element in their networking to help students mix with that stuff.” neighbourhood – an from different schools join forces That was the backdrop for uncovered manhole, to advocate for a more livable city Johar’s initiative, the Power a clogged drain, a ‘There is and even dreams of pressing the of Seeing – an effort to connect broken pavement, absolutely no government to incorporate urban schoolchildren with their urban or another hazard awareness and design issues into environment and inspire them – observe it and respect, and no the national curriculum. to improve the city, rather document what identification “My agenda is to have an than assume someone else happens to it, for a army of looking, seeing, aware would come along and take period that could with anything children, joining hands across care of the problems. run into months. that is not yours’ the city,” he says.

40 |ft.com/ingenuity ‘The government is not doing anything. We need to put pressure on it’

In reality, the Power of See- went to rubbish dumps to inter- Power of Seeing, she protested to ing is still operating on a tiny view the workers who sort the the authorities about an uncov- scale. It is an all-volunteer effort, city’s refuse by hand in search of ered manhole. After she had com- dependent on the energies and material to recycle. plained three times a week for limited time of Johar, his part- For many of these students, nearly a year, workers filled the ner, Sunil Mehra, an art critic the project has changed the way hole with mud and surrounded it and former editor of the Indian they conduct themselves and with stones – still hazardous but edition of the men’s magazine their response to their environ- slightly less risky than it was. Maxim, and a handful of their ment. “Before, when I was going “The government is not doing like-minded friends. for a trip, I used to throw the anything,” she says. “We need to Gaining access to schools wrappers of the chips packets put pressure on it.” has been challenging. Indian Sore sights: outside the car,” says Hemank The children’s efforts – and students are overloaded and are broken Sharma, 12. “Now, I put them in the results – may seem insignifi- focused on preparing for exams pavements a polythene bag.” cant in the grand scheme of New to gain admission to an elite uni- (above) and Nabisha Khalid, 17, spent Delhi’s woes. But a longer-term versity. Parents tend to be less roadside tips weeks photographing manholes, impact is likely to come from the than enthusiastic about projects (below) broken pavements, live wires and children’s growing awareness. that may distract children. broken roads near her house. Mehra suggests the project is “Parents really object when She was angry at what she saw, mainly about planting seeds that we take them on tours of rubbish particularly when she found a will come to fruition in the future. dumps and sewage works,” says step leading to a house that was Suman Kumar, principal of Johar. “They are ugly sights.” almost impossible for children or Bluebells School International, Schools, too, are sometimes the elderly to navigate. where the Power of Seeing vol- uncomfortable with a pro- She harangued the property unteers have worked in the past, gramme that implicitly criticises owner and persuaded him to believes the initiative is inspiring the Municipal Corporation of build two steps to make it easier impressionable children who, Delhi, the government agency to enter. “It was an abuse to peo- she says, “have a responsibility as responsible for the city’s basic ple,” she says. “Nobody would be citizens of tomorrow”. infrastructure. “School princi- able to walk there. They should Kumar adds: “School is not pals are a little reluctant to take understand – they had small just about history, geography and on the MCD,” he says. kids at their home, and it was civics. Kids should be connected Even when schools do open dangerous for them.” to society. It may not be a revolu- their doors, it is not always for a Anubha Sharma, 17, lives in tionary process, but the children’s prolonged period, or for repeat an area of housing for govern- voices, and their awareness of visits to carry out the project ment officials, as her parents are what kind of city they would like precisely as its founders have civil servants. Inspired by the to live in, are important.”  mapped it. “Schools have their own agenda,” says Mehra. But in schools where Johar and his fellow volunteers have worked, children have been deeply touched. Take the students at Fr. Agnel, a private school in affluent south Delhi. Last year, the Power of Seeing team spent weeks at the school, holding workshops in journal- ism, film-making, dance and music, all focusing on issues of the urban environment. Among the participants, some were taken on excursions to the Yamuna, New Delhi’s ostensibly sacred but deeply pol- luted river, and a handful even Class act

Oregon towns in need of regeneration have tapped the talent and enthusiasm of local students, writes April Dembosky

42 |ft.com/ingenuity education sustainable cities initiative

he red smokestacks Students produced drawings that form the back- and analyses for a revamped drop to downtown Booth-Kelly mill, and drafted Springfield, Oregon, designs for new roads, a school Tare symbols of a and a library. They gave bygone era, a bygone economy. presentations to the city Some locals say the chimneys council and answered questions of the town’s last paper mill from the public. inspired the visual signature “What the students present of the fictionalised Springfield is conceptual. It is the start in the opening credits of The of a conversation,” says Bob Simpsons, the television cartoon Choquette, the director of the show – representing not just the Sustainable Cities Initiative, culture of Every City, US, but the the university programme that economic and environmental ills organises the student effort. “An that have come to plague one- architectural firm will give you industry towns. one design. Here, you can engage Springfield, Oregon, once 15 students and you get a variety thrived on lumber production. of ideas to choose from.” But jobs have been pruned after For this service, Springfield environmental battles and policy paid the university $229,000 – a changes sharply curbed the cutting hefty sum for a cash-strapped of the state’s pine city, but Griesel says and Douglas fir trees. The city wants the city spends the It is a history that same amount on a Courtney Griesel, a space that single contract with the city’s economic looks several a professional con- development sultant. While some analyst, wants to economic ideas were not politi- preserve and cor- cycles into cally or economically rect. As she oversees feasible, and just a the redevelopment the future few were brilliant, of the abandoned, most contained nug- polluted Booth-Kelly mill, she is gets of insight the city will piece looking for a design that is envi- together as it finalises its plans. ronmentally and economically That was the original goal of sustainable. She wants a space Marc Schlossberg, professor of that celebrates the city’s timber planning and public policy at heritage but also looks several the University of Oregon, who economic cycles into the future. helped create the programme “My fear is we will create the three years ago. He saw too many same problem for the next final papers at the end of the generation,” she says. “I don’t want semester with great ideas that no to make every decision in the one else would ever see. moment. We want to encourage “What a waste all these great people to build flexible spaces.” ideas are being put on paper and For help with her vision, Grie- kept inside these walls,” he says, Sustainable sel turned to students at the Uni- motioning to his office’s book- future: versity of Oregon in neighbour- lined walls. “If people in the Springfield ing Eugene. Dozens of students community could have access to is looking in city planning, architecture, these ideas, it could reorientate to turn the public policy, economics and how they see their problems.” Booth-Kelly other departments used Spring- Schlossberg and a group of mill into field as a real-life testing ground other professors struck a deal flexible spaces for theories learned in class. to experiment with the city of

➤ PHOTO: JEN PECENKA

ft.com/ingenuity | 43 education sustainable cities initiative ‘Students are incredibly desperate to make change happen now’

she says, helping design new energy-efficient street lights, bicycle lanes, park signage and new uses for the wastewater treatment plant that saved the city $400,000. the students recognised that the plant had capacity for pro- cessing much more waste than was then passing through. Since the local fruit canneries had lost business to food producers in South America, they produced much less waste water. the students suggested the city solicit waste from businesses in nearby gresham, outside Portland, and regions and charge to process it. incorporate applied projects into “the students got us away their curriculum. the student from thinking we were just work was so well received that, here to do one thing,” says greg the following year, several cities eyerly, the city’s wastewater competed for the opportunity to treatment manager. his team is work with students. Salem, the now working on technology to state capital, won and agreed transform sewage into fuel for to pay $350,000. Springfield the city’s police vehicle fleet. signed up the fol- “We want to take it from the lowing year. toilet tank to the gas tank.” now, dozens ‘We can’t be collaboration at Slices of the university has yet to of universities are happy in our first. City officials history: the decide which city it will focus calling Schloss- tried to appease Booth-Kelly on in the next academic year. It berg wanting ivory tower. The the consultants by mill in its will soon run out of cities in the to replicate the community is playing down the heyday and state that can afford the annual programme. As contributions as a proposed fee, so it is considering focusing debates continue asking what we “just student work”. new look on implementing some of the about the cost of are contributing’ At the same time, proposals it proposed in the first higher education, they called it “on three cities, such as the Booth- universities must a par with profes- kelly mill site in Springfield. defend their relevance. sionals” to justify spending tax But if one local business “We see this as a way of dollars to the city council and owner had his way, the students updating higher education for the community. At the end of the would help him develop an eco- the modern era,” says Schloss- year, the professional architects nomic plan to exploit the city’s berg. “We can’t be happy in won a contract to design a new rumoured Simpsons connection our ivory tower any more. the police station using drafts from – a title vied for by Springfields community is asking what we the students. in 11 other states. are contributing. Students are that project would not have Jack koehler, the owner incredibly desperate to make happened without the students, of Sweety’s candy and frozen change happen now. they want says Linda norris, Salem’s city yoghurt shop, wants to turn his to learn by doing.” manager. “the city had been cut- street into a six-block “Simpsons- the programme has created ting staff since 2008,” she says. ville”, a tourist strip that takes a some tension with professional “I was concerned about how we decorative cue from the yellow groups, which fear their city were going to achieve a number paint of his store and the life- contracts are being usurped by of goals we had set with the lim- sized plastic figures of the Simp- students. the Salem chapter of ited resources we had.” son family he has set up outside. the American Institute of Archi- the students propelled them “I want to cartoon this area tects objected to the student forward more than three years, up,” he says. “Let’s capitalise.”

 Photo: Courtney Skoog

44 |ft.com/ingenuity

comment michael bloomberg

Cities are meeting other Innovation hotbeds challenges head on – because they have to. I have said before that mayors are the world’s great Rapid urbanisation and a lack of global leadership mean pragmatists. We don’t have the luxury of simply talking about city halls must take the lead in improving quality of life progress – we have to deliver. Of course, we are not immune o achieve big results, government fighting the most to budgetary constraints. Still, sometimes you have persistent problems – from low the lack of global leadership has to start small. Every education achievement levels to left city governments with no industry experiments poverty – with the same old tools. choice but to innovate. Twith new ideas that The real impediment to inno- That is why Bloomberg have the potential to improve vative experimentation has less Philanthropies has issued the performance. Ideas that work to do with money, though, than Mayors Challenge, a competition are scaled up; those that do not with campaigns and elections. to inspire US cities to generate are dropped. But for too long, An example is climate change. innovative ideas that solve major this approach was largely absent The US federal government has challenges and improve city from the public sector. That is failed to implement a compre- life, and that ultimately can be now changing, as a burst of inno- hensive strategy that shared with other cities. vation takes place in city halls Cities are filling would reduce the The Challenge gives cities around the world. nation’s contribution with as few as 30,000 residents Take Tulsa, Oklahoma. There, the void left by to global warming. the opportunity to see their inno- in the 45th largest city in the US, governments And the interna- vation become a reality. We are mayor Dewey Bartlett has imple- tional treaty process providing technical assistance, mented innovative incentives unwilling to has had difficulties an opportunity to collaborate for municipal employees to find solve systemic even agreeing to the with other top city innova- ways to save the city money. If it setting of carbon tors and, of course, funding to works, it could be replicated problems reduction targets. address a wide variety of issues, in even the world’s largest Contrast that from government accountability conurbations. with the C40 Cities Climate to socioeconomic challenges. In cities large and small, Leadership Group, which In total, 394 cities have municipal governments are comprises the world’s largest entered the Challenge, and generating new strategies to cities. Collectively, the cities’ 58 per cent of them have fewer address local and national 59 mayors have implemented than 100,000 residents. The challenges, whether it is policies and programmes to response has been more than congestion charging in reduce greenhouse gas encouraging, and the ideas London or Singapore, or emissions by almost 250 generated and supported by a budget contest in Tulsa. megatonnes a year by 2020. the Challenge cannot come Increasingly, these efforts Groundbreaking initiatives soon enough. are filling the void left by have had concrete results, A 2009 report by McKinsey, national governments from Bogota’s rapid transit bus the management consultants, and international network to Tokyo’s municipal estimated that China’s bodies unable or unwilling cap-and-trade system (which cities alone will add 350m new to solve serious systemic has been shortlisted for the residents by 2025. Accommo- problems. FT/Citi Ingenuity awards). dating the needs of that mass Some of that failure is New research estimates the of humanity will be a serious understandable. When C40 has the potential to environmental, social and politi- you are cutting social further reduce emissions cal challenge. We need solutions, services or pensions, it is by more than 1bn tonnes and we need them now.  difficult to justify spend- a year by 2030 – an ing on experiments that achievement equivalent Michael Bloomberg is mayor may or may not yield to making both Canada of New York City and chairman results. But this risk- and Mexico entirely of the C40 Cities Climate averse approach leaves carbon-neutral. Leadership Group

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