1. Key Data – Reduced Poverty and Shared Prosperity
Context: History
 Known during the decade of the eighties and much of the nineties as the most
violent city in the world, because of drugs and bombs. As a city it has very
high levels of poverty and inequality. There has been a radical
transformation over the past 15 years.
Direct Economic
 The poverty line for the period 2002-2010 decreased by 39%, from 36.1% to
22%.
 The extreme poverty or indigence declined between 2002 and 2005,
reaching in the last year by 5%, by 2008 it had increased to 6.1% and finally
in 2010 was 5.6%, similar to the reached in 2004. (Data from
http://medellincomovamos.org/pobreza-y-desigualdad )
 In 2010 Medellin was listed by the National Competitiveness Council as the
city with the best quality of life in Colombia.
 In the same year it rose from position 22 to 15 in the ranking of the best
cities to do business in Latin America, according to America “Economia”
magazine.
 Medellin has received several awards and recognitions, including "Honor
Habitat Award" for its progress towards achieving the Millennium
Development Goals on poverty reduction.
Innovation
 Medellin was recently recognized as the most innovative city in the world
(The Wall Street Journal, Citigroup, Urban Land Institute - ULI) for their
continuous progress and development potential.
Foundations for further poverty reduction and shared prosperity
 Substantial growth in early childhood education coverage, corresponding to
children 3 and 4 years old, went from 46.8% (2008) to 76.2%, (2011) - an
increase of 62.8%.
 Levels of secondary education rose 9.0%, from 53.3% (2008) to 58.1%
(2011)
 Related to maternal mortality, between 2004-2010 there was a 35.1%
reduction in the rate going from 27.0 deaths per hundred thousand live
births to 17.5 per hundred thousand live births. Between 2009 and 2010
there was a sharp reduction in the maternal mortality rate (-53.4%), which is
fully explained by the decrease in the number of cases with a reduction in the
number of live births from 10.5 %.
 The mortality rate in children under one year showed a downward trend
since 2007, which was ratified in 2010. Between 2009 and 2010 the
reduction of the indicator was 8.7%, fully explained by the fall in the number
of deaths under one year, went from 333-272 cases, given a decrease in the
population under one year (-10.5%).
 Teenage pregnancy in the municipality of Medellín shows a positive trend of
reduction in the 2005-2010 period for both teenagers from ten to fourteen
years for fifteen to nineteen. For the case of ten to fourteen years was
reduced by 9% and the rate stood at 3.6 per thousand and in the case of
fifteen to nineteen, reduced by placing the rate 12.3% at 71 9 per thousand.
 In terms of public perception, 98% of people who said they require health
services in the past year reported having access to medical care in any of the
entities, making it the highest since 2009, with respect to 2011 increased by
three percentage points.
2. The Communication Strategy – Public Engagement
Overview: The main elements of the strategy to achieve above are centered on
participatory social programs and the improvement of public, social spaces with
three key areas:

Social: The community is actively involved in all stages of the process, from
identifying problems and opportunities to the formulation and approval of
projects through the use of participatory design practices.

Institutional: Coordination is integral to the actions of all agencies of the City
in an area including promotion of partnerships with the private sector, NGOs,
national and international agencies and community organizations.

Physical: Includes the construction and improvement of public spaces,
housing, adequacy and public buildings, mass transportation (cable cars, rail
links), libraries, community gathering spaces, parks.
In more detail the process is described as follows (rough translation from the
Spanish)

DEFINITION: The Integral Urban Project (UPI) is an urban intervention
instrument covering the dimensions of the physical, social and institutional,
in order to solve specific problems on a defined territory, placing all
development tools simultaneously depending on the area intervention.

PROBLEM AREAS – FOCUS FOR THE STRATEGY
Social: Poverty and lack of opportunities, coupled with an environment that
did not facilitate coexistence and sense of belonging, largely contributed to
social segregation and the origin of the period of violence in Medellín.
Physical: The physical problems associated area with low housing standards,
lack of public and environmental degradation among others.
Institutional: This situation has been compounded by the absence of the state
that manifests in dismantling social actions and physical intervention and the
lack of control of the processes of land occupation.

SOCIAL PROCESSES – STRATEGY AND PROGRAMME OF ACTION
o Foster leaders, organize groups and community, social organization to
convene and establish mechanisms for participation, coordination,
information, communication in order to facilitate cooperation and
ownership of citizenship towards intervention.
o Promote community participation and competent communities to
achieve effective and appropriate involvement in the solution of their
problems.
o Participation of grassroots organizations, natural leaders, NGO's and
community presence in their territories of influence, to identify and
prioritize actions
o Facilitate dialogue as the effective exchange of knowledge and
interests. This requires respect for others, active listening, building
relationships of trust, compromise and working together to achieve
mutually beneficial goals.
o Everyone is regarded as a community leader to create opportunities
for information, education and participation, formation of community
committees and coordinate actions with social and community
organizations.

PROJECTS TO EMERGE AT SCALE FROM THE ABOVE PROCESSES (Examples)
 Brokers mobility: The street a meeting place - The city has many avenues and
emblematic streets but few are known,. Interventions on these streets makes
them visible to the city, and made available to all residents, creating spaces
for encounter and better opportunities for trade and development.
 Parks libraries - Spaces for All - The city opens the door to find, through
libraries parks, places with spaces for everyone, ranging from reading rooms,
exhibition spaces through to reach places for community meetings and
encounters with culture, as auditoriums. Parks Libraries are living buildings
that are filled with air with each of the users who visit them.
 Linear Parks: Recovering our streams - Our contribution to the
environment.The city of Medellin has many tributaries of water, a fact that
had never before been taken into account, we are now looking at our
streams, the recovered to be more friendly spaces, meeting places for all
family members. They generate public spaces and green areas and improve
ambient environmental conditions.
 Social Gardens: Our children in dignity - Small worlds made of fantasy and
small size 0-6 years ago that are social grounds, there are simple nurseries,
are places for the kids of our society begin to see and feel a just city, a city of
solidarity that since that age gives them the opportunity to start being
individuals on the development of society.
Sources for Data and Strategies
CIDEU
www.cideu.org/index.php?mod=objeto&act=verObjeto&opcion=proyectos&idObjet
o=955
National Competitiveness Report - 2012-2013. Collective prosperity path. Private
Competitiveness Council
http://www.compite.com.co/site/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/INC-20122013.pdf
Medellin - How are we doing?
http://medellincomovamos.org/
Education, Culture and Recreation:
http://medellincomovamos.org/educacion-cultura-y-recreacion
Medellin, Transformation of a City. Mayor of Medellin 2008-2011, Inter-American
Development Bank - IDB.
http://www.eafit.edu.co/centros/urb-am/Documents/libro.pdf
• Medellín - How Come. Quality of Life Report Medellin, 2012
http://medellincomovamos.org/informe-de-calidad-de-vida-de-medellin-2012
• Medellín - How Come. Analysis of the evolution of the quality of life in Medellin,
2008-2011
http://www.medellin.gov.co/transito/archivos/documentosinteres/encuesta_medellin_2011.pdf
COMPREHENSIVE URBAN PROJECTS-PUIhttp://proyectosurbanosintegrales.blogspot.com/