Cultural strategies, human rights and social change

An experience from Latin America

Felipe Cala, Latin America Program, Open Society Foundations

OPEN SOCIETY FOUNDATIONS • The Open Society Foundations (OSF) were founded in 1984

by George Soros, who born in Hungary and grew up under both Nazi occupation and Communism.

• Open societies are characterized by tolerance and respect for human rights, where a person’s role in society is not dictated by what they look like, where they live, or their beliefs.

• OSF is among the world’s largest private funders, working with local communities in more than 120 countries, and 40-plus foundations and programs across seven geographic regions.

• OSF uses a range of tools, including advocacy, grants, litigation, and research, to help support open societies around the world.

• OSF has always been willing to take risks and address issues where they may not be other funders.

OPEN SOCIETY FOUNDATIONS

OSF’S LATIN AMERICA PROGRAM • Program-level goal on “Effective democracies that

advance human rights”: Attain effective and responsive democratic institutions and realize human rights through democratic participation.

• Portfolio-level goals: Foster greater support for human rights by generating and disseminating counter-narratives that promote empathy, solidarity, and trust. Bridge the gap between creativity and strategy: foster a more strategic and targeted use of creativity among non-traditional actors, and a more creative activism among organized civil society in the region.

BUZZ WORDS

Narrative change

Attitude change

Strategic communications

Creative activism

Cultural change

Public opinion shift

“Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it, nothing can succeed.”

- Abraham Lincoln

Culture is like the ocean, and what makes the waves

SHARED SPACE

ACTIVITIES

PRACTICES

Politics is where some of the people are some of the time

Culture is where most

of the people are

most of the time

From: Making Waves: A Guide to Cultural Strategy

There is no change without cultural change

Culture and policy interact at three levels: micro, meso, & macro

• 3 days in Chicago, IL • 130+ participants • 80+ organizations from 7

countries • 26 speakers • 3 comedy groups from

Latin America

Objectives: • Raise awareness among Latin

American democracy and human rights organizations about alternative forms of communications and engagement

• Foster collaboration between human rights organizations and non-traditional actors –i.e. comedy groups

• Plant the seed for a long-term comedy for change movement in the region

Outcomes: • Three projects to create social

change through comedy and humour: Polarization and regressive

policies by a satirical news site in Brazil

Religion in policy by a theatre group in Colombia

Impunity in Mexico by a feminist cabaret troupe

+

• In Uruguay, between 1985 and 2011, there had been 16 attempts to lower the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 18 to 16 years old.

• In 2014, one of the ruling political parties called for a referendum for citizens to approve or reject this measure.

June 2011: 70%

Oct. 2014: 47%

• To inform, stimulate and expand the conversations on human rights and social justice through accessible and formats and language.

• To adapt and curate content from trustworthy institutions and responsible sources, and then engage their audience through daily posts on their Facebook page (www.facebook.com/quebrandootabu/).

• 7.5 million followers • 20+ million weekly

interactions • presence in 90-100 million

timelines each week

Citizen participation

Discrimination

LGBTI rights

Political polarization

Violence

War on drugs

Women’s rights

Brazil has one of the highest homicide rates in the world: • Out of the more than 56,000 homicides registered in the country in 2012, over

40,000 were committed with firearms. • Over 30,000 of those murdered were young people, out of which 77% were black,

the vast majority males. • In 2014, police in active service were responsible for 16% of homicides committed

in Rio de Janeiro.

LESSONS LEARNED • There are at least three elements for going viral. • Success is easier to define when projects are linked to

specific (electoral, legislative, etc.) processes. • Network building is not enough. Mobilization is also

necessary. • Potential does not mean scalability, and technology-

driven projects are bound by available infrastructure. • It is better to build on existing platforms than to create

platforms from scratch. • Catalytic projects are cost effective.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Develop a strategy • What are your key messages? • What are your impact goals? • Who can make this happen? • What do you/others need to do to

make change happen?

Develop an evaluation plan • What evidence will you need to

prove you were successful? • Does any relevant data already

exist that you can measure against? • How are you going to capture that

data? • When are you going to capture that

data?

Define your impact • Changing minds • Changing behaviour • Building communities • Changing structures

Map the issue • Who is sympathetic? Who is

against? Who are the influencers? Who are the decision makers?

RESOURCES • Beautiful Trouble • BRITDOC • Center for Artistic Activism (C4AA) • Center for Story-based Strategy • CultureStrike • Frameworks Institute • Harmony Institute • Narrativ • Narrative Initiative • Yes Lab

THANK YOU