La Moran Case: an example of a replicable development plan

Despite the specific conditions that characterize informal settlements in the cities of Latin America, there are common methodological guidelines and spaces for intervention that may be a model to plan neighborhood improvement projects. For this reason, the experience resulting from some comprehensive projects serves as a model of urban renewal in sectors with complex social realities.

Such is the case of the sustainable and replicable development plan of a neighborhood, created through an agreement between CAF and the DVC, and implemented by FUDEP in the community of la Moran in Caracas, Venezuela. The study Inclusión de habitantes en la ciudadanía plena. Experiencias de desarrollo urbano e inclusión social en América Latina (CAF, 2013) (Inclusion of citizens to full citizenship. Experiences in urban development and social inclusion in Lain America) explains that the plan consists in the preparation of a physical and social development project as a real, sustainable, and replicable example of a comprehensive urban renewal methodology. 

It should be noted that about 8,100 people live in La Moran, which represents 0.5 percent of the inhabitants in vulnerable areas when taking into account that close to half of the urban population lives in informal settlements. This community's plan is made up by infrastructure, environmental sanitation, and public space projects that incorporate formative processes within their structure to stimulate the economic and social development of the community. 

After several years of experience in La Moran, a methodology has been established based on two main aspects: 

• The incorporation, in each project, of work teams which include the community, social accompaniment, technical advisory, and the investor. 
• The inclusion of complementary educational processes en each physical project. When executing a construction project, workers, brigade members, and other community participants attend training workshops that complement their education from a personal, community, and working point of view.  

Thus, each physical project becomes a vehicle of social transformation.