{"id":56874,"date":"2019-11-30T10:28:28","date_gmt":"2019-11-30T13:28:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=56874"},"modified":"2020-03-03T14:07:08","modified_gmt":"2020-03-03T17:07:08","slug":"cocozap-employing-social-media-and-citizen-generated-data-to-improve-sanitation-services-in-mare-profile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=56874","title":{"rendered":"Coc\u00f4Zap: Employing Social Media and Citizen-Generated Data to Improve Sanitation Services in Mar\u00e9 [PROFILE]"},"content":{"rendered":"

Initiative<\/span>:<\/strong> Coc\u00f4Zap
\nContact<\/strong><\/span>:<\/strong> Website<\/a> | Blog<\/a> |Facebook<\/a> | Twitter<\/a>
\nYear Founded<\/span>:<\/strong> 2017
\nCommunity<\/span>:<\/strong> Complexo da Mar\u00e9
\nMission<\/span>:<\/strong> To make the debate over basic sanitation in favelas more accessible through direct citizen action in data production, monitoring of public policies, the generation of counter-hegemonic narratives, public debates, and mutir\u00f5es <\/em>(collective action).
\nPublic Events<\/span>:<\/strong> Coc\u00f4Zap organizes community mutir\u00f5es<\/em> in Mar\u00e9 and hosts public forums on sanitation issues.
\nHow to Contribute<\/span>:\u00a0<\/strong>Donate, collaborate with data collection, and help to increase the project’s visibility.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Within the favelas of Complexo da Mar\u00e9<\/a> in the North Zone<\/a> of Rio de Janeiro, the organization data_labe<\/a> is using data to disseminate new narratives about favela residents and urban peripheries. Born out of the Mar\u00e9-based Favelas Observatory<\/a> in 2016, the data_labe team was originally composed of five youth savvy about quantitative data. Aside from generating reports based on public data, the group also held youth training programs and mapped out favela communication initiatives<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Data_labe became an independent entity in 2017, and the organization now employs ten staff members from diverse backgrounds. Work is centered on three distinct fronts: journalism, education, and the production of citizen-generated data (CGD), which according to data_labe coordinator Gilberto Vieira, refers to “how people can produce data by themselves and be engaged in the production of data without being a formal research institute.” For Vieira and the whole data_labe team, public data and CGD constitute powerful tools for defining the narratives regarding the city of Rio and its inhabitants.<\/p>\n

One of data_labe’s key CGD areas is basic sanitation. Motivated by the idea of “building a channel for denunciation, debates, and proposals regarding basic sanitation,” Vieira and his colleagues drew up plans for a new initiative in 2016: Coc\u00f4Zap<\/a>. Coc\u00f4Zap\u2014a portmanteau of the Portuguese word for poop and the social media platform WhatsApp, commonly referred to as “Zap” in Brazil\u2014gives residents the opportunity to issue complaints on sanitation violations in Mar\u00e9. Residents that encounter raw sewage leaks, uncollected garbage, or a lack of access to clean water, can message a report and photo to a WhatsApp account managed by data_labe. Vieira and other Coc\u00f4Zap team members then upload the report to an online database, which includes a date of observation, description of the sanitation issue, issue category, frequency with which the issue occurs, and location. In addition to uploading the information to the database, the Coc\u00f4Zap team maps each reported issue. Once the data are organized and mapped, Vieira and his colleagues use the information to create reports and presentations on sanitation issues and their effects on Mar\u00e9 residents.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the Coc\u00f4Zap team hopes these data-informed reports will assist residents in engaging with public officials. Historically, it was residents of Mar\u00e9 and other favelas across the city that won access to sanitation for themselves, mobilizing to pressure the government to provide basic public services. Coc\u00f4Zap hopes to provide a technological upgrade to that deep-rooted mobilization. “Coc\u00f4Zap helps to maintain the residents of Mar\u00e9 in a leading political role,” explains Vieira. By promoting the collection of CGD and producing reports based on local data, Coc\u00f4Zap is bringing the sanitation debate back to the people.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Following Coc\u00f4Zap’s initial planning, Vieira and his colleagues decided to enter their CGD concept into the DataShift Community Seed Funding Challenge<\/a>, sponsored by the international NGO CIVICUS<\/a>. Coc\u00f4Zap won the competition, and the prize money allowed the data_labe team to put their plans into action. First, data_labe team members began mobilizing Mar\u00e9 residents with the purpose of providing data for Coc\u00f4Zap, training interested participants on how to report their findings. The data_labe team also instructed collaborators to disseminate the Coc\u00f4Zap WhatsApp number and recruit more participants.<\/p>\n

Once the mobilization for data collection was underway, data_labe hosted events focusing on basic sanitation and environmental issues in Mar\u00e9, including two tree-planting and trash-collecting mutir\u00f5es<\/em>. Later, the Coc\u00f4Zap team organized a public forum for residents to discuss public sanitation issues with civil authorities<\/a>, featuring local activists, members from collectives and other community-based organizations, public health officials, as well as representatives from the municipal waste collection utility Comlurb<\/a> and the state-run water and sewerage utility CEDAE<\/a>. The forum succeeded in creating a list of demands and solutions for four major areas of concern for residents of Mar\u00e9, including trash and public security, health and well-being, water supply and conservation, and sewerage and rehabilitation of Guanabara Bay<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Aside from initial funding from CIVICUS, Coc\u00f4Zap has received financial support from the Fundo Socioambiental Caixa<\/a> and the Heinrich B\u00f6ll Foundation<\/a>. Along the way, Coc\u00f4Zap has also benefited from close partnerships with other not-for-profit organizations, such as Redes da Mar\u00e9<\/a> and Casa Fluminense<\/a>. Finally, Coc\u00f4Zap maintains research partnerships with the Pontifical Catholic University of Paran\u00e1 (PUCPR<\/a>) and the Engineering Department at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ<\/a>). Through their work with these partnerships, Coc\u00f4Zap aims to foster diversity in knowledge production, including in the fields of journalism, research, and political monitoring.<\/p>\n

To date, over 65 residents have provided basic sanitation data to Coc\u00f4Zap, with the majority residing in the favelas of Nova Holanda<\/a>, Rubens Vaz<\/a>, and Parque Uni\u00e3o<\/a>. Data_labe has also been able to hire local youth to work as “mobilizers,” helping recruit project collaborators and collect data. One of these mobilizers, Maykon Sardinha, witnessed firsthand the conflict between public authorities in regard to waste and sewage management in Mar\u00e9. “What is done with our trash and our feces by the government says a lot about how we favela residents are viewed by society,” says Sardinha.<\/p>\n

Another mobilizer, Gabrielle from Nova Holanda, participated in a three-month internship program with Coc\u00f4Zap. For the first month, she received instruction on politics and public policy in the favelas. In the following two months, Gabrielle took to the streets and interacted with residents and local organizations in an effort to increase involvement with the Coc\u00f4Zap initiative. Over the course of her time as a mobilizer, she became more aware of the difficulties her community faces with regards to basic sanitation, but also how often the community’s achievements go unrecognized. “The most striking [aspect] of my experience in the street was realizing that the residents are aware of the trash and sewage, and little by little they do little actions with their neighbors, keeping the streets clean so that the children can play,” says Gabrielle.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Vieira believes that one of the most serious challenges that residents of Mar\u00e9\u2014and favelas in general\u2014must overcome is environmental racism, or how politics regarding access to public sanitation change based on where one lives. “In the richer areas of the city, the politics of trash collection, water distribution, and sewage treatment are handled differently than in the peripheral areas of the city,” explains Vieira, who attributes the disparity in treatment to a public security policy that segregates the favela from the rest of the city. Through a systematic and organized approach to data collection and narrative production, Vieira and the Coc\u00f4Zap team hope to assist Mar\u00e9 and other communities in overcoming these racist stereotypes. By harnessing the resilience of residents and continuing their legacy of community mobilization, Coc\u00f4Zap fights to close the rich-poor gap in basic sanitation services.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Moving forward, Vieira and the rest of the data_labe team hope to involve a greater number of Mar\u00e9 residents in the Coc\u00f4Zap initiative. Vieira believes that, with more data, Coc\u00f4Zap will generate more significant benefits for the Mar\u00e9 community. Once Coc\u00f4Zap achieves a higher degree of community participation in Mar\u00e9, Vieira hopes to expand the project’s scope even further. “I believe that from the moment [Coc\u00f4Zap] has community importance and relevance [in Mar\u00e9], we will succeed in taking the project to other places, to other favelas, and to a definitive space in public policy [debates].”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n*Coc\u00f4Zap is one of over 100 community projects mapped<\/a>\u00a0by\u00a0Catalytic Communities<\/a>\u00a0(CatComm), the organization that publishes\u00a0RioOnWatch<\/i>, as part of our parallel \u2018Sustainable Favela Network<\/a>\u2018 program launched in 2017 to recognize, support, strengthen, and expand on the\u00a0sustainable qualities and community movements inherent to<\/a>\u00a0Rio de Janeiro\u2019s favela communities. Check out\u00a0all the profiles of mapped projects here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Initiative: Coc\u00f4Zap Contact: Website | Blog |Facebook | Twitter Year Founded: 2017 Community: Complexo da Mar\u00e9 Mission: To make the debate over basic sanitation in favelas more accessible through direct citizen action in data production, […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":196,"featured_media":56881,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1288,1284,329,452,1329],"tags":[1713,371,484,258,280,2860,2436,531,683,37,281,523,362,301,1555,1952,535,373,471,128,692,2323,1922],"writer":[3022],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-56874","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-highlight","8":"category-interviews-profiles","9":"category-solutions","10":"category-rio20","11":"category-by-international-observers","12":"tag-casa-fluminense","13":"tag-cedae","14":"tag-comlurb-waste-collection","15":"tag-community-solution","16":"tag-complexo-da-mare","17":"tag-creative-tech","18":"tag-environmental-justice","19":"tag-guanabara-bay","20":"tag-mobilization","21":"tag-north-zone","22":"tag-nova-holanda","23":"tag-observatorio-de-favelas","24":"tag-parque-uniao","25":"tag-public-policy","26":"tag-redes-de-desenvolvimento-da-mare","27":"tag-rubens-vaz","28":"tag-sanitation","29":"tag-sewerage","30":"tag-sustainability","31":"tag-technology","32":"tag-trash-collection","33":"tag-ufrj","34":"tag-whatsapp","35":"writer-colin-andrew"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/196"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/56881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56874"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=56874"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=56874"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=56874"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=56874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}