Action archivos • Pluriversa

Beyond the SDGs: interspecies democracy

Claude Pluriversa — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 03:53:45 +0000

Our actions

Beyond the SDGs: rehearsing interspecies democracy

A three-hour Pluriversal Interspecies Council at the Participatory Design Conference 2026, in Milan: designers, researchers and practitioners embodied rivers, migrants, corporations and ancestors to examine the promises of sustainable development — and to draft principles of coexistence instead of new targets.

Context
Participatory Design Conference 2026 · Workshop

Year
2026 · Milan, Italy

Services
Participatory design · Collective-intelligence facilitation · Strategic foresight

CHALLENGE

With less than four years to 2030, many SDG targets are off-track. But the deeper trouble is not the timeline: the goals carry a development logic that makes progress measurable, universal and human-only. What becomes invisible when development is the only horizon?

APPROACH

A three-hour council, time-boxed as a civic assembly. Participants stop speaking as experts and speak from a role — a river, a school, an extractive corporation, the ancestors — mapping harm and care across five 2050 promises of sustainable development, with a talking piece and rotating tables.

IMPACT

Twenty roles across five families, five scenarios examined from every perspective, seven principles of coexistence and a collective Council Statement — plus a micro-assembly kit built to be replicated.

Twenty roles, five families, one table

Each participant received a card and a perspective to inhabit. Not a topic to discuss — a position to speak from, with its own needs, vulnerabilities, dependencies and guiding questions.

More than human

Bodies that exceed borders

River, forest, mountain, pollinators, atmosphere. Their health depends on ecological relationships no human boundary contains. What memories do you carry? What is disrupting your cycles?

Human communities

Those who sustain the invisible

Migrants, informal workers, Indigenous community, youth, elders. What forms of work remain invisible? What does it mean to belong?

Institutions

Those who allocate and build

Local government, extractive corporation, urban planner, schools, infrastructure systems. How do you decide when different forms of life have conflicting needs? Who is affected by your decisions, but absent from the table?

Liminal entities

What crosses every boundary

Air, fires, waste, borders — presences that make hidden externalities visible. How do borders fail to contain you? What does a society reveal by what it discards?

Future & absent

Those who cannot attend

Future generations, ancestors, species not yet existing, sacrificed territories, future technologies. Who can speak for those who do not yet exist? What wounds remain?

An extra role

The Witness

One role per table did not argue. It kept the record of the previous round and threaded it into the next, so the conversation accumulated memory instead of starting over.

Roles rotated across tables for five rounds. Each participant carried the same perspective into every scenario — and watched it collide with a different future.

A Harm and Care map traced with threads: red for harms and sacrifices, yellow for unresolved tensions, green for care and regenerative practices.

The decks before the first round: role cards, conceptual lenses and the Harm and Care map.

Each table received one scenario, one map and a full deck.

Opening the council: three hours, time-boxed as a civic assembly.

A deck to speak from

Each card carries a role’s needs, vulnerabilities, dependencies and guiding questions. The engraving and the colour tell you which family you belong to before you read a word.

The River · more than human

The Youth · human communities

The Extractive Corporation · institutions

The Atmosphere · liminal entities

The Sacrificed Territory · future & absent

«Do not think “What do we want?” — but rather “What does the network of coexistence need?”»

The Council Protocol
Objective one · Decentering the human

The Conceptual Lenses deck beside the Witness and Local Government cards.

Harm → Care mapping

Instead of debating objects or products, each table mapped relationships: what is celebrated as success, who benefits and who bears the cost, which relationships sustain the vision, what is being sacrificed, and what forms of care could open a just future. Threads connect the roles; sticky notes mark harms, tensions and practices of care. The map is not a deliverable — it is the trace of the conversation.

16
participants

20
roles in play

5
rounds of rotation

3h
time-boxed

Five promises of development, put to the test

Each table received a scenario: a 2050 future in which a promise of sustainable development has largely been kept — and has produced its own tensions. From their roles, participants asked the same four questions of every one: What do you value in this future? What worries you? What relationship must be protected? What responsibility do you hold?

2050: Living Territorial Councils

Councils where human and more-than-human representatives decide on water, energy and land use. Biodiversity and democratic participation improve; decisions grow slower and more complex. Who can legitimately represent a more-than-human being?

2050: Regenerative Prosperity

Growth is abandoned as the measure of progress in favour of ecosystem health, care time and community wellbeing. Ecosystems recover; whole industries disappear. Who bears the costs of the transition?

2050: The Seventh-Generation Test

Every policy, infrastructure or innovation must prove benefits for the next seven generations before approval. Ecological degradation falls; decisions become slower and more contested. Who can speak for those who do not yet exist?

2050: Interdependent Mobilities

Flexible citizenship, territorial hospitality and shared governance meet rising human mobility. Cultural diversity and regeneration coexist; tensions over belonging persist. Are there legitimate limits to mobility?

2050: Knowledge Commons for Life

Scientific, Indigenous, community and ecological knowledge decide together. Solutions grow more resilient and culturally apt; disagreements over legitimacy remain. Who decides what counts as evidence?

Principles, not targets

Before deliberating, every table received a set of lenses — not a vision of the future, but a way of thinking through relationships, plurality, care and responsibility. They are lenses for deliberation, and they replace the language of targets.

01	We are constituted through relationships and responsibilities
02	Many worlds deserve to coexist
03	Knowledge is plural and difference is generative
04	Care sustains the world
05	Those affected deserve representation
06	Repair precedes progress
07	Flourishing is cultivated through practice

A council is a rehearsal, not a machine

The SDGs gave the world a shared language and a deadline. What a goal cannot do is hold what development has already broken, or seat those who never had a chair. This council does not seek efficiency, immediate consensus or fast output — it seeks complexity, listening and a shift of perspective. That is the minimum condition for deciding together in a world we share with far more than ourselves. Principles, unlike targets, do not expire in 2030.

Pluriversa team

This council was convened by members of our Pluriversa Community, working across Italy and Colombia:

Daniela Montenegro

Service & Strategic Designer

Ivan Peñaranda

Service & Experience Designer

Mathew Spialtini

Service & System Designer

Mauricio Franco

Researcher & Critical Designer

Miguel Bello

Director

Let’s convene a council in your context

Participatory design, collective-intelligence facilitation and strategic foresight, tailored to your context. No recipes, with method.

We work with people and organizations driven by positive impact in the Global South.

hola@pluriversa.org

La entrada Beyond the SDGs: interspecies democracy se publicó primero en Pluriversa.

Imagining the future to decide today

Claude Pluriversa — Sat, 25 Jul 2026 14:18:09 +0000

Our actions

Imagining the future to decide today

Strategic foresight and collective facilitation with Colombia’s Territorial Foundations and the Regeneration Fund: co-designing a shared vision of the territory for 2031, understanding what drives it and what holds it back, and translating it into decisions for the present.

Partners
TerritoriA · Regeneration Fund · Territorial Foundations

Year
2026 · San Rafael, Antioquia

Services
Strategic foresight · Collective-intelligence facilitation · Governance design

CHALLENGE

A movement of territorial foundations and a community philanthropy fund still taking shape share a territory, but not a common horizon. Without a shared image of the future they want to inhabit, every present-day decision is argued blind.

APPROACH

We work the future with method: a futures triangle toward 2031 to separate what attracts, what pushes and what holds back; and then a mapping of wills over the governance decisions that would make that vision possible.

IMPACT

A 2031 territorial vision along four axes, a map of trade-offs across nine governance decisions, and a portfolio of starter actions prioritized by value and complexity.

The 2031 territorial vision

Four axes harvested from the work of five teams. They are not the fund’s goals: they are the future the territory wants to inhabit, and the yardstick by which today’s decisions are measured.

Territory

Living water and biocultural territories

Water at the center of the territorial pact: hydrological restoration, biodiversity and biocultural life, food sovereignty and living rural worlds in coexistence with the cities.

Dignified life

Territorial peace, justice and care for life

De-escalation of armed economies, guarantees for civil society and territorial leadership, equity, mental health and gender justice.

Autonomy

Regenerative economy and territorial autonomy

Ethical and solidarity finance, financial autonomy under way, alternative means of exchange, local consumption and a spiritual bond with nature.

Capabilities

Capabilities for the ecosocial transition

Education in trades and knowledge, culture and the arts as social infrastructure, technology in the service of care, and information to sustain results.

The four axes were then read against the signals of the present and the weight of the past: what enables them, what obstructs them, and what to watch to know whether the territory is moving forward.

The group’s consolidated futures triangle: the visions at the top, the signals of the present on the left and the weight of the past on the right — each note, a voice from the territory.

The open wooden temple in the forest, set for the session

Each team first harvested its own visions of 2031

The National Gathering brought together the country’s Territorial Foundations

«We are guardians of water and life.»

Note written by a team
Territorial vision workshop · National Gathering 2026, San Rafael

The future isn’t imagined in a vacuum

The futures triangle separates the forces we tend to confuse so the conversation doesn’t blend them: what attracts us and what holds us back.

What attracts · Pull of the future

The visions

The longings for the shared territory, harvested by five teams and consolidated into the four axes of the 2031 vision.

What holds back · Weight of the past

The inherited

Six layers of a hegemonic system: civilizational paradigms and wounds, goals, structures, rules, patterns that repeat and harms that carry over.

One team’s triangle, before consolidating the shared vision.

Three forces, one conversation

The futures triangle orders the conversation about what’s to come: instead of a shower of wishes, each team places its visions (what attracts), the signals of the present (what pushes) and the inherited structures (what holds back). We consolidated the work into four vision axes, six signals of change and six layers of the weight of the past, each with its markers of progress.

2031
the horizon year

4
vision axes

6
signals of change

5
working teams

A vision needs a way to decide

A shared horizon isn’t enough: you have to agree on how to decide in order to reach it. In the second space of the gathering we mapped the fund’s governance with nine trilemmas —a dilemma makes you choose; a trilemma makes you give something up—. Each person didn’t declare what they want, but what they are willing to let go of.

The nine governance trilemmas with the group’s votes: each dot, a conscious trade-off.

How is the strategic approved? How do we handle tensions and conflicts? How, and who, can engage with funders?

The trilemmas consolidated in the final report on vision and governance exploration.

From the future to the following Monday

The vision and the agreements were landed into concrete actions, placed on a matrix of value and complexity. The focus stayed on the “low-hanging fruit”: what delivers value soon and at low complexity — activating governance, channeling resources to the territories and translating the regenerative narrative into common language.

Each proposed action was placed according to the value it delivers and its complexity.

The future is decided in the present

A five-year vision isn’t for waiting: it’s for choosing today. The agreed path doesn’t wait to have everything figured out —activating the first agreements, moving resources toward the territories and learning on the move—, because a governance system is also premiered while it’s being built.

Let’s design the future of your territory

Strategic foresight, collective-intelligence facilitation and governance design, tailored to your context. No recipes, with method.

We work with people and organizations driven by positive impact in the Global South.

hola@pluriversa.org

La entrada Imagining the future to decide today se publicó primero en Pluriversa.

Underhyped tech for post-development

Pluriversa — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 12:00:00 +0000

Our actions

Underhyped tech for post-development

A project to identify, imagine and activate nine pioneering technologies with high eco-social potential that currently go unnoticed.

Partners
Frontier Tech Hub, UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office

Year
2025

Services
Mapping Dynamics of Change; Foresight and Future Visions; Strategic Direction for Action

This project redefines what deserves technological attention today. Instead of following the hype, we map and prioritise technologies with high social and ecological value that often go unnoticed. We combine evidence, scenarios for the future in 2035 and post-development criteria to arrive at nine underhyped technologies.

CHALLENGE

The global technological debate tends to focus on narratives of high hype and quick returns, leaving out technologies with great social, territorial and ecological value. The challenge was to identify these underhyped technologies and make strategic recommendations—based on foresight and evidence—so that public, private and community actors can explore, finance and adopt them fairly.

APPROACH

We combine research and technological curation with strategic foresight. To do this, we define technological selection criteria based on ‘attention’ (who is watching and why) and ‘potential’ (systemic and territorial impact).

With this approach, we studied 142 technologies with the potential to impact post-development at an international level.

IMPACT

Portfolio of nine undervalued technologies with eco-social significance.
Clear language for decision-makers: technological criteria and five sets of recommendations for financing and adoption.
Futures thinking to highlight risks and opportunities for 2035.
Post-development literacy and perspectives from the Global South towards technological solutions with greater territorial value.

What does ‘underhyped’ mean?

Our ‘underhyped’ technologies challenge dominant narratives of innovation. Despite their potential to strengthen community resilience, ecological balance, and locally-based solutions, they receive little attention because they do not fit into traditional funding models or challenge assumptions about ‘progress.’

We reframe attention (who is looking, why, who benefits) and potential (the capacity to create long-term systemic impact, based on local priorities) to value technologies that expand the realm of possibility.

Not only are these technologies little known, but they also prove that a different form of development is possible, one based on ecological balance and community worldviews.

9 prioritised technologies

Click on the dots to explore the technologies.

Key recommendations

Read the Recommendations →

1) Data sovereignty and security

Move away from data extractivism and treat data as a common good. Communities decide what is collected, who has access to it and for what purpose, with decentralised infrastructure and security policies that prevent surveillance and misuse.

2) Community-centred economies and business models
Prevent technology from reproducing extractive dynamics. Promote local ownership and operation, circular economies and alternative finance that keep value in the territory.

3) Governance, social capabilities, and open technologies

Adoption depends less on the Technology Readiness Level and more on the social stack: bioregional governance, training, and community-controlled open source. It is about technological autonomy and peer learning.

4) Legal and ethical protection for implementation

Move from technology as private property to common good. Prevent monopolies, biopiracy and surveillance, and ensure human and environmental rights through proactive regulation and social participation.

5) Pluriversal research and community innovation ecosystems

Overcoming the ‘top-down’ approach. Researching and designing with communities, integrating indigenous, local and scientific knowledge, prioritising resilience, agroecology, water and restoration.

Exploring the potential of ‘underhyped frontier technologies’ requires a shift in how we approach technology itself, moving away from top-down models and towards community-driven pathways that focus on local knowledge, autonomy, and ecological regeneration.

How we did it

Curation and technological criteria

We explored a database of 142 technologies and filtered them by attention and potential with a post-developmental focus.

Expert validation

We compare with technical and territorial references to refine assumptions and biases.

Scenarios 2035

We designed four scenarios that reveal plausible paths and critical risks.

Recommendations

Strategic and practical framework for integrating these technologies into international cooperation ecosystems.

Four scenarios 2035

Plural is Beautiful:

Bioregional governance and technology with community agency.

Read Scenarios →

Young Rebels

Innovation from the margins; translocal cooperation and digital commons

Read Scenarios →

Divergent Growth

Geo-economic competition; new dependencies via licences and data.

Read Scenarios →

Expected Hegemony

Centralised deployments geared towards control; local autonomy at risk.

Read Scenarios →

“The technology that matters is the one that promotes autonomy and cares for life.”

— Pluriversa Team

This project means moving away from short-term interventions to facilitate long-term transitions, ensuring that decision-making power rests with local communities, and recognising that sustainable prosperity is inherently political.

Let's bring these techs to your territory

Discussions, workshops, and support for mapping systems, activating secure pilots, and setting up learning loops with our post-development approach.

Pluriversa team

This project was co-created by members of our Pluriversa Community:

Miguel Bello

Director

Ricardo Lapeira

Foresight & Ethics Lead

Daniela Montenegro

Design Researcher

Mauricio Franco

Researcher & Visual Designer

Juan Sebastián Sánchez

Strategic Designer

We would also like to extend our gratitude to our partners and teammates:

Dr. Becky Faith – FCDO
Asad Rahman – Brink
Bryony Nicholson -Brink
Lil Patuck – Brink

We work with people and organisations motivated by the positive impact on the Global South.

hello@pluriversa.org

La entrada Underhyped tech for post-development se publicó primero en Pluriversa.

Future visions for the trade relationship between Canada and Latin America

Pluriversa — Tue, 01 Apr 2025 12:30:37 +0000

Our actions

2030 visions for the trade relations between Canada and Latin America

During EDC’s regional conference in Bogotá, we facilitated a foresight process that mapped forces of change, tensions, and 2030 visions across five priority sectors for Canada–LATAM trade relations—culminating in a 10-action roadmap for the next 36 months.

Partner
Export Development Canada (EDC)

Year
2025

Services

Foresight and Future Visions; Collective Intelligence Facilitation

As part of EDC’s Vision 2030, we led a strategic foresight exercise to explore trends, imagine plausible futures, and distill the findings into 10 actions that strengthen Canada’s business strategy in Latin America. The work took place during EDC’s Regional Conference in Bogotá.

CHALLENGE

Help EDC’s Latin America team shift from short-term operations to a long-range, strategy-driven view: anticipate trends, spot opportunities, and strengthen internal capacities to decide with a 2030 horizon—consolidating its bridge role between Canada and the region.

APPROACH

We work in five priority sectors for trade relations between Canada and the region. We hold virtual and in-person sessions to gather signals of change, build visions for the future, challenge assumptions, and prioritize actions. We conclude with sector-specific one-pagers as a bridge to implementation over the next 36 months.

IMPACT

10 priority actions to guide EDC’s strategy in Latin America and implement over the next 36 months.
2030 visions for each of the priority sectors: Agri-Food, Clean Tech, Digital Industries, Advanced Manufacturing, and Resources of the Future.
Strengthened internal capabilities to cultivate long-term thinking and anticipate future change.

Regulatory–financial tensions, trade diversification, and social licence are not solved by a single move—they require coordinated portfolios of actions by sector and territory.

Key findings

ESG and Canadian regulation (e.g., anti-greenwashing rules) raise the bar and drive demand for ethical and regenerative finance.

Tariffs, retaliation, and protectionism are reshaping routes, timelines, and SME exporter support.

Trade diversification toward the Indo-Pacific, Europe, and LATAM—emphasizing services as well as goods

Nearshoring and supply-chain rewiring position LATAM as an alternative manufacturing/logistics hub to Asia.

Chinese capital and geopolitical realignment open opportunities and strategic dilemmas.

We used the Futures Triangle to map future attractors, present drivers, and past weights—and to translate that understanding into actions and an executive synthesis.

How we did it

Signals & reframing

Intro to foresight and signal collection by EDC teams to feed the in-person work.

Futures Triangle mapping

By sector, we mapped Push of the Present, Weight of the Past, and Pull of the Future to distill tensions and opportunities.

Actions & one-pager

We converged on prioritized actions and synthesized them into a sector one-pager as a bridge for decisions over the next 36 months.

Socialization & prioritization

We presented, discussed, and voted using criteria to prioritize actions: Value for EDC · Challenge to the comfort zone · Emotional catalyst.

Five 2030 scenarios

🌱 Agri-Food

Shift from raw bulk commodities to value-added, tech-enabled foods that feed the world sustainably

☀️ Clean Tech

Evolve from sporadic investing to an integrated CAN–LATAM trade & investment ecosystem

🤖 Digital Industries

Undervalued intangibles become fully regulated, financed, and drive a seamless digital economy

🦾 Advanced Manufacturing

Transactional exports become CAN–LATAM co-production partnership-driven manufacturing ecosystem

🪨 Resources of the Future

Canadian-Chile best-practice smart-mining model replicated across LATAM via AI & ESG tech

“When a strategic team recognizes the rights of nature, the future of business is no longer only about growth—it begins to be about coexistence. This shift opens space for a post-development stance, even in business environments.”

— Equipo Pluriversa

When signals stop being noise and become criteria, strategy stops being slides: it becomes 10 measurable actions in 36 months, CAN–LATAM alliances, and a compass that includes people, territories, and the rights of nature.

Strengthen your long-term thinking

Transform scattered signals into strategic decisions. We support training processes and workshops to move from vision to measurable actions—with low risk and high learning.

Pluriversa team

This project was co-created by members of our Pluriversa Community:

Miguel Bello

Director

Jesús Ortíz

Foresight Specialist

We would also like to extend our gratitude to our partners and teammates:

Jorge Rave – EDC
Tamara Fathi – EDC
Daniel Bermudez – EDC
Juliana Pérez – EDC

We work with people and organisations motivated by the positive impact on the Global South.

hello@pluriversa.org

La entrada Future visions for the trade relationship between Canada and Latin America se publicó primero en Pluriversa.

Establish an international group of experts and community leaders

Pluriversa — Fri, 14 Mar 2025 12:00:00 +0000

Our actions

Establish an international group of experts and community leaders.

We convene a diverse cohort of experts and community leaders to validate underhyped technologies in Sensors & IoT, Sustainable Energy, and Biotechnology—and turn insight into responsible adoption across the Global South.

Partners
Frontier Tech Hub, UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office

Year
2025

Services
Participation Spaces; Collective Intelligence Facilitation; Community design

The Global Brain Trust (GBT) was designed to assess the knowledge of those who live with technologies in their territories. We bring together technical and community voices to analyze the territorial relevance, scalability, and adaptability of underhyped technologies with high eco-social potential in Sensors & IoT, Sustainable Energy, and Biotechnology, guiding their responsible adoption in the Global South.

CHALLENGE

The technological debate ignores solutions with high territorial value when they do not fit into market logic. We needed to connect technical expertise with community perspectives to understand real uses, bottlenecks, and conditions for adoption in the Global South, avoiding extractive narratives and reinforcing community sovereignty.

APPROACH

Create an international group of representatives from communities in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, as well as researchers, scientists, industry leaders, and professionals in the fields of sensors & IoT, sustainable energy, and biotechnology.

IMPACT

Refined list of underhyped technologies and use cases with territorial relevance.
Shared language and criteria for responsible adoption (territorial relevance, scalability, and adaptability).
International network (communities + experts) to continue testing and scaling with an ethical approach.

What is the Global Brain Trust?

It is a space that brings together those who live and work with cutting-edge technologies or their adoption in communities; to question assumptions, understand risks/possibilities, and co-create paths for responsible adoption in real contexts.

Community leaders from Asia and sub-Saharan Africa: they provide essential perspectives from the grassroots level, highlighting real-world challenges, local innovations, and relational worldviews.
Professionals from three technological domains: sensors & IoT, sustainable energy, and biotechnology, who provide contextual knowledge about use cases, barriers to adoption, and scalability.
Thematic experts: provide insights into the theoretical and technical aspects of designing and implementing these technologies.

The composition of the GBT balances territory and technique: grassroots leaders and scientific/industrial profiles from countries such as Singapore, Uganda, Botswana, Kenya, Pakistan, Nepal, the United Kingdom, the United States, Italy, India, the United Arab Emirates, Colombia, Ecuador, Costa Rica, South Africa, and Thailand.

“We have brilliant indigenous knowledge systems and, at the same time, we have adapted several technological ways to conserve the environment.”

— Jessica Kopo Enga (Botswana, member of the Global Brain Trust)

A total of 223 potential candidates were identified. From this group, 23 participants were selected to join the Global Brain Trust.

Key Findings

Leer las Recomendaciones →

Political

Decentralized, people-centered governance allows communities to influence technology adoption, ensuring a balance of power and data transparency.

Environmental

Ensuring equitable access to safe drinking water remains the most pressing challenge for communities, with energy and air quality key interrelated priorities for sustainable well-being.

Social

Technologies that integrate local knowledge and respect cultural heritage encourage greater community participation and sustainable outcomes, ensuring that technological solutions truly improve local practices.

Technological

Rather than relying solely on the most advanced or underhyped technology, combining tools can effectively address real-world problems and overcome inherent limitations.

Economy

Alternative business models and self-sufficient local economies can empower communities to diversify and sustain economic growth beyond traditional sectors, driving local innovation and reducing dependence on mass production.

Legal

Clear and inclusive regulations are essential to protect communities, guarantee land use rights, data sovereignty, and the rights of nature, while preventing technology-driven exploitation.

The Global Brain Trust provided a dynamic framework for exploring diverse perspectives, enabling us to structure our primary research methods to capture both technical knowledge and community-driven experiences.

How we did it

Literature review

The Frontier Tech Hub mapped 142 technologies and filtered 31 according to level of attention and high potential.

Additional perspectives

Pluriversa applied UK technology strategy and post-development criteria to identify 20 technologies in Sensors & IoT, Energy, and Biotechnology.

Global Brain Trust Validation

Participatory sessions with the GBT validated and expanded the list; omitted innovations were added.

Sensemaking

We prioritize nine technologies based on relevance, adaptability, and synergies, with water and life as the main focuses.

“It’s not just about inviting people to join. It’s about recognising, investing in, supporting, and respecting what people are already doing”

— Andrew Stirling (United Kingdom, member of the Global Brain Trust)

Barriers to adopting frontier technologies in the territory include: costs; shortage of qualified personnel; dependence on international suppliers; incompatible data sets; insufficient understanding of local contexts; incipient regulatory frameworks; limited and costly access to water and energy; poverty and lack of opportunities; gender gaps; mismatch between real needs and technological solutions; digital colonialism that reduces local agency; and lack of sustained financing.

Activate your own Brain Trust

We turn collective intelligence into actionable strategy: we design communities, align stakeholders, prioritize high-impact initiatives, reduce risks with clear governance, and outline an emerging roadmap to scale what works in your territory.

Pluriversa team

This project was co-created by members of our Pluriversa Community:

Miguel Bello

Director

Ricardo Lapeira

Foresight & Ethics Lead

Daniela Montenegro

Design Researcher

Mauricio Franco

Researcher & Visual Designer

Juan Sebastián Sánchez

Strategic Designer

We would also like to extend our gratitude to our partners and teammates:

Dr. Becky Faith – FCDO
Asad Rahman – Brink
Bryony Nicholson -Brink
Lil Patuck – Brink

We work with people and organisations motivated by the positive impact on the Global South.

hello@pluriversa.org

La entrada Establish an international group of experts and community leaders se publicó primero en Pluriversa.

The future of pluriversal peace

Pluriversa — Thu, 17 Oct 2024 19:20:45 +0000

Our actions

The future of pluriversal peace

An analytical and creative process with young people to transform experiences and territories into stories of the future. We write, imagine, and prototype possible coexistences for a pluriversal peace.

Partners
Semillero de Paz “Entre Voces y Relatos”; Next Generation Foresight Practitioners (NGFP)

Year
2024

Services
Foresight and Future Visions; Collective Intelligence Facilitation; Capacity Building and Knowledge Transfer

We work with young researchers (aged 12-21) to imagine preferable futures of pluriversal peace and translate them into present actions. A participatory process that integrates foresight and narrative to move from imagination to transformation.

CHALLENGE

The Semillero de Paz Entre Voces y Relatos is located in Comuna 5 in Medellín, Colombia, and focuses on giving a voice to children and young people affected by the armed conflict in our country. Their experiences and stories are often left out of peace talks, something they are trying to change.

Based on the work of the Semillero, the challenge was to extend this perspective into the future, while training them in foresight under the learn-by-doing model.

APPROACH

To define the pedagogical process and tools for each stage of the process, we held a co-creation workshop with the young researchers from Semillero. Listening to their voices and ideas was key to enriching the prospective methodology with their experiences and desires.

Through these exercises, we empowered these young people to imagine and shape narratives of preferable futures characterized by sustainable pluriversal peace and eco-social transitions.

IMPACT

Visions for 2045 narrated by young researchers: everyday pluriversal peace, care, belonging, and community agency.
Prioritized actions: such as care agreements, talking circles, and mapping neighborhood interventions.
Replicable foresight methodology: Inspired by the Semillero methodology (Feel, Think, Envision, Transform).
Strengthening the Semillero as a space for learning, listening, and intergenerational cooperation.

What does the Semillero do?

Entre voces y relatos (Between Voices and Stories) is a school research seedbed (Semillero) that carries out research exercises, designs audiovisual educational resources, and stages performances within the framework of the armed conflict that defines Colombia’s recent history. To this end, it addresses three lines of inquiry: Memory, Territory, and Peace. Its main aim is to train peace builders who can contribute to the symbolic reparation of students who have experienced early victimization.

The seedbed contributes to youth training in history and memory research, while promoting critical awareness of the country’s recent past.

It is a beautiful project that inspires us and gives us hope. Learn more on their YouTube channel and Instagram.

This project builds a bridge between the past and the future, allowing the experiences and lessons of history to foster the creation of alternative scenarios for a brighter tomorrow.

Key Findings

Leer las Recomendaciones →

Feel

Exploration through play and emotions made it clear where to focus our energy: strengthening bonds and cultural recognition, caring for mental health and emotions, promoting youth participation with a focus on peace, and channeling technology to serve the common good and the territory.

Think

The possible consequences of key signals of change, such as artificial intelligence, mental health, emerging identities, and political polarization, include disruptive ideas such as the disappearance of gender or rights of machines; but also hopeful scenarios, such as new forms of critical citizenship and fairer social models.

Envision

This stage provided a vision for 2045 dominated by five characteristics: supportive communities with a vibrant identity, ethical technologies with a public purpose, experiential and emotional education, care for nature and all forms of life, and peaceful governance with memory and everyday justice.

Transform

This stage resulted in a portfolio of immediate actions that translate the visions for 2045 and are grouped into five areas: (1) Nature: green regulations and habits; (2) Community: festivals and knowledge sharing events, support networks, intergenerational encounters, and security based on mutual care; (3) Purposeful technology: digital literacy and AI, civic-environmental applications, educational profiles and content; (4) Peace and coexistence: dialogue circles, mediation, non-violence and memory campaigns; (5) Education and empowerment: personalized curricula, social-emotional learning, student carousels, and youth leadership.

The foresight exercise allowed the young researchers to imagine disruptive ideas, showing that foresighting what is to come is a powerful way to transform the present.

How we did it

Methodological co-creation

Inspired by the Semillero’s method and the creativity of its members, we created a methodological roadmap for foresight.

Learning by doing

Biweekly meetings through the stages: Feel, Think, Envision, and Transform.

Preferable scenarios for 2045

Through three coordinated stages: defining the setting, constructing a character, and writing the story.

Actions today

We translated speculative scenarios into concrete, everyday actions that are possible starting now—on a personal, school, family, and community level.

“The actions identified allow us to articulate a comprehensive vision that combines hope and critical lucidity. The young people of Semillero don’t just want better worlds: they are thinking, narrating, and organizing them with clarity, ethics, and creativity.”

— Pluriversa team

This project is an invitation to walk differently. It does not seek to offer recipes or closed solutions. It is, like the Semillero itself, a gesture of openness. A sowing of questions that remind us that other futures are not only possible, but are already taking shape—among voices, among stories, among resistance and tenderness.

Because in the cracks of the dying world, the worlds to come are flourishing.

Imagine and take action for peace today

Discussions and workshops to co-create with young people, teachers, and allies. Customized design, facilitation, and support to imagine futures, narrate them, and turn them into concrete steps: safe, measurable, and low-cost.

Acknowledgements

We would like to extend our special thanks to the young participants of the Semillero Entre Voces y Relatos. Their work and commitment to peace are an example to be followed by current and future generations. We admire them greatly.

Miguel Angel Betancur Serna
Adaluz Cabrera Meses
Andrés Felipe Carmona Barrera
Isabela Chavarria Pérez
Samuel Cifuentes Herrera
Sonia Valentina Contreras García
Mariana García Duque
Deivid Stiven Lemus Muñetón
Farley Alexander Lemus Muñetón

María Paulina Marín
Matias Pineda Ospina
Samuel Pérez Bedoya
Adriana Ramos Fernández
Sofía Rodríguez
Juan Rúa
Juan Esteban Tabares
Jerónimo Urrego

For their inspiration, perseverance, and support, we thank professors Maribel Aguirre and Jaime Parra.

We work with people and organisations motivated by the positive impact on the Global South.

hello@pluriversa.org

La entrada The future of pluriversal peace se publicó primero en Pluriversa.

Systems thinking guide for public innovation

Pluriversa — Sun, 07 Apr 2024 18:25:43 +0000

Our actions

Systems thinking guide for public innovation

Public challenges rarely have simple solutions. Together with Bogotá’s Public Innovation Lab (iBO) we created a practical guide so that government teams can read the city’s complexity, shift the way they see it, and set in motion changes that last.

Partner
iBO · Bogotá’s Public Innovation Lab · Bloomberg Philanthropies

Year
2023

Services
Understand — Systemic reading; Training & capacity building

This guide translates systems thinking into the daily practice of public service. It is not a theoretical treatise: every concept arrives with exercises to apply it in the decision-maker’s own context, and it closes with a toolkit ready to bring into meetings and workshops.

CHALLENGE

Latin America’s large cities are systems: transport, housing, environment, economy and politics intertwine, change at a dizzying pace and do not obey linear formulas. The public sector tends to treat the symptoms — and a fix in one area ends up opening problems in another.

APPROACH

With iBO we designed a guide that translates systems thinking into the practice of public service. We organized it into three movements — understand the context, shift the way of seeing and manage change — each with exercises to apply in your own context.

IMPACT

A reference guide for public servants, published in iBO’s innovation series with support from Bloomberg Philanthropies. It democratizes a language once reserved for specialists and puts it at the service of fairer, more sustainable and resilient decisions.

Why is the city a system?

In a city, transport, housing, education, the economy and the environment are not independent problems: they are intrinsically connected. That is why an isolated intervention is rarely enough — and often, solving things at one point makes another worse.

Seen as a system, the city reveals the connections a fragmented view leaves out, and that is the first step to intervening with intelligence.

Understanding the system is not an academic luxury: it is what makes it possible to move from managing problems to transforming the conditions that generate them.

Shift the way you see: five ways to read the system

Download the guide →

1) Holistic view — See the whole system and its interdependencies, not isolated pieces.

2) Critical view — Distinguish symptoms from causes and examine who holds power in the system.

3) Pluriversal view — Make room for a diversity of voices and knowledges, beyond a single dominant truth.

4) Multi-level view — Read the problem and its interventions from the household to the planet.

5) From “solving” to “dissolving” — Intervene in the dynamics that generate the problem, not just its symptoms.

Systems thinking offers no recipes: it offers a method to read complexity and act within it with judgment.

What the guide contains

The Context

Why the city is a system: open systems, complexity and change, and why public problems are not solved in a single stroke.

The View

Questioning paradigms and worldviews, seeing beyond the symptom and evolving from “solving” to “dissolving”; envisioning transitions with the Multi-Level Perspective.

The Process

Change management in practice: active stewardship of the system and cycles of re-knowing, experimenting (reframing and co-creating) and learning.

The Toolkit

Ready-to-use instruments: causal loop diagrams, problem tree, power analysis, scenario planning and a theory-of-change map.

“If you don’t change the way you see, you won’t be able to change anything.”

— The Pluriversa Team

Systems thinking is not an end in itself but a tool: it empowers us to dissolve problems by transforming the conditions that generate them, rather than only treating their symptoms.

Strengthen systems thinking in your organization

Talks, workshops, and hands-on support so your teams can read systems, question the way they see, and activate changes that last. What comes next is designed in conversation: 30 minutes, no slides, no commitment.

The Pluriversa Team

This guide was written by Pluriversa together with the team at Bogotá’s Public Innovation Lab (iBO):

Miguel Bello

Director

Jesús Ortíz

Systems Thinking

Jody Parra

Contributions & Review

We also extend our thanks to our allies and collaborators:

Valentina Aceros (Contributions and review)
Systems Innovation Network (visual resources, Creative Commons)

We work with people and organizations motivated by the positive impact on the Global South. Contact us.

hello@pluriversa.org

La entrada Systems thinking guide for public innovation se publicó primero en Pluriversa.

Socio-Economic Integration Toolkit for Migrants and Returnees from Venezuela

Pluriversa — Wed, 04 Oct 2023 17:42:53 +0000

Our actions

Toolkit for the socioeconomic integration of migrants from Venezuela

Migration is not only a challenge: well supported, it is an opportunity for prosperity. With USAID — Opportunities Without Borders we designed 53 tools so the public, private, and financial sectors can move from good intentions to inclusive action.

Partners
USAID · Opportunities Without Borders · Chemonics

Year
2023 · Colombia

Services
Systemic research · Multi-stakeholder co-creation · Toolkit design

CHALLENGE

The socioeconomic integration of the migrant and returnee population from Venezuela is a systemic challenge. We found a vicious circle: labour, institutional, and financial barriers that reinforce one another and hold inclusion back.

APPROACH

With USAID — Opportunities Without Borders we co-created an action-oriented, organisation-focused toolkit, woven together with the voices of the three sectors, civil society, and the migrant population itself.

IMPACT

53 practical tools —workshops, checklists, canvases, timelines— that any organisation can adapt to move from intention to inclusive action.

The vicious circle that blocks integration

We listened to companies, public institutions, financial actors, social organisations, and the migrant population itself. A pattern emerged from that mapping: the barriers are not isolated —they feed one another—. Breaking the cycle means acting on several fronts at once.

A challenge of national scale

The migrant and returnee population from Venezuela is present across the whole of Colombia, most concentrated in the northern departments and the main cities. Integrating them is not a local matter: it is a national challenge.

Who is this toolkit for?

It takes an organisational approach: it is designed for the teams that —from the private, financial, and public sectors, locally and nationally— decide and build more inclusive workplaces. Each sector has its own kit. Find your starting point:

If you are part of the private sector

and you are interested in promoting labor inclusion and entrepreneurship of migrants and returnees from Venezuela in your organization.

If you are part of the public sector

and are responsible for creating and implementing public policies and programs related to migration, and the socio-economic integration of the migrant population and returnees from Venezuela.

If you are part of the financial sector

and are looking for innovative ways to take advantage of the opportunities brought by the migration phenomenon in the country.

“Through my business I contribute to Colombia by employing vulnerable people and greening parts of La Guajira, and that makes me very happy.”

Anggy Lenny
Gardening advisor · Vivero 4 Rosas, Riohacha

What's inside the toolkit

Four chapters trace a journey —understand, include, activate, and connect— with 53 ready-to-use tools: workshops, canvases, checklists, timelines, and more, adaptable to your organisation.

01

Understanding

Characterises the migration situation: challenges, barriers, and opportunities in Colombia.

02

Including

Cultivates an inclusive, diverse organisational culture with a differential and gender lens.

03

Activating

Boosts employability and entrepreneurship, strengthening skills and opportunities.

04

Connecting

Links the sectors through a systemic lens to coordinate and act together.

1. Understanding

Provides an initial characterization and information on the migration situation, challenges, barriers and opportunities faced by the migrant population in Colombia.

🛠️ Apoya en la solicitud de refugio

▻ La migración como una oportunidad de inclusión y desarrollo

🛠️ Construyendo puentes

🛠️ Análisis de barreras

2. Including

It addresses tools for the development and promotion of an inclusive and diverse organizational culture with a differential and gender approach.

▻ Inclusión
🛠️ Rueda de la inclusión
🛠️ Forjando un equipo inclusivo
🛠️ Cronograma de estrategias para la integración socioeconómica de la población migrante y retornada desde Venezuela
🛠️ Diseño organizacional participativo

▻ Inclusión y equidad de género
🛠️ Inclusión en acción
🛠️ Abordando las barreras de género

▻ Estrategias de liderazgo para la inclusión laboral de población diferenciada
🛠️ Tips para la inclusión de población diferenciada
🛠️ Adaptaciones inclusivas
🛠️ Diversidad histórica

▻ Economía del cuidado
🛠️ Costos del cuidado

▻ Diferencias culturales y realidades personales
🛠️ Reta el prejuicio
🛠️ Ver más allá
🛠️ Venelingo - Diccionario de venezolanismos

▻ Violencias Basadas en Género (VBG)
🛠️ Más allá de lo evidente
🛠️ Escudo violeta
🛠️ Acción contra la indiferencia
🛠️ Protocolo de prevención y atención a VBG

3. Activating

Seeks to contribute to the employability and entrepreneurship of the migrant population in Colombia, with strategies and resources to enhance their skills and opportunities.

▻Trabajo decente
🛠️ Test de trabajo decente
🛠️ Test de inclusión organizacional

▻Empleabilidad y contratación equitativa de la población migrante y retornada desde Venezuela
🛠️ Camino hacia la empleabilidad
🛠️ Guía sobre documentación necesaria de la población migrante y retornada desde Venezuela para trabajar en Colombia
🛠️ Pasos a seguir para la contratación equitativa de la población migrante y retornada desde Venezuela
🛠️ Mapa de habilidades y conocimientos requeridos por las organizaciones
🛠️ Caracterización de habilidades y conocimientos de las personas migrantes - Ejemplo

🛠️ Mapa de habilidades, conocimientos y herramientas de las personas
🛠️ Describe puestos de trabajo

▻ Inclusión financiera
🛠️ Apoya al personal migrante en la inclusión financiera
🛠️ Entendiendo la banca comunitaria
🛠️ Grupos locales de ahorro y crédito (GLAC)

▻ Acompañamiento para el acceso y permanencia en el empleo
🛠️ Asegúrate de que estás haciendo acciones sin daño
🛠️ Proceso de inducción al nuevo personal migrante
🛠️ ProTalent

▻ Fomentando el Emprendimiento
🛠️ Emprendiendo en Mis Zapatos
🛠️ Tejiendo autonomía económica

4. Connecting

Its objective is to strengthen the connection between the sectors from a systemic and relational perspective for the coordination of efforts, favoring innovation and the formulation of concrete actions for integration.

▻ Más allá del enfoque lineal
🛠️ Mentalidad y postura
🛠️ El pensamiento reflexivo

▻ Oportunidades para la articulación
🛠️ Mapa de las partes involucradas
🛠️ Roles de los actores
🛠️ Valores compartidos
🛠️ Divergencia y Convergencia
🛠️ Estrategia de articulación

One tool, up close

This is what one of the 53 tools looks like: the Path to Employability roadmap, nine steps to bring the migrant population into work in your territory.

From intention to impact

Strengthening the public, private, and financial sectors is not a symbolic gesture: it is the condition for the inclusion of the migrant population to become real prosperity —social and economic— for Colombia.

Advance the inclusion of the migrant population in your organisation

Tools, workshops, and support so your team can move from intention to inclusive action. What comes next is designed through conversation: 30 minutes, no slides, no strings attached.

We work with people and organisations motivated by the positive impact on the Global South.

hello@pluriversa.org

La entrada Socio-Economic Integration Toolkit for Migrants and Returnees from Venezuela se publicó primero en Pluriversa.

Speculative futures of Web3 for post-development

Pluriversa — Thu, 01 Sep 2022 00:00:12 +0000

Our actions

Speculative futures of Web3 for post-development

A strategic foresight and speculative design process that imagines alternative futures of Web3 in Latin America, with regeneration and post-development at the centre. Five scenarios set in 2038 to rethink how to steer this technology —for good.

Partner
FCDO · Government of the United Kingdom · Frontier Tech Hub

Year
2022

Services
Strategic foresight · Speculative design · Policy recommendations

CHALLENGE

The global debate on Web3 reaches the South importing a Northern frame: techno-optimism, speculation and the old promise of «development». The underlying question: what opportunities and challenges does Web3 really pose in Latin America for cooperation institutions?

APPROACH

We change the question: from «Web3 for development» to «Web3 for post-development». From there we deploy a process of speculative design and foresight: instead of projecting today’s technology, we imagine radically different worlds and trace five possible trajectories for the region.

IMPACT

Five speculative scenarios set in 2038 and policy recommendations across five fronts, to help international cooperation steer Web3 toward desirable and sustainable futures for the region.

Not «Web3 for development».
It's Web3 for post-development.

For three decades, thinkers from the South have questioned the very idea of «development». This is not a semantic nuance: it completely changes which Web3 futures are worth imagining.

The starting point

«Development»

A colonial, hegemonic concept from the Global North: hierarchical, extractive and unjust. And one that, for much of the region, simply did not work.

Our frame

«Post-development»

Local, plural, decentralised, solidarity-based and autonomous. Asking about Web3’s role in the South necessarily demands this lens.

Download the full report →

Imagine worlds, not apps

Speculative design does not predict: it expands what we consider possible. Instead of imagining Web3 as apps within today’s world, we place it inside worlds radically transformed in their politics, infrastructures and everyday life —the way the world changed with electricity or the automobile—.

We map ideas, tensions and speculative cases onto a futures roadmap with three time horizons and an axis of certainty versus speculation. From it emerged five trajectories —the five scenarios— and, from reading them, concrete public-policy recommendations to steer the technology.

5
speculative scenarios

2038
the year we inhabit

5
policy fronts

Five speculative futures for 2038

We don’t think of Web3 as apps within today’s world, but within radically transformed ones. Each trajectory is a story set in 2038: step in and read the whole thing.

01 · Fluid Decentralization

Water security · Rurality · Colombia

Read the scenario →

02 · The Rise of the Living City

Circularity · Governance · Cities

Read the scenario →

03 · Dispossession and Hope

Migration · Extractivism · Commons

Read the scenario →

04 · The Web3-Powered Robot Revolution

Artificial Intelligence · Robotics · Crypto

Read the scenario →

05 · The Unfulfilled Promise

Collapse · Crypto · CBDC

Read the scenario →

From speculation to public policy

From the scenarios we drew recommendations to steer Web3 toward the plural well-being of the region, organised across five fronts. For each we identified emerging themes, key requirements and provocations from the future.

Governance

Political-territorial redistribution · new governance models · citizen participation and control through Web3.

Environmental

Climate risk and biodiversity loss · regeneration of cities · circularity · cross-border protection.

Education

Knowledge building · new technology markets · resilience against volatility and scams.

Social

Post-development · social struggles · new illegalities · mass migration · autonomies for the common good.

Technology

Web3–IoT–AI relationship · citizen participation · ethical use of data · communities building their own technology.

Speculating is a political act

Imagining futures is not guessing: it is widening what we consider possible so we can decide today. These five scenarios are not predictions, but tools for cooperation and communities to steer Web3 toward a more just, plural and regenerative South.

Let's design desirable futures for your territory

Strategic foresight, speculative design and systems reading to anticipate change and decide better under uncertainty. What comes next is designed by talking: 30 minutes, no slides, no commitment.

We work with people and organisations motivated by the positive impact on the Global South.

hello@pluriversa.org

La entrada Speculative futures of Web3 for post-development se publicó primero en Pluriversa.

Making sense of Web3 for sustainability in El Salvador

Pluriversa — Mon, 01 Aug 2022 00:00:31 +0000

Our actions

Making sense of Web3 for sustainability

Eight days of immersion in El Salvador —the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender— to understand, alongside grassroots organisations in three territories, what role Web3 can play in the present fights and desirable futures of the Global South.

Partner
FCDO · UK Government · Frontier Tech Hub

Year
2022 · El Salvador

Services
Field research · Strategic foresight · Community co-creation

CHALLENGE

Two monetary transitions coexist in El Salvador: a top-down one (the Bitcoin Law) and a bottom-up one (community circular economies). What opportunities and challenges does Web3 really pose in Latin America for international cooperation institutions?

APPROACH

We immersed ourselves for eight days in three territories —San Salvador, El Zonte and Suchitoto— through workshops, ethnographic observation and interviews. Using the Three Horizons method we co-imagined, with 18 activists and grassroots organisations, futures where technology becomes an ally of their fights.

IMPACT

Four archetypal futures for 2040 co-created with communities, 9 drivers and 8 barriers of Bitcoin adoption, and six findings to help cooperation steer Web3 toward socially just futures.

Two paths to the same currency

El Salvador is the world’s first nation-scale Web3 experiment. But inside the country there is not one transition: there are two, and they could hardly look more different.

Top-down · Suchitoto

The law

The Bitcoin Law imposes the currency at national scale: ATMs, promoters and a one-size-fits-all strategy for diverse cultures. Adoption advances amid friction, mistrust and the trauma of past monetary transitions.

Bottom-up · El Zonte

The community

Bitcoin Beach grew from community leaders, young people and trust built over years. The local wallet went from 3,000 to 120,000 users in two years. The lesson: the transition depends more on trust than on technology.

«Companies come with the promise of development and the generation of employment, hire few people under unfair working conditions, and generate environmental damage that affects many inhabitants —for example, by contaminating water sources. What is development? Economic development for whom? Is it for the communities?»

Daniel Rivas
Celina Ramos community, ADESCO · Suchitoto, El Salvador

Download the full report →

Sentipensar the territory

Foresight is not done from the desk alone. We travelled through three territories with contrasting adoption dynamics: futures workshops with grassroots organisations, observation in everyday life —paying through the Lightning Network, using the Chivo ATMs— and interviews with key actors such as the co-founders of Bitcoin Beach.

With Bill Sharpe’s Three Horizons we mapped what to transform in the dominant regime, which innovations are already emerging and which seeds of the future to cultivate. As Arturo Escobar proposes: «We must sentipensar (feel-think) new notions about what is real and thus what is possible.»

8
days of immersion

3
territories

18
activists in workshops

24
inspiring cases explored

The Three Horizons map co-created in the workshops: the crisis of the present, the innovations in transition and the seeds of the ideal future.

The Chivo ATMs of the national strategy

Paying through the Lightning Network in El Zonte

The colón: the memory of past transitions

Four futures for 2040

Across two axes —global ↔ local and centralised ↔ decentralised— we co-imagined with participants four archetypal futures for El Salvador.

Global · Centralised

Planetary Eco-Authoritarianism

A world government rations resources to save the planet. Green surveillance, an immutable citizen ID and local resistances.

Global · Decentralised

Macro Systemic Cooperation

Beyond colonial borders, a planetary society coordinates the climate crisis as a network.

★ THE FUTURE PREFERRED BY COMMUNITIES

Local · Centralised

Ecological Micro-Dictatorships

Eco-totalitarian leaders control territories and resources; countercultural activism is reborn.

Local · Decentralised

Neo Territorial Cooperation

The recommunalisation of life: territorial DAOs, neo-barter and the golden age of cooperatives.

Communities chose decentralised, cooperative futures without hesitation.

Bitcoin adoption in real life

We observed the country’s first Web3 experiment up close: paying, failing and talking with shopkeepers, detractors and enthusiasts. This is what drives adoption —and what holds it back—.

What drives it

Local leadership — community leaders who transfer their earned trust to the currency.
Children and youth — they learn first and teach their families; 13-year-olds already manage wallets.
Banking for all — only 36% of adults have a bank account; Bitcoin includes minors and the undocumented.
Communal rituals — festivals and events that anchor new meanings.
Support network and brand — Hope House, donors, developers and the Bitcoin Beach brand.
Merchants and infrastructure — a local wallet designed with shopkeepers, the Lightning Network and ATMs.

What holds it back

Economic fragility — 30.7% live day to day: volatility turns the currency into a speculative luxury.
Politicisation — «the president owns our bitcoins»: the political flag distorts the technology.
Monetary trauma — forced dollarisation and counterfeit bills left mistrust behind.
One-size-fits-all strategy — standard solutions for diverse cultures alienate communities.
Digital exclusion and usability — only 50.5% have internet access; multiple QRs and confusing units break trust.
The wound of extractivism — the mining history fuels resistance to Bitcoin’s energy mining.

From the field to the finding

From the 9 drivers and 8 barriers we identified in the field, we distilled six enablers of systemic change for international cooperation.

Education drives disruptive change

Children and the unbanked access the tokenised economy without KYC bureaucracy. An educated population is the best asset for the coming revolution.

The Bitcoin snowball effect

Every industry with a presence in El Salvador is already exposed to Bitcoin. Corporate adoption can help stabilise volatility.

Bottom-up, top-down feedback loops

Initiatives scale from the ground up. National and international support must nurture and connect them, not replace them.

Decentralisation under centralisation

Private satellite connectivity threatens the very purpose of Web3. Regulating that concentration of power is urgent.

Localising energy transitions

Clean, community-run mining with shared governance and remuneration, against the scars of extractivism.

Beyond a monetary transition

The separation of money and state opens a Second Renaissance: the «Decentralised Society» (DeSoc).

Trust is the infrastructure

The success of a monetary transition depends less on economic technicalities than on the continuous building of trust with communities. In El Salvador we saw it up close: where there were leaders, children and communal rituals, Bitcoin flourished; where it arrived by decree, suspicion flourished instead.

Let's bring foresight to your territory

Field research, strategic foresight and community co-creation to anticipate change and decide better under uncertainty. What comes next is designed by talking: 30 minutes, no slides, no commitment.

We work with people and organisations motivated by the positive impact on the Global South.

hello@pluriversa.org

La entrada Making sense of Web3 for sustainability in El Salvador se publicó primero en Pluriversa.