Participation and Governance archivos • Pluriversa

Powerful, clear, and streamlined governance for regeneration

Claude Pluriversa — Fri, 04 Sep 2026 21:39:35 +0000

Our actions

Powerful, clear, and streamlined governance for regeneration

Governance design for the Territorial Regeneration Fund: an operating pact, a decision-making mechanism based on consent and a protocol for working through tensions without slowing the network down, co-created with Colombia’s Territorial Foundations and TerritoriA.

Allies
Territorial Regeneration Fund · TerritoriA · Territorial Foundations

Year
2026 · Colombia

Services
Governance design · Legal design · Service design · Participatory design

CHALLENGE

A community philanthropy fund that was already moving resources into the territories needed rules to match its growth: a network of very diverse foundations, a custodian organization that carries the legal weight, and agreements that lived more in trust than on paper. The challenge: to design governance that protects the assets and the people without turning the network into a bureaucracy.

APPROACH

We listened to the organizations one by one, read the legal framework and drew up a legal and relational X-ray as a baseline. With it we created the Operating Pact, which starts from what already works and grows by milestones, not by calendar. We proposed a minimum base; we delivered full governance.

IMPACT

A Pact with five principles, six bodies and three pools; a roadmap in three cycles; a consent-based decision-making mechanism; a protocol for working through tensions in under 45 days; role handbooks; a Memorandum of Understanding signed by every organization in the Fund, and an AI agent for governance queries and to support the Fund’s day-to-day work.

From listening to the pact

First we opened up: listening to each organization and reading the legal framework. Then we closed in: an honest X-ray of the relationship and of the law. We opened up again: model options. And we closed with what the Fund can activate today.

1 · Discover

Listen and read

Listening dialogues with each organization in the Fund, a review of bylaws, minutes and agreements, and an analysis of the legal framework governing non-profit entities.

2 · Define

Legal and relational X-ray

The baseline that names what is valuable, the contractual gaps, the misaligned expectations and the unclear institutional boundaries. Discussed face to face in a co-creation workshop.

3 · Develop

From the minimum to the full model

We explored three desk models and tested them against the Fund. From there came the full model: bodies, mandates, cycles, funding pools and the protocol for tensions.

4 · Deliver

Learning by doing

Operating Pact, roadmap and role handbooks, tested in a learning-by-doing workshop. Closing with a Memorandum of Understanding for all the organizations.

2 · Define

An honest X-ray before a single rule

Three overlapping circles: the Fund, the territorial organizations and the community philanthropy movement. At the center, where all three touch, TerritoriA. In each intersection we placed what we heard: what is valuable, the facts, the tensions, the risks and the opportunities.

It was the baseline we discussed face to face with all the organizations before designing a single rule. What each note says stays with the Fund: here we show the shape of the analysis, not its detail.

4
design moments

6
listening dialogues

2
co-creation workshops

7
signatory organizations

Three design practices behind the Pact

Valid governance is useless if nobody understands or uses it. For the Pact to be legal, understandable and something people could make their own, all at once, we crossed three practices that rarely sit at the same table.

Legal design

Rules you can understand without a lawyer at your side

Service design

The Fund as seen by those who use it

Participatory design

With the Fund, not for the Fund

The law as a bridge. Between the world of regulation and the living world of communities, legal design makes rules not only valid but something people can understand, own and use. That was the quality criterion for the whole process.

Five principles that order everything else

Before the rules, the principles. When a situation is not foreseen in the Pact, it is read from here. They are the compass for deciding what no set of regulations can fully describe.

Purpose guides resourcesMoney follows purpose, not the other way around: every resource is allocated according to its coherence with the regenerative portfolios and reaches whoever is best placed to deliver it.

Centralize the burden, decentralize the magicA single organization is custodian of legal compliance and treasury; creativity, execution and voice are distributed across the territories.

Promote diversity, recognize capacityBeing a mature or an emerging foundation is not a rank: it is a stage. Each one enters with rights and responsibilities to its measure and grows by meeting verifiable milestones, not by seniority or favor.

Co-responsibility and mutual careNobody decides alone on what affects everyone, and nobody carries the risk alone. The rules protect people as much as assets.

Safe enough to tryA decision is made when it is good enough for now and safe enough to try. You learn by doing, not by waiting for the perfect agreement.

“Centralize the burden, decentralize the magic.”

Guiding principle
Operating Pact · Territorial Regeneration Fund

Six bodies, a single purpose

The Fund was designed as an organism: each body has a verb, a mandate and a time band for responding. No body decides on everything. None acts alone.

Decision

Steering Circle

Approves the strategy, the portfolios, the budget and changes to the Pact. It brings together the foundations and, from the second cycle, external advisors.

Fundraising

Fundraising Circle

Opens doors with allies and funders aligned with the purpose and brings in the resources, tagged by portfolio, with a clear mandate.

Preservation

Compliance and Treasury Custodian

Safeguards the assets, answers legally and executes transfers with more than one person verifying. It is the centralized burden.

Allocation

Allocation Circle

Assesses the suitability of each proposal and chooses the most capable implementer: a foundation, an alliance or an external actor. Every allocation goes on record.

Management

Administrative Team

Convenes, documents and follows up. It is the Fund’s operational memory: minutes, logbooks, calendar and repository.

Mediation

Conflict Resolution Committee

Formed case by case, with a foundation not involved, an external mediator and the administrative team. It mediates; it does not judge.

Above them all, the Plenary: all the foundations gathered every six months to evaluate, renew mandates and ratify what nobody else can decide. With voice and vote.

This is what the Fund looks like in its third cycle

A single diagram so that any member, new or long-standing, understands where they stand: the bodies inside the Fund, the money held in three pools, the four portfolios through which it enters and flows, and outside, the two networks that sustain it.

Diagram of the Fund in its expansion cycle: six bodies, three pools, four portfolios and, outside, the network of allies and funders and the territorial foundations movement.

Three pools, one custodian

The money is not mixed: each income is split between three pools with their own activation rules, and each pool answers a different question.

Resilience

Sustains the foundations’ operations and recognizes the roles that make the Fund work. It is the oxygen of the network.

Emergency

A capped reserve for the unforeseeable and serious. It is activated without waiting for a session, with evidence and five criteria that must all be met at once.

Mission

The largest of the three, with a guaranteed minimum floor. It funds the projects of the four regenerative portfolios.

Four regenerative portfolios

The portfolios are both fundraising fronts and allocation routes: tagged money comes in through them and flows through them to the territories. Funding projects that reinforce each other, not isolated initiatives.

Environmental regeneration

Regenerative economy

Regenerative education

Regenerative culture and territorial healing

It grows by milestones, not by calendar

The Pact does not start with every body active. It unfolds in three cycles, and the move from one to the next is triggered by milestones met, not by dates. If a milestone is lost, the Fund goes back to the previous cycle without drama.

Cycle 1

Stabilization

Vital signs first: protected assets, minimum roles and traceable decisions. Few hands, much clarity.

Cycle 2

Alignment

The organism starts to work: the circles open, roles are tested and the administrative team is activated.

Cycle 3

Expansion

Every body active, the portfolios under way and fundraising open to new allies. It grows on firm ground.

Start-up clause. When a body or a role does not exist yet, its simplest equivalent applies. Nothing stops for lack of structure: the Fund operates from day one with what it has, and adds pieces as it matures.

Deciding by consent

Neither absolute consensus that paralyzes, nor a majority that leaves people wounded. A proposal is approved when nobody has a valid objection, and every objection becomes an improvement. Consenting is not loving the proposal: it is being able to live with it.

Six steps, one session

PresentThe proposer lays out the proposal and the problem it solves.
ClarifyQuestions to understand, not to give opinions.
ListenA round of reactions: every voice, once.
ImproveThe improvements that make the proposal safer are integrated.
ApproveApproved unless there is a valid objection. If it persists, a neutral third party assesses it.
RecordEvery decision goes into the minutes: what, who, when and under what conditions.

Time bands for responding

Immediate24 to 48 hours · safety and emergencies

Agile5 days · operational decisions

Medium10 to 15 days · allocations and adjustments

Long notice30 days to 6 months · structural changes and exits

Work through tensions, don't pile them up

A protocol so that tensions turn into learning rather than fractures. Six stages, a cap of 45 working days and a golden rule: deadlines are ceilings, not waiting times.

AlertAny member writes down what they see. Notifying is not escalating.
CommitteeFormed for the case, with no involved parties on it.
DiagnosisWhat is at stake, what kind it is, how urgent and at what level.
Talk or mediateFirst between the parties; if that is not enough, with mediation.
OpinionThe Committee proposes a way out and its conditions.
DecisionThe Steering Circle decides by consent and it goes on record.

⛏️OperationalDeadlines, deliverables, processes and resources. Resolved by adjusting the how.

💔RelationalTrust, communication and who speaks for whom. Resolved by talking, with care.

⚖️LegalCompliance, assets and obligations. Resolved through verification, not mediation.

Four questions sort out any case

What is at stake?
What kind of tension is it?
How urgent is it?
At what level: between organizations, between people or with an external actor?

Conflicts have a name attached. There are no anonymous channels: whoever raises the alert signs it.

The person is not the organization. A tension between people does not make their foundation a party to it.

Stepping someone aside as a precaution is not a sanction. Protecting the process while things are clarified is not a punishment.

A dignified exit. Whoever decides to leave does so with clear rules, timelines and no reprisals.

Rules that protect without smothering

Few rules, but firm ones. Each closes a door through which the problems of collective funds usually enter, without taking the air out of the operation.

Double keyChanges that touch the Fund’s backbone are decided in two steps: the Steering Circle consents, the Plenary ratifies.

Red linesConduct that is not mediated: it freezes resources on the spot and goes straight to the final decision.

Membership by milestonesJoining the Fund is a path of milestones, not a signature. Leaving also has rules and dignity.

Speaking with a mandateTalking about the Fund is free. Speaking on behalf of the Fund requires a written mandate.

TraceabilityEvery decision and every transfer leaves a trace: minutes, supporting documents, date and person responsible.

Legal capsCustody fee and costs with a ceiling, aligned with the tax regime for non-profit entities.

What stayed in the Fund's hands

Clear documents, kept within reach, that can be consulted in minutes and practiced from day one. Everything the Fund needs to operate was written, drawn and tested with its members.

Operating Pact, roadmap, conflict resolution protocol, operating annex, Memorandum of Understanding and a guide on where to start. We show the covers; the content stays with the Fund.

Operating PactBodies, mandates, cycles, pools and decision-making mechanism in one short, actionable document.

RoadmapThe milestones that activate each cycle, by axis: legal certainty, coordination and maturity.

Tensions protocolStages, lanes, questions and timelines for working through conflicts without improvising.

Operating annexProgress and impact indicators by portfolio, alerts and safeguards.

Role handbooksWhat each one is responsible for, on a single page: mature foundation, emerging foundation and custodian organization.

Memorandum of UnderstandingEach organization’s commitments to the Fund’s new stage, signed by all.

Digital repositoryTemplates for minutes and logbooks per body, and the Fund’s single shared folder.

AI agentTrained on the Fund’s documentation: it answers governance questions and supports day-to-day work.

Governance is not written: it is practiced

A governance model is worth the decisions it allows people to make the following Monday. We set out to design the minimum viable base and ended up delivering the full governance: enough rules to operate safely, a mechanism to learn from every tension and handbooks so that everyone knows what is theirs to do. It was our contribution to their regeneration effort. What follows, the Fund writes cycle by cycle, with its own hands.

Pluriversa team

We accompanied this process from our Pluriversa Community, working in Colombia with the Fund’s organizations:

María Posada

Systemic and environmental lawyer

Miguel Bello

Director

Let's design the governance of your fund or network

Governance models, decision-making mechanisms and protocols for working through tensions in funds, networks and multi-stakeholder alliances. No recipes, just method. What comes next is designed in conversation: 30 minutes, no slides, no strings attached.

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

hola@pluriversa.org

La entrada Powerful, clear, and streamlined governance for regeneration se publicó primero en 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.

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

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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

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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.

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.