Glasses were one of the first products to use microconsignment, which required training on reading eye charts and providing eye care. Photo:GoRun26 (flickr)

Chances are you're pretty familiar with microfinance. But have you ever heard of microconsignment? Microconsignment is similar to microfinance in a lot of ways, but with a unique twist. Basically, instead of giving an entrepreneur a loan to be repaid over an agreed upon period of time, the aim of microconsignment is to give access to a good or service to a community that is without.

For example, in a community where the nearest doctor might be a days drive away, a microconsignment group might work with an entrepreneur to open a shop where people can get their eyes tested and buy prescription eyeglasses. The entrepreneur gets training on how to do an eye exam and run a business, as well as the materials they need to open up shop and market their business. Only after the products sell, the entrepreneur pays back the initial cost using a percentage of his or her profits. Another key difference with traditional microfinance models is that much of the risk stays with the lender.

Greg Van Kirk first tried the microconsignment model in his days as a Peace Corps volunteer. He saw an opportunity, and decided to found Soluciones Comunitarias, a microconsignment institute operating in rural South America. The New York Times' wrote about the microcosignment pioneer in a recent post on their Fixes blog.

Yolanda Garcia was one of the first entrepreneurs to work with Soluciones Comunitarias, introducing glasses into her community in rural Guatemala. She admitted to the New York Times that her first attempts at selling were not hugely successful. Had she taken out a loan to buy the glasses that didn’t sell, Garcia may have had to take out more loans just to pay the first back. “Why put all that risk on somebody up front?” Malini Krishna, the vice president of development for Soluciones Comunitarias explained to The Times. “Why not help them put the glasses out there and then get repaid when glasses sell?”

Since product doesn’t always sell, business can be slow for the five year old company. However, Soluciones is already turning a sustainable profit. According to Tina Rosenberg, a New York Times contributor on social issues and solutions, it took Grameen Bank -- one of the founding microcredit institutions -- 18 years to reach the same point.

And Soluciones does something else right; it trains its employees well. Garcia, along with some of the other early entrepreneurs, is now a co-owner and operator of the company and trains new employees to become social entrepreneurs in their own communities.

The consignment model made all the difference for Garcia, who has gone from a housewife with a primary school education to a co-owner of a successful company. “If I had had to take out a loan I wouldn’t have done it,” Garcia said, “I always felt I wanted to do something, but we didn’t have the economic resources beyond what we needed for the day.”

Despite ongoing protests by environmental and indigenous rights groups, Ecuadorean lawmakers approved a mining bill earlier this week to permit large-scale projects tapping the country’s gold, silver and copper deposits. The point of contention: Will the new law promote responsible investment or careless exploitation?

President Rafael Correa revoked nearly 80 percent of mining concessions in April 2008, which mainly affected big Canadian companies. The popular Correa, who is seeking reelection this spring, promises that the revised law will bring about better environmental controls, protection from land speculators and 300,000 new jobs.

But indigenous community organizers aren't satisfied. They say large-scale mining hurts the environment and keeps power in the hands of multinational corporations. The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) has continued to organize nationwide demonstrations and block roads. Last week, 9,000 indigenous people shut down transportation along the Panamerican Highway south of capital city Quito.

Indigenous-rights groups argue that the mining law contradicts the new Ecuadorean constitution, which introduced a Bill of Rights for nature that grants protection for ecosystems.

Correa criticized opponents of the law as "fundamentalists" who would "condemn us to forever be beggars sitting on a sack of gold." Others disagree. As reported in Upside Down World:

President of the CONAIE Marlon Santi pointed out that the "majority of mining concessions are on indigenous and campesino lands." He also challenged President Correa’s program of "change," saying that "the people who grow potatoes, who grow maize, who live in the Amazon and the mangroves, we are where change is coming from."

Ciclovía Documentary shot by Streetfilms

Bogotá, Colombia is holding a 70-mile long block party. And everyone’s invited.

Ciclovía — "bike path" in Spanish — is an event that closes down major roads for pedestrian use every Sunday and holiday from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Created in 1976, it rapidly grew from eight miles and 140,000 bicyclists to 70 miles and an average of 1.5 million weekly riders. Ciclovía is championed as a community building event that attracts people from all backgrounds for a day of biking, walking, skating and dancing in the streets.

In the above video, Bogota’s former park commissioner Guillermo (Gil) Penalosa discusses Ciclovía’s main appeal: social integration.

You will see people in $5,000 bikes and others in $50 bikes, and all having the same fun! Rich and poor, young and old, men and woman, tall or short... ALL!

Cited for “endless benefits” such as the improvement of personal and public health, Ciclovía has inspired other cities to develop similar programs, including Guadalajara, Mexico; Quito, Ecuador; Santiago, Chile; and Paris, where an expressway along the Seine is transformed into a pedestrian refuge one month out of the summer.

Cities in the U.S. are also developing similar programs, starting with El Paso, Texas. This Sunday Portland, Ore., is clearing 6 miles of roadway for six hours in its inaugural "Sunday Parkways." New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced his city's plans for Ciclovía-like event this August that would stretch from 72nd to the Brooklyn Bridge along Park Avenue.

Events such as Ciclovía are not only free, but they also bring all sorts of people together to get healthy and build a happy community. It seems like a no-brainer that every city should have a Ciclovía!

Photo: Benjamin Arseguel (Flickr)

This weekend an uncommon request was made when it comes to oil: Ecuador’s government wants to stop drilling. This negotiation with oil firms is being made in order to protect an area of the Amazon that is inhabited by indigenous peoples who have secluded themselves from the rest of the world.

"The attorney general's office considers urgent the exit of oil companies from the protected areas, via a negotiation," the office of Attorney General Xavier Garaicoa said in a statement.

President Rafael Correa, a former college professor who taught environmental economics, has vowed to protect the tribes from development after reports of deadly clashes between Indians wielding spears and illegal loggers armed with guns.