Who are we?
The Network of Community Initiatives – RICO is a collective of people in Latin America and Europe working for a transformation towards a world of sovereign and interdependent communities, whose inhabitants relate responsibly to each other and to the territory.
What is our mission?
To facilitate the construction of networks of work and solidarity between rural and urban communities, based on the exchange of knowledge, the creation of affective links and the coordination of joint actions, in order to build and recover alternative and sovereign ways of life based on dignity, ancestry and love for the Earth and its inhabitants.
RICO is not simply “an NGO that works with communities”. On the contrary, we understand ourselves as a real network, in which all the communities and collectives that compose it decide and implement a roadmap collectively. In this way, no one is above anyone else and we can distribute responsibility and leadership to many hands. In practice, we coordinate action and the exchange of knowledge through articulating working groups, which integrate various communities and actors around a specific theme.
How do we organize ourselves?
We distribute the operational activities of the network into five permanent working groups, which are always open to all members of the network:
Pathfinding
Proposes to the Assembly long-term courses of action and adjustments to the overall structure and functioning of RICO
Connection
It monitors the different processes in the territory and facilitates the articulation between the members of the network.
Finance
Defines mechanisms for the procurement, management, allocation and accounting of RICO's financial resources.
Communication
Executes a communications strategy to give visibility to RICO processes through the website, social media, press, etc.
Knowledge
It leads the systematisation of knowledge of RICO processes and coordinates the implementation of pedagogies for their dissemination and appropriation.
What else is there to know?
RICO is a registered nonprofit organization in Colombia and Germany. In Germany, the "Red de Iniciativas Comunitarias - RICO e.V." has the status of "eingetragener Verein" since 2019. In Colombia, the "Red de Iniciativas Comunitarias - RICO Colombia" has been registered with the Chamber of Commerce of Bogotá as a non-profit organisation since March 2021. Below you will find our statutes, financial reports and management reports to the competent authorities.
