Problem Statement

Arequipa is one of the most important cities in Peru but at the same time it have several problems, making the city not good to live. In recent years and despite the population's complaints to their authorities, the problems have intensified, making the situation worse. For all these reasons, the Arequipa Hub decides to carry out the project called "Reto Comunidad en Marcha" where through joint work between shapers, university students, representatives of civil organizations and authorities, two projects are being articulated and generated: the first of them is "CuidAqp", a project that proposes to improve the user experience in public transportation, this is the most used means of transport in the city but is not the best and the people is not happy with it. The second one is "KUSA", a youth business incubator, in which with the support of universities seeks to promote entrepreneurship in schools and university’s students.

Target Group

Directly, there are 30 young members of the San Pablo en Acción Club, who participated in the proposed challenge to generate solution ideas for transportation and education problems in Arequipa.

Indirectly, for “CuidAqp” transportation project, the target groups are made up of users of public transportation in Arequipa, especially formal public transportation before the Provincial Municipality of Arequipa, that is, the SIT, and also the people who provide the service as such.

And for “Kusa” education project, the target groups are 4th and 5th grade high school students from the peripheral area of the city of Arequipa and young university students between 18 and 20 years old who study at a university in the city.

Proposed Solution

At the Arequipa Hub, we firmly believe that young people can lead change and create appropriate and innovative solutions to the problems in our city. In this case we selected the problem of transportation and education. We created an alliance with the Universidad Católica San Pablo to work with the members of “San Pablo en Acción” Club (a leadership club), made up of young people between 18 and 25 years old, with whom sessions were held during the months of August, September and October 2023, every Saturday where, through agile methodologies, 2 projects were formulated.

Additionally, the Shapers carried out several group and 1:1 mentoring to improve the proposed ideas. There was support from the Social Management and Impact Office of the same university so both projects could be presented at the Annual Congress of the Arequipa Region (CARA), where the work was shown to local and national authorities, business and civil society.

The projects were additionally presented to the Mayor of the Municipalidad Provincial de Arequipa, with the mayor's commitment to managing work tables to implement the proposed solutions.

Hub Activities

- Brainstorming sessions, diagnosis, design thinking for project formulation.

- Mentoring and support sessions (in groups and peer to peer).

- Presentation of the Project with the Mayor and in the CARA evento.

- Meetings after presentation.

Short-term & long-term goals Short term:

- Maintain the working groups between the technical transportation committee of the Municipalidad Provincial de Arequipa, the Shapers involved in the project and the members of San Pablo en Acción Club to implement a pilot of the transportation project in the months of August and September 2024 .

- Establish a working group around the educational project so that with the support of the Regional Government of Arequipa the project can be carried out in some educational institutions on the outskirts of Arequipa during October and November 2024.

- Seek strategic alliances with representatives of local companies in Arequipa to obtain financing for the implementation of pilot projects Long term:

- With “Reto Comunidad en Marcha” project, we will seek to work on two other problems in the city during August, September and October and with the support of the Universidad Católica San Pablo, we will also be able to present the projects formulated in the CARA.

Available Metrics

- Number of project development sessions held during the months of August, September and October 2023 (only Saturdays): 10 sessions.

- Number of participants in the project development sessions run by Global Shapers Hub Arequipa: 30 participants.

- Number of group sessions held: 12 sessions.

- Number of 1:1 sessions carried out (between Shapers and members of San Pablo en Acción): 6 sessions.

- Attendees at the presentation of the projects at CARA 2023: 250 people.

List of collaborators

Shapers of Arequipa Hub (who are in charge of supporting the entire mentoring process

- Jose Eduardo Villanueva

- Nicolás Ramirez del Villar

- Dunia Padilla

- Beny Palomino and 30 Members of “San Pablo en Acción” Club

- Universidad Católica San Pablo and Representatives of the Annual Congress about Arequipa Region (CARA) Local authorities