Call for Proposal — Participatory design and construction of three multifunctional community spaces for the circular and popular economy in Comuna 5, San Andrés de Tumaco (Colombia)

​​UN-Habitat invites Implementing Partners to design and build three multifunctional community spaces for the circular and popular economy in Comuna 5, Tumaco. Co-created with women-led recycling organizations, each space brings recycling education, material sorting and exchange together in one place, built with paid local labour.

Grant: USD 96,000.

Duration: four months.​

​​This Call for Proposal invites expressions of interest to establish a Cooperation Agreement for the participatory design and construction of three multifunctional community spaces for the circular and popular economy in the neighbourhoods of Iberia, Obrero and Unión Victoria, Comuna 5 of San Andrés de Tumaco, Colombia. The intervention is part of the project Conexión Pazífico Sostenible, financed through the MPTF mechanism and framed within the territorial implementation of CONPES 4180 on Durable Solutions and the Joint Programme of the Internal Displacement Solutions Fund (IDSF).

​Each space integrates in a single place three functions prioritized by the women-led recycling organizations of Comuna 5: education on recycling culture, the collection and sorting of recyclable material, and the exchange of material. The spaces are conceived as soft infrastructure that complements existing community facilities rather than building new, stand-alone equipment, and they respond to a context in which more than 91 % of the population lacks minimum conditions for income generation and inadequate solid waste management has become a critical factor of environmental impact and public health concerns.

​The three sites were selected by UN-Habitat between July and September 2026 through a participatory prioritization, a weighted scoring of candidate sites and a field visit assessed against the nine UN-Habitat Environmental and Social Safeguards. The selected partner receives this analysis as a defined starting point and is responsible for the collaborative design with the communities, the technical design, the community use and custodianship agreements, the environmental permits and the construction with paid local labour, prioritizing women and young people.

The Call specifies four outputs over four months —work plan and baseline; collaborative design and use agreements; technical design and permits; and construction, community activation, evaluation and systematization— with a maximum value of USD 96,000. It also sets out the eligibility and selection criteria, the payment calendar and the risk analysis for the intervention. Proposals are submitted through the UN-Habitat Implementing Partner Portal.

All documents must be sent by 9 October 2026 to the following e-mail address: ⁠paises.andinos@un.org