Local South works to create sustainable, dynamic, and livable cities in the Global South.
Using local and pragmatic approaches, we collaborate with a range of organizations, institutions, foundations, and the private sector on local urban initiatives, storytelling, and connecting across Africa and Latin America.
Based between South Africa and Colombia, we drive a range of dynamic urban projects as well as offer consulting services to various clients who, like us, believe in the enormous potential of our cities.
With over a decade of experience across multiple continents and sectors, our work cuts across key urban issues such as mobility, informality, public space, and food systems.
What we do:
We offer consulting services to a range of organizations, foundations, institutions, and businesses at both local and international levels.
CONSULTING
PROJECTS
We develop and implement neighbourhood level projects and programs, connect cities in the Global South, and use storytelling to build new urban narratives.
Our story
Over more than ten years, we founded and led prominent civil society organizations, managed global multi-country development programs, and worked directly across a wide range of issues in Latin America and Africa.
We launched Local South as a socially-driven company to build on this experience, developing an approach that is focused on the neighbourhood level, welcoming of complexity, and built on connecting comparable contexts in the Global South.
Marcela Guerrero Casas
Marcela was born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia, and has lived and worked in South Africa since 2006. Marcela is a co-founder and former managing director at Open Streets Cape Town (OSCT). She is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Council on Mobility.
Marcela holds a Masters in Public Administration and International Affairs from Syracuse University and has worked in policy and advocacy for over a decade. Marcela worked as programme lead at the Western Cape Economic Development Partnership (EDP).
Dustin Kramer
Dustin was awarded a global fellowship by the Social Change Initiative, Belfast, worked as a full-time international advocacy consultant for the International Budget Partnership in Washington D.C., and until 2017 led one of South Africa's foremost social movements, the Social Justice Coalition.
Dustin holds an MPhil in Politics from the University of Oxford, and a Bachelor of Social Science (Honours) from the University of Cape Town.
