Closing the gap between city administration and local residents

Before he founded Cities Without Hunger, Hans Dieter Temp had worked as project coordinator in the city of São Paulo's public administration, supporting the creation of the Secretaria de Relações Internacionais da Prefeitura de São Paulo, the mairy's secretary for international relations. He found that the effort put into administrative tasks could do little to tackle the actual problems of local people in 

the city districts, because the city administration was lacking staff responsible for such tasks, and because residents were lacking basic prerequisites to improve their situation. He wanted to close this gap and to be present on-site as coordinator to support the local network. In December 2003 he quit his job at the city administration and began the foundation process of Cities Without Hunger.

  • on-site experience in the socioeconomic deprived East Zone of the city
  • personal contact to residents of the East Zone
  • experience in city government and administration allowing for identification of a gap between administrative level and the local level of residents' daily life
  • In order to ensure the efficacy of administrative and governmental action, a close connection to local people is crucial.
  • Personal relationships to people whose situation shall be improved by administrative and governmental action can be very helpful in identifying actual needs and starting points for action.