Poder local e gestão urbana

Cities are the major contributors to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. They account for about 75% of global energy consumption and up to 80% of global greenhouse gas emissions. With the ongoing rapid increase in urban population, expansion of middle class in urban centers in developing countries, and availability of cheaper vehicles such as Tata Nano and Bajaj RE60 in India, the demand for energy and associated emissions from cities are expected to grow rapidly. Though cities are in a better position to mitigate climate change, it does not necessary mean that there is a willingness on their part to capitalize on these mitigation opportunities. Climate change mitigation is not the priority for them because they face a number of competing priorities including local economic growth and development and service delivery. This paper suggests a range of policy tools that can help cities achieve both local priorities as well as reduce emissions, including GHGs. The suggested policies will be effective when used synergistically.

This paper presents one of the case studies of the international applied research project ‘‘Promoting Decent Work in Construction and Related Services: the Key Role of Local Authorities’’. An article in this special issue presents the aims, scope, methodology and rationale of this research project. The purpose of this article is to present the local employment situation in Santo André, using some indicators of the four key components of decent work. In this case study, quantitative data analysis included official statistics at both the national and local levels. In addition, qualitative information was collected by interviews with key actors of different institutions involved in the construction sector, namely staff of the Municipality of Santo André, workers’ unions and employers’ associations. The research also analysed the initiatives of the municipal authorities in Santo André to promote employment in the construction sector and related services. Special attention has been attributed to the Santo André Mais Igual (SAMI) programme, because it has been selected as an example of ‘‘best practice’’ for urban upgrading and social inclusion.

Over the past decade there has been a sudden, extraordinarily large, and simultaneous expansion of multi-billion dollar housing programs in many emerging and developing economies. This shift occurred after a long period of limited public involvement in social housing production. Yet, despite the fact that countries and cities have introduced such large-scale programs, there has been little independent analysis of the rationale, efficacy and potential long-term effects of these interventions. Adopting a perspective that expands beyond typical public finance approaches, this paper examines the renewed shift in public housing provision. It provides an outlook of recent experiences in housing provision, showcases general trends in housing, proposes an evaluation framework, and offers a series of recommendations aiming at strengthening the programs. The paper concludes that if large-scale housing assistance is to help accommodate the almost 2 billion additional people who will live in cities over the next 35 years, as well as help to address the growing housing affordability issues, much more attention should be paid to the lasting effects that such programs can have on the structure of cities for generations to come.

Popular participation consolidates one of the ways for the accountability, on the one hand from the State to the society, with the political responsibility of the managers, and on the other hand, to receive population demands. This beneficial dynamic provides social control, which can guarantee the efficiency of public policies. This control in the municipal sphere is latent since the provision of public services occurs, in practice, in the place where the citizens’ life is developed, i.e. in the city.The municipality, therefore, constitutes the form of political organization closest to the population, playing an indispensable role in the viability of the permanent process of participation in the regulation, oversight, and control over services and public goods of local interest.

What can the Participatory Budget (PB) teach us about slum upgrading in the cities of the Global South? This article describes the process of slum upgrading via PB in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Participatory budgeting (PB) is a renowned mechanism of resource allocation that transfers decision-making power over the capital expenditure portion of the municipal budget from the City Council to public assemblies. However, the impact of PB on municipal service delivery in general and housing in particular is understudied. Ethnographic findings are based on slum upgrading process via PB in an informal settlement in the East District of Porto Alegre. Fieldwork included 16 interviews with residents who had been PB delegates, PB councilors, municipal architects, lawyers, and the social worker involved in the slum upgrading project of Vila Radiante, East District. Furthermore, analysis of district-level expenditures on public works required for slum upgrading as well as analysis of site plans informed the conclusions. The Porto Alegre PB demonstrates that slum dwellers' involvement in all stages of the slum upgrading process, from resource allocation to service delivery, contributed to the effective distribution of housing and basic infrastructure. Slum dwellers are a heterogeneous group with diverse housing needs. Housing via PB addresses this diversity and provides an alternative to the dichotomist debate in international planning between, on one hand, slum clearance followed by public housing projects and, on the other, the promotion of assisted self-help housing through programs of land tenure and basic infrastructure provision.

The objective of this article is to analyze the implementation of climate change related policies by subnational governments in 3 countries: Japan (Mie Prefecture), Germany (Saxony-Anhalt) and Brazil (São Paulo). Through an empirical research, the article develops the 3 cases to understand the achievements and obstacles to implement mitigation and adaptation policies. The cases provide an interesting sample, including countries that range from a developed country more pro-active in environmental international negotiations (Germany) to a more conservative developed country (Japan) and a developing country (Brazil). The results have pointed that, as compared to adaptation, mitigation policies (such as energy conservation) have a much longer implementation history and government support at the subnational level, especially in more progressive governments, but adaptation policies have gained space in the policy agenda recently because of the increasing public interest. The success of implementation of climate related policies is linked to the way they are integrated with sectorial policies, with policies of other levels of government, with civil society and within themselves (integration of mitigation–adaptation policies).

Small municipalities are key to reducing waste and tackling climate change, but they often struggle to innovate and improve their capacity to deliver public services, especially in developing countries. This article explores how small municipalities can innovate in public service provision despite limited resources. Specifically, we analyzed municipal solid waste management (MSWM), a service typically overseen by municipalities and essential for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The study is based on a single case: Harmonia, a small Brazilian municipality selected for its exceptional waste recovery performance – the highest in the country – alongside composting and prevention initiatives. Following an economic and environmental assessment of MSWM effectiveness, including GHG emissions, the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) was applied to analyze the political, social, and institutional factors that enabled innovation in Harmonia’s MSWM system. Findings suggest that successful innovation in small municipalities tends to rely on small-scale initiatives that require neither advanced technologies nor major investments. However, this depends on long-term support from a landscape of actors and public policies to scale up and coordinate efforts across departments, overcoming resource limitations. In Harmonia, the effectiveness of prevention actions, home composting, and recycling was rooted in decades of environmental education, social engagement, public awareness, and collaboration with other levels of government. These technological and management efforts led to costs (US$24.40 per inhabitant/year) and emissions (37.02 kg CO2eq per inhabitant) significantly below the national average (US$35.70 and 396.83 kg CO2eq per inhabitant, respectively).

This paper presents a study on quality of life and sustainability indicators relating to site-planning parameters for low income public housing projects in the region of Campinas, Brazil. The study is based on a post-occupancy-evaluation (POE), conducted in five housing developments. Most of these housing projects are based on a repetitive model and are devoid of urban infrastructure. Users act on their own in providing for some elements considered necessary to create an identity and community spirit. Results show that the population relates quality of life to economic factors and sustainability is associated to reduce utility bills. Houses are preferred to apartments and satisfaction with the present housing conditions is high, despite low feelings of security in the neighbourhood. This work is part of a broader study, which aims to develop design evaluation tools. Most sensitive quality of life and sustainability indicators related to site-planning should permeate these tools and establish design guidelines. The inclusion of a large number of qualitative design issues into the decision-making process and the questioning of existing standardized solutions are seen as essential means to increase local housing quality.

The main purpose of this paper is to ascertain whether the concession of real right to use (CRRU) has been widely applied by Brazilian municipalities, and the extent to which beneficiaries (individuals living in regularised low-income settlements) make effective use of such an instrument to secure tenure status. Another relevant aspect is to review the relationship between securing land tenure and the use of land as collateral for investment. It is hoped that the paper can be used as the basis for a longitudinal study to monitor progress in the provision of secure tenure for the urban poor in Brazil, by investigating the strengths and weakness of CRRU to the formulation and implementation of pro-poor urban land tenure policies. Findings indicate that municipalities have to overcome problems related to the implementation of these programmes, such as; resistance on the part of the judiciary (at the municipal level) to incorporate newly acquired rights; the need to change attitudes towards the legalisation process of occupied land; and the need to change residents’ perceptions of this new instrument. The success of CRRU can depend on the articulation of these issues, as well as more integrated actions among planners, lawyers, city managers, and the residents of these settlements to advance performance.

The main question concerns the ways in which knowledge management configurations (KM) within urban governance are being transformed through digitization and spatializing information (GIS). This question fits into broader discussions on how knowledge construction, circulation and utilization can improve competences in local government (efficiency and effectiveness), make urban planning more knowledge-based, and provide greater recognition of citizens’ knowledge (accountability). Local governments need such instruments in dealing with increasing complexity and uncertainty in urban development. We examine how uneven patterns of technological change in using ICT and GIS are transforming current local government work processes in terms of efficiency and effectiveness in their outcomes, utilizing empirical data from extended case studies in six medium-sized cities in India, South Africa, Brazil, and Peru, participating in the Chance2Sustain research network. Knowledge management in cities is configured through several dimensions: 1) discourses for digitizing KM in local urban development; 2) actor networks producing socio-spatial knowledge; 3) embedding KM in decision-making processes (power struggles, exclusion); and 4) influences of KM on work practices and interfaces with citizens. The case study results show that 1) KM discourses concerned four issues: strategic urban planning and integrated land use planning; determining geographic boundaries in urban development discourses; streamlining work processes of local governments, and mapping poverty and needs assessments; 2) initiatives mainly link government with the private sector at various scale levels; 3) codified and technical knowledge remains dominant in discussions on urban development; and 4) effects of KM are uneven, but improve work process efficiency, although the interface with citizens remains limited, focusing on middle-class relations to the exclusion of the poor.