Slum Upgrading and Housing in Latin America (original) (raw)
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In the current world situation, it is important to work in the management and transformation of cities in developing countries, such as Latin America. Reports from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Latin America is the most unequal region in the world, 31% of the population lived below the poverty line in 2011. This situation highlights the need to work efficiently in this context. Many Latin American cities are, for decades, facing the urban phenomenon of poverty growing. Over the years, cities are becoming more attractive to live because of their economic, social, cultural and educational offer. The crisis of the "welfare states" generated by this situation requires the development of new policies that are able to redirect and enhance the efforts of our societies to overcome inequalities. This research covers some Latin American experiences in different countries where, as a result of the attraction dynamics generated by cities, informal settlements have emerged in critical condition on the peripheries. Since 2007, a number of different initiatives and actions for social inclusion and improving these neighborhoods have been developed. These projects aim to correct the urban imbalances and the excessive private space occupancy, through consolidation of the structural systems of public space. The objective is to reverse the phenomenon of informality in the occupation, use and land profit through the development of urban projects. These projects have to recognize the social construction of habitat, to reformulate the neighborhood project raising the standards of habitability and safety with environmental and equity criteria. The intervention initiatives in these neighborhoods arise from the urgent need to improve living conditions, assuring, as far as possible, equal access to the services offered by the city. The urban projects and the intervention tools proposed are strategies to improve these conditions, promoting social inclusion and reducing the gap between the different sectors of the city. Public investment is essential to work in urban poor and conflicting; this paper will explain the management of these projects, analyzing how they have done and how they can serve as a basis for future interventions.
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Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2005.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 96-101).This paper looks at the Ribeira Azul Slum Upgrading Program in Salvador de Bahia Brazil, implemented by the development agency of the state of Bahia, CONDER, and the Italian NGO Associazione Volontari per il Servizio Internationale (AVSI), which is recognized by the World Bank and Cities Alliance as an exemplary project. The paper aims at understanding the areas in which it was successful, and illustrate how - despite important shortcomings - the project has become to be considered exemplary. The paper first shows that the project is not as participatory as international donors believe. Moreover, it illustrates that project's sustainability is at risk because inter-governmental political competition between the state and municipal government and party politics prevented the inclusion of the Municipality- institution responsible for...
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This paper provides empirical evidence on the causal effects that upgrading slum dwellings has on the living conditions of the extremely poor. In particular, we study the impact of providing better houses in situ to slum dwellers in El Salvador, Mexico and Uruguay. We experimentally evaluate the impact of a housing project run by the NGO TECHO which provides basic prefabricated houses to members of extremely poor population groups in Latin America. The main objective of the program is to improve household well-being. Our findings show that better houses have a positive effect on overall housing conditions and general well-being: treated households are happier with their quality of life. In two countries, we also document improvements in children's health; in El Salvador, slum dwellers also feel that they are safer. We do not find this result, however, in the other two experimental samples. There are no other noticeable robust effects on the possession of durable goods or in terms of labor outcomes. Our results are robust in terms of both internal and external validity because they are derived from similar experiments in three different Latin American countries.
Slum upgrading in Brazil: lessons from evaluation processes.
Revista Ciencia & Tropico v.43, 2019
BALBIM, Renato; KRAUSE, Cleandro. Slum upgrading in Brazil: lessons from evaluation processes. Revista C&Trópico, v. 43, nº special, p177-195, 2019. Slum population has had a relative decrease during the 21st century in Brazil. Beginning in the 1990"s, the Brazilian public policy towards slums has been notable, both at national and local levels. Nevertheless, priority has been given to improvement works, evaluation of their results has been a neglected aspect, and a knowledge gap between investments and their impacts has broadened. This paper aims at summarizing the contributions of researchers at the Institute for Applied Economic Research (IPEA), who conducted slum-upgrading evaluations from 2009 until 2014. They comprise methodologies and procedures for a meta-evaluation of intervention projects as a means to improving programs; a logical model for the evaluation of the intervention in one of the largest favelas in the country; an evaluation guideline proposal for a nationwide precarious settlements urbanization program; and relevant findings of the focus group technique as a qualitative research method. The paper seeks to publicize the results achieved in an effort to advise governments and improve their policies; to foster discussion on tailored evaluation methodologies; to contribute critically with international development agencies; and to reinforce the exercise of citizenship through evaluation practices, transparency, and accountability. Resumen BALBIM, Renato; KRAUSE, Cleandro. Mejoramiento de asentamientos precarios en Brasil: qué se puede aprender de los procesos de evaluación. La población de las favelas brasileñas tuvo una reducción relativa desde el comienzo del siglo XXI. La política pública para los asentamientos precarios, iniciada en la década de 1990, sea por el gobierno federal como por las administraciones municipales, ha sido notable. Sin embargo, la prioridad ha sido dada a obras de mejoramiento por medio de la urbanización, mientras la evaluación de sus resultados no ha recibido la misma atención. Eso contribuyó para alargar una falla de conocimiento de la relación entre inversiones y sus impactos. Este artículo busca resumir las contribuciones que han sido aportadas
2015
Our investigation focuses on urban interventions in lums located in the ABC Region within the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo, financed by the “ Informal Settlements Urbanization-Growth Acceleration Program” (PAC-UAP) implemented by the Federal Government since 2007. This Program allocates R$1.3 billion (Reals) for slum up grading in 49 favelas located in the Region (the exchange rate on 06/08/2015 was RS 3.10 for on e d llar). The ABC Region is historically renowned for having implemented pioneering programs in slum upgrading. Despite a considerable increase of federal investments, the u pgrading effort has not produced quantitatively significant results. The persistent low rate of execution of contracted upgrading projects and final payments, observed at the nation l scale, is also evident in the ABC Region. The classification of settlement types and of the r espective interventions provides an overall perspective of the program’s implementation in the region, allowing thus, the ...
This work presents the Housing Improvement Program experience held in 2008 by the Department of Urban Development, Environment and Housing (SEMUDUH) of Taboão da Serra municipality, one of the 39 municipalities of Greater São Paulo, Brazil. It points out the lack of critical thinking about favelas upgrading projects, especially when a large volume of funds and resources has been hindering the understanding that the final quality of urbanization projects depends on breaking limits between house and street within these informal settlements. The reported experience, the urban upgrading of favela Jardim Comunitário in Taboão da Serra municipality, is more effective in presenting spatial methodologies and to indicate that important feedbacks for housing policies in informal settlements are brought by practical experiences with strong spatial assumptions at the tip end of its operational level instead of macro designs of large-scale urban infrastructure. This small scale approach is also innovative for urban land rights, especially in thinking how to address spatial quality when implementing policies for new housing development face the reality of smaller available urban land in metropolitan areas.
TANAKA, G.; ARANTES, P. F.; FIX, M. Case study: São Paulo, Brazil, 2003
This paper was as part of a set of 34 studies of slum conditions, policies and strategies commissioned and compiled in preparation for the United Nations Global Report on Human Settlements 2003. We worked to a common terms of reference and template that was developed by a group of experts. The compilation and editing of the case studies was undertaken by the Development Planning Unit (DPU), University College London (UCL): UNDERSTANDING SLUMS: Case Studies for the Global Report 2003 https://www.ucl.ac.uk/dpu-projects/Global\_Report/home.htm. DPU Team: Patrick Wakely (Director), Kate Clifford, Alex Walker, Anna Soave, assisted by Wanarat Konisranukul, Khanh Tran-Thanh, Manjusha Rai and Karen Levy A short and edited version of this Case Study was published in the UN-Habitat (2003) Global Report on Human Settlements 2003, The Challenge of Slums, Earthscan, London; Part IV: 'Summary of City Case Studies', pp195-228. The Global Report was edited and written by Joe Flood and other authors. Please see "ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS" in the Report for the full list or contributors.