「The right to the city and local governments: how can municipalities translate this right into local policies」- Eduardo Tadeu PEREIRA

“The right to the city and local
governments: how can
municipalities translate this right into
local policies"
Eduardo Tadeu Pereira
Brazilian Association of Municipalities President
Brazilian Association of Municipalities

Brazilian Federal Structure
 Brazil is one of the few countries in the world that has
triple federal structure: Union, States and
Municipalities;
 this reality is due to the broad democratization process
by which the country started in the 80s, which among
other measures, consolidated local government
autonomy;
 until then the dictatorial regime kept the central state.

Municipalities and autonomy
The Federal Constitution of 1988 recognized the
municipalities as a federated entities, giving:
• Its own taxing authority;
• elective political capacity;
• self-organization of the state.

Asymmetries between Brazilian
municipalities
• 70% of municipalities have less than 20.000 inhabitants and house
only 13% of the population;
• 283 municipalities with over 100 thousand inhabitants generated
approximately 70% of all the income of the country. 3.915
municipalities with up to 20.000 inhabitants were responsible for less
than 11% of income;
• in 2010, the income generated by 6 municipalities accounted for
approximately 25% of all the income generation of the country and
these municipalities represent 13.7% of the population;
• the GDP per capita of 10% of the municipalities with the highest
GDP per capita was 5.4 times higher than the GDP per capita of 60%
of the municipalities with the lowest GDP per capita.

Local government's difficulties
Local governments face a number of difficulties in Brazil
• Financial dependence on the State and Union;
• technical management that requires improvement and
modernization;
• assume the costs that are the responsibility of other
federal entities

Collected taxes division
Union (57%)
States (25%)
Municipalities (18%)

Municipalities as protagonists
Even with all these difficulties, the municipalities exert
central role in the implementation of public policies
formulated by the Union:
• Bolsa Família: cash transfer program;
• PAC (Program Acceleration Growth): Transference of
federal resources to sanitation and infrastructure works;
• Minha Casa Minha Vida: housing construction for low-
income families.

Local Goavernment and the right to the city
• Brazilian municipalities are the federal entities that are able -
despite the challenges- to ensure the right to the city.
• It’ s viable from the time that the government ensures conditions for
people to participate:
-Education
-Health
-Safety
-Decent Housing
-Basic Services
• We’ve advanced a lot in Brazil into this factors, in combating
poverty and misery, because of the guarantee of basic services

Local Government and the right to the city
• The guarantee of basic services is important, but not
sufficient;
• progressives Brazilian governments have guaranteed the
right to the city through actions that foster participatory
democracy, creating spaces for participation and
strengthen dialogue between the people and the
government.

Local Government and the right to the city
When we talk about the right to the city, it is essential to pay
special attention to historically excluded and promote:
• Gender equality;
• combating racism;
• ensuring spaces for youth.

Participatory budget
• Created in 1989 in Porto Alegre
(RS) – Brazil;
• tt’s a government mechanism for
participatory democracy that
allows citizens to influence or
decide on the public budgets,
usually the investment budget for
municipalities through processes
of community participation;
• with that, civil society will occupy
spaces that before were "stolen"
from it.

Participatory budget
• 351 Brazilian municipalities adopt participatory budgeting;
• due to this practice, they all stand out - compared to cities
without popular participation in the decision on the fate of
public resources - spending more on health and
sanitation, have better performance in reducing child
mortality and register greater presence of organizations
civil society interacting with the government;
• studies like this demonstrate how granting the right to the
city is the way to building sustainable and inclusive cities.

Solidarity Economy
 In Brazil, the Solidarity Economy has widespread as a
strategy to encourage excluded person to occupy their
space in society;
 economy model: cooperative, solidary and inclusive;
 it’s an alternative to the capitalist system, that is
responsible for the exclusion of the economically
underprivileged.

Solidarity Economy:
Várzea Paulista - São Paulo - Brazil
Cooperatives

Solidarity Economy:
Várzea Paulista – São Paulo - Brazil
Social Currency – ‘Saber ‘– ‘Known’

Solidarity Economy:
Armazém da Cidadania – ‘Citizenship Warehouses’

Solidarity Economy:
Feira de Trocas - Exchenge Swaps

Solidarity Economy:
Community bank

Local Governments and the right to
the city
• Municipalities are, in excellence, the space for
development of the right to the city;
• local government are closer to population;
• popular participation is more direct at the local level

Difficulties
• Shortage of resources and competence;
• difficulty convincing the technical and municipal
leaders, which generates the marginalization of the
theme;
• lack of mechanisms that make the right to the city goes
beyond declarations.

Concrete actions
• Adoption of a municipal charter about the right to the
city;
• common action among the different sectors of the
municipality for the realization of the right to the city;
• training for municipal leaders to information and
persuasion.

United Cities and Local Govern (UCLG)
• Founded in 2004;
• has 6 regional sessions;
• works with committees and working groups, currently
with 17 committees, such as:
-culture
-urban-planning
-periphery cities

Commite on Social Inclusion, Participatory
Democracy and Human Rights (CSIPDHR)
 The Commission for Social Inclusion and Participatory
Democracy arose from the organization of progressive sectors
participating in the FAL - Forum of Local Authorities, from 2001,
under the World Social Forum;
 in 2005, the Commission became institutionalized within the
UCLG.

CSIPDHR/UCLG: Objectives
 Build a common voice among cities to promote social
inclusion, participatory democracy and human rights;
 guide local governments in the organization and
implementation of these policies;
 permanent dialogue with NGOs and social movements.

CISDPDH/UCLG: Performance
To achieve these objectives, the Committee on Social
Inclusion, Participatory Democracy and Human Rights
develops three lines of action:
1. Reflection and policy debate
2. Exchange and analysis of experiments
3. Collective knowledge generation

CISDPDH/CGLU: Activities
Developed activities, among others:
• Follow-up of editions of the Local Authorities Forum (Caracas
2005/2007 Nairobi / Bethlehem 2009 / Dakar / 2011);
• follow-up of FALP - Forum of Local Authorities of Outskirts (Getafe
2010, 2013 Canoas);
• preparation of documents: the European Charter for the protection of
human rights city (Saint Denis, 2000); Worldwide Schedule Charter of
Human Rights in the City (Florence, 2011);
• observatory of inclusive cities, in partnership with CES - Centre for
Social Studies, University of Coimbra;
• world Meeting of Local Governments for the Right to the City (Saint
Denis, 2012);
• participation World Forum of human rights cities
(Gwangju, 2012, 2013).

Thank you!!!
Eduardo Tadeu Pereira
Brazilian Association of Municipalities President
presidencia@abm.org.br

「The right to the city and local governments: how can municipalities translate this right into local policies」- Eduardo Tadeu PEREIRA

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「The right to the city and local governments: how can municipalities translate this right into local policies」- Eduardo Tadeu PEREIRA