Lessons Learned: Cities’ Delegations Reflect on the São Paulo International Policy Dialogue

São Paulo, Friday March 14, 2008: The last day of the International Policy Dialogue on the “Challenges of Slum Upgrading: Sharing the Experience of São Paulo” saw participating cities sharing their impressions of the event. Addressing a broader audience set comprising representatives of media organisations, staff and residents of the sub-municipalities visited and other civil society organisations, each city delegation summarised their findings and identified areas of linkage as well as of contrasts with their own cities’ experiences.

The stocktaking session was prefaced by presentations from two of the municipality of São Paulo’s principal task managers: Ivo Imparato, World Bank Task Manager and Project Director for the Cities Alliance Technical Assistance Project to the city, and Elisabete França, architect and Superintendent of the municipality of São Paulo. Ivo’s presentation on the “Contributions made by Cities Alliance Technical Assistance Project to São Paulo’s Housing Policy” outlined the two phased structure of the support. The first phase spanning 2002 to 2004 focused on the methodological support for the city’s award winning Bairro Legal program, which aimed to integrate the poor into the formal city by merging housing programs with urban improvements and ensuring secure tenure and access to urban services. The second phase, spanning 2006 to 2008, focuses on strategies for the sustainable planning, financing and implementation of housing and urban development policies for the city’s low-income population.
 

land/property ownership; (ii) Irregular and precarious settlements, comprising plots that cannot be regularised because they fail to comply with land parceling and land use legislation; main features are that residents possess no security-of-tenure although they may have bought their properties; self-built houses and families on low incomes; and (iii), Tenements (Cortiços), or multi-family collective dwellings comprising one or more constructions on an urban plot and subdivided into rented rooms featuring common use of unbuilt areas and sanitary installations, poor internal access and mobility, poor infrastructure and general overcrowding.

Reflections on the event and on the lessons learned by the cities followed, moderated by Billy Cobbett of the Cities Alliance. Godfrey Hiliza of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality observed that the São Paulo experience is unique in the close engagement between the municipal staff and their constituents: “The passion of the technical staff in the slum upgrading process is clear for all to see. We perceive some challenges similar to those faced by Ekurhuleni, like limited capacity and unemployment in the deprived communities. But without doubt, São Paulo is already way advanced than Ekurhuleni in the slum upgrading process", affirmed Hiliza.

Urvinder Madan, Project Manager for the Mumbai Transformation Support Unit pointed to differences in the spatiality of slums in Mumbai and São Paulo: “In Mumbai, the informal settlements are spread all over the city; here in São Paulo they are concentrated in seemingly predetermined localities." Quality of housing in the slums are also superior to what one finds in Mumbai. "What really impressed me about São Paulo is the level of planning, the technical expertise of the SEHAB team and the quality of the housings, open spaces and access to basic infrastructure in the slum areas. I am going back to India with very positive lessons from São Paulo.”

For Abosede Francisco Bolaji, Lagos State Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, one take away lesson from São Paulo is that “upgrading of slums is not limited to housing construction or upgrading of existing buildings. The social component of the entire process is key, with the ultimate objective being the guarantee of access to life skills and to better living conditions.” Another impression is the quality and dedication of the municipal staff. He said it was hard to believe that these were civil servants given their passion and commitment to their work. He warned that the municipality had better be on guard against possible poachers from cities elsewhere in the world.

For Khalil Sha’at, Advisor to the Governorate of Cairo on Informal Areas key impressions from the Sao Paulo dialogue include: “The dedication of the teams involved in the slum upgrading process; data availability and use of data as a planning tool; public-private sector partnerships; slicing the issue – too many slums but serious upgrading underway; social work integral to the process; continuous public dialogue on slums and the slum upgrading process; and finally, the fact that the process is part of a defined national policy on slums with both political and financial commitment by the government.”
 

Representing the Manila delegation, the Mayor of Taguig, Sigfrido R. Tinga also noted the passion of the public servants in São Paulo. Other major impressions are the “housing solutions, data capture and management systems, reinforcing the old management concept ‘what you cannot measure you cannot manage’ and Economic Development.” In rounding up he said cities needed a bigger forum and a louder voice to bring their issues to the fore of public life, for example, a dedicated cable channel to promote key messages and good news about cities like that of São Paulo. Mayor Sigfrido also broached the all-important question of follow up on the Dialogue, so that the materials and lessons are not lost in the maelstrom of daily activities: “We need to more broadly capture and disseminate the lessons of cities through mass media channels, to create the opportunity to turn night into day.”

Related Information:

• Presentations and Papers from International Policy Dialogue on the Challenges of Slum Upgrading

• Cities Alliance and São Paulo to Co-Host International Policy Dialogue on the Challenges of Slum Upgrading

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