Slum Upgrading in Brazil during the 1990s: an evaluation using Census data

Transcription

1 Slum Upgrading in Brazil during the 1990s: an evaluation using Census data Rute Imanishi Rodrigues Setsu Kanto Paper presented at the World Bank Fourth Urban Research Symposium Washington, DC May 14 th, 2007

2 Questions analysed in the paper The objective is to verify if urban upgrading programs improved the socio-economic indicators in the slums of the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo (MRSP) from 1991 to The results are presented for the metropolitan region and for its main cities, such as São Paulo (Capital), Santo André, São Bernardo do Campo, Diadema (ABCD). We interpret the results on the socio-economic indicators taking into account the different urbanization policies adopted by these cities.

3 Urban Upgrading Programs in the MRSP Some programs in the region of the ABCD adopted an approach to urban upgrading that included a participatory decision process, land regularization, social inclusion policies, among other aspects. Special Areas with Social Interest (AEIS) in Diadema. AEIS was used to segregate empty land to be used for low-income housing, and to demarcate land occupied by slums for regularization. The demarcation resulted in an increase of the land supply for low-income housing, reducing the price of lots to the benefit of the poor households. The government worked with landlords and the community leaders to facilitate the negotiations and to regulate the process of land transfer. Santo André More Equal (SAMI) Social programs and basic income initiatives were combined with urban interventions in a group of slums, in a concentrated and articulated way. Its slogan was everything together, at the same time, and in the same place The SAMI included evaluation and monitoring of the quality of the public services after the conclusion of the urbanization.

4 Urban Upgrading Programs in the MRSP Urban Upgrading in Watersheds in São Bernardo do Campo. Slums in watershed areas was a serious problem in São Bernardo, causing a social risk (floods) and environmental degradation (contamination of reservoirs). The urbanization project had an ecological focus: investments in sanitation and garbage collection, reforestation, recycling, environmental education. Houses were upgraded from wood to bricks, and they were built by collective selfhelp construction work ( mutirão ). In São Paulo, urban policies from 1992 to 2000 were represented by the Singapore Project (PROVER) Construction of buildings in the sites of the slums, replacing the previous (horizontal) urban structure by a new (vertical) one. No involvement of the community on the definition or execution of the project, which was done by external contractors. Focus on physical construction, without provision of social inclusion projects. In opting to verticalize the slums rather than upgrade the existing urban structure, the Singapore project reveals a conservative view of the slum as a problem, and not as a social space that needs to be integrated into the city.

5 Database for the Research Primary data from the 1991 and 2000 Census. Census definition of Subnormal Sector: the conjunct of at least 51 domiciles, occupied or having occupied, until recently, land owned by a third party (private or public), generally disposed in disorderly and dense fashion, and deprived, on its majority, of essential public services. The database was restricted to censitary sectors that were classified as subnormal both in 1991 and 2000, and that could be organised in Minimum Comparable Areas. This resulted in 1,492 sectors, equivalent to 73% of the subnormal sectors in 2000, that were transformed in 1,078 minimum comparable areas for 1991 and 2000.

6 Typology of Urbanization The paper proposes a classification of areas according to the evolution of the sewage network coverage. There are three situations (low, intermediary and high urbanization) for each census, resulting in 9 types of areas.

7 Urbanization in the MRSP from 1991 to % of slum areas in the MRSP had low urbanization in 1991 (A00, A01, A02). 29.6% of slum areas in the MRSP had low urbanization in 2000 (A00, A10, A20). This improvement was more intense in Diadema (57.3% to 6.7%), Santo André (53.1% to 8.2%) and São Bernardo do Campo (69.6% to 15.9%). In São Paulo, low urbanization areas reduced from 70.5% in 1991 to 33.6% in 2000.

8 Evolution of Socio-Economic Indicators The paper analyses the evolution of these indicators: Illiteracy of adults Years of schooling of household heads Income of household head Households linked to services of water, sewage, concrete cesspit, garbage collection Differences-in-differences method: the area A00 is defined as the control group, and the areas A01, A02, A12 and A22 the treatment group. The evolution of socio-economic indicators in the treatment group compared to the control group is interpreted as the impact of the urbanization on the slums. The analysis is performed for the MRSP and for each municipality.

9 Results for the MRSP The columns Dif Post-Pre shows the variation in socio-economic indicators in the areas A00 (control group), A01 and A02. The columns Dif-Dif shows the difference between Dif Post-Pre A01 (or A02) in relation to Dif Post-Pre A00.

10 Results for the MRSP The evolution of the control group (A00) shows that most socio-economic indicators in the slums had a positive evolution in the 1990s. In the areas type A01, we verify that the indicators had a better performance than the control group A00 for schooling. In relation to income and some urban services, such as water network, the results did not indicate a better performance to A01 compared to A00. In the areas type A02, the difference of the indicators were always on the expected direction and the highest among the areas analyzed. Schooling and income increased. Services of water, sewage and garbage collection reached almost 100% coverage.

11 Results for the Municipalities Santo Andre, Diadema and Sao Bernardo had better results than São Paulo, notably in education, income and land ownership. Diadema had, in general, the largest variations in the indicators among all the selected municipalities.

12 Final Considerations There was progress in the social indicators in the non-urbanized slums (A00), but in the urbanized slums (A01, A02) the improvements were greater. This positive relation between urbanization and social indicators was stronger in the ABCD region (notably in Diadema) than in the city of São Paulo. This difference in performance could be explained from the different urbanization approaches adopted in the ABCD and in São Paulo. Key aspects of urban policy in the ABCD region were the participatory approach, land regularization, and social inclusion policies to improve health, education and income in the slums. The paper suggests that these aspects improved the efficiency of the urban upgrading programs, in comparison with the verticalization approach adopted by the city of São Paulo in the Singapore project.