Sustainable Favela Network Now Mapped

February 28, 2018—With support from the Heinrich Böll Foundation Brazil, between June and October 2017 Catalytic Communities took a leap from the work begun for the UN Rio+20 conference in 2012, when we produced the award-winning film “Favela as a Sustainable Model.” Since June 2017 we mapped 111 community initiatives and proposals in Rio’s Metropolitan Region that strengthen social resilience and environmental sustainability. We are delighted to share three results of these efforts, now available in English: the Sustainable Favela Network Members Contact List, the Sustainable Favela Network Map and the extensive Final Report sharing methods, data analysis and reflections.

Click here for the full report.

The report entitled “Sustainable Favela Network: Map (2017)” presents the background, motivations, and objectives of the creation of the Sustainable Favela Network (SFN), and provides a comprehensive account of the methodology used in the construction of the SFN Map, plus results and analysis of the data collected.

Starting from the facts that the city of Rio de Janeiro has 1,000 favelas housing 24% of the population and that each organically developed community represents a unique experience, CatComm understands favelas as simply neighborhoods that develop informally out of an unmet need for affordable housing. Favelas are not, therefore, intrinsically a problem. They are, at their core, a solution. Consequently, the 120-year history of public neglect of favelas, and consequently their DIY development, has resulted in a range of impacts, including both major challenges and significant qualities.

Over the years, CatComm has identified a large number of sustainable urban qualities in the city’s favelas—qualities that are nowadays being promoted in large urban centers around the world: affordable housing in central areas; modest density, enough to facilitate access to public services but without excessive verticality which breeds isolation; pedestrian-prioritized streetscapes; high use of bicycles and public transportation; ‘mixed-use’ residential and commercial establishments; housing near employment; organic architecture; a culture of collective action; intricate solidarity networks; and a high degree of cultural production and entrepreneurship.

In addition, favelas are home to numerous community projects in which residents face the most varied challenges, including access to: waste management, sewerage, childcare, literacy, senior care, art, literature, sports, community organizing, soup kitchens, nutrition, hygiene, dance, and numerous others. All these initiatives serve to raise awareness among residents who benefit from them, even while they are made necessary due to missing public investment.

Therefore, we feel it is time to foster a network-based movement that values and unites the assets of favelas, constructing a path toward sustainable development with total respect for local knowledge.

Our first initiative was to form the Sustainable Favela Network and create a map where these initiatives can be visible, with their background and contact information accessible.

To that end we published numerous calls in our network, and from July to November 2017 we had 158 sign-ups for the Sustainable Favela Network, of which 111 initiatives are now on the Sustainable Favela Network Map.

In addition, we have published a series of profiles of mapped projects on our bilingual news site RioOnWatch. See all the published profiles here.

Objectives of the Sustainable Favela Network

The Sustainable Favela Network aims to (1) recognize initiatives and characteristics that already exist in Rio’s favelas which represent socioenvironmental sustainability and resilience; (2) provide visibility for these initiatives and make their models accessible; (3) create networks for the exchange of knowledge, information, and strategies among different sustainability initiatives; (4) provide training and develop partnerships that strengthen the Network, to make such a model of development possible; and (5) extend this conversation beyond Rio.

Key Data from the Mapped Initiatives

The graph below shows the number of initiatives active in each area of environmental sustainability and provides a sense of local priorities.

The graph below shows the number of initiatives working in each area of resilience and provides a sense of the most common themes across their local activities.

Key Data from the Mapped Communities

We also gave registering participants the opportunity to describe their communities. We received data from 55 communities:

We asked which of the following ‘keys to resistance’ (based on the methodology developed by CatComm after studying successful cases of resistance to removals in pre-Olympic Rio) leaders considered to be strong in the 55 communities. The three strongest were communication, dedication of leaders, and unity among residents. What was said to be lacking most is legal defense and access to information:

An Insurgent Movement

“From the survey and mapping processes described in this report, one fact is obvious: there is a clear interest and dedication on the part of favela residents to tackle socioenvionmental challenges. Furthermore, the responses we received clearly underscored the inherent connection between the social and the environmental. Over the course of the research we saw that although initiatives could be registered in the areas of ‘environmental sustainability’ or ‘social resilience,’ practically all leaders registered their projects in both camps, perceiving the immediate and direct link between the two topics. For the members of the Sustainable Favela Network, the environment in which they live and social resilience constitute integral parts of the ecosystem of life in the favela.”

Next Steps

The Sustainable Favela Network project proposed seven main initiatives:

Mapping (presented in this 2017 report and to be updated annually)
Profiles and documentation of the initiatives on RioOnWatch (2017-)
Exchanges (intensive and holistic) within the Sustainable Favela Network (in 2018)
Development of a ‘sustainable favela indicator’ (2018-2019)
Strategic training to strengthen the Network and its members (2018-)
Promotion of collective projects among Network members (2019-)
Advocacy of behalf of the movement for sustainability and resilience in Rio favelas (2019-)

Having completed the mapping phase and network analysis in this report, and with the profile articles already underway, in 2018 we plan to move onto the third initiative: Exchanges within the Sustainable Favela Network.