Peace Building, Risk and Vulnerability in Favelas of Rio De Janeiro

The city of Rio de Janeiro will host two mega-events in the near future: part of the games of the Soccer World Cup in 2014 and the Olympic games of 2016. As a result, the State and local governments of Rio de Janeiro devised new urban policies for the favelas aimed at bringing public safety to the city. The most important is the program called Police Pacification Units (UPP), which has been put in place since 2008 in several favelas under the control of the drug dealers. Other important programs, such as Morar Carioca (Carioca Housing) and the PAC (Program of Development Acceleration) complement the UPP, focusing on housing, infrastructure improvements, and mobility within favelas.

This paper intends to analyze the impact of these programs on the building up of resilience and adaptive capacity in some of the communities where the pacification program was put in place. The paper focuses on the dimensions of risk, vulnerability, inclusion, safety and the construction of socio-environmental sustainability within the favelas and its surroundings. The study is based on empirical evidence from four favelas in Rio de Janeiro: Comunidade Dona Marta, Morro da Providência, Morro Pavão-Pavãozinho and Complexo do Alemão.  It also uses data and information from government and non-government sources and when available, from the plans and designs put forward in these communities.

The proposed analysis as well as its implicit comparative nature will point out the advances and setbacks of these programs, and will indicate possible strategies for improvement. It hopes to contribute to better planning practices and ultimately to diminish social and environmental vulnerability of less privileged communities.