2015-01-27
Between 22 and 26 September, two civil servants from the Ministry of Cities participated in an international mission to Stockholm (Sweden), Berlin and Brandenburg (Germany) for an exchange of best practices in urban planning and management policies in the European Union. The activity was sponsored by the EU-Brazil Sector Dialogues Support Facility, coordinated jointly by the Ministry of Planning, Budget and Management (MPOG) and the European Union Delegation in Brazil (Delbra).
The focus of the international mission was to exchange experiences on mechanisms and tools for urban planning, and urban development policies, actions and programmes in metropolitan areas. The aim was to provide input for the development of a methodology for territorial planning and urban management in metropolitan areas and thus enable support from the federal government to the states and the regulatory institution, as well as an improvement in the Legal Framework for Metropolitan Governance, among other urban planning and management instruments.
The Brazilian delegation comprised the director of the Department of Accessibility Policy and Urban Planning (Deap), Mr Yuri Rafael Della Giustina, and the projects manager, Mr Marcel Claudio Sant’Ana. In Stockholm, the Embassy of Brazil in Sweden and Business Sweden also took part in the activities. The meetings in Berlin and Brandenburg were attended by representatives of the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ).
"The institutions visited by the Brazilian experts had been referred after research commissioned to a European Union consultant by the EU-Brazil Sector Dialogues Support Facility," says Mr Giustina. The action also included hiring a European consultant to carry out case studies on best practices in metropolitan planning and management. The Stockholm and Berlin experiences were selected in the analyses made by the European consultant.
The Swedish capital, where the Brazilian technicians spent 22 and 23 September, was chosen because of its best practices for sustainable urban development. At the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, the Brazilian delegates learnt about the political and administrative arrangement of the Swedish state and its form of government, as well as the central government’s initiatives to promote urban development policies.
In the courtesy call made to the Ambassador of Brazil in Sweden, Mr Marcos Vinicius Pinta Gama, exchanges centred around the mission objectives and targets, the Sector Dialogues Support Facility and its support for the action which comprised the international mission, and the prospects of future partnerships with the Government of Sweden.
The technical visit to Stockholm’s State Department of Construction, Strategy and Development aimed to gain more objective and accurate insights into the planning and management tools used by the government of the Stockholm area to ensure the promotion of sustainable urban-regional development.
The technical delegation also visited SKL International, a company of the Swedish Association of Local and Regional Authorities (Salar), which has acted as the main promoter of the SymbioCity methodology - which seeks to ensure that human beings are the focus of intervention projects - and has supported the Sustainable Cities platform. During the meeting, SKL signaled that it could enter into a partnership with the Ministry of Cities.
In Stockholm, the Brazilian delegation also visited Royal Seaport, a company whose work is focused on the promotion of the urban project to revamp Seaport, an old and derelict port area where 13,000 new residential units are being built. The urban design of the project prioritised the construction of a sustainable territory, ensuring that people could move around on foot and by public transport.
Visited between 24 and 26 September, Berlin was chosen because of its federative arrangement and the various bodies and agencies that support the development of urban development mechanisms. The Technical University of Berlin (TU-Berlin) showed an interest in joining the Ministry of Cities initiatives to overcome challenges in the field of Metropolitan Governance. TU-Berlin, together with the HABITAT-Unit and through its Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, has conducted a series of research projects on urban planning and development in developing countries.
At the German Institute of Town Planners, the Brazilian delegates learnt about the entity's participation in the Social City Programme. Created in 1999, this initiative focuses on low-income neighborhoods that require special attention from the government, mainly because that is where the majority of immigrants are concentrated. This is a comprehensive intervention strategy in the territory, not limited to urban planning alone.
Visits also included the Schillerpromenade Office, which is part of the office network of the Social City Programme. The Brazilian technicians saw up close how the programme works and how low-income neighborhoods have been restructured. The agenda also included the daily challenges faced by the initiative and its results in view of the time constraints. In addition, there was a field visit to see one of the interventions carried out by the programme in the local neighborhood.
The Brazilian technicians also paid a visit to the headquarter of GIZ, the German Agency for International Cooperation, which supported Brazil in the 70s during the country’s first experience in metropolitan planning. "We tried to list the challenges in the various fields faced by the Ministry of Cities, in particular cooperation in metropolitan governance," reports Mr Giustina. GIZ works on issues such as urban management, environment, social service and cultural heritage and, in the urban development field, performs actions to promote urban development and metropolitan policies.
In Brandenburg, the technicians attended a meeting at the Ministry of Infrastructure and Agriculture of the State of Brandenburg to discuss metropolitan governance projects.
Back in Berlin, the Brazilian delegates had a meeting at the Ministry of Environment, Nuclear Safety and Construction (BMU). The agenda aimed to develop an understanding of the prospect that central powers should intervene in territorial development policies in federal countries, especially with regard to metropolitan governance policies. At the Department of Transport Policy, the meeting with the traffic managers in the Berlin metropolitan area aimed to understand the strategies in delivering urban mobility.
This initiative comprises the action Planning Instruments and Metropolitan Governance, selected by 7th call for participation by the EU-Brazil Sector Dialogues Support Facility, under the sector dialogue on Regional Integration Policies. In addition to the international mission, the action carried out a survey on planning and metropolitan management, the strengthening of intra-metropolitan cooperation and the funding of metropolitan policies.
23/10/2020
Study addresses regulatory and governance challenges to decarbonize and digitalise the energy sector
16/10/2020
Joint press release - 8th EU-Brazil High Level Political Dialogue on the Environment Dimension of Sustainable Development on 16 October 2020 (virtual meeting)
03/08/2020
Webinar discusses the importance of data protection in the COVID-19 pandemic
22/05/2020
European Union and Brazil decide to cooperate in projects to fight COVID-19
Founded UE. © Diálogos