SDG 11.2 Implementation: Enabling inclusive mobility and urban development in Brazilian cities through indicator 67, increasing the percentage of people within 0.5km of public transit running at least every 20 minutes.
Description
From 2015 to 2018, ITDP accelerated the adoption of low carbon, inclusive mobility and urban development in Brazilian cities, resulting in: increased access for women, children, and low-income individuals; improved public health; and reduced greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). Best practices include the national government adopting ITDP guidelines for locating future developments of the national social housing program near transit, and governments at both federal and municipal level adopting the People Near Transit (PNT) metric. Across all aspects of project design, implementation, and monitoring, ITDP pays specific attention to mainstreaming gender and income equity concerns into urban mobility planning.
ITDP aims to strengthen the capacity of local stakeholders, government and non-government, to plan and implement mobility solutions, measure progress, and hold governments accountable for delivery. In 2018, ITDP made important progress toward improving government’s capacity to plan and implement sustainable and equitable mobility. A major factor in these efforts was effectively advocating for the adoption of best practice standards and empirical metrics as a means to benchmark city progress, increase investment, and mainstream more inclusive design. <br />
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A key component in this work is MobiliDADOS (http://mobilidados.org.br/), ITDP’s database of urban mobility and development indicators across Brazilian cities. It has become an influential resource for decision-makers and planners in Brazil and has served as a lever for dialogue between the public sector and civil society. The platform now has over 20 indicators covering 27 cities and nine metropolitan areas. MobiliDADOS will allow for the clear identification of gaps in the current status quo and serve as levers for more equitable urban mobility and increased investment by the public sector.<br />
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As a result of its advocacy and capacity-building around mobility indicators, ITDP’s indicators are increasingly being adopted by cities and the national government. People Near Transit (PNT) from MobiliDADOS, which measures the number of residents in a city who live within walking distance of high-quality rapid transit, gained traction as key metrics to help measure current conditions and spur increased investment in sustainable transport.<br />
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ITDP also made real progress on educating the public sector and civil society on the crucial link between urban development and accessible mobility through the creation of policy frameworks. These efforts will have direct impacts on residents and marginalized communities through the creation of more, and more accessible, low-carbon mobility options and an increasingly sustainable urban design. One example is social housing planning. Social housing developments in Brazil are often placed on urban peripheries, resulting in social and economic isolation, increased travel cost burden and car use, and pockets of poverty. Due to the sheer size of Minha Casa Minha Vida (MCMV) program, the choice of where to place housing can have a massive effect on all aspects of urban life. ITDP has been working with the MCMV program to establish a set of indicators to evaluate new affordable housing developments and guide their future locations.
ITDP primarily targeted public sector technicians and civil society organizations as a means to improve the lives of residents in cities throughout Brazil by providing better access to transport and increasingly integrated urban development. Since 2016, ITDP has produced critical reports and became a leading voice on the inclusion of the needs of women and marginalized groups in urban development and mobility. As a result of efforts to disseminate these crucial findings and build the capacity of decision-makers, these groups became part of the planning discussions, in order to provide improved services and increased access to opportunities.
One key aspect was MobiliDADOS, in which ITDP conducted four workshops that, in total, gathered 68 participants from 52 organizations including civil society (53%), academia (19%), the public sector (14%), and the private sector (9%). The workshops identified the current and new indicators that represent common interests among the organizations and explored joint efforts to work on a common agenda involving multiple cities. In parallel, advocacy and technical support were provided in several level of government.
In Rio de Janeiro, ITDP provided inputs for city’s 50 year term strategic plan. ITDP also assisted in revising the city’s off street parking regulation before it was passed in the legislative chamber, promoted exchanges with others cities, and provided inputs to municipal attorneys. Lastly, ITDP supported the process to select and provide data with spatial analysis for urban mobility indicators to include in Rio’s Social Progress Index, and selected priority areas for pedestrians improvements in the city.
In Belo Horizonte, ITDP is part of the Urban Mobility Observatory and advocated for the use of metrics going beyond transit corridor kilometers since 2014. This work culminated in PNT adoption as one of the metrics that monitors the urban mobility plan. ITDP provided data and the indicator’s historic evolution since 2010.
At a federal level, ITDP coordinated a working group to define an indicator to monitor the results of the implementation of National Mobility Law passed in 2012. This working group selected PNT and its disaggregation by income level as one of the indicators to monitor progress. ITDP also discussed and helped to define recommendations of specific parameters for social housing urban inclusion under the Minha Casa Minha Vida federal program.
Most recently, this work also allowed ITDP to participate and provide input in discussions about federal government efforts to monitor the implementation of SDG, and PNT is considered as one of the sources to develop national indicators to track SDG 11.2.
The PNT indicator is a core component of Rio de Janeiro's transformational off-street parking reform. This parking reform effectively redistributed urban space for people instead of cars in the city. The reform for the first time puts strict restrictions on the number of off-street parking spaces allowed in new buildings and instead promotes non-motorized transport. The PNT indicator will help monitor and strengthen enforcement efforts for this parking reform.
ITDP further strengthened its PNT work when Brazil’s Secretary of Housing of the Ministry of Regional Development, officially adopted ITDP’s recommendations for locating the national social housing program units near transit. The housing program, Minha Casa Minha Vida (MCMV), serves nearly 25 million people and the new guidelines will have a huge impact on efforts to increase access to opportunities and mitigate the marginalization of low-income communities.
As part of efforts to promote the adoption of urban mobility indicators, ITDP worked at the national level with the Secretary of Mobility of the Ministry of Regional Development to influence Avançar Cidades, a funding program launched in 2018 with an initial amount of R$ 3.7 billion for transport infrastructure. As a result, the new version includes improved criteria, such as for funding for cycling and walking infrastructure and services; establishing connection to city’s mobility plans; and defining regular sources of revenue earmarked for investment in urban transport.
In addition, the Secretary of Mobility of the Ministry of Regional Development officially launched two reports produced in partnership with ITDP defining key urban mobility indicators to monitor the implementation of the National Urban Mobility Policy. The list includes indicators such as PNT, Social PNT, comparison of transit fare and average income, as well as the percentage of social housing near transit.
Most recently, this work allowed ITDP to provide input in discussions about federal government efforts to monitor the implementation of SDGs, and PNT is considered as one of the sources to develop national indicators to track goal 11.2.
Lastly, ITDP produced an overview of data on the state of mobility in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, and Recife in order to help candidates and their transition teams make concrete commitments to mobility policies. A full package of communications material was distributed and disseminated in partnership with other organizations and helped frame the electoral debate in each area. Videos were also produced in each aforementioned city in partnership with local grassroots organizations, emphasizing gender, mobility and race.
Although challenging, the moment emphasizes the great need to improve government accountability in a more widespread and long term fashion. ITDP has been positioned as the main source of urban mobility indicators with MobiliDADOS, and we have seen there are many opportunities for ITDP’s targeted cities to advance in the adoption of more indicators, in particular gender-sensitive indicators. The Secretary of Mobility at the Federal Government, sitting in the new Ministry of Regional Development, has already defined that priority will be given to adopt quality standards and data-driven metrics that measure and incentivize improved performance and delivery from State and City levels.
An extensive array of findings and lessons from nearly every ITDP project in Brazil has been incorporated into these lessons. The curriculum reflects ITDP’s approach to urban mobility in Brazil and will be structured into four programs: urban development, walking, cycling, and public transport. Resources in each topic include webinars, interviews with key specialists, basic reading material, complementary bibliography, assessment tools, and a forum for participants to discuss and exchange ideas as a way of promoting peer-to-peer learning. By the end of the program’s first year, ITDP plans to conduct three courses with 150 students each, with at least 40% of attendees coming from the public sector.
Within ITDP country offices, ITDP Brazil will disseminate lessons learned through several platforms. First, a key aspect of ITDP Brazil’s annual internal debriefing session will be discussing challenges and insights collected from all of its 2018 projects. Second, these achievements will be elevated internally and externally during ITDP’s annual international summit, MOBILIZE, taking place in Fortaleza, Brazil in June 2019.
In a highly polarized environment, the boundaries between political and technical discourses are not always clear, and ITDP has learned that it is necessary to constantly identify risks and devise mitigation strategies to ensure the continuity of legitimate and credible work. So there are three main points we would like to highlight here:<br />
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First, we understand focusing on women and children can serve as a mitigation strategy in a divided political environment, since families are a unifying theme.<br />
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Second, ITDP’s frequent role as convener means it is important to maintain a neutral stance and focus contributions on technical discussions. As such, ITDP has increasingly focused on building relationships with technicians in the government, in addition to political leadership, as a means to ensure continuity of work between administrations and amidst external uncertainties. ITDP has incorporated this critical takeaway into internal planning processes. <br />
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Finally, another important insight gleaned is that working with civil society is essential to achieving implementation. ITDP previously focused primarily on public sector engagement, but in recent years have begun to increase collaborations with civil society in order to improve the capacity of city-based grassroots and social movements to discuss and advocate for sustainable cities. In the face of the current political situation this strategy has gained even more relevance.
https://globosatplay.globo.com/globonews/v/7028137/
Belo Horizonte is utilizing ITDP’s PNT indicator, to define short, medium, and long term targets that will be included in the city’s next Mobility Report.
https://prefeitura.pbh.gov.br/bhtrans/informacoes/planmob-bh/balanco-da…
The Instituto Pereira Passos in Rio de Janeiro updated the Social Progress Index, based on ITDP’s PNT data.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/ipsrio/publicacoes/relatorio-metodologico.pdf
The PNT indicator is a core component of the city Rio de Janeiro’s transformational off-street parking reform.
http://prefeitura.rio/web/smu/texto-da-lei
Brazil’s Secretary of Housing of the Ministry of Regional Development officially adopted ITDP’s recommendations for locating national social housing program units near transit, drawn from the PNT indicator.
http://itdpbrasil.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/ITDP-MCMV-Parametro…
ITDP worked at the national level with the Secretary of Mobility of the Ministry of Regional Development to influence Avançar Cidades, a funding program launched in 2018 with an initial amount of R$ 3.7 billion for transport infrastructure.
https://www.cidades.gov.br/informativos-semob/5277-avancar-cidades-mobi…
The Secretary of Mobility of the Ministry of Regional Development launched two reports, produced in partnership with ITDP, defining key urban mobility indicators to monitor the implementation of the National Urban Mobility Policy.
Report 1- http://itdpbrasil.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Indicadores_efetividad…
Report 2- http://www.cidades.gov.br/images/stories/ArquivosSEMOB/publicacoes/rela…
ITDP provided input in discussions about federal government efforts to monitor the implementation of SDG, so that PNT is considered as one of the sources to develop national indicators to track the goal 11.2.
http://www.ipea.gov.br/portal/images/stories/PDFs/livros/livros/180801_…
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Clarisse Cunha Linke, Country Director