III FORUM URBANO MUNDIAL – Cidades Sustentáveis – Transformando idéias em Ação
Informes e avaliações.
O III FORUM URBANO MUNDIAL aconteceu em Vancouver no Canadá entre os dias 19 e 23 de Junho deste ano. O FUM foi resultado da parceria ONU-HABITAT e do Governo Canadense. Este Forum marcou os 30 anos do I FUM também realizado em Vancouver e dos dez anos da Agenda Habitat. Participaram quase 6 mil representantes de 160 paises, divididos entre Poder Público e entidades da Sociedade Civil, Este Forum foi maior do que o de Barcelona, realizado em 2002, que contou com 4 mil participantes.Fizeram parte da mesa de abertura o Diretor de Comunicação das Nações Unidas Eric Falt, Charles Kelly Comissário Geral do III FUM; Sam Sullivan prefeito de Vancouver; Inga Bjork-klevby Diretor Executivo Adjunto da ONU-HABITAT; Gordon Campbell da Universidade de Colúmbia Britânica, Ana Tibaijuka Diretora Executiva de ONU-HABITAT; Stephen Harpet primeiro Ministro do Canadá. Noli de Castro Vice-presidente das Filipinas; Ali Mohamed Shein Vice-presidente da Tanzanie. Todos os participantes da mesa, fizeram uma avaliação dos Foruns passados e que o objetivo principal do III FORUM era propor ações concretas visando o desenvolvimento sustentável das cidades, visto que os foruns anteriores já levantaram os problemas. Segundo Anna Tibajuka diretora executiva do UN-Habitat é preciso investir na redução da miséria para possibilitar a sustentabilidade das cidades.
O III FORUM foi organizado em: Sessões Plenárias aonde alguns conferencistas apresentaram a sua opinião sobre o tema; Mesas Redondas com a participação do poder público (Ministros e Prefeitos) e seguimentos da sociedade civil debatendo um tema urbano; Reuniões do Poder Público,troca de experiências entre prefeitos; Salas de Exposições aonde universidades apresentaram resultados de pesquisas, empresas apresentaram instrumentos de planejamento, ONGs apresentara alguns projetos e ações exitosas.. etc.
O tema, este ano, foi Cidades Sustentáveis – Transformando Idéias em ação, com os sub-temas: Gestão e Participação na Construção das Cidades,Financiamento das Cidades, Crescimento da Pobreza, Conseqüências da Urbanização desenfreada (assentamentos precários, infra-estrutura,transporte etc), Planejamento Urbano.
Representantes do Brasil (aqueles que mantivemos maior contato)
Missão Brasil Assim denominada pelo CONFEA
FNA Berthelina Alves Costa
ABEA Geraldine Jr.
IAB Almir Fernandes
CONFEA Cláudio Nina e Fernando Costa
Universidade
Ermínia Maricato (LABHAB) e Nadia Someck ( Mackenzie)
ONGS
Polis
BENTO RUBIÃO
COHRE
FNRU – FORUM NACIONAL DA REFORMA URBANA
MINISTÉRIO DA CIDADE
Raquel Rolnik (Secretaria de Programas Urbanos)
Inês Magalhães ( Secretaria de Habitação)
José Carlos Xavier ( Secretario de Transportes e Mobilidade)
MOVIMENTO POPULAR
UMM – Evaniza e Graça
PREFEITURAS
Prefeito de Porto Alegre
Secretário de Planejamento de Belo Horizonte.
AVALIAÇÃO
Não houve tempo para uma avaliação conjunta com os colegas do CONFEA,mas para mim o Forum foi uma decepção. Ele foi muito expositivo, não havia debate…tudo muito certo. Em muitas mesas eram colocadas ações que muitas vezes se contrapunham, e não eram aprofundadas. Não houve embate político.
Os temas que mais atraíram os participantes, na minha avaliação, com salas sempre cheias ou muitas vezes impossíveis de entrar, foram Gestão e Participação e Financiamento das Cidades. As salas eram muito pequenas,cabiam no máximo trinta pessoas. As Mesas Redondas eram em espaços maiores, cabiam mais participantes. Claro as celebridades presentes como pesquisadores de determinadas Universidades, planejadores e ministros de determinado países, lotavam as salas.
É claro que em todos os assuntos a Gestão e Participação e Financiamento estavam presentes, mas houve salas específicas de participação como uma em que o Brasil ( Prefeitura de Belo Horizonte e Porto Alegre) apresentou a experiência da participação do poder público junto com a sociedade civil no Orçamento Participativo. Outro momento importante também em gestão e participação foi as representações de mulheres, que não só apresentaram as suas experiências de organização e participação na luta pela conquista dos direitos como cidadãs, mas também nas conquistas sociais como: habitação, educação, saúde…etc.
Os Arquitetos Sem Fronteiras organizaram um painel em que se discutiu como os arquitetos poderiam contribuir para resolver os problemas urbanos. Foram apresentados alguns projetos de intervenções específicas.
Foi complicado participar desta sala, com muita gente e como as demais pouco tempo para intervenções. Deixei uma cópia do documento, da Sociedade Civil do Brasil, resultado do encontro de diversas entidades que lutam pela Reforma Urbana ocorrido em São Paulo no dia 16 de Maio de 2006.
Embora tenha sido um evento rico em produção de materiais, rico em infra-estrutura, rico em participação de celebridades internacionais, foi pobre em resultados… Vamos ver como vai sair o documento de resolução do III FORUM. Acho que para o próximo Fórum, que será na China em 2008, a organização ONU-Habitat deverá rever essa forma de evento, que prioriza expositores e celebridades, limitando o debate e inibindo o embate político. O sentimento que ficou é que discussão, principalmente política, era em outro Forum.
Acho, também, que o Brasil tem que ir mais organizado, principalmente a sociedade civil. As entidades do CONFEA que atuam nas áreas de políticas urbanas deverão organizar um encontro e tirar uma proposta para ser levada para uma sala específica. Por exemplo: a luta pela Universalização da Assistência Técnica, toda a atuação dos profissionais do Sistema na Campanha pelo Plano Diretor Participativo., etc.
Estou encaminhado além do Documento da Sociedade Civil Brasileira, em inglês que a FNA (National Federation of Architects) subscreveu, que eu achei interessante e que dá para enviar.
Nós Missão Brasil CONFEA, vamos escrever um relatório e assim que estiver pronto eu repasso.
PREPARATORY MEETING HELD BY THE BRAZILIAN CIVIL – SOCIETY FOR WORLD URBAN FORUM III – VANCOUVER May 16, 2006 – São Paulo
Is a new city possible?
From inequality to development: funding, land and social participation.
Promoters: ANPUR; IAB Nacional; AGB; FISENGE; FNA; FNRU; CONAM; MNLM; UNMP;
CMP; ABONG. Organizing committee: LABHAB FAUUSP. Supporters: SEESP; School
of Architecture at Mackenzie University.
DOCUMENT FROM THE BRAZILIAN CIVIL SOCIETY
The Preparatory Meeting held by the Brazilian Civil Society for World Urban
Forum III took place on May 16, 2006, at the facilities of the São Paulo
State Engineers Union, in São Paulo. The Meeting was aimed at discussing
the topic in order to identify important issues to be addressed at the
Forum. Seventy-five people participated, representing 41 different
entities, such as universities, associations, NGOs, political mandates,
social movements, among others. During the meeting the World Letter for the
Right to the City was also presented and it will be taken to World Urban
Forum III as a proposition from the Brazilian entities.
The meeting was held the day following the beginning of the terrifying
attacks of organized crime on the city of São Paulo and, consequently, some
were unable to attend.
The Agenda was the following:
Session 1: The Impact of neoliberal policies on cities: housing,
infrastructure and urban services
Speakers: Marcos Montenegro – Director at the Department of Technical
Cooperation and Development of the National Secretariat for
Environment Sanitation of the Ministry of Cities
Ermínia Maricato – Full Professor at School of Architecture and
Urbanism at the University of São Paulo
Debater: Ana Fernandes – President of the National Association of Graduate
Studies and Research in Urban and Regional Planning – ANPUR
Coordinator: Murilo Celso de Campos Pinheiro – President of the São Paulo
State Engineers Union – SEESP
Session 2: Urban Land for Social Housing
Speakers: Paulo Lomar – Attorney-at-law. Constitutional Lawyer
Rosana DenaldÍ – Housing and Urban Development Secretary for the
City of Santo André
Coordinator: Raimundo Bonfim – Popular Movement Center – CMP
Rapporteur: Ubiratan Felix – Executive Director of the Interstate
Federation of the Engineers Unions – FISENGE
Session 3: The Role of Social Movements in Brazil and in the World in the
Current Scenario
Speakers: Wander Geraldo – National Confederation of Community
Associations – CONAM
Silvio Caceia Bava – Brazilian NGOs Association – ABONG
Coordinator: Aríete Moysés Rodrigues – Brazilian Geographers Association
– AGB
Therefore, according to the issues presented and discussed, we would like
to highlight the following:
1. There has been an increase in poverty in Latin American cities. The
precarization of urban life is apparent. In 1990, there were about 111
million informal dwellings (favelas and pirate allotments) in Latin
America. In 2001, this number totalled 127 million¹. In Brazil, between
1991 and 2000 the number of favelas increased by 22.5%. And whereas the
number of dwellings in the country increased by 1.01%, the number of
dwellings in favelas increased by 4.18%²;
2. At the same time, there has been an increase in social and spatial
segregation and/or in territorial fragmentation besides an increase in the
violence and in the organized crime, especially in illegally occupied land
from where the State is absent and to which no formal laws apply;
3. We recognize the impact of the so-called globalization in the
impoverishment process taking place in cities due to: the economic decline
resulting from tax adjustments; retrocession in social public policies;
increase in unemployment and precarization of labor, and deregulation of
the action of the State prioritizing the private market;
4. We can see, in most peripheral countries, exception made to India and
China, the implementation of the very same economic and political model,
based on the so-called Washington Consensus whose extremely negative
consequences have been responsible for steepening economic decline and
worsening historic inequality;
5. The process of transferring income from poorer to richer countries or,
within a same country, from the production sector to the financial sector,
has been commonplace. According to the Annual Budget Act for 2006, 179.5
billion reais have been earmarked to pay off the Brazilian public debt;
whereas a meager 8.3 billion reais have been allocated for the Bolsa
Família program – the major social program in Brazil;
6. Loans from certain Development Agencies have frequently been conditioned
to the implementation of the neoliberal model by the state entities, thus
revealing a lack of sensitivity to the social dramas faced by southern
countries.
7. In regard to the national and public financial entities, such as Central
Banks; Ministries of the Treasury, etc., there is an obvious lack of
transparency and democracy in their criteria and actions. In many cases,
National Congresses have less power than said institutions;
8. The sovereignty of the Brazilian States as well as of the Federation has
been shaken by this policy and its mechanisms, which have disorganized not
only the entities that make up the federation but also the Brazilian
territory, which has been profoundly influenced by export policies.
Brazil’s environment, cultural diversity and its indigenous tribes and
rural population have been ignored by the action which, bolstered by
state-of-the-art technology, seeks only limitless power over the production
of food and raw materials;
9. The establishment of entities related to the development of the south
often does not take into consideration the fact that cities belong to
Nations and must be regarded within the national, cultural, historic and
social context, and not as isolated entities. The same mistake is made by
several NGOs, which consider cities as individual entities;
10. Despite all these considerations, we recognize that the achievements
the social movement has attained have been very significant to a period of
poor economic growth, but of greater political freedom. In Brazil, the
experiences of democratic Municipal Governments with participatory
management during the 1980s, and 1990s and during this decade are
significant. Moreover, we consider that the City Statute passed in 2001,
the creation of the Ministry of Cities in 2003, the creation of the Council
of Cities in 2004, and the legislation and creation (in progress) of the
Social Interest Housing National Fund and
System in 2005, and the National Conference of Cities, have been decisive
measures for consolidating a more just urban policy;
Therefore, we stress:
11. The importance of the role of the State in regard to social and public
policies;
12. The need of replacing “public” policies, guided by personal or group
interests,
for policies which respect urban plans and set indicators and goals, such
as the Millennium Development Goals;
13. The need of financial aid for housing, sanitation, transportation, as
well as for food, health, education, culture, leisure and sports,
especially for vulnerable youth;
14. Respect for social, cultural, land, environment and religious
diversity. We reject applying universal models to be indistinctively
implemented in any country;
15. The disapproval of privatizing public utilities and essential services,
such as water;
16. The need of democratizing and giving transparency to financial public
entities that make decisions which affect the lives in every nation and
limit, in an authoritarian fashion, the ability of the State investing in
social policies;
17. The need of articulating sectorial transport, housing, environmental,
sanitation policies, with a land policy to widen the access to housing and
environmental sustainability;
18. The need of articulating funding for housing and land policy;
19.The need of strengthening participatory processes by promoting local,
regional, national and international Forums, Councils, Comrnittees and
Conferences;
20. The need of bringing about greater unity between social, democratic and
solidarity forces – community movements, NGOs, women, ethnic groups, races,
researchers, professionals and entrepreneurs, among others;
21. The need for autonomy and independence from the authorities for social
movements;
Besides having helped to draft the document that shall be taken to the
Vancouver Forum, the LABHAB team was able to draw, from the discussions and
debates taking place during the sessions, a number of other ideas and
propositions. Such ideas and propositions are not necessarily addressed to
an international audience, but to assisting in a battle taking place in the
interior of the country. A battle for a more just and more democratic city.
In other words, a battle for Urban Reform.
Session 1 supported the diagnosis given at an international level. But the
following propositions were made for the Brazilian case in particular:
1. The need of increasing the participation of society in the National
Monetary Council (CMN), thus making it more democratic institution;
2. The need of reviewing the accounting methods for public expenditures,
which have bolstered privatization and severely limited the ability of the
State to make investments;
3. Duly allocating resources resulting from certain legal provisions that
clearly establish how to invest said resources, which have been used for
different ends and purposes, such as the CIDE (Tax Contribution resulting
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