The renewal of poor neighbourhoods seeks to increase social inclusion

The global trend points toward an increasingly urban world, and most of this growth concentrates in cities of developing countries. This phenomena is clearly evident in Latin America, where 80 percent of the population is urban, and more than half of the cities are informally settled.

The study Inclusion de habitantes en la ciudadania plena. Experiencias de desarrollo urbano e inclusion social en America Latina (CAF, 2013) (Inclusion of citizens into full citizenship: Experiences in urban development and social inclusion in Latin America) presents a series of valuable experiences in the physical and social transformation of poor Latin American neighborhoods, and analyzes the implementation of plans aimed at the renewal of informal settlements.  

Also known in the region as poor communities, poor neighborhoods, shanty towns, slums, these settlements constitute precarious housing with scarce basic services, impacting the quality of life and health of the inhabitants. In the beginning, State policies favored the erradication and prohibition of such settlements, but currently the approach is to adapt these neighborhoods to higher standards of living in addition to their integration into society.

CAF's study states that adapting informal settelements is justified not only due to the need to reduce the existing inequalities in these areas, but also due to logistic and economic factors. In addition, the study highlights the fact that the informal sector has shown a capacity for the development of real state which in many cases exceeds that of the public and private sector. 

Experts highlight that urbanization in Latin American cities is growing dramatically, and the process is mainly informal: currently, in the region more than 60 cities exceed one million inhabitats and will be receiving most of the population growth. This implies that these cities have to respond to the increasing demand for resources, infrastructure, services, work, and safety, to offer adequate living conditions to their inhabitants. To achieve this, planning and the execution of important interventions in terms of scale and scope are recommended.  

Some of these urban development plans in the region have had a positive impact, such as the Comprehensive Development Plan in the community of La Moran in Caracas, Venezuela, the urban transformation of the Comprehensive Urban Project (PUI, for its acronym in Spanish), in Medellin,  Colombia, the "Barrios de Verdad" (real neighborhoods) projects in Bolivia, and the program Favela Bairro in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.