There are lessons to be learnt from a report on Brazil {writer:Stef Terblanche}

As South African cities continue to struggle with unprecedented rapid urbanisation, a new study released by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) urges African and Asian governments to learn from the experience of Brazil and plan for the future.

The study points out how Brazil’s rapid, unplanned urbanisation created “stiff economic, social and environmental challenges”.

“The road to a high level of urbanisation has been exhausting and socially disruptive, and the vestiges of the process are still evident in certain aspects of current social organisation. It can be posited that these difficulties originate from two principal factors: A historically rooted and enduring structure of social inequality; and the persistent failure to foresee, accept and plan for massive urban growth,” say the authors of the study, Dr George Martine, former president of the Brazilian Association of Population Studies; and Dr Gordon McGranahan of the IIED.

South Africa is no stranger to these two root factors. As was the case in Brazil, colonialism created uneven social structures, later exacerbated by apartheid.

As for accepting and planning for urban growth, the country probably finds itself – to some extent, at least – among those developing nations that rather seek to try and curb urban growth.

The study found that the proportion of developing countries that have adopted policies to curb urban growth had increased from 46% in 1976 to 74% in 2007.

To date, rather than plan proactively, the South African government and cities have frequently reacted belatedly to urbanisation caused by people leaving economically stagnant rural areas, inter-provincial migration and the flood of foreign immigrants from elsewhere in Africa.

Only last month, Rural Development and Land Reform Deputy Minister Joe Phaahla announced that the government was speeding up rural development programmes to prevent rural towns from turning into ghost towns.

Although he denied that this programme was being undertaken only “to save cities from being flooded by jobless rural communities”, he was criticised for trying to keep economically dead towns alive at the expense of sustainable urban development.

Between 1996 and 2001 alone, some 5.5 million people relocated from rural to urban areas in South Africa, resulting in an explosion of some 3 000 urban informal settlements as well as high-density suburbs such as Johannesburg’s Hillbrow turning into overcrowded slums ruled by slumlords. These figures are now, almost 10 years on, probably much higher.

The challenges

In South Africa, as in the major cities of other developing countries, the litany of challenges that has come with rapid, unplanned urbanisation includes:

• The rapid and random spread of informal settlements – this being the polite, politically correct term used for squalid, unhygienic and unsafe concentrations of squatter shacks lacking basic services;

• Massive housing demand with immense pressures on limited resources;

• Huge pressures on South Africa’s water resources and delivery systems;

• Overcrowded schools with inadequate facilities and rising crime on the
school grounds;

• Rapid increases in urban crime in general;

• Sanitation and waste problems;

• Pressures on electricity supply;

• Inadequate public transport systems and road infrastructure;

• Severe pollution;

• Over-burdened public healthcare systems accompanied by increasing health risks; and

• Urban sprawl encroaching on productive agricultural land, threatening food security, among others.

The advice

The advice of the IIED study’s authors to governments such as that of South Africa is that the critical first step for policy-makers is to recognise the rights of poor people to live in cities and share in the benefits of urban life.

The next is to plan ahead for their land and housing needs within a constantly updated vision of sustainable land use.

“A business-as-usual approach that simply reacts to urban growth will be utterly inadequate,” says Dr McGranahan.

“To minimise the negative impacts of rapid urban growth, developing countries can learn from Brazil’s experiences and, especially, its mistakes.”

The authors found that having urbanised far faster than countries in Europe and North America, Brazil’s urban population shot up from 36% in 1950 to about 80% at present. This transition, they say, came at considerable and preventable cost to the population because Brazil failed to address social inequalities and plan for urban growth.

This cost is evident in the fact that while cities now provide 90% of Brazil’s wealth, by 2007 more than a quarter of Brazil’s urban citizens were living below the poverty line. One in 15 was living in extreme poverty.

As in South Africa, this means millions of people are excluded from key services and other benefits of urban life. They face immense social, economic and environmental challenges such as crime, pollution, unsafe housing and preventable diseases.

The authors show how Brazil adopted policies that discriminated against urban settlement by poor people.

Impact of inequalities

“The story of Brazil’s urban growth shows how deep-rooted inequalities have combined with negative policy stances to generate many of the social and environmental problems that still plague Brazilian society,” says Dr Martine.

According to the latest projections, Africa’s urban population is expected to grow by 936 million in the first half of this century, while Asian urban areas will grow by more than two billion. Although the numbers may vary somewhat, the trend is inexorable, the authors say.

Policies aimed at preventing or retarding this growth instead of preparing ahead for it will only make matters worse.

Looking ahead, policy-makers need to pay special attention to the land and housing needs of the poor. This not only improves the lives of poor people, but enables the city to become prosperous and habitable for all.

“Urbanisation and massive urban growth in developing countries loom as some of the most critical determinants of economic, social and ecological well-being in the 21st century,” says Dr Martine.

Adaptation in South Africa

In the South African context, it is encouraging that the former Housing department was last year transformed into a more widely encompassing Human Settlements Department under Minister Tokyo Sexwale.

In an address to a gathering of the South African Local Government Association on the role of local government in the national human settlements agenda in September last year, Sexwale quoted from the 2008 UN World Habitat report, which states that the majority of humankind in many countries will be living in urban areas by the end of this century.

In this context, Sexwale called for:

• Co-ordinated forward planning between national and local government;

• Local governments adopting common approaches in their plans;

• Increased efficiencies and less red tape;

• Greater alignment of local government housing budgets;

• Government land-use policies to be more “user-friendly” in respect of human settlements;

• Good governance at all levels; and

• Decision-making delays to be eliminated regarding environmental impact assessments.

Environmental impact

But on that latter note, the IIED study cautions that with few exceptions, urban growth has occurred with minimal consideration of impact on
the environment.

It adds that the lack of a shared, proactive vision for urban growth is widespread, even when there is a professed faith in master plans.

“Unplanned and un-oriented rapid urban growth undoubtedly accentuates environmental management problems, and invariably leads to the local degradation of natural resources like land, water and vegetation,” states the study.

“In settlements where basic services are not provided, it also contributes to environmental health problems, such as those related to inadequate water
and sanitation.

“Many of the social and environmental problems affecting Brazil’s urban areas stem from lack of attention to the housing needs of the poor,” it adds.

Pointing out the plight of slums and informal settlements in Brazil, the authors of the study say that “despite several decades of rapid urban growth and proliferating slums, informal settlements are generally treated as transitory public order problems that need to be eradicated or are somehow expected to fade away with development. In most cases, concrete action is only taken after slums have existed for several decades and politicians have understood the benefits of ‘solving’ the problem of informal settlements”.

The authors further point out two initiatives that could reverse the trend of catch-up policies (dealing with the effects only after they have happened) and enhance urbanisation.

The first entails removing unnecessary high standards in the urban land market, such as unrealistic minimum plot sizes and stringent building regulations.

The second calls for proactive involvement by the public sector in respect of land usage as well as better utilisation of empty inner-city buildings.

These kinds of difficulties, the authors say, not only exacerbate the miserable living conditions of the urban poor, but ultimately impact on the quality of life and sustainability of the entire city.

“Lack of access to shelter and services is the starting point for a vicious circle of poverty.”

Disregarding the land and housing needs of the poor adds to overall environmental degradation, as it affects ecosystem services and the city’s ability to plan responsibly and effectively for sustainable growth, the authors say.

The study goes on to point out the problems facing low-income populations, which are clearly illustrated in detailed analyses of environmental and social vulnerability in the heart of Brazil’s richest city, the municipality of São Paulo. Almost 50% of all favelas (informal settlements) in this municipality are located on riverbanks, many subject to chronic flooding, or on poor land and landfill sites.

In South Africa, for example, most informal settlements on the Cape Flats of Cape Town are situated similarly and are prone to regular flooding in winter.

Conclusions

The study concludes by stating that rapid urban growth is arguably the single most influential process affecting social, economic, political and demographic trends in low- and middle-income countries in the 21st century, particularly in Africa and Asia, and is unprecedented in
human history.

The manner in which population concentration evolves in towns and cities in coming decades will directly affect development, poverty and environmental conditions on a global scale, say the authors.

As cities have clear advantages in global economic competition, the prospects for sustained growth largely depend on the capacity of a country’s cities to compete in the current context of globalisation.

But, as a final word of warning, the authors add that significant “policy failures” have increased the gap between expectation and reality in Brazil’s urban transition.

Local management and good governance are critical to a city’s performance, and while there have been isolated instances of good practices in Brazilian cities (which are even being emulated internationally), practically all of them are affected by these extensive ‘policy failures’.

The study, “Brazil’s early urban transition: what can it teach urbanizing countries?” by George Martine and Gordon McGranahan, can be downloaded at

www.iied.org/general/media