Social Management of Habitat at informal settlements

Social Management of Habitat at informal settlements, Buenos Aires (Ciudad), Argentina - © Secretaría de Hábitat e Inclusión
- © Secretaría de Hábitat e Inclusión
- © Secretaría de Hábitat e Inclusión
- © Secretaría de Hábitat e Inclusión
- © Secretaría de Hábitat e Inclusión
- © Secretaría de Hábitat e Inclusión
Social Management of Habitat at informal settlements, Buenos Aires (Ciudad), Argentina - © Secretaría de Hábitat e Inclusión
- © Secretaría de Hábitat e Inclusión
- © Secretaría de Hábitat e Inclusión
- © Secretaría de Hábitat e Inclusión
- © Secretaría de Hábitat e Inclusión
- © Secretaría de Hábitat e Inclusión
Social Management of Habitat at informal settlements, Buenos Aires (Ciudad), Argentina - © Secretaría de Hábitat e Inclusión
- © Secretaría de Hábitat e Inclusión
- © Secretaría de Hábitat e Inclusión
- © Secretaría de Hábitat e Inclusión
- © Secretaría de Hábitat e Inclusión
- © Secretaría de Hábitat e Inclusión

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Social Management of Habitat at informal settlements

Status

ongoing

City

Buenos Aires

Main actors

Local Government, Private Sector, NGO / Philanthropy, Community / Citizen Group

Project area

Metropolitan Area

Duration

Ongoing since 2011

In Buenos Aires, residents of informal neighbourhoods are encouraged to take an active role in the physical and social transformation of their own habitats.

The Secretariat for Habitat & Inclusion works under a paradigm for infrastructural and social interventions, one which considers the community as the protagonist in the physical and social transformation of its own habitat.

Under this social management model, the Secretariat works to generate stronger relationships between the State and informal neighbourhoods, helping to empower local institutions and develop public spaces for collective participation and decision-making.

Works are designed primarily to upgrade basic infrastructure, recover public spaces, and help to connect informal neighbourhoods with the rest of the City, with a view also to promoting mobility, accessibility and safety.

The Social Habitat Management project was a Metropolis Initiative for the period 2015-2017.

For further information about the case study, click here.

Sustainable Development Goals

Dubai International Award for Best Practices

This project was awarded the 'Dubai International Award for Best Practices' in 2014.

Learn more

City

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Size and population development

Buenos Aires extends across an approximate of 200 square kilometres, in a perimeter of 60 kilometres. The population in the city is 3.06 million people, whereas Greater Buenos Aires is comprised of 14 million. According to The National Institute of Statistics and Census (INDEC), the population density is at par with that of Mexico City, with 15,000 people living per square kilometre, with 75 percent of the households in the city being apartments. Future projections of population growth is low, with the city intending to keep the number of citizens constant between now and 2040.

Population composition

As an important multicultural city, Buenos Aires is very diverse, with 38 percent of its population being born elsewhere, with one third of this international. The women-to-men ratio is 114 to every 100, respectively. The average age for women is 35 whereas for men it is 40, which is to say that Buenos Aires is an aging city. Buenos Aires houses the largest population of Jewish people in Latin America, with an approximate of 250,000 Jewish inhabitants.

Main functions

The Autonomous City of Buenos Aires is the capital city of Argentina, located on the Western side of the enormous estuary known as Río de la Plata, which separates Argentina from Uruguay (it is not to be confused with the province of Buenos Aires, to which the city does not belong). The capital is an autonomous district with an ample conurbation that is understood as Greater Buenos Aires. It is the most populated city of Argentina, and a significant multicultural centre in South America. Buenos Aires is both the financial hub and the cultural capital of the country. The cultural attractions of the city are housed in any of the 30 public libraries, 7 theatres, 11 museums, and more than 40 cultural centres. The city excels in the number of active theatrical plays that are presented, having more than 300 plays enacted every weekend.

Main industries / business

The main industries of the city of Buenos Aires are hospitality, medicines and textiles. The production of goods is intended both for local consumption and exports. In 2016 there was over US$316 million worth of exports, with the city contributing 22 percent of the national Gross Geographic Product. The Port of Buenos Aires, one of the busiest in the whole of Latin America, transacted a total of 11 million revenue tons. The finance and real-estate sectors of Buenos Aires are also prominent, as they contribute 31 percent of the city’s economy. As a tourist capital, Buenos Aires welcomes 4.5 million people every year, with an intensive influx of other Americans, north and south, particularly Brazilians, Canadians and those from the United States.

Sources for city budget

The budget of the city of Buenos Aires is decided by the National Congress, after the Executive Power concocts the priorities and amounts desirable. Three main sources for the budget can be distinguished: the city government’s tax revenues (78.9 percent), funds from national co-participation (a scheme through which the provinces of Argentina and the city of Buenos Aires share a common pool of national tax revenue), and other local revenues sources (e.g. theatre events, transit violations, concessions, etc.).

Political structure

Politically, the city of Buenos Aires is divided into 15 comunas or communes, which are ruled by the Juntas Comunales made up by seven members belonging to the neighbourhoods of each comuna. The Juntas will propose a governance plan through on behalf of their constituents. In 2011, the city spent 26 percent of its budget on education, followed by health and public services with 22 and 17 percent respectively, whereas the lowest percentage of budget was dedicated to law enforcement. The city of Buenos Aires, houses Argentina’s the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches of the federal government. However, since the city is an autonomous district, it is governed by a chief of government who is elected by vote in a double round election, with a duration of four years that may be doubled through re-election.

Administrative structure

The Autonomous City of Buenos Aires is divided into 48 barrios or neighbourhoods. These fit into a political division of the city’s geography into 15 comunas or communes, which are in charge of such matters as the state of green areas, walkways, the streets and of the lighting. The rest of the administration is left to the city’s government, which handles matters of education, public health transit, and water treatment.

Website

http://www.buenosaires.gov.ar/

The provision of basic services includes works undertaken to upgrade basic infrastructure, improve utilities and sanitation, demarcate private and public spaces, support land-title regularisation and educate residents in proper usage and maintenance.

Urban acupuncture
Urban acupunctures are small-scale physical interventions designed to help transform the larger urban context. Here, the Secretariat places a strong emphasis on the recovery of public spaces, often lacking in overcrowded informal neighbourhoods, but nonetheless important spaces for socialisation and recreation, and often a source of pride and identity for the community. Works are defined and designed together with local residents. Civic pacts are signed between the government and the local community to reaffirm their joint commitment to the works, which typically involve the recovery, refurbishment and equipping of children’s playgrounds, sports fields and parks, plazas, streets and passageways. The Secretariat’s Directorate-General for Habitat offers architectural and technical expertise to support the decision-making and implementation process.

Urban connectors
Given the informal and unstructured growth of many of the neighbourhoods where the Secretariat for Habitat and Inclusion works, adequate mobility within the neighbourhood and connectivity with the rest of the City is often lacking. The Secretariat therefore place a strong focus on constructing better public transport arteries and street access, street lighting and signage, protected bicycle lanes and green spaces. Each work is accompanied by community education and inclusion activities to encourage usage and maintenance.

Our inclusion programmes are designed to break down the barriers hindering access to equal opportunities and promote important values and life skills. Together with civil society groups, and through consultation with local neighbours, the Secretariat’s Directorate-General for Inclusion coordinates umbrella programmes across all 7 Urban Inclusion Territorial Units, taking full advantage of public spaces as areas for recreation, education and participation. This top-down/bottom-up model is designed to empower local institutions and communities, generating in the long-term more independent, sustainable social capital and well-being in the communities themselves.

Citizenship & Living Together
Our objective for this programme is to transmit a proper understanding of individuals’ rights and obligations as citizens and as members of a community, with a view to encouraging greater participation and responsibility in decisions affecting the community, as well as a greater sense of one’s own economic and social potential. The Secretariat’s activities include running mentoring programmes for young entrepreneurs, equipping them with the tools and knowledge to develop their business ideas and holding local meetings to officially nominate and elect the names of public spaces.

The programme also helps strengthen channels of communication between the State and local residents.

Women & the Habitat
This programme has been developed to promote greater autonomy for women in informal neighbourhoods, strengthen the relationships between them, and help ensure that all our public works – from the design of a children’s playground, for example, to the installation of street lighting or public waste facilities – have a direct social benefit for local female residents. Our activities range from meetings to discuss, map out and respond to those aspects of everyday neighbourhood life which are most important for local women, to workshops on recycling and taking care of the environment, or on information for how to prevent domestic accidents.

Sports for Inclusion
It is well-recognised that sport, through its universality, transcends cultural, socio-economic and political barriers, and helps to transmit important life values, such as discipline, tolerance, respect, team-work and healthy lifestyles.

The Secretariat’s sports programmes are designed to give as many people as possible – particularly younger people - the opportunity to practice a range of sports, from tennis to taekwondo, and train and compete regularly as part of a team.

Together with the Under-Secretariat for Sport, we help bring professionals and sports celebrities to local neighbourhoods and we organise sporting events between different communities to encourage greater socialisation beyond the boundary of the neighbourhood.

Caring for Community Culture
Offering creative spaces for artistic expression and cultural appreciation, particularly in neighbourhoods with a diverse ethnic mix, is an important aspect of strengthening community diversity, cohesion and identity. Focusing on making ample use of public spaces, and together with members of the community, local non-for-profit groups and professional artists and entertainers, we help organise street festivals, circuses and musical concerts, offer artistic workshops for youngsters, and – taking advantage of the rich tradition of street art in Buenos Aires - run projects with professional artists and teenagers to design and paint public murals in the neighbourhood.

The Social Habitat Management has achieved the following results:

Generation of territorial presence:

- 7 Urban Inclusion Territorial Units located in informal city areas

- 7 Resource Guides: providing contact information for organizations who offer social services in the 7 Urban Inclusion Territorial Units.

- 2 central government offices and 10 portals have been established throughout the territories and are staffed by multidisciplinary teams.

- 2 social meeting spaces where neighbours can engage with various sports and recreational activities.

2. Improvement of urban infrastructure and environmental health

10,500 linear meters of sewer and storm water infrastructure has been installed.

3. Generation and recovery of public spaces

90 spaces for social and collective use have been reclaimed for community use

4. Promotion of urban interconnectivity

The urban layout (streets, alleys, passages and corridors, etc.) in the villas and housing complexes has been redesigned to achieve greater integration with other districts and the city.

5. Promotion of social inclusion from the habitat perspective

The project has involved 152 organizations and impacted over 80,000 members of the community.

Case NGO “Fútbol para el Desarrollo” - Inclusive Sport Program: Implementation of street football for children and youth, a methodology based on strengthening positive values. In this type of football, men and women play together and there is no referee. Instead there is a space for dialogue between the teams before the match starts, where the players themselves set the rules. The game values not only amount of goals, but respect for those settled rules.

“Red Cross Argentina” Case - Women and Shelter Program: Training for young and adult women in accident prevention and first aid. The aim is to seek the understanding of the processes of health and disease in a broad context, which is closely related to the prevailing socio-economic conditions in each community.

Case Coca Cola FEMSA Company – Public-Private Management Association: Together with Fundación FEMSA of Mexico, the company participated through financial and technical cooperation in the installation of sewers and recovery of a place in the transitional housing centre Zavaleta. It had a very positive impact on the resolution of structural problems from the housing point of view, with high levels of conflict and unhealthy conditions.