How and why did the Barrio Mugica (BM) integration plan originally come about?
There are more than 4,000 informal settlements spread throughout Argentina. Approximately 250,000 people live in informal neighborhoods within the City of Buenos Aires, out of its 3-million-strong population.
This reality, unfortunately, is not something new to our country. Informality has been part of the picture for too long, and that is why something had to be done to tackle the root of the problem.
Almost six years ago the City Government team made the decision to be part of the solution. Previous experiences regarding informality in our country were limited. For the most part, governments had tried to eradicate settlements without offering real solutions to its inhabitants and without taking into account their perspectives.
In 2016, the City Government started the Barrio Mugica Integration Project.
Can you outline the key objectives of the plan?
The main objective of this project is that the residents of Barrio Mugica have the same opportunities and responsibilities as any other resident of the City of Buenos Aires. To achieve this, work is undertaken on social, urban and economic integration.
The particularity of this plan is that, to achieve these three main objectives, we address them simultaneously, as part of a comprehensive approach: infrastructure, housing, connection to basic services, environmental issues, access to education for all ages, healthcare facilities close to every home and last but not least, economic aspects such as generating growth and formalizing economic activities.
What is the level of engagement and participation of BM residents with both the development process and implementation of the Plan’s initiatives?
The key behind all of this is to work together with the community and listen and learn from what residents have to say. Six years ago, BM community meetings were full of complaints and demands, as the state had been absent for many years. That is why the City Government team meet every week with residents, community leaders, social organizations and many others. It's not easy to facilitate, but we keep working on it. Up to date, there have been more than 4,000 participatory instances and meetings.
The urbanization of the neighborhood is carried out within the legal framework provided by City Law 6129. Together with residents, the bill to set the standards for the definitive integration of the neighborhood with the city was developed. This law is complementary to the one sanctioned previously, Law 3343.
It establishes the criteria on how the redevelopment project should be implemented, provides for the creation of the Participatory Management Council (CGP in Spanish) and also establishes conditions on the works and programs.
The CGP is an institution created by Law 6129. It is an advisory body that accompanies the management of the integration project. It meets at least once a month in rotating offices, and performs follow-up tasks, evaluates compliance with laws, issues recommendations, requests reports and encourages resident participation. It is comprised of the political representatives of Barrio Mugica, the City Government, the National Government and civil organizations.
How has the Covid-19 pandemic affected the residents of Barrio Mugica and the implementation of the Plans initiatives?
At the beginning of 2020 we had a very clear plan: finish the works, formalization of public services, continue with the moves of the families that lived under the Illia Highway to their new homes, work to further develop the economic development policy, among other things. But, as in the rest of the world, the COVID-19 pandemic arrived.
The first outbreak of COVID-19 cases in Argentina occurred in Barrio Mugica. Only 37 days passed between the first confirmed case and the peak of cases.
The Social & Urban integration team had to act quickly: creating new lines of work aimed at emergencies and working in constant coordination with community actors, other areas of the City Government and the National Ministry of Health.
The situation in Barrio Mugica was not different from the national and world context, but the complex challenge of facing the pandemic was compounded by the complexity of informality and high population density. We worked from the first moment to face the pandemic and so that, as far as possible, the urbanization process was not interrupted.
We developed a new strategy to deal with the emergencies in the neighborhood, focusing on six key areas: communication and awareness, prevention and accompaniment, detection, contact tracing and caring of cases, mitigation of the socioeconomic impact, sustainment of essential works and maintenance and, finally, the strengthening of strategic alliances.
All this work allowed the City Government to control the damage caused by the pandemic, to be close, listen and include the residents and continue, within what was allowed, with the urbanization.
The use:topic for this quarter is Green Cities.
Can you summarize for the use.community members what sustainability initiatives have been implemented through the BM plan?
To summarize, the two most important sustainability policies of the project are the new homes built in the neighborhood and the recycling program (ATR).
A few years ago, the City Government created, together with neighborhood cooperatives and the support of McKinsey.org, a recycling project that seeks to improve waste management in the neighborhood and provide job opportunities for residents via a path to a more circular economy.
More than 5,000 homes in Barrio Mugica separate their waste into three streams: dry, organic and trash, thus becoming the first neighborhood in the entire City of Buenos Aires to implement source separation into three categories.
In this way, by promoting that the recyclables collected are a source of revenue, we work together with the community to achieve an economic and social return for the neighborhood, ensuring the sustainability of the project.
Under the Illia Highway, one of the city’s main access routes that cuts across Barrio Mugica, more than 1,000 families lived in the worst conditions in the neighborhood. The City Government has built new homes to relocate them so that they can live adequately and safely. The new housing project is innovative in Argentina since it sought not only to build social housing in the shortest possible time, but also to be constructed of sustainable materials.
The homes are made using a steel frame, with high-tech materials that allow neighbors to enjoy sustainable and quality homes. In addition, they have a greater capacity for sound and thermal insulation, which results in energy and cost savings in the payment of services.
In addition, they have over 4,000 photovoltaic panels and solar hot water tanks: a milestone in the use of renewable energy for the City of Buenos Aires, making the housing project the largest solar park in the city. Residents will be able to have hot and cold water even in the event of power outages and will save on the payment of services that will begin when the land titling process is finished.
The BM integration project has been ongoing since 2016. What are the main lessons learned by the City administration?
This project provides us with lessons every day. We are working without the research, nor the amount of predecessor projects that we would like. As we say: we build the ship as we sail.
There are three areas that we believe are the most important to date and that could be used for other programs:
- Policy must be made boots on the ground. Whenever we believed we had the solution to any problem just by speaking of it internally things went south.
- One of the keys elements behind all of this, is working together with the community, listening and learning from what residents have to say. The only way to do this is by making your community part of the process.
- These kinds of projects are only possible when all sectors of society work together. Governments need to have an impact and have a small budget. The private sector also wants to have a social impact in their communities. When we think about building sustainable projects we have to work together.
Could the BM integration plan be successfully transferred to other cities with informal settlements?
Argentina has more than 4,000 informal settlements and there are more than a million people in the informal sector around the world. Today the main challenge must be to expand this project, reach more neighborhoods and communities with real solutions.
The City Government team is working on a model that integrates solutions, which is scalable for our country and transferable to the entire region. Of course, this will not be immediate, but we are on the way. Today, the City Government of Buenos Aires are present at various dialogue tables in Latin America and around the world, sharing and discussing the best public policies.
In addition, with the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank, the City Government team is documenting all this work so that in the future it can be a model or provide reference material for any government in the world.
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