Metropolitan Planning and Governance in Brazil: How the use of SDG data can help to deliver better results in public administration

Overview

In Brazil, urban areas are characterized not by individual cities but as metropolitan regions, often grouping together millions of citizens across the borders of multiple municipal governments. Currently, Brazil has more than 90 metropolitan regions, totaling nearly 100 million inhabitants, distributed in more than 1,300 municipalities. Nevertheless, metropolitan-focused policies in Brazil have been off the government agenda for a while, particularly in the last two decades. The approval of the new Constitution in 1988 greatly empowered local public authorities, reduced the role of the inter-federative management and collaboration, and limited coordination of geographic territories beyond the borders of an individual city. Even though it was not the center of urban policy, metropolitan-led policies such as participatory planning led to a rise of a metropolitan identity among citizens.

---

Written by
Cid Blanco Jr., Architect and Urban Planner