PUCPR – PPGTU Master and Doctoral Program in Urban Management World Urban Forum 5 Rio de Janeiro, march 2010 How to Foster Livelihood Strategies in Slums/Informal Settlements Urban Governance Klaus Frey

Public Governance – the concept Descriptive concept for a “supposed” new praxis of collaborative public management A normative approach to government action (good governance) An analytical approach: polity, politics, and policy Strategic concept: network governance

Some challenges for urban governance The dual city: polarization and fragmentation of social and economic life and also of institutional structures Increasing technical complexity and social diversity and inequality Traditional sector-oriented public action Multiple scales: neighborhood, community, municipality, metropolitan region Functional overlapping competing jurisdictions

Public governance – the new discourse Institutional strengthening, coordination, collaboration, partnership, empowerment, self- organization, social networks A new development approach able to give voice and power to the poor and excluded? or simply: A “seductive mix of buzzwords” – “the new feel- good rhetoric” of international development agencies? Do institutions matter?

Cases from Brazil – Porto Alegre I: participatory budgeting Complex procedural participatory arrangement for the elaboration, implementation and monitoring of the local budget Mix of direct and indirect democracy Attempt to integrate the participation of the poor with participation of the establishment Strengthening of citizen’s engagement and political culture

Cases from Brazil – Porto Alegre I: participatory budgeting – criticism Dependent on (previous) participative culture Unclear conditions of accountability – who is responsible? Scarcity of resources might jeopardize democratic legitimacy and provoke political disappointment New elitist democracy?

Cases from Brazil – Porto Alegre II: solidary local governance; Curitiba: Model of Collaboration Partnership between government, private sector and civil society Network model favoring informal relations Project-, result- and self-help oriented Participation only in the implementation process

Cases from Brazil – Porto Alegre II: solidary local governance; Curitiba: Model of Collaboration - criticism Hierarchical institutional structure Collaboration with the “best” amongst the poor Apolitical approach: “constructive” cooperation with the “willing” partners – exclusion of critical and oppositional forces Inadequate for overcoming social inequalities

Public governance – some guiding questions How to deal with conflicts? Institutional arrangements should provide an arena for political confrontation or enable societal consensus? Is there a fundamental contradiction between efficiency-oriented and democracy-oriented governance approaches, or are they reconcilable? Public governance should, first and foremost, foster local leadership action or focus on expanded participation and the inclusion of the habitually excluded?

Public governance – some guiding questions Are strong institutional arrangements needed, in order to guarantee the right of participation for the “weak”? Or do strong institutional rules in participatory practices exclude the mass, paving the way for participatory elitist democracy? What opportunities and difficulties exist to overcome administrative fragmentation by means of integrative institutional arrangements?

Thanks! Klaus Frey (++55)