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Rio Como Vamos Through participation in Rio Como Vamos and other innovative initiatives in Rio de Janeiro, Synergos is helping improve lives in that city’s favelas. (Gabriella Campagna photo) As urban populations in the developing world grow at unprecedented rates, it is an increasing challenge for cities to understand and respond to their residents, particularly poor communities. These cities are often marked by inefficiencies, lack of accountability, huge social inequalities and ineffective public policies that do little to help the region’s poor. Rio Como Vamos was launched by leaders of business, government and civil society to improve governance in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, by measuring and raising awareness of the city’s quality of life. Modeled after similar programs in São Paulo and Bogotá, it seeks to improve government accountability in areas such as health, education, security, environment, housing and culture. The work over the past year brought together diverse stakeholders to develop a set of indicators on urban life. As a next step, it will stimulate partnerships between civil society, corporate institutions and the government to develop improvements in public policy and reduce inequalities. Spearheaded by Brazil Country Director Daniel Becker, Synergos is working with the city’s poorest communities to ensure their inclusion in this process, help them highlight inequities between favelas and the rest of the city, and provide them with greater voice to negotiate with public authorities. In 2007, two favelas actively contributed to the initiative by providing their perspectives through a pilot study. The project is designed to develop methodologies and tools for the inclusion of poor communities in similar projects emerging in other cities in the Hemisphere. For More InformationVisit www.riocomovamos.org.br or contact:
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