Lessons Learned from an Experience on Sustainable Regional Development in a Brazilian State
Dr. Latussa Monteiro
Research Director, Jones dos Santos Neves Institute, Brazil
The regional differences in the state of Espírito Santo in Brazil repeat a national pattern, in which the Metropolitan Regions and the pole municipalities have the best infrastructure conditions, maintaining an unequal standard in terms of decent living conditions and productive opportunities. However, there are potential ways to create prosperity from the environmental assets present in the Espírito Santo territory in a holistic and comprehensive way.
Therefore, the regional scale is the most appropriate to answer questions that go beyond municipal limits, such as water resources, logistics and telecommunications infrastructure, in addition to the synergy between different administrative capacities. The Sustainable Regional Development project used the available information to characterize the regions of the state, in association with researchers from teaching and research institutions. In addition, it created regional development councils in order to use social participation to collectively establish priorities. The result is a shared agenda of new investments and future research needs, highlighting energy transition, logistical integration, environmental preservation, and creative economy. This talk will present the lessons learned from the Sustainable Regional Development project and set some prospects for the future.
Latussa Laranja Monteiro is a researcher for the public sector, Research Director at Jones dos Santos Neves Institute (Espírito Santo, Brazil). She holds a PhD in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of São Paulo (Brazil), a MSc in Urbanism from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and a Bsc in Architecture and Urbanism from Federal University of Espírito Santo. She has over eight years of experience in municipal urban policy and favelas urbanization. For the last ten years, her main focus of work is how to use information at governmental planning to face regional inequalities both in State and National levels.