Newsletter nº 9 – October 2017

Urban Resilience debate in TED

If we design our cities right, we just might survive the twenty first century. Cities – not nation states – must need to take the lead in designing in solutions to some of our most intractable global challenges. Since 2011, the Igarapé Institute has been helping shape research and new technologies to promote more secure and resilient cities. After all, safer cities are smarter cities. The Institute´s research director is featured in a new TED Global talk that explores the risks facing cities and ways they can turn things around. In October, he also gave talks on cities at Singularity University in San Francisco and the Smart Cities Brazil 2017 conference in Rio de Janeiro. In November, he is giving keynotes at Dubai to discuss the future of urbanization at the World Economic Forum´s Annual Meeting of Global Future Councils and then on the world´s largest conference on cities – the Global Smart City Summit in Barcelona. Igarapé Institute is committed to working with cities in Brazil and around the world to enhance their discretion, autonomy and capability.

Igarapé in numbers

• The Igarapé Institute was featured 783 times by global and brazilian media outlets in October. Research and commentary from the Institute was picked up by BBC, DW, El País, Financial Times and The Economist. Some of the most impactful stories were produced by Business Insider and highlighted city fragility around the world and in Africa. Another O Globo, article examined the effects of drug decriminalization on violence in Brazil while one more in Nexo explored the tamping down of human rights in the country.
• Igarapé Institute researchers produced 16 opinion articles in brazilian and international outlets this month. These included articles on the costs of gun violence in Brazil published in O Globo; the power and potential of federal task forces to address organized crime in The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime; the fear of violence among Latin Americans in El País; and the critical role of women participation in peacemaking in Guinea-Bissau for Pass Blue.
• The Igarapé Institute launched 2 new publications in October. One of the reports – Salas de Consumo de Drogas – examines the so-called “drug consumption room” model spreading across Europe, North America and Oceania. The other study addresses the end of MINUSTAH and was co-authored with partners at the Brazilian Peace Operations Joint Training Center. Igarapé Institute researchers also supported the development of the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Safe Cities Index 2017.
• Igarapé Institute researchers were speakers and participants in 19 public events and seminars in October. Examples include public lectures to combined audiences of over 15,000 people on “Drogas: as histórias que não te contaram” in Novo Friburgo and Recife. Another panel, “Caminhos da Democracia“, was held at the Brasil do Amanhã in Rio de Janeiro. Igarapé Institute Fellow, Adriana Abdenur, also gave a talk – “A China do Século XXI: opportunidades para o Brasil” – at the Escola de Guerra Naval in Rio.

Igarapé and the end of MINUSTAH

The United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) ended its 13 year long mission in October this year. It was the largest peace support operation ever mounted by the Brazilian Armed Forces. Since its inception, the Igarapé Institute have followed the process, fielding more than a dozen surveys and producing a wide number of reports in peer-review and policy outlets. To commemorate the end of MINUSTAH, the Igarapé and the Brazilian Peace Operations Joint Training Center (CCOPAB) co-authored “A participação do Brasil na MINUSTAH (2004-2017)“. It was launched at an event on the 18th and cited by the Brazilian Minister of Defense, Raul Jungmann. Stories about it appeared in Folha de S. Paulo, Agência Brasil, the Brazilian Army and the United Nations.

Igarapé cycle of events in Nova Friburgo (RJ)

The Igarapé Institute’s executive director, Ilona Szabó, returned to her hometown to receive a series of honors in October. She was invited to give talks at major events with local authorities and young people, speaking on new ways to approach drug policy and make our cities safer. A native of Nova Friburgo, a city in the interior of Rio de Janeiro, the Igarapé’s executive director was in the city to officially launch “Drogas: as histórias que não te contaram”. Ilona also visited local media outlets and met with local and regional authorities to discuss municipal security and justice priorities.

Instinct for Life in Pernambuco

The homicide reduction campaign Instinct for Life was officially launched in Recife (PE) in October. The launch included a series of events, including presentations with the metropolitan Secretary of Urban Security of Recife and other public authorities from the state of Pernambuco and the city of Caruaru. Senior government participants signed a letter of commitment to the campaign’s goal of reducing homicides by 50% over the next 10 years. Igarapé Institute’s executive director, Ilona Szabó, and researcher Dandara Tinoco gave interviews to Bom Dia Pernambuco, CBN Recife, and the Diário de Pernambuco. The city also hosted the launch of the book “Drogas: as histórias que não te contaram” and meetings, including with the governor and mayor.

Latin America in focus

More than two thirds of Latin Americans are going to the polls in the next 24 months. While this is on the one hand a triumph of democracy, it is also a great uncertainty about which way these elections are going to go. Igarapé’s research director, Robert Muggah, with Brian Winter of Americas Quarterly, published an article on the subject in Foreign Policy: “Is Populism Making a Comeback in Latin America?”. The article was republished in Spanish and Portuguese. He also wrote about the rise of evangelical Protestantism and attacks on Afro-Brazilian temples in The Conversation, with thousands of readers so far.

Keep an eye out for

• On November 7^th researcher Nathan Thompson talked about Brazil defense cooperation and defense trade policy on Foreign Area Officer (FAO) Regional Sustainment Initiative, in Washington-DC.
• On November 9^th researcher Adriana Abdenur went to the Republic of Guinea-Bissau to conduct research for the conflict prevention mapping project. Watch the Igarapé Facebook page for dispatches from the field.
• On November 9^th researcher Katherine Aguirre presented innovations in data visualizations and cooperation with local security members in I Jornadas Latinoamericanas sobre Criminología y Seguridad Ciudadana, in Argentina.
• From November 11-13 Robert Muggah was a keynote speaker at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting of Global Future Councils in Dubai.
• On November 15 Robert Muggah was one of three keynote speakers at the Smart City Expo World Congress, in Barcelona with more than 700 cities and 16,000 participants.
• On November 22, Igarapé Institute wil receive an award for its work on Women, Peace and Security Agenda by the Canadian government in Deodoro, RJ.
• From November 23-25 Igarapé Institute is co-hosting the Hackathon #CidadesSeguras, together with Mosaico and Zoom at ColaborAmerica2017, in Rio de Janeiro.
• Also in ColaborAmerica2017, researcher Ana Paula Pellegrino will participate in the debate “A guerra que é a guerra às drogas”, which will take place in November 23.
• From November 27-29 Renata Giannini will launch Situações Extraordinárias: a entrada de mulheres na linha de frente das Forças Armadas brasileiras in Colombia.
• On November 30, researcher Michele dos Ramos will speak in II Seminário de Inovação em Gestão Pública, by Columbia Global Centers Rio de Janeiro and Igarapé Institute.
• From November 30 to December 2, Robert Muggah will be speaking at the Citizen Security Clinic in Bogota, an event sponsored by the Inter-American Development Bank.
• From December 4-6 fellow researcher Adriana Abdenur and developer Bruno Siqueira will give a workshop about innovations in conflict prevention in Build Peace 2017 Forum, in Colombia.

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