To support cities in its region, the IUC programme in Latin America and the Caribbean (IUC-LAC) has published a series of news items, which were also shared across social media, to highlight the efforts of mayors at this critical moment in health, economics and social security, and to inspire neighbouring countries as they face COVID-19.
From small municipalities to large metropolises, it is cities that have been leaders in taking action to keep citizens safe, even when these are harsh or costly for public coffers.
This leading role is evident in the municipality of Niterói, in the state of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). The city, which is a signatory to the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy (GCoM), provides a good example of initiatives that can work in dealing with this pandemic. The great advantage of the municipality was their ability to anticipate the problem. They created a task force at the beginning of the year to gather information and conduct document analysis. When the virus first spread to Brazil, measures of physical isolation, suspension of school classes, closure of much trade and services, and the sanitisation of informal settlements and neighbourhoods were all adopted.
To support physical isolation measures and ensure food security for the population, the city distributed basic food supplies, guaranteed emergency basic income for families in the most vulnerable situations, and suspended the collection of the water tariff collection for this segment of the population. Support programmes for micro and small companies were created.
In addition to internal measures, the municipalities of Niterói and its neighbour Maricá made an investment of R$ 90 million (about €16,155,000) so that the state government could build and manage a field hospital in São Gonçalo, another neighbouring municipality with many COVID cases and a lack of financial resources. The hospital will have a capacity of 200 beds, 40 of which will be in the Intensive Care Unit.
The city of Niterói, like the others in Brazil, has autonomy guaranteed by the Brazilian Constitution, since its promulgation in 1988. This means that the municipality has an assured responsibility that allows it to make decisions on issues related to safety, health and basic education, and that it has its own collection system and essential public services. This made it possible, for example, to suspend the collection of water tariffs from the poorest populations during the pandemic period.
“City halls have designed and implemented actions to flatten the contagion curve, promoting social isolation; expand service conditions in the health system; guarantee food security for the population, especially for the most vulnerable sectors; and create mechanisms to face the economic crisis, mainly for micro and small companies ”, comments Eduardo Tadeu, executive director of the Brazilian Association of Municipalities (ABM), one of the national coordinators of GCoM-LAC in Brazil.
Header image of Niterói, accessed from Pixabay.