Building solutions for urban peripheries — the sprawling, poorly served, low-income informal neighborhoods on the outskirts of Brazilian cities — requires recognizing their value.
Brazilian peripheries, while poor, often have knowledge, organizational forms and collective practices that are already helping provide concrete responses to everyday challenges. Insights from these existing efforts can support more sustainable solutions for structural issues, such as access to decent housing and basic urban services in the face of the climate crisis.
The need to better understand and support homegrown solutions in informal neighborhoods has fueled the urban laboratories of Transformative Urban Coalitions, a project co-led by WRI in Brazil and Mexico, the United Nations University’s Institute for Environment and Human Security, the International Institute for Environment and Development, and the German Institute for Development and Sustainability.
Since 2022, resident-led coalitions in Comunidade do Pilar in Recife and Residencial Edgar Gayoso in Teresina have developed bottom-up solutions, strengthened ties and created opportunities to address climate change and other challenges.
Now, the success of these projects is trickling up. In 2024, the Brazilian federal government launched Periferia Viva, a federal program for slum urbanization led by the National Secretariat for Peripheries. The program directs federal investments toward integrated urban development in peripheral communities across the country, with the goal of transforming 58 marginalized communities across Brazil by promoting slum upgrading, land regularization, new social housing and community participation.
From Local Experience to National Impact
One of these communities is Peixinhos in Olinda, just north of Recife. There, under Periferia Viva, a new “territorial post” provides a physical space for the program’s technical assistance teams to co-create interventions with residents and oversee implementation.
Lessons learned from Transformative Urban Coalitions are reflected in the Periferia Viva Action Plan Guide, a set of recommendations and steps for implementing the action plan, aimed at equipping local actors to deliver inclusive and resilient solutions on the ground. The guide was developed with the support from WRI Brasil, and the technical teams based in the territorial posts are asked to use it to guide their work with communities.
The Transformative Urban Coalitions project has been a critical proving ground for this approach. In 2023, Guilherme Simões, Brazil’s national secretary for peripheries, visited Comunidade do Pilar to learn about the interventions underway there by community members. In May 2025, he visited Recife again, this time to inaugurate the new Peixinhos territorial post as part of Periferia Viva, alongside other authorities and community leaders.
The REHOUSE partnership, supported by WRI, has also influenced Periferia Viva through knowledge sharing, technical assistance on climate justice and guidance on addressing social and environmental inequities. These important lessons on multilevel action are going beyond Brazil, highlighting how community-led interventions can be scaled through national-level policies like Periferia Viva.
Focus on Scaling Up
The experience gained from close engagement with communities on resilient and inclusive urban development actions in Recife and Teresina forms the foundation for a new phase of WRI’s support for Periferia Viva.
Beyond continuing support for the Transformative Urban Coalitions Urban Labs in these cities, WRI Brasil is now coordinating the Periferia Viva Network, a national practice community aimed at facilitating coordination among the many different actors involved in project implementation and construction in informal neighborhoods.
This network helps align public policies focused on marginalized communities and promotes knowledge-sharing across regions. By fostering continuous collaboration among stakeholders, it ensures that the lessons learned in Recife and Teresina can be applied elsewhere, increasing the program’s replicability.
The goal is to scale up efforts to enhance and upgrade vulnerable communities through solutions designed with — and for — communities, rather than applying cookie cutter, top-down approaches. The network will encourage dynamic exchanges between diverse experiences, promoting collective learning and the spread of innovative approaches that encourage action while respecting each community’s unique characteristics.
