The National Meeting of Addresses in Urban Fringes was held at the Correios headquarters, in Brasília, with the objective of discussing and finding solutions to the addressing process in urban communities and favelas, areas traditional characterized by their lack of access to essential services. The event was attended by the president of Correios, Fabiano Silva dos Santos, the IBGE’s deputy director of Geosciences, Patrícia Amorim Vida Costa, and the coordinator general for planning of the National Secretariat of Peripheries, Flávio Tavares. Also, there were representatives of the National Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), of Correios of the National Secretariat of Peripheries (SNP), of the Ministry of Cities, besides other participants from a number of organizations.

The president of Correios, Fabiano Silva dos Santos, highlighted the importance of the partnership with the IBGE in the development of projects aimed at the socially vulnerable population. According to him, cooperative work with the institution is essential to strengthen actions for peripheral territories and combat social invisibility.

“Being with the IBGE and the National Secretariat of Peripheries will certainly enrich this project that has the potential of becoming a major initiative in the country. The IBGE is essential to guarantee data and information that will guide our actions to better help the Brazilian population,” says Santos.

He said that this cooperation will make it possible to align figures and refine strategies, thus adding to the formulation of public policies that will supply the real needs of vulnerable communities.

The coordinator general of planning of the National Secretary of peripheries, Flávio Tavares, highlighted the central role of the IBGE in the formulation of the Initiative, mentioning that the institution lies at the historical basis of Brazil. “The work carried out by the IBGE is fundamental, by means of the Census, and it is renewed continuously to reach territories marked by great difficulties of access.”

Tavares remarked that the discussions with the IBGE have been an attempt to find solutions to map and better understand conditions in urban fringes. As put the by the secretary, support from the ministry is vital o guarantee public policies be based on updated data in order to promote deep understanding of peripheral communities.

The IBGE’s deputy director of Geosciences, Patrícia Amorim Vida Costa, mentioned the importance of giving addresses properly, mainly in areas of favelas and urban communities, as a fundamental step for fulfilling IBGE’s mission. The director explained that the lack of addresses in these areas exerts a direct impact on the surveys carried out by the Institute, which increases time and operational costs and makes it difficult to find housing units and residents.

“The absence of addresses can cause omissions in our surveys, and that affects coverage of the Census and of other important surveys.” She also highlighted the integration of geospatial information and statistical data for a more precise analysis and to help in public management, thus reinforcing the importance of universalization of addresses and helping the IBGE fulfill its mission.

In this respect, the partnership between the IBGE, the National Secretariat of Peripheries and Correios is seen as a crucial step to face these challenges and guarantee all communities will be represented in surveys and censuses, promoting the exercise of citizenship.

“Postal citizenship also has to do with the right to take part in surveys and censuses, giving a contribution to the national portrait. In this respect, there was an extremely welcoming connection between the National Secretariat of Peripheries, Correios and the IBGE to promote this event. Together, there are several actors and specialists on the topic, in order to find solutions to overcome challenges of giving addresses in urban fringes that demand our attention,” Patrícia Vida concluded.

After the opening ceremony, other representatives from the IBGE, Correios and the National Secretariat of Peripheries participated in a debate about the perspectives and challenges of addressing in peripheries in Brazil. Contributions to the discussion were brought by the Director of Operations of Correios, Paulo Penha, the general coordinator of the Address Program of the National Secretariat of Peripheries, Aramis Gomes and the representative of the IBGE’s National Address List for Statistical Purposes (CNEFE), Gustavo de Carvalho Cayres.

Paulo César Penha da Silva Júnior, director of operations of the Census, spoke about the objective of taking public policies to non-served areas, including the zip code service, which is necessary in the lives of all Brazilians. “This idea of joining efforts of the IBGE, Correios and the Ministry of Cities, with a focus on this national meeting of addresses for peripheries, reinforces the necessary organization and mobilization for common objectives. It is important to highlight that Correios need to implement policies that enable the company to serve, if not 100 %, at least the biggest number of areas that do not have a zip code yet, so as to make easier the work of the IBGE.”

““I see the importance of this partnership with the IBGE, especially regarding the production of data. Giving addresses becomes a fundamental tool for the construction of more efficient public policies. As we identify precisely how many people and how many addresses there are, we will be able to better quantify the necessary information for the formulation of these policies. This initiative can represent a significant advance in data collection for the next Census. Discussing address typologies of addresses and favelas, for example, will certainly bring benefits for statistical production of the IBGE,” said Aramis Horvath Gomes, coordinator of the address project of the National Secretariat of Peripheries in the Ministry of Cities.

Gustavo de Carvalho Cayres, representative of the National Address List for Statistical Purposes (CNEFE), highlighted the importance of a registry that can identify each door of an address in peripheral areas. “The better mapped the areas are, the easier for the team to access, visit and cover all the addresses, thus guaranteeing a fair portrait of reality. This process helps us identify addresses, housing units and establishment in these communities, besides guaranteeing a consistent work that relates addresses to mapping. After all, our objective is to produce high-quality statistics and geography.”

Gustavo presented images of data collection areas, where stand out the diversity of situations faced by the IBGE agents as they cover the streets searching for addresses. According to him, in some areas the routes are well mapped and have their representation on the map. “Imagine yourself in the place of a person who needs to go to this place to confirm, establish and give addresses. It is much easier to carry out the activities When mapping is well structured. On the other hand, not always do we find this type of organization. In some places only part is mapped, not all of it, although there are routes. For an effective data collection, the agent has to go through the entire community, and that is only possible with complete and well planned mapping.”

Still in the morning, the National Secretariat of Peripheries, Guilherme Simões, attended the meeting and highlighted the importance of the partnership between the Ministry of Cities, Correios and the IBGE to conduct this event, and spoke about the positive impact on peripheral communities. “This action that, thanks to the partnership with Correios and the IBGE, we have succeeded in promote, is of great importance, because it means a guarantee of rights of populations that live in areas previously called “risky ones” and that, by means of an address, will have access to services and dignity.”

On the second day of the meeting, 27, the participants were divided into four groups to discuss, in each one of them, a topic related to favelas and urban communities. The one who took part in the dynamics alternated between the groups throughout the day, and presented perspectives considering their areas of interest and experiences. At the end of the activity, the mediators presented the main topics discussed by all participants, in a group dynamics, with assessment of the topics and final considerations about the proposals and topic developed throughout the meeting.

During the meeting, it was highlighted that the precision of statistical and geographic information is essential for the elaboration of more efficient and inclusive public policies, and to make the population of peripheral communities and favelas would not be invisible in censuses and national surveys.

IBGE workshop gathered about 40 participants in Brasília

On the last day of the event, 28, the IBGE promoted a workshop at the TV Tower of Brasília, gathering about 40 participants interested in knowing more about how to access the Institute’s databases on Favelas and Urban Communities. Marcelo Nunes, Manager of Planning and Administrative Management of the 2022 Population Census, with a focus on favelas and urban communities. During his explanation, he detailed the data collection procedures followed by the IBGE and the challenges faced to guarantee precision of information.

In the second part of the workshop, civil servant Christiano Rodrigues, from the Information Dissemination Department (SDI) of SES/DF, presented the search engines of the IBGE and how to find information released by the Institute. Among the platforms presented, there were detailed information on the functionalities of Sidra, and the speakers taught how to generate tables and reach results; spoke about the 2022 Census Overview, showing where to find information about a given favela and make comparisons with others; and showed the IBGE official website, with its great variety of resources and publications.

At the end, the participants had the opportunity to clear doubts and ask questions to the experts from the IBGE, and the event finished in an interactive and enriching way. The initiative highlighted the commitment of the IBGE to expand public access to the databases increase knowledge about processes and tools that support the production of national statistics.