Embroidery is the main type of  handcrafted work in 75% of Brazilian municipalities

 

The Survey of Basic Municipal Information – 2005 (MUNIC 2005) has investigated, for the first time, the artistic and handcraft activities and the types of transportation services in Brazilian municipalities. Public transportation only by municipal buses¹ occurred in 25.3% of the localities surveyed (1,407 municipalities). Transportation by boat was present in 503 municipalities, and in 61.4% of them this service was offered on an informal basis. Vans, which are used in 52.3% of the municipalities, and mototaxis, in 47.1%, also presented characteristics of informal transportation, which is not regulated by the government. The IBGE Survey of Basic Municipal Information – Public Administration, of which questionnaires were distributed among the city governments of 5,564 Brazilian municipalities, also brings information about the number of servants, laws, tax policies, intermunicipal transactions, housing measures and cultural indicators.

 

 

Embroidery is the main type of handcrafted work in municipalities

 

Embroidery is the main type of handcrafted work in 75% of the Brazilian municipalities. The other activities are those which employ wood (in 43% of the municipalities), clay (23%) and recycled material (17%).

 

Among the artistic activities surveyed, the main highlights are musical groups (in 58% of the municipalities), dance groups (53%) and choir groups (48%). These indicators show the importance and richness of this kind of artistic expression in the country. Folklore groups can also be found in 46% of the Brazilian municipalities.

 

Mototaxis are present in 47.1% of the municipalities

 

MUNIC 2005 has shown that public transportation only by bus occurs in 1,407 municipalities, which is equivalent to 25.3% of the total in the country. Among those who declared to have access to municipal buses, 79.7% said this service is regulated by the city government, and 19.3% said the service is offered on an informal⁸ basis.

 

The Southeast and South Regions had the highest percentages of municipalities with transportation by bus, 37.1% and 35%, respectively. In the third place was the North (19.6%), followed by the Central West (14.8%), and the Northeast (12.0%) Regions. The state of Rio de Janeiro (84.8%) had the highest percentage of municipalities with public transportation by municipal buses, followed by São Paulo (42.0%) and Rio Grande do Sul (39.1%). In relation to the other states, Rio Grande do Norte (2.0%) had the lowest percentage of municipalities with buses.

 

The second type of transportation, by boat, which can be found in 503 municipalities. It is predominantly informal (61.4%), especially in smaller cities. In 39.0% of the municipalities which have this kind of transportation, the service is regulated by the city government. The figures concerning regulation by the federal government (8.5%) and by the state government (6.4%) are extremely below the percentage of municipalities offering informal services.

 

It is worth mentioning that in the North Region, transportation by boat is very important, since it means a way to cross rivers. A similar situation is seen in the Northeast Region: 70.2% of its municipalities have informal services of transportation by boat.

 

Considering the other types of transportation present in the municipalities and the responsibility for the regulation of them, the results show that 47.1% of the Brazilian municipalities have mototaxi services. In 75.7% of them, it is done on an informal basis, and 28.8% declared to be responsible for the management of it.  These percentages may vary, when analyzed from a regional perspective: in the North and Northeast Regions can be found the highest percentages of municipalities with this type of service, 72.1% and 78.8%, respectively. In these two regions the highlight is the proportion of municipalities with this informal service of this kind (74.4% and 85.8%).

 

MUNIC also showed that 76% of the municipalities have transportation services by taxi and 52% by van. The latter, depending on the locality, is often replaced by “kombis” (Volkswagen Type 2), vanagons, utility cars and station wagons. In about 63.3% of the municipalities, the service had informal characteristics, without management or regulation by the government. The Northeast Region was the highlight, with 66.9% of its municipalities having transportation by van, and the service is informal in 82.5% of them.

 

Rail transport was also investigated by the survey, and, considering the 104 municipalities which offer the service, 45 have it regulated by the state and 51 by the federal government. As for the subway, there is only federal and state regulation, since it is a kind of mass transportation system which demands high capital investments and offers only long-term financial rewards. In 3 municipalities the service is regulated by the State Government: Teresina (PI), Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. With management by the Federal Government, there are 8 municipalities: Recife (PE), Belo Horizonte and Contagem (MG), Porto Alegre, Canoas, Esteio, São Leopoldo and Sapucaia do Sul (RS). It is worth mentioning that only the municipalities of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo have underground subway; in the other cities, there is the on-surface type.   

 

 

 

There are libraries in 85% of the municipalities

 

 

According to MUNIC 2005, the public libraries are the most common institutions in Brazilian municipalities. There are 6,545 libraries located in 4,726 municipalities (85% of the total), with a ratio of 1,2 libraries per municipality. Following these, in order of importance, are video rental shops (of tapes and DVDs) in 78% of the municipalities, the stadiums or gymnasiums (77%), record, tapes and CD shops (55%), FM radio stations (51%) and Internet portals (51%).

 

From 1999 to 2005, the percentage of municipalities with Internet portals changed from 15% to 46%, which represents an increase of 206.7%. On the other hand, record, tapes and CD shops, theaters and entertainment venues and FM radio stations had increase of 50% in this period. Despite this increase, only 21% of the Brazilian municipalities have theater rooms. Also in this same period, AM radio stations had relatively reduced increase (10%, having remained at the level of 20%), significantly lower than that of FM stations (50%).

 

The survey also showed a decrease (-11%) of the number of municipalities with bookshops (which fell from 35%, in 1999, to 31%, in 2005). This decrease, in 2005, is accountable to the current distribution of books in other ways, such as virtual shops, supermarkets, newsstands and by governmental institutions. Therefore, the level production of books in the country does not imply there is the same level of increase of libraries in the Brazilian municipalities.

 

Number of municipalities with a Culture Council increase

 

From 2001 to 2005, the percentage of municipalities with a Culture Council changed from 13% to 21%. Besides,  63% of the municipalities had funds directed to culture in 2005. Both indicators increased significantly according to the size of the municipality. Among the municipalities with over 500 thousand inhabitants, a budget for culture existed in 97% of them; a Council, in 66%.

             

The city government was responsible, in 83% of the municipalities, for at least one library; in 16% for at least one museum and in 17% for at least one theater. With reference to the Internet, municipal management offered the service in 31% of the municipalities.

Northeast region has concentration of female mayors

 

MUNIC also showed that there is still a big difference in the number of male (91.9%) and female mayors (8.1%). However, in relation to the survey conducted in 2002, there was a growing change of the presence of women, which made up 6% of this total. This increase occurred principally in the Northeast region (0.8%), where the concentration of female mayors was predominant in smaller municipalities. Most of these mayors (69%) were between 41 and 60 years of age.

 

In 2005, the majority of male mayors over 60 years of age were concentrated in the Southeast Region (38.1%), whereas female mayors, in the Northeast Region (45.1%). In this same year, the percentage of mayors taking office for the second time was 28.8%, representing a decrease in relation to 2001, when 41% of them were reelected. Also in 2005, 71.41% of the elected mayors were not serving in office in 2004, which characterizes a renewal in the municipal administrative board.

 

In terms of schooling, there was increase of the number of mayors with higher education, from 39.8%, in 2002, to 43.8%, in 2005. There was reduction of the number of mayors with incomplete elementary level of schooling (from 12.8%, in 2002, to 8.9%, in 2005).

 

Number of municipal civil servants increases

 

In 2005, Brazilian city governments had 4,767,602 servants (employed in direct and indirect administration), which represented an increase of 5.4% in relation to 2004 (4,521,579). The servants in direct administration, who were the majority of the municipal servants, totaled a number of 4,494,154 in 2005. This number was also above the figure observed in 2004 (4,281,923) and corresponds to an increase of 5% in this group of servants.

 

In 2005, the Southeast and Northeast Regions accounted, respectively, for 39.5% and 31.9% of the total of servants of direct municipal administration. The South, Central West and North Regions accounted for 14.2%, 9.1% and 8.3%, respectively.

 

From 2004 to 2005, the participation of workers under the statutory regulation (64%) and of commissioned workers (8.0%) remained constant. In this same period, the participation of persons without an employment contract increased from 9.4% to 16.1% and that of workers under CLT regulation (Consolidation of Work Laws) fell from 18.5 to 11.4%. The survey also shows that the participation of commissioned workers in the total of direct administration workers was 7.4% in the Southeast Region, approximately 8.0% in the North, South and Central West Regions, and 9.9% in the Northeast.

 

Considering the level of schooling, in 2005, among the servants in municipal administration, 33.6% had elementary school level (complete or incomplete); 40.6%, high school; 25.8% had finished higher education and, among the latter, 3.2% had taken a post-graduation course. 

 

14.5% of the Brazilian municipalities have a Directing Plan

 

According to MUNIC 2005, the number of municipalities in Brazil which have a directing plan is still very low. This instrument is essential for the municipalities to plan their urban politics, through the application of cooperative and democratic management. Out of the 1372 municipalities (25% of the total) which employ the instruments contained in the City Statute, 805 declared not to have a Directing Plan, which corresponds to about 59% of this total, or 14.5% of all the Brazilian municipalities³. The level of participative budget management in the municipalities which have a Directing Plan is extremely high, reaching about 85%. The states of São Paulo and Rio Grande do Sul are the highlights, once they account for 16% and 15% of the municipalities with a Directing Plan in the country.

 

The Construction Code, instrument which allows the public administration to have control and also to inspect the built space, being also responsible for security conditions, is present in 2475 municipalities, which represent 44% of the total. The contribution to improvement, present in 2292 municipalities (41.2%), is a financial, tax instrument, and it presents characteristics similar to taxes and fees, but can only be charged for public repair.  

 

34.3% of the municipalities participate in public consortiums

 

Among the types of associations surveyed (public intercity consortiums, with the States and the Union; partnerships with the private sector and support from the private sector or from communities), the public consortiums deserve special highlight. In 2005, they were widely used in the area of Health and had the participation of 34.3% of the Brazilian municipalities. In the municipalities with up to 5000 inhabitants, 43.2% are members of some kind of consortium, which shows that the smaller the city, the higher the probability of participation.

 

The results of the survey show that, in this type of partnership, of public consortiums with states, the municipalities use more the associations in the fields of Education (20.1%), Health (21%) and Social Development (15.6%). In relation to the public consortiums with the Union, the areas which concentrate higher indexes were the following: Education (13.8%), Health (21%) and Assistance and Social Development (11.9%).

 

MUNIC 2005 also investigated transactions between institutions belonging to the Union, States, the Federal District and Municipalities – and also private enterprises involving municipal administrators in the areas of Children and Teenagers Rights, Employment, Tourism, Culture, Housing, Environment, Transportation, Urban Development, Sanitation or Handling of Solid Wastes.

 

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¹These data refer exclusively to municipal tranportation and do not encompass intercity means of transportation which serve different municipalities.

²The declaration of schooling relative to the elementary level means the previously called incomplete or complete "Primeiro Grau" (Basic Education). For the other schooling levels only the complete course is considered. 

³The fact that 568 municipalities have declared to follow the City Statute and not to have a directing Plan indicates that these instruments are probably not used with the aim of assuring the social function of the city. In fact, some of these instruments have existed since the implementation of the City Statute, but only their existence does not guarantee, necessarily, the fulfillment of the “social function of the city”.

 ⁸In the questionnaire of the Survey of basic Municipal Information, informal transportation was considered any type of transportation service not managed or regulated by the government.