The challenges of integrated urban planning and management in Brazil: analysis of the Ministry of Cities experience

Abstract A sectoral logic has structured the actions of the Brazilian state and its inability to promote fair and balanced urban development is well known. As a result of maturity and social pressure, the Ministry of Cities was created to fulfill a gap regarding urban problems, partly solved by the development of the City Statute. Together, the Statute and the Ministry of Cities represent the first democratic Brazilian experience of urban land management, whereas the Ministry represents an intersectoral institutional effort never before conducted in the country. Although it has been 12 years since its creation, and despite numerous studies on its main funding programs, little is known regarding the intersectoral experience among their secretariats, how it builds bridges with other ministries and about its operations before local, regional and federative entities. Thus, using research methodology based on documentary analysis and interviews, this article seeks to identify the major advances in Urban Planning and Management deriving from the creation of the Ministry of Cities as well as to contribute to the understanding of its impact on the federal balance. Despite finding considerable advances in sectoral integration, the study found gaps in the articulation of the state scale with the others, as well as low participation of the state entity in the funding made available by the Ministry of Cities.