Political Action for the Consolidation of Sustainable Cities: the Importance of the Policymakers’ Qualification

The Political Action Network for Sustainability (RAPS) and the Cities Institute of the Federal University of São Paulo (IC-UNIFESP), both from Brazil, will present their institutional experiences in supporting political and public leaderships and decision makers. The opened discussion, with representatives of these organizations, will present the process of building a network for political action and strategic planning towards the consolidation of sustainable cities. Also, the presentation will bring examples of public policy formulation and good sustainability practices that serves as references to support the mandates of leaders in politics. Without the political class, none technical action or citizen participation is viable. In this way, qualification of political leaders becomes a crucial strategy to the success of these initiatives.   Established in 2012, RAPS aims to contribute for the strengthening and the improvement of democracy and the republican institutions, through the support to political leaders formation, people who will help turn Brazil into a fairer, more prosperous, solidary, democratic and sustainable country. It is revealing and encouraging to observe new forms of political mobilization in the society, as well as the increasing participation of a number of entities and voices committed to the sustainability in the debate of the social and economic process.    The size and scale of the planning and territorial research introduced by the IC-UNIFESP may promote theoretical, practical and interdisciplinary training of professionals and researchers so that they are able to study, produce new knowledge and technologies, plan, build and improve the cities, acting critically on complex issues such as the: precariousness of urban infrastructures; socio-spatial segregation and the poor quality of housing and public equipment and services; urban mobility that favors car transportation; chronic lack of basic sanitation; irregular occupation of environmentally sensitive areas and the recurrence of environmental disasters, affecting primarily the poorest members of society.