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Latest News
  • [ June 21, 2025 ] ‘We’re Working at the Micro Level Because There Are People Destroying Things on a Macro Scale’: In Rio de Janeiro, ‘Green Roof Favela’ Engages Popular Culture on World Environment Day Civil Society
  • [ June 20, 2025 ] Get to Know ‘Gaia Space’, A Network of Women Fighting for Environmental Justice and Obstetric Dignity in Greater Rio de Janeiro *Highlight
  • [ June 10, 2025 ] Groundbreaking Oral History Project—‘Favela Climate Memory’—Launches Final Exhibition, Fostering Emotional Connection Between Climate, Nature and Community [Video] *Highlight
  • [ June 7, 2025 ] ‘Being a Black Woman Running a Museum Means Facing the Past, Eye to Eye… It’s Reparation in Motion’: Sinara Rúbia’s Full Speech at Brazil’s 1st Seminar on Anti-Racist Museums *Highlight
  • [ June 5, 2025 ] ‘A Museology That Doesn’t Serve Life Serves No Purpose’: ‘Unconventional’ Favela Museums Lead First Seminar of Rio de Janeiro’s Social Museology Network *Highlight
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inadequate maintenance

#HousingWatch

25 Years On, Seminar Celebrates Favela-Bairro Upgrading Program

By Ben Bildsten, Luisa Fenizola, Zaynah Karem • June 3, 2019

Clique aqui para Português Favela-Bairro was an ambitious program established in 1994 with the aim of upgrading favelas to the status of formal neighborhoods (“bairros” in Portuguese) through infrastructure interventions, public services, public facilities, and […]

*Highlight

Two Centuries of Conning the ‘British’: The History of the Expression ‘É Para Inglês Ver,’ or ‘It’s for the English to See’ and Its Modern Offshoots

By Patrick Ashcroft • May 28, 2015

Clique aqui para Português  In 1807, the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed an act abolishing the international traffic of enslaved people within the British Empire. Much of the pressure to pass the act had come […]

Policies

Community Leaders in Cascadura Demand Attention From the City

By Elma Gonzalez • May 13, 2015

Clique aqui para Português As Cascadura, a neighborhood in Rio’s North Zone, faces mobility and economic challenges due to recent changes to transportation routes, communities in the neighborhood are also confronting hardships in recreation, education, […]

Policies

Rocinha’s Rua 4: A Mixed Approach to Public Housing

By Zoë Roller • September 27, 2011

Clique aqui para Português The government normally takes one of two approaches to its relationship with favelas in Rio de Janeiro: either favelas are a blight on the city and should be replaced, or they can […]

RioOnWatch’s anti-racist reporting series won silver in the 2022 inaugural The Anthem Awards, in the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion category among Best Local Awareness Programs.
A Project of

About

In May 2010, Catalytic Communities launched what was originally Rio Olympics Neighborhood Watch (hence RioOnWatch), a program to bring visibility to favela community voices in the lead-up to the 2016 Rio Olympics. This news site, RioOnWatch.org, grew into a much-needed and unique reference featuring favela perspectives on the urban transformation of Rio. With diverse and deeply interlinked articles by a mix of community reporters, resident opinions, solidarity reporters, international observers, and academic researchers, we work to engender a more accurate picture of favelas, their contributions to the city, and the potential of favela-led community development in Rio and around the world.

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10 Years! Check Out Our Story:

Awards

Special Thanks

Fundação Heinrich Böll Brasil
World Habitat
Fideicomiso de la Tierra Caño Martín Peña
Pastoral de Favelas
Center for CLT Innovation
Global Land Alliance
Ecocity Builders
Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation
SDSU Behner Stiefel Center
The Rio Times
Forum Grita Baixada
Beto Paixão Graphic Design
Architecture Museum of Vienna
Yale School of Architecture

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