{"id":62617,"date":"2020-11-02T10:30:21","date_gmt":"2020-11-02T13:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=62617"},"modified":"2020-11-11T13:13:53","modified_gmt":"2020-11-11T16:13:53","slug":"giro-2020-initiative-prepares-underrepresented-political-candidates-for-rios-municipal-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=62617","title":{"rendered":"‘Giro 2020’ Initiative Prepares Underrepresented Political Candidates in Local Elections"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

This article is part of a <\/i>series of articles on Rio de Janeiro’s 2020 municipal elections<\/a><\/i>\u00a0from a favela perspective. It is also<\/i>\u00a0part of our reporting partnership with The Rio Times<\/a>. For the article as published in The Rio Times click\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n

As election season rolls through Rio de Janeiro, residents have signaled that more is at stake than during a normal local election contest. A deep recession that has grown only deeper, due to a global pandemic with severe local impacts, along with growing outcries for racial justice, government obstruction of the media, and other factors, have compounded concerns about the state of democracy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In this context, several initiatives are attempting to bring greater balance to the ballot. Though the majority of Brazilians identify as black or brown<\/span>, Brazil has a predominantly white congress. That lack of representation is echoed at the municipal level.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Giro 2020, a joint initiative between NGOs Funda\u00e7\u00e3o Cidadania Inteligente<\/a> and Casa Fluminense<\/a>, is among one of several projects seeking to tackle this lack of diversity. In this election, it has offered a special training to 74 candidates for city council and one candidate for vice-mayor in municipalities of Greater Rio de Janeiro\u2014chosen from 289 applicants\u2014with the aim of strengthening underrepresented candidates and those committed to anti-racism. <\/span>Giro <\/span><\/i>in Portuguese means \u201crotation,\u201d and the project\u2019s <\/span>official goal<\/span><\/a> is a \u201crotation of issues and bodies in the spaces of government decision-making.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The <\/span>demographic breakdown<\/span><\/a> of the candidates supported by Giro reflects their mission. In total, 76% are black or brown<\/span>, 45% are women, and 19% are LGBTQ+. Those numbers are in stark contrast to the current makeup of city councils nationwide, where only <\/span>42%<\/span><\/a> are black or brown<\/span>, according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics<\/a>. Only <\/span>5%<\/span><\/a> are black or brown<\/span>\u00a0women, according to Brazil\u2019s Superior Electoral Court. This despite 56%<\/a> of Brazilians self-identifying as black or brown, as of 2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDemocracy, government by everyone, right? But what is this government by everyone like if only one political group, which is the group of white men, have power?\u201d asks Emerson Caetano, a Giro 2020 coordinator.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPeople don\u2019t identify with their representatives,\u201d says Douglas Almeida, an advocacy coordinator at Casa Fluminense.<\/span><\/p>\n

Both the formation of initiatives like Giro and the changing profiles of recently elected officials signal that a shift is underway in Brazilian politics.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2018, <\/span>50% more women<\/span><\/a> were voted into Brazil\u2019s federal Chamber of Deputies than in the previous election in 2014. The number of black or brown<\/span>\u00a0congresswomen rose from 10 to 13, the number of white congresswomen rose from 41 to 63, and the first indigenous congresswoman was also elected.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A May <\/span>survey<\/span><\/a> of black women activists across Brazil conducted by Marielle Franco Institute<\/a> and the Black Women Decide<\/a> (Mulheres Negras Decidem) initiative\u00a0found that 25% of those activists considered running for office in the current elections. Black women \u201cdemonstrate maturity in considering and participating in electoral disputes as a way of accessing institutional politics and decision-making spaces,\u201d the organizers of the survey wrote.<\/span><\/p>\n

For Caetano, it is important to strengthen candidacies from less-represented groups \u201cso that they can shape the political ideal that will resolve the problems they experienced.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The two NGOs behind the Giro 2020 initiative, <\/span>Funda\u00e7\u00e3o Cidadania Inteligente<\/span> and <\/span>Casa Fluminense<\/span>, facilitate collaboration between activists, researchers, and other professionals based on a similar vision of an inclusive politics.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Giro 2020\u2019s actions are based in three steps: meetings, trainings, and leadership labs. Meetings occur monthly, are open to the public, and hold policy discussions with social leaders and people planning to run for office. In trainings, the 75 selected individuals study public policy and discuss electoral trends, communication strategies, and campaign financing. Leadership labs are spaces for exchange among social leaders across the Rio de Janeiro Metropolitan Region<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Giro\u2019s organizers say that although Rio residents have long called for more representative public officials, more is at stake in this election than in past years.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDifferent [civil society] groups are being attacked,\u201d said Almeida. \u201cIn the past two years, especially since the election of Bolsonaro, [civil society] is being criminalized.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Latin American polling firm Latinobar\u00f3metro\u00a0<\/span>conducted an analysis in 2018<\/span><\/a> to gauge citizen satisfaction with democracy in different countries in the region. In Brazil, satisfaction with democracy fell from 54% in 2010 to just 34% in 2018. Pollsters warn that these conditions are ripe for the rise of authoritarianism.<\/span><\/p>\n

This makes it all the more important to push for more diverse elected officials, said Giro\u2019s organizers. They view the 2020 election as a possible turning point, especially after the Covid-19<\/a> crisis has exposed the dangers of poor political leadership. In addition to Giro, other initiatives such as <\/span>Ocupa Politica<\/span><\/a> are grooming non-traditional candidates to run for office.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

These underrepresented candidates allow the possibility for legislatures that not only appear different in gender and skin color, but that promote policies more in line with experienced needs and realities on the ground.<\/span><\/p>\n

For one, they may focus more on reducing inequality, said Almeida. \u201cThere is a very serious problem in Brazil of always considering inequality a problem that can be solved later. It\u2019s never posed as a central problem.\u201d Brazil is currently the 9th most unequal<\/a> country on Earth.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the polls this November 15, groups that feel under- or unrepresented in politics hope to shake up the current situation.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Support our efforts to provide strategic assistance to Rio\u2019s favelas during the Covid-19 pandemic, including\u00a0RioOnWatch<\/i>\u2019s tireless, critical and cutting-edge hyperlocal journalism, online community organizing meetings, and direct support to favelas\u00a0by clicking here<\/a>.<\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas This article is part of a series of articles on Rio de Janeiro’s 2020 municipal elections\u00a0from a favela perspective. It is also\u00a0part of our reporting partnership with The Rio Times. For […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":208,"featured_media":62618,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1668,1288,1290,2242,329,1329],"tags":[3221,1713,3068,554,595,1197,2739,301,124,3070],"writer":[3219],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-62617","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-participationwatch","8":"category-highlight","9":"category-civilsociety","10":"category-democracy","11":"category-solutions","12":"category-by-international-observers","13":"tag-2020-municipal-election","14":"tag-casa-fluminense","15":"tag-coronavirus","16":"tag-diversity","17":"tag-elections","18":"tag-greater-rio","19":"tag-ibge","20":"tag-public-policy","21":"tag-race","22":"tag-series-favela-tourism-with-rio-times","23":"writer-natalia-galicza"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/208"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/62618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62617"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=62617"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=62617"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=62617"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=62617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}