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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
Homeupgrading

upgrading

*Highlight

A Pyramidal Approach to Upgrading Rio de Janeiro’s Favelas, Part 2: Regularization, Basic Needs, and Community Participation

By Natalia Meléndez Fuentes • September 9, 2020

Clique aqui para Português This is the second article in a six-part series on the application of Meléndez’s Pyramid for Favela Upgrading to the city of Rio de Janeiro and its favelas. This pyramidal concept was […]

*Highlight

This Women’s Day, We Honor the Women Who Are Transforming Waste to Wonder in Rio Favelas

By Luisa Fenizola • Translation by Edmund Ruge • March 8, 2020

Clique aqui para Português This is the ninth article in a year-long partnership with the Behner Stiefel Center for Brazilian Studies at San Diego State University to produce a series of monthly favela-sourced human rights and environmental […]

*Highlight

A Pyramidal Approach to Upgrading Rio de Janeiro’s Favelas, Part 1: Rethinking Informality Through Placemaking

By Natalia Meléndez Fuentes • January 15, 2020

Clique aqui para Português This is the first article in a six-part series on the application of Meléndez’s Pyramid for Favela Upgrading to the city of Rio de Janeiro and its favelas. This pyramidal concept […]

#CommunityMedia

The ‘Discontinuous Continuity’ of Favela Upgrading Programs [REFERENCE]

By Gabriele Roza, Giulia Santos, Juliana Marques • Translation by Sharonya Vadakattu • January 6, 2020

Clique aqui para Português For the original article in Portuguese published by data_labe on Medium, click here. Reporting by Gabriele Roza, with data analysis by Juliana Marques, and art by Giulia Santos. Mayor Marcelo Crivella […]

#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 […]

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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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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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