Rio de Janeiro has undergone rapid urban growth over the last forty years. With around 6 million people living in the city itself, Rio today still ranks as one of the world's largest cities.

©Simon Scoones/Worldaware Copacabana beach

Some residents of Rio enjoy extremely high living standards. Owning property on the Copacabana beachfront can cost millions of pounds. However, 20% of Rio's population live in the city's 600 favelas. In the past, favelas have conjured up images of dirty, dangerous places with a miserable quality of life, but today, many favela communities are working in partnership with the Rio city authorities to counteract these negative images and to combat poverty.

The favelas are scattered around the city on waste ground or on one of Rio's many steep ravines where building is difficult.

©Simon Scoones/Worldaware

©Rex Features

Although a favela resident pays taxes like any other citizen in Rio, many have felt neglected by the city authorities and their richer neighbours. To reflect their disillusionment, half a million people voted for a monkey in one of the elections for the mayor of Rio during the 1990s. But Rio's residents have begun to appreciate the positive contribution that favela dwellers make to Rio's economy by providing low cost services and goods in the informal sector as well as being the birthplace of Brazil's Samba dance schools and some of the country's greatest footballers like Pelé, Ronaldo and Rivaldo.

The 'Favela-Bairio' programme
Nevertheless, favelas need support from outside. Since 1995, the Rio city authorities have invested in the most expensive programme ever to improve life in the favelas. With financial backing from the Inter-American Development Bank, the Rio city authorities have spent $500,000 on the 'Favela-Bairio' programme to improve the services and infrastructure in 300 of Rio's favelas. At the same time, the programme promotes self-help amongst favela residents, building on the strong community spirit that exists there. To make the most of the money available, the city authorities discuss and negotiate with the local community committees to find the best ways in which local people can help themselves.

Click on the icons for examples of how the 'Favela Bairio' programme is improving the quality of life in two favelas.

Drug Wars
Some problems still remain. Rio has one of the highest crime rates in the world, with an average of 60 murders per 100,000 inhabitants each year. A lot of the violent crime is associated with the drug trade, much of which occurs in the back streets of the favelas. Rio's police force regard many favelas as 'no go' areas. Instead, it is left to the community committees to police the neighbourhoods, and for those residents who are not involved in drugs in any way it seems to work; few favela dwellers find it necessary to lock their doors, for instance.