Place of residence, economic power, and means of transportation are factors that can directly influence an individual's access to opportunities. But how might individuals' access to health, education, and employment opportunities be related to these factors?
This is what Pedro Nery discusses with Rafael Pereira, researcher at Ipea and creator of the Access to Opportunities project, in episode #37 of the Economisto podcast.
Urban mobility vs. urban accessibility
In Brazil, there is much talk about urban mobility, that is, the travel patterns people follow in their daily lives (what time they leave home, what means of transport they use, how much time they spend in traffic, etc.). However, when the subject is urban accessibility, the objective is not to analyze what a person does on a daily basis, but the ease with which they can move around the space and access an opportunity.
In this sense, Rafael explains that the concept of access to opportunities is related to the potential for ease of movement, urban planning, connectivity and efficiency of transportation, as well as the planning and spatial distribution of these opportunities across the territory. "Accessibility is essential for people to meet their basic needs, access employment opportunities, and secure an income," the interviewee comments.
According to Rafael, the definition of accessibility also carries within it a notion of freedom, because The more accessibility a person has, the greater their freedom of choice.And it is this power of choice that gives individuals the possibility to develop their abilities and choose the options that make the most sense for them.
"Access to Opportunities Project"
This is the name of project that Rafael has been leading for just over a year at Ipea.The initiative conducts annual estimates that analyze how easily the population can access employment, health, and education opportunities, taking into account their neighborhoods and means of transportation in 20 Brazilian municipalities, with plans to expand to other cities.
All data, results, and methodologies are publicly available, and according to the researcher, The objective is to create the necessary information to influence and improve the evaluation of urban development policies, educational planning, health, housing policies, and urban transportation in Brazil..
Rafael explains that the idea emerged while he was finishing his doctorate at the University of Oxford, where he dedicated himself to studying political philosophy and inequality applied to urban development and transportation policy in cities.
The project was initially created to assess the impact. of the mega-events in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Growth in Rio de Janeiro following the world events ended up being uneven, according to the study, which found that middle and upper-middle-class neighborhoods were the ones that gained the most in opportunities for access to employment, health, and education.
Results observed by the study
Rafael says that, unfortunately, it's common to see a great inequality of opportunity between wealthier and poorer neighborhoods in most capital cities. He cites a study in São Paulo that identified that the wealthy population has access to nine times more job opportunities compared to the poorer population.
Interestingly, one city that goes against this trend is Brasília. In the federal capital, The study found that in some wealthy neighborhoods, such as Park Way, Lago Sul, and Lago Norte, access to certain services is more limited than in poorer neighborhoods. "Because they have a recent plan, the government did not foresee the creation of large-scale public service offerings, such as public schools and health centers," the guest argues.
Speed vs. proximity
Historically, one of the main measures taken in relation to transportation policy to solve problems of segregation and inequality was to try to increase the speed of vehicles.
However, Rafael explains that the solution lies not in speed, but in proximity. In other words, More important than making people move faster is making them move shorter distances. Bringing services and opportunities closer to them. This allows people to make their daily commute using cheaper and more environmentally friendly modes of transportation, such as bicycles or even walking.
Inequalities in times of pandemic
Recently, Rafael carried out a collaborative work with twenty other researchers, and addresses the different impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic in São Paulo.
The research aimed to analyze How are hospitalizations and deaths from the disease related to social and racial inequalities? To that end, between March and October 2020, researchers combined the addresses of hospitalized individuals with health data and obtained data considered alarming by the researchers.
It was found that Poor people have an 8% higher risk of contracting the Covid-19 virus, and when they develop more severe cases, the risk of death is 60% higher.
When racial factors were assessed, the study identified that Black and mixed-race people have a 20 to 40% higher risk of being hospitalized due to the disease and a 14 to 20% higher risk of death, when compared to white people.
Rafael points out that a major starting point for this inequality is the fact that more vulnerable people have lower levels of education and, consequently, lower levels of social protection, making them much more dependent on daily income and informal work, activities that do not allow them to work from home.
"When we look at cell phone data from the São Paulo metropolitan area, it becomes very clear that the wealthier and whiter neighborhoods are where people isolated themselves first, went into isolation much faster, have a higher level of isolation, and maintain that isolation for longer," says the researcher.
Furthermore, data analysis revealed that these more vulnerable populations accumulate a greater number of comorbidities and have less access to healthcare, often having to resort to the SUS (Brazilian public healthcare system), where the study identified that people hospitalized with Covid-19 are 40% more likely to die compared to people hospitalized in the private sector.
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