Curitiba, the capital of the Brazilian southern state of Paraná, will get a $50 million loan from the Inter-American Development Bank to improve living conditions in poor neighborhoods, build social development facilities for the youth and elderly and improve the public transit system.
The loan, approved on November 20, is a new operation under Brazil’s Procidades program, the credit mechanism that finances integrated urban development programs for municipalities in Brazil in order to improve urban conditions and offer its residents a better quality of life.
Curitiba, which has been a previous recipient of two IDB loans focused in urban transportation, will use this new IDB financing to also modernize the traffic signal system using the newest “environment-friendly” technology and finance the activities to improve the municipal government’s institutional and managing capabilities. Local counterpart funds for this latest IDB loan total $50 million.
IDB project leader Mario Durán emphasized the importance of this program to Curitiba’s urban development, especially as “the city will be able to invest on it’s key priorities in an integrated manner and continue being a leading city in terms of urban and transport infrastructure, with emphasis in the environmental and social dimensions, which reflects in the quality of life its citizens enjoy”.
With the Curitiba financing, the Procidades credit mechanism has to date approved nine loans for a total of $225.3 million, covering municipalities in the states of Rio de Janeiro, Espirito Santo, Paraná and Mato Grosso do Sul.
The program is now finishing the preparation of additional loans, with the most advanced being Manaus (Amazonas), Aracajú (Sergipe), and Catanduva (Sao Paulo). The main areas of integrated development supported by Procidades include neighborhood upgrading, mobility and transportation, sanitation, social services, local economic development and institutional strengthening.