Porto Alegre among the 100 Resilient Cities

The “100 Resilient Cities Project” (https://www.100resilientcities.org/) was created by the Rockefeller Foundation in its centennial (2013), earmarking $ 100 million to help 100 cities transform and be more resilient (100RC). 100RC is dedicated to helping cities around the world become more resilient to the physical, social and economic challenges that are a growing part of the 21st century. In Brazil, the cities of Porto Alegre, Salvador, and Rio de Janeiro are part of this group.

The 100 resilient cities project has four pillars:

1. Financial and logistical guidance for establishing an innovative new position in city government, a Chief Resilience Officer, who will lead the city’s resilience efforts;
2. Expert support for development of a robust Resilience Strategy;
3. Access to solutions, service providers, and partners from the private, public and NGO sectors who can help them develop and implement their Resilience Strategies;
4. Membership of a global network of member cities who can learn from and help each other.

Digital Currency Project:

Porto Alegre is the only city in Latin America allocated with a project for digital currency.

From the entire network of 100 Resilient Cities, five were selected: Porto Alegre (the only representative in Latin America), Belfast (Northern Ireland), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Cape Town (South Africa) and Milan (Italy). Of these five, two will be chosen to develop a pilot project for six months.

Picture by Colu

The 100 Resilient Cities project for digital currency is a partnership with the Israeli blockchain startup Colu Technologies Ltd., and opened a call for cities to present initiatives for implementing a crypto-currency (digital currency), locally. The Municipality of Porto Alegre, through the Municipal Secretariat for Institutional Relations and Political Articulation (SMRI), wrote a project plan to implement a currency for the 4th District which has been approved.

If the Porto Alegre project is chosen, a digital currency will be implemented in the territory of the 4th District. “This currency values the entrepreneurs who invested in this initiative to improve business opportunities in the region. In addition, it will make the money stay there, stimulating the creation of a community identity for the residents of these neighborhoods “, according to SMRI.

• Colu is a digital wallet app and platform that creates and supports the use of digitized, localized currencies, providing an easy and convenient way for people to instantly make payments from mobile devices while supporting local businesses.
• The 4th District is located in a region that is focused on modern economic and structural revitalization projects, but it also houses some of the neediest communities in the City, most of them acting in the collection and selection of solid waste.
• Porto Alegre is the capital city of Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost Brazilian state which shares borders with Argentina and Uruguay. Porto Alegre is one of the most important cultural, economic and political centers of Brazil.

Picture by Lucas Corrêa Viegas (Jornal no Palco)