Paula Sevilla Núñez

Indonesia's Kampung Improvement Program improves informal neighborhoods with basic infrastructure (1969–1998)

In Indonesia, kampungs are primarily low-income, informal, and densely populated neighborhoods. From 1969 to 1998, in response to Indonesia’s rapid urbanization in its major cities, the government implemented the Kampung Improvement Program (KIP) to provide basic infrastructure and essential services to people living in kampungs across 800 cities (approximately 30 million people).

Who Will Cities Be For? Inequality, Housing, and the Future of African Urbanization

The Inequalities-Environment Nexus: Tools for Catalyzing a Just Transition

Sustaining wealth for future generations through Norway's oil surplus (1990–ongoing)

In the 1990s, Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global was established to shield the economy from the fluctuations in oil prices. Surplus revenues from the country’s oil and gas sector are transferred to the fund and invested in more than 9,300 companies in seventy countries. It therefore serves as a mechanism for long-term saving, and to finance future pension liabilities.

Access to basic infrastructure for rural communities in Senegal (2015–ongoing)

The Emergency Community Development Program (PUDC) was established in 2015, and it aims to reduce poverty and growing inequalities between regions, notably between urban and rural areas. PUDC has improved rural communities' access to basic infrastructure, including access to water and energy, through the construction of roads and hydraulic infrastructure. PUDC promotes the economic activity of rural areas by providing agricultural equipment, capacity building, and financing support to agricultural workers.

COP28, Extreme Inequality, and the Incomplete Fight Against Climate Colonialism

División en las urnas: ¿Qué podemos aprender de España?

Division on the ballot: What can we learn from Spain?

Housing Policy Options to Tackle Urban Inequalities

Program to improve the quality of life in vulnerable neighborhoods and strengthen civic engagement

Namibia spends large part of budget financing education, health, and social protection

For the past two decades, Namibia has committed substantial resources to inequality reduction through a combination of progressive taxation and high levels of social spending on education, health, and social protection—leading the way for spending the greatest amount on public services in the continent. Revenues from the progressive income tax provide the funds for social spending, which has remained consistently high as a share of its GDP. Social programs and spending on education and health in Namibia account for more than half of government spending, and have proven to reduce poverty and inequality.

Sierra Leone’ Wan Fambul National Framework promotes inclusive local governance

The Wan Fambul National Framework promotes inclusive decentralized development planning. Launched in 2017, the framework brings together different stakeholders at the local level to identify the community’s needs, and co-create a development plan to inform decision-making and resource allocation. The framework is based on Fambul Tok’s post-war reconciliation methodology and its People’s Planning Processes (PPPs). It is a partnership between the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development (MoPED), the Ministry of Local Governments and Rural Development (MLGRD), and the grassroots organization Fambul Tok.

Portugal decriminalized the possession and consumption of illicit substances and invested in treatment

In 2001, Portugal became the first country in the world to decriminalize the use, acquisition, and possession of illicit drugs for individual consumption. Since then, Portugal has experienced drastic decreases in the level of HIV and Hepatitis C infections, as well as a reduction in drug-related incarceration rates, and without substantial increases in drug use. While drug trafficking remains illegal, the law transformed the country’s approach towards investing in harm reduction and psychosocial and medical treatment for drug users rather than incarceration.

How land titling prevented conflict, increased women’s land ownership, and reduced corruption in Rwanda

In 2008, the Land Tenure Regularization (LTR) program was established to register and administer land ownership in Rwanda in order to resolve and prevent conflicts over land. Trained local para-surveyors used satellite imagery to register plots of land onto the new national land registry. They also mediated disputes to grant titles to the rightful owners, as well as ownership to women for the first time. Between 2008 and 2012, the program mapped 10.4 million parcels of land, recognized and secured women’s land rights, and improved the transparency of land transactions.

Bolsa Famlia is Brazil's largest conditional cash transfer program seeking to break intergenerational poverty (2003-2021)

Brazil’s Bolsa Família (PBF) conditional cash transfer program seeks to break the intergenerational poverty cycle through monetary transfers and by promoting access to education and health for low-income households.1 The national program, launched in 2003 to overcome fragmentation in federal cash transfer programs,2 provides monthly cash transfers to households living in poverty and extreme poverty, reaching up to 25 percent of Brazil’s population.3 Up until 2021, the program successfully improved educational and health outcomes across its beneficiaries, reduced poverty, and inequality levels in the country, and was lauded for its cost-effectiveness.

Mexico's 20-year conditional cash transfer program supports low-income households to access services

From 1997 to 2019, the program (originally named Progresa, then renamed to Oportunidades and finally Prospera) provided conditional cash support to households with an income below a minimum welfare line, to support their education, health, and nutrition. By the late 2010s, the program reached over 26.6 million people—approximately one quarter of people under the well-being threshold.

A housing model based on mutual aid to allow low-income families to access affordable housing

The Uruguayan Federation of Self-Help Housing Cooperatives (FUCVAM) includes more than 600 cooperatives, which houses 2 percent of the country’s population–or 23,000+ households. The model provides affordable housing for low-income populations. Any group of six or more low-income people can start a cooperative. Once approved, housing cooperatives are able to access public land, lower and more flexible credit schemes, and technical support to build and maintain their housing units.

EBAIS clinics provide holistic preventative, curative, and public health services to communities across the country

Costa Rica's EBAIS (Equipos Básicos de Atención Integral de Salud) are multidisciplinary teams that provide holistic and preventative health services across the country. Since 1995, the EBAIS model has sought to extend the provision of primary care to all and improve health outcomes through a focus on prevention. It has proven to help increase life expectancy and reduce health inequities in the country. There are more than 1,000 EBAIS teams in the country (about one EBAIS per 4,000 people).