Miranda

Jorge Augusto Rodrigues de

Miranda

Validated Lead Expert

Generic Skills

B.1. Understanding of integrated and sustainable urban development:

My education background is in the field of Anthropology (Cultural and Social), Regional History and Engineering. In 1981 I was invited to play a leadership role at the municipality of Amadora to organize the department of Education, Culture and Social Development as well as it’s Policies. I was Director of that Department until 2010. Amadora has the highest concentration of poverty and social exclusion related problems in Portugal. Cumulatively, I have been responsible for coordinating municipal action in critical urban areas and European Funded programmes and projects. Therefore I have been Director for Urban II – Amadora (Damaia-Buraca) programme (01’-06’) The program was oriented towards sustainable urban development with 3 strategic axis: 1 - Environment and urban cohesion; 2 - Social Inclusion and Employment; 3 - Social and Cultural revitalization. Urban II had 25 projects, half of them material (green space, social and community centres) and half immaterial (social exclusion, teen mothers training, job support, training for jobs with different skill sets, partnership and empowerment of local NGOs). I have also coordinated in Amadora Urbact II MILE, “Zambujal Melhora” Operational Programme of Lisbon, “Geração” Programme with Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, and several European Social Fund projects (EQUAL, INTI, etc). In 1998 I was awarded with the Honour Medal of the City of Amadora (Silver) by Local Parliament in recognition to my work in the development of the city.

B.2. Understanding of exchange and learning processes at transnational level:

I have a vast experience on community work, participation & governance, policy making and strategic planning as well as in the development and management of public, private and 3rd sector organizations. I’ve experience gained throughout my career, developing social innovation and transnational exchange practices, I am invited frequently as a guest for conferences and “think tanks” on the topics of urban development and social inclusion with a special focus on urban critical areas, deprived communities, multi-exclusion, poverty and ethnic issues. I have 20 years of experience from working in European projects with expertise communities of practice, transnational exchange and learning. The projects in which I have participated in transnational exchange and learn processes have frequently been considered as best practices and benchmarks. I developed, recently, for IMEA / Interreg IVC, a complex exchange and learning tool focused on good practices (GPShuttle) that was selected as a best practice for transnational work groups. Below I present an overview of some projects in which I had a central role in transnational exchange and learning: 2012/14 INTERREG IV C – IMEA (Energy Efficiency in social housing and consumer behavior) ; 2010/12 INTI – I am Roma (Tackling Roma stigma with innovative action); 2000/06 URBAN II – Amadora (Damaia-Buraca) (urban renewal/ participatory planning for sustainable development; 2005/06 EQUAL – Adapt (Old people care alternative systems); etc…

B.3. Proficiency in English:

I am proficient in English, both in written and spoken forms. I am used to communicating both formally or informally in different social contexts, from day-to-day situations to corporate or state protocol levels. I have a vast experience in producing reports for international projects, writing applications, conducting international meetings and workshops, namely within the EU. Throughout my career I have served as a board member in international organizations like “WHO-Europe Healthy Cities”, “TIMS – The International Molinological Society”, “LUDEN network”, etc… English proficiency is mandatory to hold such responsibilities. I am the managing partner of a private company (Etnoideia.lda) which works in the field of the creative industries and with a rather geographically dispersed client-base. I am the Director of the Benfica Foundation, one of the most important football clubs in the world, with global reach and with demanding and strict communication management policies. Furthermore, I have written several articles and books, which were published in English. To be fluent in English and come from a non-English speaking country is often an advantage in European projects as it becomes important in order to level different degrees of fluency in oral English and to help articulate the thoughts of people with different mother tongues that are trying to communicate in their second language. I am also proficient in Portuguese and Spanish and regular French and Italian speaker.

Expertise for the design and delivery of transnational exchange and learning activities:

Summary Expertise for the design and delivery of transnational exchange and learning activities:

Throughout my career (30+ years), I had to lead working groups and work relations between pairs and produce participatory events in transnational projects in urban critical/deprived areas. I.e. groups/individuals with different backgrounds: corporate/stakeholders, technical/scientific or target group participants (residents,minorities,young..), public, private,3rd sector. One of my expertise areas is to deal with critical social/community situations in urban deprived and multi-problematic areas. Participative governance and multi-stakeholders negotiations, like Local Authorities policy design and implementation in difficult environments was been most of my responsibility in Amadora City Council. For more than a decade I have negotiated with stakeholders and population urban renewal areas with thousands of inhabitants using participatory planning and integrated multi-problem territorial approach. In all these projects, housing issues, extreme poverty and crime produced high tension and conflicts to be mediated in an inclusive and intercultural dialogue manner. URBACT 2007/08: Mile-Pilot fast track network I organized transnational exchange (Generation Orchestra/(European best practice). Urbact Secretariat invited me to present at the launch of Urbact II in Portugal; EUKN 2008 – Invited to present social innovation in Urban deprived areas. URBAN II 2000/06 Amadora I was invited by DG Regio to EU Parliament and Urban II to Hungarian mayors on HU Structural Funds launching.

Thematic expertise:

Theme / Policy:

Active Inclusion of Target Groups

Summary Thematic expertise:

I am an Anthropologist skilled in ethnic issues and intercultural dialogue. I have done field work, baseline studies, participatory events and planning with Roma, African and Eastern Europe migrants living in urban critical areas in Greater Lisbon (Amadora). From 2000 to 2006 I was Director of URBAN II Amadora (Damaia/Buraca) dealing with multi problematic social issues, social tensions and spacial segregation. In I am Roma (2010-12) I have worked Roma inclusion and tackling stigma. In both cases, participatory methods were used in multiethnic and intercultural groups. I am Roma (2010-12) products and contents I induced in the group, highlighted the usage of arts as a strategy for awareness, empowerment and intercultural dialogue amongst Roma and non-Roma. This was capitalized by ACIDI - High Commissioner for Intercultural Dialogue and used nationally. URBAN II Amadora, 2000-2006 I have created a Children's Parliament involving all students of the urban area in a process of research of problems/opportunities for children and development of actions to be performed and paid by city of Amadora. 2012/14 2012/14 INTERREG IV C - IMEA - The creation of a Children Fun Lab on Energy Efficiency was a strategy to bring EE as a subject to diferent residents (Roma, Indian, African, European) in social exclusion. Equal Oportunidade - I have produced good practices in empowerment, participatory planning and educational tools for social inclusion, that where validated by Equal.

Theme / Policy:

Urban Strategic Planning

Summary Thematic expertise:

I have been Director of Department, responsible for Policy counselling and Programme design at city level in Amadora from 19989 to 2010. Amadora has a the most significant concentration of poverty/exclusion in Portugal (spacial segregation, most of Portuguese urban critical areas, shacks , social housing blocks, african (Cape vert) and Roma communities). Cumulatively I have been responsible of co-ordinating municipal action in critical urban areas and EU Funded projects. I have been Director of Urban II – Amadora programme (2000-06) and Social-Urban integrated planning operations in other critical areas as well. Worth mentioning Zambujal Melhora (OP Lisbon) urban renewal, Boba, Casal da Mira in Amadora. I was responsible for strategic planning involving participatory planing methods and crossed bottom-up and top-down planning. I used air photographs, stickers (variables) for people to vote in local mapping exercises for participatory planning, problem trees, focus groups, mind mapping etc, to produce matrixes of density of variables so gathering a multilayer map of usage of the urban space, functions, special segregations, etc. This was the basis for discussion to the participatory workshops with residents from block to block until all of each area was mapped. Output: a set of objectives, functions to be performed by public spaces and equipments, dysfunctions to be corrected, etc, then delivered to urban planners for the final design of renewal solutions.

Theme / Policy:

Employment, Human Capital and Labour Mobility

Summary Thematic expertise:

I have created the first Social Entrepreneurship Programme in a Portuguese City. “Amadora Empreende” was created in 2008 and was directed by me until 2010 with a comprehensive methodology of surveying potential entrepreneurs in Amadora’s social housing and critical areas that could then be engaged in a process of capacitation, training and coaching with ISCTE, one of the best Business Schools in Portugal, until the identification of their business opportunity. Gulbenkian foundation also funded this programme and the City of Amadora provided low rental and zero rental prizes for shops allocated to these entrepreneurs. From 1996-97 – In Amadora I have created and directed ADIANTE project for improvement of employment in Associations and NGOS (ESF, INTEGRA). This capacitation project has delivered training and promoted active inclusion in employment for members and public engaged by more than a 100 associations in the city of Amadora. 2000-2006 – Urban II Amadora, I developed and delivered, directly by the city or in partnership with NGOS, several projects under the “training for jobs” concept. These projects, involving a large number of African origin excluded people, teen mothers, Roma and others, ended up in another project of supported internships and jobs supported by Urban II but delivered together with National Employment agency in an open call for Private companies to apply to employ these subsidized workers.

Expertise support to local authorities and other stakeholders in designing & delivering integrated and participatory policies

E.1. Knowledge on participatory methods and tools for co-production and implementation of local polices :

Ex-Post evaluation Urban II Initiative approved by DG Region highlights Amadora programme as the best practice in participation and community capacity building: “In Amadora, 85 different publications were issued on public and citizenship participation and 2,062 residents participated in community capacity building events. The literature on urban governance and community involvement often highlights the sustainability of capacity building projects once funding ceases. (…) whether it is attendance at employment, health and social centres, attendance at cultural events or participation in drug advice programmes”. http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/sources/docgener/evaluation/pdf/expost2006/urbanii/final_report.pdf This programme (2000/06 URBANII Amadora ) was composed of 25 relevant projects in 3 axis. I choose as example the participatory planning for public space where I used air photographs coloured circles, using stickers to represent variables, for people to vote in local mapping exercises for territorial awareness and planning. The group thematic workshops focused on panning problem solving for the community and the wide discussion in the community and public within Zone Congress Urban II was a relevant strategy for the planning process in this complex and critical area. Amadora Urban II Area affected 20,000 inhabitants with a consolidate urban area and 3 african ghettoes with 6000 residents.

E.2. Knowledge on integrated approach for the design, delivering, monitoring and evaluation of urban strategies/policies:

2000/06 URBAN II Amadora – As director I created a monitoring system with financial, physical and social indicators that allowed to measure in real time the performance of the programme. In what concerns social projects (the programme had an exceptionally high proportion of ESF type projects due to its specificity and critical area intensity) I have also designed a monitoring dimension of execution and impact indicators. This was done by setting cross indicators for multi-problem analysis as well as second and third level indicators, in some cases indexes, to measure integrated action-impacts on individuals and families. In one of the projects: “tu podes ser o que quiseres” (you can be whatever you want) project for teenager mothers, the integrated path and family contact with bespoke action per each young mother generated a set of indicators that allowed to follow her evolution in three dimensions: Herself, as the mother, and the child's situation. Impact on her dependency levels and on the Wellfare system demands was monitored together with the social and financial payback at the end of the project and 2 years later. The optimal case was that of a girl that payed back the investment in herself after less than a year in taxes paid for the job she got. DG region was creating an internal data base of good practices and sent an official to collect data on this practice from me.

E.3. Awareness of the main policy and funding schemes for sustainable urban development at EU and national level:

I have been participating in european projects for the last 20 years and in most cases my role had been considered relevant by partners, clients, local, regional, national and european agencies. Evaluations are good and several best practices and benchmarks came out of my work. So, I am usually invited to group discussions, think tanks, conferences, workshops, courses, both as participant and guest speaker. I belong to a small community of Portuguese urban planners in social and participatory dimensions that mingles academics, policy makers, officers from local, regional and national authorities, major foundations, NGOs and community leaders. This is a major learning and updating environment, as well as a permanent challenge to my knowledge, skills and methods. The frequent engagement in european projects, together with the high level of expertise demanded, make my professional life a permanent update too. Furthermore, I belong to LUDEN network (formally Quartiers en Crise / QEC-ERAN). As a board member, I have been invited to URBACT II conferences, to EUKN Conferences as guest speaker and held EUKN study visits in my projects. I belong to Citizenship And territory Forum in Portugal, I was part of the Reflection Group for Strategy of Lisbon (OP Lisbon), I am part of the Work Group for Intelligent Specialization OP Central Portugal 2020. I am frequently invited by Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation as guest in Conferences and work groups for social innovation in critical areas.

E.4. Ability to understand specific local situations and adapt tools and content to different local realities:

2010/12 INTI – I am Roma – In the community of practice my role was to facilitate communication with and between Roma people from different countries. Some methods used by me on the project were appropriated by Sintra City (lead partner) to engage different stakeholders in Local Action Groups for Roma active inclusion and were disseminated and adapted to other partner cities of the project. These methods were adapted locally from LAG and Local Action Plan design methods crossing my previous experiences as director in Urban II, Urbact II and PRU (Partnerships for Urban renewal OP Lisbon). Anthropology skils and ethnical/intercultural dialogue skills were useful to locally adapt these methods in a consensual and demonstrative manner for local policy makers, in their respective different countries, to use in order to tackle Roma-related issues. Arts proved to be a good vehicle to bridge this gaps between the minority and the surrounding, exclusive, “majorities”. Thus its usage in participatory methods of contents creation and communication was recognized as useful by policy makers in different European cities.

Summary Expertise:

I have been Director of Department, responsible for Policy counselling and Programme design at city level in Amadora from 1998 to 2010. I have been Director of Urban II – Amadora programme (2000-06) and Social-Urban integrated planning operations in other critical areas as well. I was responsible for strategic planning involving participatory planing methods. Ex-Post evaluation Urban II Initiative approved by DG Region highlights Amadora programme as the best practice in participation and community capacity building: “In Amadora, 85 different publications were issued on public and citizenship participation and 2,062 residents participated in community capacity building events. The literature on urban governance and community involvement often highlights the sustainability of capacity building projects once funding ceases”. http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/sources/docgener/evaluation/pdf/expost2006/urbanii/final_report.pdf Furthermore, I belong to LUDEN network (formally Quartiers en Crise / QEC-ERAN). As a board member, I have been invited to URBACT II conferences, to EUKN Conferences, held EUKN study visits in my projects. I belong to Citizenship And territory Forum in Portugal, I was part of the Reflection group for Strategy of Lisbon (OP Lisbon), I am part of the Work Group for Intelligent Specialization OP Central Portugal 2020. I am frequently invited by Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation as guest in Conferences and work groups for social innovation in critical areas.