rio de janeiro is home to possibly the most famous favelas in the world. in existence for over one century, favelas in rio have gone through major transformations.

decades of developments, social and political changes, varying approaches, dialogue and oppositions, successes and failures, resulted in rio being one of the world experts in the urbanization of favelas.

rio's Favela Bairro urbanization Program has been recognized worldwide as one of the most successful informal settlement upgrading programs, recommended by the UN as an example for other countries to follow.

in rio, not all favelas in rio were born in the same way, and as a result many of the communities differ dramatically from one another in both size, urbanization, and level of integration in the rest of  the city.