Despite the fact that the number of slum dwellers in Brazil decreased by 7 million in the past decade, around 38.5 million people - about 19% of Brazil’s population1- still live in slums and informal settlements that cover the hillsides of towns and cities with overcrowded, unplanned and unsafe settlements2. In order to address this challenge, investments in slum upgrading projects in Brazil have progressively increased in the past decade or so. The Growth Acceleration Programme (PAC) for example, launched by the federal government in 2007, has enabled substantial interventions to be undertaken in the largest informal settlements across the country.