By Cristy Lytal
Germano Johansson, a Master of Planning student earning a Certificate in Public Policy at the USC Price School of Public Policy, could have easily spent his summer on a beach in his native country of Brazil or current home of California. Instead, he dedicated his time to improving the quality of life for people across the globe through his nonprofit COURB in Brazil and by giving an address at the United Nations High-level Political Forum on sustainable development in New York.
Johansson traces his passion for improving people’s quality of life to his childhood. He was born in Curitiba, Brazil, a city admired by urban planners for its public parks, Bus Rapid Transit and other amenities. As a young child, he moved to a city located near the famous Iguassu Falls at the border of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay, so that his father could take an engineering job at the second largest hydroelectric power plant in the world.
“It’s a very cosmopolitan region — a lot of people from China, a lot of people from the Middle East, Brazilians, Paraguayans, Argentinians and a lot of tourists because of the waterfalls,” Johansson said. “By living in such a culturally diverse environment, I developed a lot in my social perspective of equity and social justice.”
Broadened by this experience, Johansson returned to Curitiba to earn his civil engineering degree at the Federal University of Paraná. He also spent a year studying abroad in Portugal at the University of Porto, where he began course work in environmental and planning issues.
After graduation, he parlayed his engineering degree into jobs at a public transit consulting firm and the Ministry of Transportation. He lived in several Brazilian cities and traveled frequently for work, witnessing the economic and social disparities in different regions of the country.
His desire to raise the quality of life for all people led him to apply and be admitted into Brazil’s Science Without Borders program, which provides federally funded scholarships for 600 Brazilian students studying in graduate programs in the Unites States. After being admitted to several top programs, he chose USC because of its emphasis on translating academic theory into professional practice — and because of the California sunshine.
At USC Price, he shifted his focus from transportation to broader issues of urban living. He gained inspiration from professors including David Sloane, Tridib Banerjee and Lisa Schweitzer, and from courses including planning history, planning theory, comparative international development, and foundations of public policy analysis.
“By being able to write and to read things that I would not do by myself, I discovered part of me that was hidden,” he said.
Inspired to make lasting change, Johansson recruited a group of likeminded young people to form a Brazilian nonprofit called COURB, short for the Institute of Collaborative Urbanism. COURB seeks to improve the life of city dwellers by harnessing the talents of these young people — whose education and experience runs the gamut from civil engineering to urban planning, from architecture to geography, from software development to law. Together, they aspire to create sustainable urban solutions ranging from collaborative construction projects to policy analysis to community engagement.
“We really want to give people tools, give local governments advice on how they can help the quality of life of people — to reduce the stress in cities, improve transportation, create more healthy communities,” Johansson said. “And I think that the program here [at USC] was very important for seeing the multidisciplinary part of how to achieve change.”
COURB already presented the Brazilian city of Ilhéus with an integrated development plan, which was a semi-finalist among 127 competitors in the Urban Development and Social Inclusion Contest hosted by the CAF Latin American Development Bank. The plan, called ATIVA! Ilhéus, promotes a healthy, inclusive and creative community through urban agriculture, a bicycle network, educational programs and several other initiatives.
Given Johansson’s strong desire for studying and improving cities, it was no surprise that he spent part of his summer in one of the world’s most dynamic urban communities, New York. While there, he heard about the upcoming United Nations (UN) High-level Political Forum on sustainable development, which aims to foster debate between the UN system, governments, organizations, scientists, major groups and other stakeholders about sustainability and the eradication of global poverty.
Johansson connected with UN personnel and was able to secure a spot. At the two-week event, he met the representatives for the UN Major Group for Children and Youth, and they asked him to address the forum on their behalf.
Speaking as both a Children and Youth representative and as COURB president, he highlighted two important issues affecting sustainable development: The right of all people to access quality education; and the dangerous consequences of unrestrained economic growth, such as depleting natural resources and increasing inequality.
The Children and Youth group fully supported Johansson’s statement, which was featured in the two-page summary of the day’s discussions.
“I thought that I helped contribute a tiny piece to laying the foundations for the sustainable development goals,” Johansson said.
Marlon Boarnet, vice dean for academic affairs and director of the graduate programs in urban planning at USC Price, called Johansson “somebody who takes initiative and seizes things and runs with them in a really good way.” He added, “He’s an ambitious, innovative person, and we’re impressed by him and proud of his efforts.”
Johansson will continue his efforts by launching “COURB United States” in 2016. This December, he will host an informative session through Google Hangouts, and he invites people interested in learning about the organization or getting involved to email him at [email protected].
“I really believe that this organization can grow even more,” he said. “This is a life project.”