This article analyzes the possibility for public policy in the field of urban planning to help overcome poverty to the degree to which the policy incorporates strategies linked to local development and participative methodologies. The empiric study was conducted in the Integrated Program for the Recovery of Degraded Areas (PIRAD), undertaken by the State Foundation for Metropolitan and Regional Planning (Metroplan) in Rio Grande do Sul State. It involved document analysis, participant observation, semi-structured interviews with technicians and beneficiaries, and a case study in one of the communities involved. The articulation between public policy, local development and participative methodologies generated results that contribute to a sustainable and liberating overcoming of poverty by strengthening the participation of the population as co-administrators of the program, of the activation of local resources and of articulation of sectorial actions in the territory.
participation; local development; public policies; poverty