São Paulo – The way Brazil implements its public policies, taking them from paper to true benefits to the population. This will be the theme of panel Brazil: Accessibility and Efficiency in Government Service Delivery, which is part of the programme of the Government Summit in the Emirates, a meeting to take place on February 11th and 12th, in Dubai.
Under main theme Leading Government Services, the objective of the event is to discuss international best practices in public administration.
Brazilian participation is organized by Bianor Scelza Cavalcanti, the international director at Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV), at the invitation of the emir of Dubai and vice president of the Emirates, Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
In the panel, apart from Cavalcanti, also speaking will be Luiz Alberto dos Santos, deputy minister for Analysis and Follow-Up of Governmental Policies, under the Chief of Staff, and André Barrence, director-president and CEO of the Minas Gerais State Office for Strategic Priorities.
“The summit is focussed on the practice of public management, in the sense of making things happen,” said the FGV director. “What is most important is how the delivery of the programme works. Many public programmes are generated and do not reach the end user (the population). The problem is not always the lack of funding, but organisation,” he said.
Cavalcanti should speak about the Bolsa Família, an income transfer programme developed by the federal government of Brazil that assists families with per capita income of up to R$ 140 (US$ 70). He should present figures like the population reached, the requirements to participate and the details of implementation of the programme.
According to the professor, the regional differences in Brazil make it necessary for programs to be “inter-governmentally and inter-institutionally moulded”, involving the federal, state and city governments, so that public policies may be made effective. “The Bolsa Família involves the participation of the Caixa Econômica Federal (the Federal Savings Bank), the effort of city halls for registration, production of cards,” he said, showing the involvement of different areas of the government.
The presentation by Luiz Alberto dos Santos, from the Chief of Staff’s Office, should cover other federal programs.
Education
André Barrence should discuss actions to improve literacy in state schools in Minas Gerais. “I am going to present the Pedagogical Intervention Programme. It is a policy for decentralisation, focussed on the part played by teachers as a central figure in classrooms,” he said.
The programme, turned to children from six to eight years of age, is aimed at increasing the performance of teachers in teaching literacy to students, giving better lessons, using case specific pedagogical material, selecting exercises to be developed and evaluations to take place throughout the year.
“We established the programme in 2007 and, that year, we had 47% of students reaching the recommended reading level. In 2011, the last year for which we have figures, we climbed to 89% of students at the recommended reading level,” pointed out Barrence. The levels of literacy are measured as low, intermediate and recommended.
For this year, the programme is being expanded to students in municipal schools in Minas Gerais and to other disciplines. “We are already implementing the Programme for Pedagogical Intervention 2, expanding the programme to subjects like mathematics, geography and history to students in the last years of secondary schooling,” said Barrence.
Apart from Brazil, Singapore, Denmark, Canada, Australia and South Korea should also present their case studies in public policies. The national panels will take place on the first day of the event, on Monday (11).
*Translated by Mark Ament
