A new governance model to optimize government action
*Paulo César Rezende De Carvalho Alvim
On July 23, the National Innovation Strategy was published, culminating a process that began in 2019, when the elaboration of the National Policy began, made official through Decree No. 10.534, of October 28, 2020. These instruments, which follow the good governance manuals of the Brazilian State, seek to bring a new paradigm for the construction, implementation and evaluation of public innovation policies.
The theme of innovation is relatively new in the Brazilian State and only in 2015 was incorporated into the Ministry's name. However, despite the MCTI having an innovation in its name, the theme is transversal in nature: just look at the example of Brazilian agriculture, which is a world leader in large part because of the technological development that has brought great gains in productivity to the countryside.
Precisely to respond to this challenge of transversality, the National Innovation Policy was created with its own governance structure – the Chamber of Innovation, chaired by the Casa Civil and with the participation of 10 ministries. In addition, the Policy innovates by observing international innovation rankings, notably the Global Innovation Index, to compare Brazil with countries with better performance and classify the bottlenecks into axes that facilitate the structuring and coordination of work.
The National Innovation Strategy and its associated Action Plans, in turn, offer unprecedented transparency of the actions related to the topic, undertaken in the different agencies of the Brazilian State. Today, for the first time in the country's history, it is possible for a citizen to meet together in the same document, as well as in a friendly manner in the web, all the main actions undertaken by the Federal Government, with information such as budget, target audience, objective, among others. The mapping is an essential first step to, based on the information collected and with the support of the Chamber, expand the synergy between the actions, identify gaps to be addressed and establish priorities based on the diagnoses already carried out.
It is also worth noting the high level of citizen participation in the process – for the construction of the Policy and Strategy, workshops were organized with the participation of 856 people, representatives of different ministries, civil society groups, companies, academics and public managers from different federation entities. Also, and in an unprecedented way in the organization of a public policy of this ministry, the workshops had representatives from all the States of the Federation, providing a space to express the problems of regional and local development.
If it is true that progress has been made, it should be stressed that this process is just beginning. The house was put in order – from there, it is necessary to advance in politics, solidify governance, improve the country's international position in terms of innovation and, therefore, bring concrete impacts on the productive sector and on society. In Brazil, a country of discontinuities, Policy and Strategy are proposed as State instruments that allow different actors involved in the subject to accumulate collective knowledge to advance in a qualified and homogeneous manner in the debate and production of public policies. Good governance is essential to overcome the historical inefficiency of the Brazilian State and, with this, catapult the country towards the future of development that we all want.
*Paulo Alvim is a Civil Engineer and Master in Information Science. He is currently the National Secretary of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation - MCTI
Notice: The opinion presented in this article is the responsibility of its author and not of ABES - Brazilian Association of Software Companies
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