| 4. In which ways is the initiative creative and innovative?
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The first version of the Strategic Plan was presented in March 2013 and submitted to wide popular discussion. In April, at the beginning of the Cycle, the presentation of this version was made through 35 public hearings, of which 31 took place at the municipal sections, whereas three were thematic and one was general. The hearings allowed the population to submit proposals for changes in the program, resulting in a participation of approximately 6000 people and 9489 suggestions, allowing people to be heard.
The suggestions were systematized and resulted in the participatory version of the Strategic Plan, whereas out of a total of 123 final goals, 28 resulted from public hearings. An example is the visibility of the elderly policy in the Strategic Plan. The movement of elderly people was organized to base their claims on all hearings and the result was the creation of an objective and five goals.
In August of the same year, the second stage of the Cycle was held, which included 32 feedback public hearings (1 general and 31 regional), in which a final participatory version of the Strategic Plan was presented with the participation of approximately 3300 people. In this round, the population met 123 goals on a regional basis, in addition to the issues demanded by attending people, as, for example, those relating to the elderly, the homeless population, food security issues, youth, drug policy, among others. The implementation itself of the Participatory Planning and Budgeting Cycle has become a goal of the program. In September 2013, the website Planeja Sampa went online, as an instrument of management responsible for the interaction between government and civil society, disseminating information and data about planning and budget. The website is considered the main monitoring system and is updated every 4 months.
These updates allow the population to follow up and monitor the goals with accuracy, enabling a better evaluation of the municipal management.
In April the board of CPOP took office and their first task was to structure a proposal of methodology for participation in planning, budgeting and monitoring of goals relating to the city of São Paulo.
This methodology was developed in July 2014 and had the territorial participation as its mainstay. In the 32 participating municipal sections (political-administrative organization of the city government in the territory), three priority projects were defined for each of them. Moreover, the transversal councils (human rights, women, people with disabilities and racial equality) defined one priority project each, which totaled 103 priority projects.
In July, the feasibility of predicting resource for these projects was discussed between the secretariats and the CPOP. In August, new rounds of 32 public hearings open to all territorial population were held, whose main theme was the drafting of the Annual Budget Law 2015 (PLOA). By that time, a feedback was provided about the incorporation in PLOA of priority projects and the population was also heard about the budget project for next year. 675 submissions were received and about 2,300 people attended.
The next step will be taken in 2015, when the CPOP will initiate participatory monitoring of the chosen projects that entered the PLOA. Thus, counselors will monitor the implementation of the projects chosen as priorities.
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| 5. Who implemented the initiative and what is the size of the population affected by this initiative?
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All the Departments of the Mayer are envolved in the process, although some of them are more active, as the Department of Human Rights and Citizenship (SMDHC), Department of Municipal Government (SGM), Department of Governmental Relationships (SMRG) and the Department of Coordenation of Subprefeituras (SMSP).
All the councils of the city are strategic partners in the process of implementation. It is important to mention, also, the Rede Nossa São Paulo, a Non-Governmental Organization, that has as purpose compromise the society and the governments with an agenda and some goals, as a way to guarantee a better life quality to everyone.
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| 6. How was the strategy implemented and what resources were mobilized?
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The Cycle was an initiative thought and elaborated by Sempla, who mobilized efforts to coordinate it by creating, as a first step, a specific Advisory (Assessoria de Gestão de Participação) to deal with the subjects related to the Cycle.
The Advisory was transformed into a Coordinating Body (Coordenadoria de Gestão de Participação), currently composed by 5 members.
Through this Coordinating Body, the budget, logistics and human resources are mobilized and articulated to guarantee the implementation of the Cycle.
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| 7. Who were the stakeholders involved in the design of the initiative and in its implementation?
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Among the achievements made possible by the Cycle, we can first mention the inclusion of participation in political affairs, which for years had been a demand of the city of São Paulo: the regionalization of the goals and the budget forecast of each project in the PPA; and the entire connection between the Strategic Planand budget instruments (both facilitating the understanding of the population with regard to the public budget of the municipality).
It is also important to highlight the creation of their own channels and mechanisms, such as CPOP, the PlanejaSampa and the Monitoring System of the Strategic Plan.
In regard with Planeja Sampa it is important to clarify that this is an interactive digital platform, also integrated with social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube.
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| 8. What were the most successful outputs and why was the initiative effective?
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The main monitoring device of the Cycle is called Planeja Sampa, a website that provides information about planning tools relating to budget, schedule and news about participatory activities of the Cycle, of the CPOP and of the Participatory Councils.
Nevertheless, its central role is to monitor goals on which, every four months, the system is updated, providing a general assessment of the progress of each goal relating to the Strategic Plan, allowing the population to follow the progresses accomplished by the current management.
It is important to remember, however, that CPOP itself is an instance of participatory monitoring of the government.
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| 9. What were the main obstacles encountered and how were they overcome?
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The main obstacle encountered at first was the low institutional capacity of the city of Sao Paulo to perform planning, especially of participatory nature.
The lack of participatory culture of previous administrations posed other challenges, as there was a restrained demand for listening channels and articulation between the State and civil society.
The transparency ensured by the Cycle and especially by the Monitoring System of the Strategic Plan poses a challenge for the management of data disclosure, what was barely done before. That may overcome the resistance stemming from political and bureaucratic actors.
The novelty of the proposal poses other challenges, especially for the institutional culture of Brazilian public management. Ensuring participatory monitoring means an unprecedented data transparency and a constant relation of institutional learning on the implementation of the projects.
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