Questions/Answers

The program “Juntos” (United Program) - Evaluation of Results in Strategic Areas of the Municipality of Jaboatão dos Guararapes, implemented in 2017, aims to strengthen decision-making based on the analysis of indicators and promote the improvement of public services offered, prioritizing the most vulnerable population. It works in partnership with the Municipality Secretariats of Education, Social Assistance, Health and Public Safety, also called collectively “Implementation Secretariat”, to achieve the institutional mission of “Turning Jaboatão dos Guararapes into a big city: sustainable, attractive and with opportunities for all people”, according to the strategy map of the Municipality, published in attachment I of the 2018-2021 Multiannual Plan. It provides environmental diagnosis and nominal register of public facilities priority, basing the selection on nationally recognized result indicators which are generated via open data, to act and seek to improve services efficiently and effectively. It works to integrate government policies, promoting collaboration between service and management teams, seeking for a sustainable development and directing actions towards the most vulnerable. It aims to create equal opportunities, social inclusion and economic development, through the promotion of data analysis culture and integration between areas, promoting a more assertive and focused action on the poorest. It stimulates collaboration and evidence analysis, generating cost reduction, better performance of civil servants and focus on people. It works in priority public facilities, together with the technical team and management representatives, with the systematic presentation of objective indicator panels, elaborated via spreadsheet system, to support decision making in searching qualitative improvement of the services provided. It is a program of management that promotes access and improvement of services offered to the most vulnerable.

The program highlights the share of the population that suffers from poor public services and promotes the implementation of corrective actions to ensure equal conditions and sustainable development. It promotes a more assertive action, through evidence analysis, and the integration between management areas, seeking to direct priorities to the most vulnerable. It works in a innovative way by generating indicator panels, routine presentations to the teams involved, action plan construction and collaboration between strategic areas, increasing the quality of services provided to the most vulnerable.

The initiative supports the SDGs#1, 3, 4, 5, 10 and 16, and targets#1.1, 1.3, 1.4, 3.2, 3.4, 4.1, 5.2, 10.2, 10.3, 16.1, 16.6, 16.7. Promotes equal opportunities by supporting strategic areas and pointing out the priority of the population to provide development of people and generate social inclusion. It promotes data analysis and focus on prioritizing Education, Health, Social Care and Public Safety equipment to ensure better services to the most vulnerable. Indicators supported the Implementation Secretariats to promote corrective actions that guarantee access and improvement of essential services to the most vulnerable, reducing inequality of results. It directs the look from everyone involved to the underserved, optimizing resources and promoting the culture of collaboration to generate social inclusion and sustainable development. With Juntos pela Educação (United for Education), for example, efforts are being made to improve the quality of teaching in schools with lower performance in external evaluations, pointing out critical students and stimulating the structuring of alternatives to bring families closer and promote pedagogical reinforcement for those in need. Through generation of evidence and relevant indicators it is possible to promote specific actions that guarantee improvement of services, providing inclusion, people development and social well-being.

The dynamics of working with priority equipments, integrating management areas, perpetuates the initiative and turns it socially sustainable because even after advances, there will always be aspects to be improved and population segments to be prioritized. It is economically sustainable because it basically involves investing in the hiring of qualified people that can work with indicators and influence people, representing a low cost to the public sector. It is eco-friendly because it uses spreadsheets, meaning it does not spare environmental resources. It stimulates evidence-based decisionmaking, optimizing resources, avoiding waste and directing management towards more assertive, efficient and effective actions.

It is known that in the Brazilian public sector, especially in the municipalities, there are large gaps in data recording and analysis and few evaluation policies. Decisions are often made by political discretion, resulting in poor service provision and few social developments. In order to change this reality and achieve significant advances related to the quality of essential services, the City Hall of Jaboatão dos Guararapes implemented the program “Juntos” (United Program), which aims to promote in the strategic areas, service improvement through collaboration, giving priority to the most vulnerable. The work is directed to teams whose performances are below the municipality average in public result indicators, for which indicator panels are generated to subside decision making, seeking course correction and service improvement. It works to involve all civil servants in the service chain, by strategic area, both service and management, stimulating data analysis and promoting the construction of alternatives, the monitoring of actions, the exchange of experiences and good practices. “Juntos” (United Program) aims to awaken the passion of serving well and promoting the social inclusion of the poor.

By promoting the look at the most vulnerable and social inclusion actions in the strategic areas, "Juntos (United)" project promotes the rescue of women and girls, who are the majority in deficit schools, as a result, for example, of teenage pregnancy. They are also majority in health units for they seek medical attention more often. Gender inequality is overcome through the inclusion of vulnerable families in basic protection programs, as women are mostly responsible for the family household, as well as subsidizing Patrol Maria da Penha, responsible for supporting women victims of domestic violence in the Municipality.

The target groups are the priority teams of the strategic areas, namely the service professionals and management technical teams whose average performance is below the municipality average in the available and nationally recognized result indicators. When generating indicator panels and systematizing meetings of outcome evaluation promoted the targeting of the work to the most vulnerable, achieving better services, and better performance of these servers. It is understood that these citizens are the most vulnerable, because the indicators evaluated a lower performance in the services offered for this population. For each area of activity - Education, Health, Social Welfare and Public Safety - the same dynamics is made, namely, the evidence (result indicators) and the analysis of performance indicators throughout the year are promoted, defined and registered by the service teams to achieve service improvement. By building evidence-based action plans, integrating areas and collaborating with all of those involved, better services can be achieved in priority public facilities. Improving essential services along with the most vulnerable, generates social inclusion and sustainable development.

The initiative was implemented in 2017 with the definition of the strategic areas of action (Education, Health, Social Assistance and Public Safety), the structuring of the work team, and a higher level professional for each area (data analyst), a higher education in information technology with a manager and the inclusion of the work proposal in the official documents of the Strategic Planning of the Municipality (Multiannual Plan 2018-2021, Law 1.336 of 12/11/2017). The field work, along with the partner secretariats, involved the following steps and times, in working days: I) construction of the environmental diagnosis, based on open and national reference data, with a historic series of public indicators in the area to be addressed. (30 days); II) reading reports and recent studies, related to the indicators of the area, providing confidence and better interaction between the data analyst and the professionals of the partner secretariats (10); III) definition of challenges that are ought to be overcome, which are related to qualitative advances in services provided with the population's priority segments (5); IV) definition of result indicators and suggestion of process indicators (5); V) validation and adjustment of proposal with management of the partner secretariats (10); VI) presentation of the program to the priority teams (10); VII) data collection and generation of indicator panels (40); VIII) presentation of the results panel on the priority equipment for the construction of action plans (10).The Implementation secretariats also validated the priority section, which is below the municipality average in the public result indicators, and defined the professionals who took part in the meetings with the attendance teams throughout each year. At the end of each cycle, performance analyzes were performed with the managing core. The meetings took place quarterly and in person in the priority public facilities.

Process data are not always available via system, requiring the implementation of a new routine to register it. This change generates resistance and delays. Implementation secretariats are looking for alternatives - including hiring interns when necessary - to make their registration and submission feasible. The resistance of civil servants with this routine data analysis is another hurdle that has been overcome with the focus on partnership. The initiative should be presented as a partnership that aims to support decision making, supporting the team in searching for improvements, with assertiveness.

It is innovative because it directs focus to the most vulnerable, promoting qualitative improvement in the services provided. It works in partnership with the Implementation secretariats and seeks effectiveness through routine analysis of indicators, construction of action plans and engagement between priority teams and management. It awakes in the civil servants a holistic view, encouraging the search for alternatives in the face of difficulties. It directs the acts of professionals towards performances that reflect on improved results, seeking social inclusion and development of people. It focuses on areas with weaknesses and makes them a priority for management, guaranteeing equity.

Management for results is an administrative practice present in some institutions of the national public sector, but the dynamics of structuring a specific working group to work in strategic areas is new at the municipality level. This management works in providing situational diagnosis, analysis through public result indicators, sorting out priority teams and in routine presentation for decision making. The "Juntos” (United Program) working group works autonomously and manages, through partnership with the Implementation secretariats, to promote actions to improve services together with the most vulnerable, engaging those involved in the construction of alternatives that generate social inclusion.

No. But "Juntos pelo Social” (United for Social Purposes) was selected to be a part of the III National Meeting of Teaching and Field Research Public Sector: Democracy in the 21st Century and the Challenges for Public Management, that took place in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, from August 27th to August 30th, 2019, arousing great interest among the participants.

The "Juntos” (United Program) program has been designed with replicability in mind, so that other Brazilian Municipalities can use open data-based scoreboards to direct work in strategic areas, promoting focus on people in need and the culture of taking a decision making process relied on evidences. Initially, it worked only with spreadsheets, presenting in dashboards the result and process indicators (collected in the priority public equipment), but fully meeting the needs of the initiative. This is possible because the public data used (outcome indicators) are updated annually and the process data monthly or bimonthly, as the case may be with education, promoting manual database feeding. In 2019, the city government hired a technology partner specialized in Business Intelligence (BI) to generate result panels quicker and safer, also promoting the inclusion of open data from other municipalities for further analysis. The implementation of a culture of data analysis and evidence-based decision making is fundamental to aggregate value to the public sector, enabling reduction in costs through assertiveness and promoting improvement in the services offered to citizens.

The program used only qualified human resources for its development. In 2017, approximately R $ 306,000.00 was spent, equivalent to U $ 76,500.00, considering the exchange rate of R $ 4,00 to U $ 1.00. This amount corresponds to the salaries and charges of a manager and five top level professionals - one for each area - and one in Information Technology, to structure the databases and build the dashboards indicators, via spreadsheet. It was also provided R $ 40,000.00 / year, for communication. The salary of the executive secretary that is responsible for the program was not counted.

It is financially sustainable because it only involves the cost of some skilled professionals that are familiar with data analysis and able to influence people. It is institutionally sustainable because it enables data analysis and evidence-based decision making, promoting cost reduction and the constructing of assertive alternatives aimed at the most vulnerable, as well as being in the Strategic Planning of the Municipality (Multiannual Plan 2018-2021, Law 1,336 dated 11/12/2017). It works with data analysis and information generation, similar to private initiatives, to promote actions and benefits to the most vulnerable, with low-cost investment and great social return.

Yes

The program is formally evaluated internally by the Institutional Development Secretariat, which coordinates it through the performance variation of the priority teams in the results indicators that guiding the work in each area of activity. These are indicators monitored by the Federal and/or State Government, which classify the quality of services provided in Social Assistance, Education and Health, and in some cases, define the values of Federal Government transfers to Municipalities. For "Juntos pela Ordem Pública (United for Public Order)", the indicators followed are the variation in the rates of Intentional Lethal Violent Crimes (CVLI), provided by the State Government.

For United for Education, we work with Pernambuco's Basic Education Development Index (IDEPE), which is provided by the state government annually. For United for Social Purposes, the Federal indicator Index used is called Development of Reference Centers in Social Assistance - IDCRAS. For United for Health the Index used is Death by Major Noncommunicable Chronic Diseases. For United for Public Safety is used the Lethal and Intentional Violent Crime (CVLI) rate. At the end of each year, a report is generated with the performance of the priority groups in these indicators, comparing with the average performance of the municipality.

After each year of working close to the service teams and with the priority public facilities, we can see advances in the quality of services offered and greater satisfaction of civil servants with the work performed. The presence of an external secretary, supporting and directing the work of civil servants, through routine data analysis and interaction with those professionals, brings positive consequences even without new investments in infrastructure or hiring people, for example. However, the difficulties with registries and submitting process data delay meeting cycles and analysis results regarding initial action plans, which is being worked through the implementation of simple systems for recording and feeding the initiative's database. The work methodology, initially implemented in the Education area, through "Juntos pela Educação (United for Education)", brought significant results for the priority schools, both in 2017 and 2018, as the variation of IDEPE grades was positive in 82.4% for schools in 2017, on the 2016 score, and 59.1% from 2018 on 2017, as presented in the internal evaluation report.

The Juntos (United) program works horizontally involving the secretariats that are our partners. The initiative's work nucleus presents the data, environmental diagnosis, public result indicators, challenges and process indicator suggestions, which are validated at management level, as well as at the citizen service level, so that everyone can understand each other as a part of the process. The initiative holds periodic meetings at Strategic, Tactical and Operational levels. Strategic meetings are attended by the Mayor, District Secretaries, Executive Secretaries and Superintendents. Tactical meetings involve Government managers and technical managers. Operational meetings take place in the priority equipment of the strategic areas to build action plans. The initiative works with a dialogue process, from the planning stage to its implementation. Experience sharing with democratic participation, is the main tool for its consolidation. The results are shared and the core management of the partner secretariats act in the feasibility of the proposed actions, ensuring effectiveness and better services to the most vulnerable. The success of public policies nowadays starts from the moment they are planned, implemented and monitored through interaction and integration, generating institutional learning and value to the public service.

The program is coordinated by the Secretariat of Institutional Development (SDI), which acts in the planning, construction of environmental diagnostics, development of result indicator panels (based on open and national reference data) and the execution of routine results presentation meetings. It also works in the construction and monitoring of action plans, connecting involved areas - including other government departments - to make the proposed activities viable. The managers of the strategic areas - Education, Health, Public Safety and Social Assistance - validate the data, the criteria for separating the priority teams and indicate the civil servants that will participate in the operational meetings in the priority equipment, as well as follow the progress of the process indicators, per team, throughout the year. Technical teams, who are in contact with the most vulnerable citizens, define the process indicators, their recording mechanisms, the data collection flow and attend the operational meetings, usually quarterly, to review the panels, results and process indicators and suggest actions to improve the services provided. The involvement of the areas in management, coordination and service ensures visibility to the gaps and priority to the most vulnerable.

It was observed a lack of data in practically all areas of the Municipality public service and the difficulty of working with open indicators due to the dispersion and low knowledge of the technical teams involved. It is necessary to dive into the universe that you are acting in, becoming a “consultant” for the partner areas and being objective, because despite of providing analysis of relevant and evident data, there is no free time on the part of the Implementation Secretariat that are immersed in problems in order to keep the gear running. However, by presenting objective and systematic indicator panels, Juntos’s (United) work has strongly contributed to the development of a data analysis culture and the construction of evidence-based action plans, generating assertive actions that promotes better services and social inclusion. The effort convergence of partner Secretariats in building solutions, was another challenge faced by holding periodic meetings involving the various decision levels. Routine data collection is a bottleneck that must be addressed to streamline analysis throughout the year, as well as the deployment of a Business Intelligence service to assist in the scoreboard generation by area and priority team.