Questions/Answers

The Municipal Targets Program outlines São Paulo’s government and public services priorities for a 4-year-period. It was established in 2008, through an amendment to the City’s Constitutional Law, which was proposed by civil society, headed by Rede Nossa São Paulo. It obliges every Administration to create its Targets Program within 90 days from the start of the office. It is a public policy mechanism aimed to ensure that each elected Government Plan can be effectively implemented for delivering the public services needed. Since its establishment in 2008, three Targets Plans have been brought about. Despite programmatic differences tantamount to plural political forces, the Targets Program must be conformed to the City’s Strategic Director Plan, which guides the urban development of São Paulo up to 2030. The Municipal Targets Program must comprise a minimum of the actions and projects as they were defined in the elected Government Plan. Those legal requirements are intended to address common problems in Brazilian local administrations: the incompatibility between different planning documents and the lack of objective means to monitor the elected government plan. Likewise, to augment transparency and popular engagement, it must promote public debate, and convene open audiences. Since the establishment of the Program, the municipality improved the means available for public participation, even if it was not a legal requirement. In 2017, two online platforms could be used by citizens to make suggestions to the preliminary version of the document. It reinforces São Paulo's commitment to the concept of open government, field in which the city is an international reference. The Targets Program also brings forth mechanisms to evaluate and monitor, every six months, the implementation of the Targets, thereby enhancing accountability through finance sources disclosures and performance indicators, which are compiled and published in an annual executive report.

The Municipal Targets Program seeks to create a pact of transparency in the relationship of the Public Administration with its citizens. The main objective is to provide mechanisms through which Government Plans, engineered in electoral campaigns, can be actually translated into concrete services and goods to the voters. Overall, the Targets Program pursues permanent efforts for the improvement of the public sector. Thus, it was devised to bring about modern and democratic management tools with which the quality and the reach of the public services can be improved and expanded. It aims to foster greater accountability and to enhance initiatives for permanent checks and balances from the press, private sector and civil society. Programmatically, every Targets Program must outline its strategic priorities and public services targets to be achieved in each field of service and district. Fundamentally, the Targets Program intents the promotion of a better city and the development of São Paulo’s social, economic and environmental dimensions in accordance with the tenets of a sustainable city and with the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Development.

São Paulo’s Targets Program is an innovative initiative, whose main objective is to promote responsiveness of government action and transparency. The Program was the first adopted in Brazil, and it aims to guarantee that the elected mayor pursues the implementation of public services and policies established on the Government Plan. It also promotes participatory decision-making, as public consulting is a legal requirement. Public participation increased since 2008, when the initiative was created: in 2013, 9.849 suggestions were made to the preliminary version, while for the 2017-2020 Program there were 23.953 contributions. A final version of the document is released after the open audiences, including some of the suggestions made (23 objectives in the 2013-2016 Program, and 3 objectives and 54 actions in the 2017-2020 document). Moreover, the initiative aims to fight discrimination and to promote equality. The municipal Constitutional Law establishes that the indicators set to the Target’s Program must be adherent to some principles, as the promotion of fundamental rights, social justice, and sustainable development. It means that the main goals of municipal Administration must be aligned to an inclusive and sustainable agenda, otherwise it will infringe Constitutional norms.

The main reason for the establishment of the Targets Program was, as stated in its amendment to the City’s Constitutional Law, to provide policy and management mechanisms to ensure the delivery of public services, initiatives, and projects to improve São Paulo’s overall living standards. Hence, the Municipal Targets Program fosters excellence in the fulfillment of public services by binding the Administration to its commitment to the elected or re-elected Government Plan, and seeking to ensure that the promises made during electoral campaigns can be applied and monitored by the population. It hones the quality of public services by promoting a thorough policy of checks and balances which in turn demand periodical accounts on the status of the Targets implementation. In this sense, as the initiative helps governments to plan their main objectives and implement policies in different areas – under municipal responsibility - it could be related to SDGs 1, 3, 4, 6 and 10. More specifically, the Constitutional Law establishes that Targets’ Programs must observe some principles, such as the promotion of fundamental rights, equality and sustainable development. Therefore, it seeks to improve people’s lives and it prioritizes some standards, which are aligned to specific SDGs (1, 2, 5, 7, 11).

In Brazil, a disproportionate share of the responsibility to deliver public services is attached to municipalities, rendering local governments significant challenges to meet service offer with budget availability. In this endeavor, São Paulo’s population has historically been vulnerable to unreliable and unfulfilled Government Plans. Moreover, the lack of public participation in decision making has limited the reach and also undermined knowledge of the City’s priorities. To tackle this issue, the Targets Program helped to concentrate the Administration efforts into well-defined priorities, directing and mobilizing its resources to deliver services to the poorest and and most socially vulnerable. In addition, the initiative has contributed to greater transparency and public participation in decision-making and monitoring. Since its implementation, the Municipal Administration has developed tools to improve those aspects. In 2013, the platform “Planejasampa” was created in order to divulge the performance for each indicator of the Program, at least semianually. In 2017, it was also possible to make suggestions through this platform. As a result, public participation more than doubled, in comparison to the previous administration. As regarding decision-making, public contributions were responsible for the addition of goals and actions in the final document ( 3 and 54, respectively, in the latest version).

Under the responsibility of the Municipal Management Department, the Targets Program is set out to manage and coordinate efforts on the tasks to provide services to the population of the world’s third largest city. Every department must observe some principles on the setting of the goals. Thus, the initiative managed to guarantee that every administration, regardless of its ideologies and strategies, will seek to social justice, reduction of inequality and sustainability. Moreover, the initiative has had positive impacts on transparency and public participation. São Paulo, ratified by the Open Government Partnership as a pioneer on open government policies, reinforces its commitment to this agenda. The Targets Program represents an innovative arrangement that has gradually embodied public participation, technology and transparency. As a result, citizens of São Paulo are able to influence the definition of the city’s priorities and to monitor it more objectively. For instance, on the 2017-2020 Program, after public consult, the Administration incorporated two priorities, related to policies on drug abuse, food security. It illustrates that the initiative has had impacts not only on the means provided for population on decision-making and monitoring, but also on the development of actions on important issues.

A long-dated problem for local and national governments has been unmet Government Plans, as the way they were bestowed before the population in election campaigns. Previously, public services management in Brazil had no legal-based policies to which elected officials had to comply in accordance with their elected or reelected political platforms. After taking office, Government Plans were soon pushed aside either by the lack of efficient management skills or of biding legal-framework. The Targets Program aimed to tackle both of these issues by providing management tools to organize the city priorities and establish legal mechanisms to ensure the Targets Program’s implementation and its public, democratic, and transparent oversight. São Paulo was the first city to implement it on Brazil, after a civil society campaign. As the Program evolved, more electoral platforms across all political spectrum started taking hold of the principles for public management defined in São Paulo’s Organic Law as well as in the City’s Director Plan, which rendered fairer, more realistic, and professional political campaigns. Very significantly, São Paulo’s 2017-2020 Targets Program goes further to innovate in its commitment to a responsible and liable public management by adhering its Targets to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Inspired by public policies which sought better life quality and greater accountability from the Public Sector in Bogota, Colombia, a non-government organization intended to overhaul São Paulo’s public policies and politics, named Rede Nossa São Paulo (Our São Paulo Network), was the main stakeholder and responsible for the efforts on the amendment to the City’s Constitutional Law which established the Targets Program. Nossa São Paulo Network did not only amass material and intellectual resources to put together the original Bill to amend the City’s Organic Law, but also contributed to implement and monitor each phase of the Targets Programs. It meant therefore an original liaison between organized civil society groups, think tanks, interested entrepreneurs, politicians, and public officials working together to device an innovative public policy which binds politicians to their electoral promises and political platforms. It was an unprecedented victory for providing legal adherence to transparency and social participation principles in public management in order to check self-interest governments behaviour.

Originally, the bearing of the Targets Program initiative was sparked by a movement from within civil society’s organized groups. Rede Nossa São Paulo (Our São Paulo Network), a non-partisan NGO founded in 2007, took full responsibility to advance the initiative towards a concrete overhaul in São Paulo’s government management legal guidelines. The initial phase requerided multiple gatherings of interested groups from the public and private sectors. The main goals were to galvanize efforts to boost political support for the initiative in the City’s Council of Representatives. Thus, the mobilization comprised the establishment of committees and meetings in districts and sub-districts in order to bring the Project closer to the Council Representatives’ political communities. Furthermore, Think Tanks gathered professionals, scholars, and specialists from national and international contexts. The results led to the Bill which was approved by the Council in 2008, amending the City’s Organic Law to turn the initiative a mandatory public management tool for every government. Hence, the implementation of the Targets Programs was brought about as defined in its law requiring public participation in decision making and efficient technical mobilization from the Mayor’s Office and the Municipal Management Department to outline the Targets for the public services priorities.

Yes

The Targets Program Law Initiative, firstly established in São Paulo, has been transferred to other municipalities throughout Brazil, including the Country's second and sixth largest cities (respectively Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte), as well as to other municipalities scattered in South America. The Project has now been replicated in over 50 cities in Brazil and in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Colombia. The initiative has the potential to be replicated as a mandatory public management instrument for all cities in Brazil, for currently there is an ongoing Proposta de Emenda Constitucional (Constitutional Amendment Proposal Bill), based on São Paulo’s Targets Program, awaiting approval in the National Congress. Several efforts have been put together since 2010 to make this amendment bill a reality which could greatly impact the public service management in Brazil’s more the 5000 municipalities.

Brazil’s has been a leader in advocating sustainability policies since its return to democratic government in 1988. Strongly adhered to the United Nations mission to promote development and peace, the Country hosted two of the major conferences related to issue in 1992 and 2012. Conscious of this endeavor, the City of São Paulo has striven towards a sustainable future for its people, given the sheer size of its population and the environmental stress it currently faces and which is likely to worsen lest degradation and poverty levels persist. For theses reasons, the City’s planners had an important participation in the United Nations Habitat III Conference as to increase São Paulo’s pledge in developing itself based on a sustainable city ideal. The Targets Program is strictly bound to this commitment for such an approach stems from its legal standards, ensuring each Government Plan is principled on economic, human, and environmental sustainability in order to tame self-interested policies. As a result, all three versions of the Targets Programs so far implemented were adhered to sustainable principles. For instance, the 2017-2020 São Paulo’s Targets Program was conscientiously guided by the 2030 Agenda and the UN SDO principles in its public services priorities. This methodology allows by itself a double outcome: renders the Targets Program Law a permanent development, as well as ushers in social, environmental, and economical sustainability after every implementation of the law regardless of the political nature of the elected or reelected Government Plan.

The Targets Program initiative stands out for its durability in terms of endurance and performance. It is so due to its compulsory clause in which São Paulo’s Organic Law instituted the initiative as a permanent mechanism for the City’s services management. Such an amendment neither allows opportunistic deviations from sound public management by all City governments, nor changes in its compulsory framework due to its constitutional status. Experience has proven that each implementation of the Targets Program has led to improvements on São Paulo’s capacity to plan, monitor, and execute its public services priorities in spite of the huge challenges to govern such a mega City.

Yes

As determined in the law which formulated the initiative, formal mechanisms of evaluation must be taken in order to construe and assess its impacts. It is thus an evaluation which accounts the importance of the initiative by way of its implementation and monitoring after each government cycle. One evaluates therefore the capacity of the Program to plan, monitor, and assess the delivery of public services in a city of huge proportions such as São Paulo. As regarding specifically the concept of the Targets Program itself, the data available refers to public participation and its results. Although it cannot be considered a formal evaluation, it shows some of the Program’s impacts. While on the 2013-2016 Administration there were 9.849 suggestions the preliminary version, on the 2017-2020 Program there were 23.953 contributions. After public consult, the final document included 23 objectives for the first period, and 3 goals and 54 actions on the 2017-2020 instrument.

The innovation brought about with the Targets Program has ushered in, first and foremost, excellent management skills to comply with the need of democratic, liable, and transparent governance. São Paulo’s Management Department had to be capable to translate a multi-billion-reais budget into a management program open to public decision making and participation, comprising a substantial list of projects and actions in which targets can be assessed real-time in terms of status and geographic reach.

Overall, direct and indirect indicators were applied to assess São Paulo’s Targets Program Initiative, since it is an instrument of management which outlines and monitors the execution of public services delivery. Directly, the main indicator refers to public participation in decision-making based on the number of attendees in committees, hearings, online platforms, and audiences. This figure has been steadily increased since the advent of the Targets Law in 2008, reaching a substantial participation of more than 23,953 suggestions from the population in the 2017-2020 Targets Program version. Indirectly, the Targets Program could have its perception and reach evaluated by means of media coverage in TV, radio, online, and print outlets, as well as academic and journal publications which supply an extensive bibliography of the initiative.

The Targets Program Initiative could only be possible through a sum of efforts in which the public and private sectors, as well as organized interested groups from civil society worked together towards a common goal: improve São Paulo’s public services delivery management. The initiative was propelled by network of individuals, grouped in an non-profit organization specially founded with that objective, through whom the idea was coordinated with stakeholders from the City’s Government and the Council of Representatives. The collaboration from civil society was driven by inclusion in decision making in order to reach as many communities as possible, in an effort to garner popular support and awareness. Multiple committees and public hearings brought the initiative closer to the public and thus strengthened its political support amid the Municipal Counselors. This coordination of efforts was also determinant in the phases of implementation of the three Government Plans elected since the law was passed in 2008.

Many lessons could be learned when a program of such large scale was brought to life, especially in terms of political engagement, management, governance, and values. The importance of strengthening decision making inclusiveness was thus a direct evidence of the Targets Program inasmuch as it provided legitimacy for the public administration, one one hand, while demanded an efficient relationship between the public sector and the population, on the other. Accordingly, it has been learned that transparency challenges the public administration into more efficient management mechanisms to check self-oriented governments and cumbersome bureaucracies. São Paulo’s Targets Program Initiative in this sense has provided substantial lessons to improve open governmentship especially in regard of the triad interface of politicians’ campaign platforms, their responsibility before the electorate, and the consequent public services delivery. Finally, we are firmly convinced it could only be possible with a strong commitment to pursue human rights protection, development, and environmental sustainability ideals.