TransformaGov Networks - Observatory of Public Sector Innovation

The Secretariat for Management - SEGES (Secretaria de Gestão) provides an inter-institutional cooperation environment for the implementation of the TransformaGov.BR Programme (Programa TransformaGov.BR) through the creation of a collaborative network in the states. The TransformaGov.BR Network brings together representatives of agencies and entities that have units outside Brasília with the objective of promoting the exchange of experiences, leveling governance and management practices and promoting the implementation of administrative efficiency solutions.

Innovation Summary

Innovation Overview

Brazil's Federal Public Administration (FPA) presents relevant asymmetries that impact from the formulation and implementation of public policies to their execution. One of the causes of them being the isolated work within the scope of the Brazilian State, where bodies and entities are organized to act independently and autonomously, creating watertight niches of competence and potentially generating wasted efforts, resources and time. In turn, this generates impacts on administrative efficiency and contributes to the citizen's perception of slowness and incapacity, compromising legitimacy and therefore, ultimately, interfering with governance . For this goal, over the last three years, SEGES has implemented management and cooperation networks in the majority of Brazil's federal states.

The implementation of management and cooperation networks in all federal states generates an ecosystem can boost efficiency by fostering collaborative state actions among decentralized units and entities belonging to the FPA. It can optimise the implementation of public policies, giving more quality to public spending, delivering more value to society, as well as establishing new forms of narration of results and project management.

The potential for continuity and strengthening of networking by the Brazilian State, which could in the future expand to involve other federated entities and representatives of civil society, can be an important step in the evolution of the state and in the processes of management for results that focus on the citizen. In this context, there is relevance in expanding and strengthening the role of SEGES in the implementation and expansion of this superstructure of cooperation. If expanded, it can impact the entire cycle of public policies, generating environments and endless opportunities for improvement, innovation, modernization and sharing of experiences, knowledge and resources.

Innovation Description

What Makes Your Project Innovative?

TransformaGov includes simplification and transformation measures for FPA bodies and entities. SEGES, through its Government Transformation Department, created and maintains an environment of inter-institutional cooperation through TransformaGov Networks (Redes TransformaGov.BR) a set of collaborative networks currently present in 23 states, TransformaGov Networks. The Networks bring together representatives of bodies and entities with administrative units located outside Brasília/DF and promote the exchange of experiences and good practices in governance and management, in addition to providing administrative efficiency solutions. To this end, representatives were appointed to act as mediators of actions in each state where the Network operates.

What is the current status of your innovation?

The TransformaGov Networks are still in the implementation phase, given that there are networks with complementary action related to innovation, as well as thematic networks spread within the scope of the FPA and within SEGES that may start to act in synchronous cooperation.

Innovation Development

Collaborations & Partnerships

The management of the Networks has a dedicated team, 10 servers for contacts and promotion of collaborative projects and partnerships. The directors/public servants of the FPA's decentralized units in each of the states where the Network is present are part of the State Networks. The Networks reach more than 140 bodies/entities - 950 FPA units in 23 states through remote mediation and virtual forums. Other partners include the National School of Public Administration and other inter-institutional networks of management and innovation in government.

Users, Stakeholders & Beneficiaries

FPA units: more than 950 units integrating the TransformaGov Network
Managers and public servants of FPA units / decentralized units
Central Bodies/Headquarters of Brazil's FPA
Office, Departments and Coordination of SEGES/Ministry of Economy
Institutional partners: academia and public schools
Civil society, citizens, and service users impacted by the Networks' actions

Innovation Reflections

Results, Outcomes & Impacts

The innovative positioning of the Secretariat for Management/SEGES impacted the target audience of the Networks at an atypical moment. The articulations in the states that started in late 2019 were consolidated in mid-2020, synchronized with the COVID-19 pandemic and the necessary transition from a face-to-face to a remote model. Thus, SEGES was able to test and confirm the relevance of the network model as a fundamental strategy to support the public agencies and units in each of the states.

In addition, the promotion and dissemination of a collaborative culture served to:

Mobilize for transformation and administrative simplification
Rationalization of the use of resources and cost reduction
Management of knowledge about public management in decentralized units
Valuing knowledge, encouraging the sharing of experiences and good practices
Training, workshops, impacted servers, affected bodies and partner organizations

Challenges and Failures

One of the challenges we faced was the conceptualization of strategies and formulation of actions to increase the commitment, participation and engagement of the members of the Networks, expanding the levels of iteration, the self-management of the networks and the perpetuity of the network's performance.

Some of the failures and difficulties we faced were:

Resistance to collaborative action
Rotation of directors
Low involvement of the internal teams of each unit
Lack of knowledge of the network's potential for action
Lack of institutionalization

In order to overcome these difficulties, we are reviewing and remodeling all elements of the network's structure. We are defining its purpose, processes, products, means and form of communication. And modeling the interinstitutional projects aimed at improving public management in the Federal Public Administration.

Conditions for Success

Institutionalization of network action for the implementation of multisectoral policies, sharing of resources (materials and people), good practices, expertise and innovative actions
Definition and publication of purposes, objectives, values, processes and deliveries
Commitment of the sectoral managements with a new methodology of action/acting and governance.

Replication

There are no impediments to the replication of the initiative at the state or municipal level. The expansion of actors and target audience can be identified for the project to be replicated.

Lessons Learned

We understand that networking, through the institutionalization of a supra-structure of cooperation capable of improving interaction based on common purposes, is beneficial for the State. The culture of cooperation still needs to be introduced into the core of state action, which is still based on hierarchical and functional structuring. Changing mentalities is the first step towards changing behavior and only then will it be possible, over time, to perceive the change in values and the influence on results and impacts on society.

This process is time consuming and still pending an effective decision capable of mobilizing large and heavy state structures. When the objective is accomplished, innovation would be a constant within a fluid, virtual, horizontal and self-managed structure, capable of involving institutions, servers, collaborators and the citizen-client. Thus, changing the way of State action and the perception of the State.