Action plan – Contagem, Brazil, 2022 – 2024

At-a-Glance

Duration

Dec 2024

Date Submitted

15th December 2022

Foreword(s)

The municipality of Contagem has been moving towards building a more transparent and participatory government, initiating an internal change to develop a more open, integral, and inclusive management. Our structured open government actions date back to 2017, when the Avança Contagem Program established transparencyAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, transparency occurs when “government-held information (including on activities and decisions) is open, comprehensive, timely, freely available to the pub... More and integrity actions, in 2018 our municipality was awarded nationally at the 32nd Brazilian Congress of Administrative Law, for the Integrity Seal project, created and developed to foster a culture of integrity, prevent corruption and promote ethics in relations with private companies

Several conferences with citizen participationAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, citizen participation occurs when “governments seek to mobilize citizens to engage in public debate, provide input, and make contributions that lead to m... More and involvement were held in 2021 to discuss and improve policies and guidelines in the most diverse areas. A very important milestone was the plenary sessions to review Contagem’s Master Plan, an instrument that will serve as a reference in directing actions for the municipality’s growth and development, prioritizing popular participation and the Sustainable Development GoalsOGP countries are experimenting with open government innovations to accelerate progress on the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 16+ which includes peaceful, just and inclusive societies... of the United Nations Organization – UNO.

In the year 2022, the municipality started its quest to develop a more open and inclusive management, improving and consolidating the Municipal System of Popular and Citizen Participation with the Decide Contagem Platform, which gathers information from the Public Policy Councils and the Regional Councils of the municipality, as well as other processes open to popular participation.

We are carrying out several actions to promote popular participation in the most diverse areas, with the support and participation of civil society organizations and with representatives from academia, expanding transparency actions and consolidating open government as a good practice to be introduced in the municipal public administration.

Open Government Challenges, Opportunities and Strategic Vision

This subsection details the Open Government Strategic Vision in your local area that should guide the commitments for the action plan period.

What is the long-term vision for open government in your context and jurisdiction?

Considering the responsibility around the theme of Open Government, the Municipality has as its long-term vision the transition from the patrimonial and personal culture, which is still present in the Public Administration, to a culture that emphasizes the principles of transparency, integrity, and social participation, as a foundation in the development of government actions and improvement of the public service provided.

By expanding the practices of transparency and access to information, and seeking the development of governance committed to society, the municipality aims at actions that reflect more credibility to the service and performance of public agents, especially with the participation and involvement of the various sectors and civil society, to build an environment of constructive dialogue with a fairer city and better public services.

What are the achievements in open government to date (for example, recent open government reforms)?

– Revision of the Municipal Master Plan: Focused on social justiceTo address barriers that prevent citizens from having their justice needs met, OGP participating governments are working to expand transparency, accountability, and inclusion into all systems of justi..., seeking the well-being of communities, respecting sustainable development, and the participation of civil society.

– Decide Contagem: Digital platform for popular participation, implemented to bring the local government closer to the demands of the population, for the collective construction of a better city.

– Contagem Integrity Seal: Created to foster a culture of integrity, corruption prevention, and promotion of ethics in relations with private companies.

– Seminar on Popular Participation and Public Management in the Prevention of Socio-environmental Disasters: Held with the aim of raising discussions and proposing preventive actions, for participative and collaborative governance.

– Itinerant Ombudsman Office: Action carried out in the Contagem regional offices to increase the visibility and performance of the ombudsman offices, encouraging popular participation and the exercise of citizenship.

– Municipal Culture Conference: The conference was aimed at the legal revision of the Municipal Culture Plan, to ensure the strengthening of social participation in the development and implementation of public policies for the sector.

– Municipal Week of the Person with Disability: Dialog about the importance of social inclusionOGP participating governments are working to create governments that truly serve all people. Commitments in this area may address persons with disabilities, women and girls, lesbian, gay, bisexual, tr... More of the person with a disability, ensuring the defense of rights, social participation, as well as specific demands within the principle of equity.

What are the current challenges/areas for improvement in open government that the jurisdiction wishes to tackle?

Committed to the implementation of open government practices, the municipality of Contagem intends to advance in some policy areas listed by the OGP: Anti-Corruption and IntegrityOGP participating governments are working to root out undue influence across government affairs, because the use of public office for private gain erodes citizens’ trust in their government and its ... More, Inclusion, Justice, and Digital GovernanceAs evolving technologies present new opportunities for governments and citizens to advance openness and accountability, OGP participating governments are working to create policies that deal with the ... More.

The challenges are: improving the transparency portal; mobilizing the participation of society beyond political agendas; mitigating the digital exclusion of a large part of the most vulnerable population; expanding actions and technologies to facilitate access to public services; training public servants for the open government agenda; adopting tools that enable the use of open dataBy opening up data and making it sharable and reusable, governments can enable informed debate, better decision making, and the development of innovative new services. Technical specifications: Polici..., aligned to security and protection of sensitive personal data.

What are the medium-term open government goals that the government wants to achieve?

– Create a digital tool for popular participation in the municipality, to give more scope to programs that involve civil society, offering more quality information to the population through the promotion of active transparency and the availability of data in an open format;

– Implement guidelines and actions for integrity and compliance;

– Improving the Transparency Portal;

– Offer more services in a decentralized way (regional) and online;

– Implement tools for greater access to justiceAccessible justice systems – both formal and informal – ensure that individuals and communities with legal needs know where to go for help, obtain the help they need, and move through a system tha... More and conflict resolution.

How does this action plan contribute to achieve the Open Government Strategic Vision?

Focused on transparency, participation, and innovation, the Contagem Action Plan concentrates its guidelines on commitments based on the principles of Open Government. In this sense, the Action Plan was discussed and concentrates its proposals on activities that ensure more transparency and accessibility to public data, in order to expand the forms of inspection, in addition to instigating the interest and participation of citizens, to identify the places where public service is most deficient, enabling the development of better policies and the quality of spending public resources, more effectively.

Adding to this topic, with the intention of including and improving the services available to citizens, other actions will reconcile new technologies with social participation and the provision of public services. By electing the citizen as a priority, Contagem’s Action Plan meets the vision of joint construction defended by open government, in which society and government must work together.

How does the open government strategic vision contribute to the accomplishment of the current administration’s overall policy goals?

The strategic vision migrates the open government actions from a Government perspective to a State guideline, integrating the concept of Open Government with the political goals of the current administration, our commitments were defined by valuing transparency, efficiency, the permanent dialogue with the population, the rationalization of expenses with the improvement of the quality of spending, and the commitmentOGP commitments are promises for reform co-created by governments and civil society and submitted as part of an action plan. Commitments typically include a description of the problem, concrete action... to ethics. 

Engagement and Coordination in the Open Government Strategic Vision and OGP Action Plan

Please list the lead institutions responsible for the implementation of this OGP action plan.

• Municipal Comptroller General’s Office of Contagem
• Municipal Attorney-General’s Office of Contagem
• Municipal Secretariat of Information Technology
• Municipal Secretariat of Government and Popular Participation

What kind of institutional arrangements are in place to coordinate between government agencies and departments to implement the OGP action plan?

The Municipal Comptroller General’s Office (CGM) is the body responsible for coordinating the action plan, and to ensure the implementation of commitments, a working group was created and established by Ordinance CGM No. 08/2022, with representatives from various departments, academia, and civil society. 

Our open government actions are institutionalized in the Citizen and Popular Participation System of Contagem, in the Platform for Popular Participation – Decide Contagem, regulated by Ordinance 61/2022, in Contagem’s Integrity Program, regulated by Decree 599/2022, and in the actions aimed at popular participation and transparency of the city’s Multi-Year Plan (PPA). 

What kind of spaces have you used or created to enable the collaboration between government and civil society in the co-creation and implementation of this action plan? Mention both offline and online spaces.

One of the guidelines was the diagnosis made by the Getúlio Vargas Foundation, for the project of Improvement the Municipal System of Popular and Citizen Participation, in which in-depth interviews were conducted with various actors of the Channels of the System of Popular Participation and visits were made to some regional areas of the city.

In the face-to-face meetings of the Working Group, civil society, represented by social entities, and the academic environment, represented by the UNA University Center, participated collaborating in the development and definition of commitments.

Having technological innovation as one of its guidelines, our action plan has relied since its elaboration, on the use of a dialog tool in a digital environment. Civil society was able to participate in the process of creating the plan through the Decide Contagem Platform, which allowed the population to know and vote, helping to choose the priority commitments.

What measures did you take to ensure diversity of representation (including vulnerable or marginalized populations) in these spaces?

Aware of the importance of reflecting and defending the diversity that exists in society, the members of the working group responsible for preparing the action plan seek to represent, with their knowledge and experience, the population of Contagem, in addition to the product of interviews conducted by Getúlio Vargas Foundation with representatives of regional and human rightsAn essential part of open government includes protecting the sacred freedoms and rights of all citizens, including the most vulnerable groups, and holding those who violate human rights accountable. T... councils.

The OGP working group is made up of municipal civil servants from several departments, who, based not only on their experience in public administration but also as citizens, represent the most varied demands and needs of the population. This group is joined by representatives from academia and civil society organizations, one of the interlocutors between the vulnerable population and the government. The discussions do not end with this group, but the action plan is in constant dialogue with the residents through digital spaces in the ever-increasing interest of bringing society and government closer together.

Who participated in these spaces?

The co-creation space for Contagem’s action plan counted during its meetings with a diversified group composed of municipal employees representing the government’s departments, associations not linked to the public power, and members of the academic community.

How many groups participated in these spaces?

3

How many public-facing meetings were held in the co-creation processCollaboration between government, civil society and other stakeholders (e.g., citizens, academics, private sector) is at the heart of the OGP process. Participating governments must ensure that a dive...?

4

How will government and non-governmental stakeholders continue to collaborate through the implementation of the action plan?

With the purpose of changing the culture of public participation in administrative management, the action plan has been concerned since its elaboration with the collaboration of stakeholders in open government practices. The Decide Contagem platform and the Contagem City Hall website will be used as an open space for public interaction and as tools for dialogue between the municipality and society. The implementation of the plan will be closely monitored by the work team that will monitor the commitments, and always be attentive and open to dialogue. 

Please describe the independent Monitoring Body you have identified for this plan.

The monitoring body elected to follow up on the actions is AMONP – Associação dos Moradores do Bairro Novo Progresso II (Novo Progresso II Neighborhood Association). Founded in 1973, the non-profit association aims to promote citizenship to transform lives. With almost fifty years of activity, AMONP has values based on ethics and transparency that will be used in the support and monitoring of the municipality’s actions.

Provide the contact details for the independent monitoring body.

• Isabella Ligia Moraes, Social Counselor, isabellaligiamoraes@gmail.com

What types of activities will you have in place to discuss progress on commitments with stakeholders?

The working group will hold regular face-to-face meetings, in addition to using electronic communication channels to monitor and evaluate the implementation of activities. During these moments it will be possible to discuss and reformulate, if necessary, deadlines and methodologies.

How will you regularly check in on progress with implementing agencies?

The progress of the implementation of commitments will be monitored by the Municipal Comptroller General’s Office of Contagem, during the meetings of the working group with AMONP II, the body responsible for monitoring the program. It will also be accompanied by electronic means of communication, such as e-mails, virtual meetings, etc.

How will you share the results of your monitoring efforts with the public?

Based on the principle of technological innovation, the results will be made available on the Transparency Portal of Contagem, on the page dedicated to Open Government. To ensure transparency and generate more involvement from civil society, the disclosure will also be made on the Decide Contagem Platform and on the City Hall’s social networks, in order to facilitate citizen monitoring of the progress of the action plan.

Endorsement from Non-Governmental Stakeholders

• Wagner Felipe Macedo Vilaça, Courses Coordinator, UNA University Center
• Dardânia Gouveia dos Reis, University Director, UNA University Center

Letter of Support_Contagem

Contagem First Action Plan