Df or two years, researchers from Latin America investigated, under the coordination of a team from the Center for Public Policy Studies (Nepp) at Unicamp, several successful experiences implemented on the continent in the area of ​​health. Of these, 12 were selected due to their strategic importance for improving health conditions in the region, in four different areas: reproductive health, pharmaceutical assistance, reduction of infant mortality and control of endemic diseases. The result of the work has just been presented at an international seminar in São Paulo, between November 30th and December 2nd, with the aim of publicizing these successful experiences with a view to increasing the effectiveness of public health policies in Latin America and in the Caribbean. According to professors Geraldo Biasoto Júnior and Pedro Luiz Barros Silva, research coordinators, they intend to disseminate the methodology developed for this study, so that it serves as an instrument for evaluating initiatives in other sectors, such as education, social assistance, housing and generation of job.

Methodology makes it possible to evaluate initiatives in other sectors

The study that gave rise to the seminar is the result of a joint initiative between Nepp and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), which financed the work. According to professor Pedro Luiz, who coordinates Nepp, this was the first time that the IDB signed a partnership on these terms directly with a public university. Typically, contracts are signed with the Union, states or municipalities. The professor explains that the four segments that make up the axis of the study are related to the “Millennium Goals”, which are the eight proposals formulated by the United Nations (UN) to try to transform the world.

To reach the 12 successful experiences in the health area (see table), which range from the Brazilian program to combat AIDS to the Bolivian universal maternal and child insurance, Nepp formulated its own methodology. “Somehow, we already had information about successful public policies. However, we wanted to know what the constituent elements of these actions were and whether they could be reproduced in other countries, both within and outside the health sector”, explains Vera Lúcia Cabral Costa, Nepp researcher and technical-scientific coordinator of the work. Thus, the researchers analyzed the initiatives from three different aspects. The first of these referred to the management and operational structure of the project. In this case, it was assessed whether these requirements were appropriate to the complexity of the problem that the program intended to solve.

The second point considered was the financial framework of the project. In other words, it was not enough for the action to be well managed and have a good operational structure if it did not have sufficient resources to sustain it over time. The third and final aspect analyzed was that related to governance. The researchers investigated whether the public policies taken for study were articulated and integrated between the various government bodies, as well as with sectors of organized civil society. “This concept of governance proved to be very important because the probability of a public policy being successful increases to the extent that it has the participation of the various actors involved with the problem, including its direct beneficiaries”, says professor Pedro Luiz.

Based on these more general elements, topics such as the potential for replicability of the experience, its degree of sustainability, its level of innovation and, obviously, the positive impacts caused on the health of local populations were also analyzed. All the programs analyzed, continues the Nepp coordinator, had a national reach. The researchers worked with official data provided by government agencies and with other types of information, such as indicators generated by demographic censuses. “We also interviewed health experts from different countries and had the collaboration of an advisory committee made up of representatives from the IDB, Caricom [Caribbean Community], ECLAC [Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean] and PAHO [Pan American Health Organization]. Health]”, informs Pedro Luiz.

According to him, the international seminar served both to publicize the results of the work and to collect criticism and suggestions from health experts. In practice, publicity work is already being done through a website created specifically for this purpose, at the address www.saludinova.com.br. According to the Unicamp professor, the research results will be collected in a book, to be published soon.