National Initiatives Concerning Human Resources Development by Local Authorities and Communities

National Initiatives Concerning Human Resources Development by Local Authorities and Communities - Brazil

The Council of the "Comunidade Solidária" initiative, composed of 10 Ministers (members of the Cabinet) and 21 representatives of civil society, has taken important steps toward the consolidation of a partnership between State and society. It provides a new space for dialogue between Government and organizations of civil society, bringing them closer together and creating a synergy between governmental policies, which aspire to permanence and universality, and organizations of society, who strive to defend specific interests and to experiment new and more flexible ways of acting.

The basic role of the Council of "Comunidade Solidária" is to propose ideas, promote partnerships and mobilize energies and resources for social development. It may develop and experiment with new forms of relationships and collaboration between public and private actors in the fight against poverty and social exclusion, facilitating and catalyzing initiatives implemented by these actors, without itself directly carrying out programmes or projects.

The Council´s basic method is to stimulate and support the creation of partnerships for the decentralized implementation of joint initiatives which, after being adequately assessed, may be carried out on a greater scale. In this way, the Council has been responsible for a number of initiatives in the last two years, such as:

The extent of social problems in Brazil makes it necessary to increase the projects and policies directed to finding solutions. The inadequate and ineffective solutions pursued until recently must be replaced by new approaches, procedures, modes of action and relationships.

This aspect highlights the innovative dimension of the work of the Council: to develop experiments, initially tested as pilot-projects, which may be implemented on a larger scale on the basis of a collective evaluation of the results obtained. For instance, successful programmes that targeted initially a few thousand youth in need may be replicated in such a way as to reach tens of thousands or even millions of beneficiaries. Stimulus is given, in this way, to experimentation and generalization with regard to new and more efficient, participatory and decentralized ways of combatting social problems.

The initiatives of "Comunidade Solidária" involve voluntary and spontaneous participation of social actors. This cannot be achieved without reaching an understanding about priorities, means and procedures for social action. To achieve this, the Council initiated, in 1996, a Political Dialogue between the Government and representatives of different sectors of society with the aim of defining a minimum agenda of priorities in the social field. The following points were selected: employment and income, food security, children and youth and rural development. By means of this political dialogue, actions are carried out involving regular co-ordination among Ministries, members of society, governmental officials and experts, Unions, employers´ associations, media, NGO´s and intellectuals. This is done within sectoral committees set up by the Council of "Comunidade Solidária".

By co-ordinating and focusing government action through its Executive Secretariat, "Comunidade Solidária" seeks to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the use of resources allocated to social programmes. The principles of solidarity, partnership and decentralization that guide "Comunidade Solidária" do not allow for a definite or a single standard for governmental action. In a dynamic process, the Federal government tries to find new ways of managing a series of priority programmes implemented by different Ministries, avoiding centralized forms of decision-making, duplication and pulverization - practices that result in inefficiency, discontinuity, waste and patronage.

The Solidary Community Executive Secretariat is responsible for coordinating and sponsoring, within the scope of the Federal Government, welfare programs aimed at the neediest segments of society, which are carried out by the several sector ministries. The Secretariat is in also charged with both identifying, throughout the country, the areas with the highest concentration of poor people and selecting, at the governmental level, the programs that act more efficiently in the struggle against poverty and hunger.

These programs will be included in the so-called Basic Agenda of the Solidary Community. The Secretariat follows up the development of these programs by promoting discussions with state and municipal governments, with the aim of integrating actions in the struggle against poverty. It also coordinates the investment of Federal Government resources in the welfare area. The Executive Secretariat is linked to the governmental department in charge of assisting the President of the Republic.

The Executive Secretariat neither counts on a separate budget nor transfers resources. It operates, at the federal level, as an instrument to guide and sponsor governmental actions by avoiding the centralization of decisions, the overlapping of actions and the pulverization of resources, with a view to improving the efficacy of the programs.

In order to define its two action fronts in parallel, the Executive Secretariat has used the joint studies carried out by two governmental agencies: the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) and the Institute for Economic Applied Research (IPEA). The technical document developed by the two agencies has indicated the areas of greater poverty concentration in the country.

In 1995, through the Executive Secretariat of the Solidary Community, the Government concentrated actions in poverty belts of 302 municipalities. In 1996 this number had reached 1.111 municipalities, due to the updating in the number of municipalities in the Northern region. In July of 1997, priority assistance had been extended to 1.368 municipalities.

The resources used by the programs under the supervision of the Executive Secretariat increased from R$ 980 million in 1995 to R$ 2.78 billion in 1997, as shown in the resources chart.

The Executive Secretariat is expanding the strategy aimed at promoting integrated actions, by sponsoring the adjustment of the programs to local reality. An assessment of the first two years of activity indicates positive results in the six priority areas of the Basic Agenda:

The projects conceived and promoted by the Council aim, mainly, at young people who have no access to education and jobs, in a effort to provide this group with new opportunities of social insertion. They are: Solidary Literacy, Solidary Qualification and Solidary University.

Solidary Literacy is a Program conceived by the Solidary Community to assist young people between the ages of 12 and 18 who can't read and write and live in the municipalities with the highest illiteracy rates in the country. It is the result of a partnership among the Solidary Community, the Minister of Education, Brazilian universities, city halls and representatives of private initiative. The pilot project was implemented during the first semester of 1997 in 38 municipalities of the Northern and Northeastern regions, where illiteracy rates exceed 55%.

11 companies have taken responsibility over the selected municipalities; 38 universities have been trained and have trained young instructors selected in their own communities and begun to follow up, on a regular basis, the development of the pilot project in their respective towns.

After having been assessed and improved by the participating universities themselves, the Program was expanded, in June of 1997, to a total of 120 municipalities of the Northern and Northeastern regions. Plans for the future include the expansion of partnerships, so that this model can be extended to all regions in the country with high illiteracy rates.

Solidary Qualification is a Program conceived by the Solidary Community to provide young people between the ages of 14 and 21, from low income households of metropolitan regions, with access to professional training and to the labor market. The courses are conceived and delivered by organizations of the civil society that work within these needy communities, with resources granted by private initiative. Project selection and students qualification is done through public entrance examinations, and the selection is under the responsibility of a committee of renowned experts. The main criterion is the innovative nature of the courses proposed, which are expected to explore new niches of the labor market.

Social projects are carried out through the transfer of funds granted by the partners of the private initiative directly to the organizations of the civil society, by means of entrance examinations. This new process aims at making access to resources more democratic, by giving equal opportunities to both small and large non-profit organizations.

The qualification course is six months long and its format associates the teaching of an occupational activity with the development of sociability and self-esteem. During its pilot phase, in 1996, the Solidary Qualification Program provided for the delivery of 33 courses in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, having trained a total of 1.050 youngsters. The numbers increased in 1997.

The Solidary University Program was developed by the Solidary Community with a view to take advantage of the volunteer work carried out by both university students and universities towards the improvement of living standards in the neediest segments of society. The Program allows for students from several regions in the country to visit small municipalities in the hinterlands of the North and the Northeast during their summer vacations, where they participate in activities of community mobilization, aimed at improving local health assistance, education and organization. It is the result of a partnership among companies, universities, city halls, the Armed Forces, ministries and foundations.

The initial format of the Program is based on sending teams of ten students per municipality, accompanied by a professor. The work is developed through videos specially developed for this purpose. University students show the videos to the people, clear their doubts and promote participation through group activities, simulations, plays and discussions.

In 1996 the Program was delivered in its pilot version in a total of 99 municipalities: 89 in the Northeastern region and 10 in the Jequitinhonha Valley, in the state of Minas Gerais. In 1997, the Program reached municipalities in the Amazon region.

The Multi-Annual Investment Plan - PPA, drawn up by the Brazilian Government, provides a framework for all government activities in the coming years (2000-2003). This is a development plan, in a context of severe fiscal constraints, necessitating optimum use of available resources and identification of priorities with maximum social impact.

Public Employment and Income Policies have a tripartite management strategy, which is likewise observed by PLANFOR. The active participation of the Deliberative Council of the Worker Protection Funds - CODEFAT at all stages of PLANFOR implementation, further guarantees that the Plan will be shaped by civil society demands. The Council is of a joint, tripartite nature, made up of representatives of workers, employers and government. CODEFAT approves the programme and intervenes in the various stages of the implementation process, including allocation of resources for implementation (see annex A CODEFAT Resolution 194/98).

The following programmes make up the PPA, administered by the Ministry for Employment - MTE.

Vocational Training Plan for Workers - PLANFOR, which is described as one of the priorities in the labour sphere, aiming to train 20 million individuals over the next four years.

While vocational training does not create jobs, in itself, it is nonetheless an essential tool in permit ting a worker to meet the challenges faced by the Brazilian economy as a result of technological, organizational and administrative changes. The priority of Programme, carried out by the Vocational Training Department (public Employment Policy Secretariat), focuses on the groups that have traditionally had fewer possibilities of access to vocational training alternatives and, for this reason, are ill prepared to meet the challenges of the new world of work: the unemployed, workers and activities that are lost in restructuring of production, self-employed, small and micro producers of the urban and rural sector and other socially vulnerable groups, such as young people seeking their first job, female heads of household, inhabitants of poor regions, the disabled, ethnic-racial minorities and workers with limited schooling.

The target groups of PLANFOR activities include self-managed undertakings and micro entrepreneurs and the self-employed and groups in the informal sector:

More than a mass training programme, PLANFOR was designed principally as a strategy for integrating, strengthening and/or restructuring national vocational training capacity, thereby contributing to the staggered and participative construction of a public job and income generating policy serving to boost competitiveness and promote equality of opportunity on the labour market, reduce social inequality; in short, an instrument with the ultimate objective of achieving sustainable development.

PLANFOR is intended to be a force of change in the existing vocational training model. It targets the over-16 economically active population (EAP) and, focussing on a clear ultimate objective, its activities are driven by explicit demand emanating from the integrated activities of the Municipal and State Employment Commissions, which are of tripartite composition, which are responsible for formulating, integrating and ranking vocational training demand and for overseeing PEQ implementation. (They also establish parameters for resource allocation.) Such Commissions exist in all States of the Federation and Federal District and in over 2,500 municipalities; they play an essential role in identifying vocational training demand in the context of the workers real needs and existing job opportunities.

PLANFOR's general objective is to build up, over time, permanent vocational training facilities to train or retrain at least 20 per cent of EAP annually.

Although its objectives are ambitious, reflecting the sheer size of the EAP, PLANFOR was not designed as a mass training programme but rather as a strategy for integrating, strengthening and/or restructuring national competences and available physical and financial resources in the sphere of vocational training.

The prime impact of increased competition pressure is that companies are endeavouring to cut back costs, with a series of repercussions. These include, principally, new management techniques and technological innovation. Both have a positive effect on the productivity of work and a knock-on effect on the labour market.

PLANFOR was designed to respond to innovations in management and technology and to increased worker mobility between sectors and occupations, in the context of more frequent unemployment, which in turn necessitates a greater emphasis on vocational training. This evaluation is important in that such changes tend to require a higher level of general and specific education, thereby increasing demand for more highly qualified workers over those with lower qualifications.

Given the circumstances, PLANFOR has adopted a new profile and concept of qualification which goes beyond a mere mastery of motor skills and readiness to obey orders, and includes a broad general training and solid technological grounding. Basic education and vocational training are no longer confined to the educational sector by have become a component of the production sector.

Under PLANFOR, guaranteed preferential access is dictated by the degree of vulnerability inherent in the combination of factors which may imply disadvantage or discrimination on the labour market and which may hamper access to other vocational training or retraining alternatives.

Hence, the following preferential treatment criteria have been established, which are combined in response to regional characteristics and demand, together with the specific nature of projects to be carried out:

PLANFOR seeks to ensure that the participation of these different sectors in training programmes is at least in proportion to the make-up of the local EAP; this is reflected in the protocol and agreements signed by the Ministry of Labour and other Ministries (see annex C List of Protocols), by the Brazilian Government with ILO, consistent with guidelines laid down in the National Human Rights Plan, in an effort to ensure that diversity and equality of opportunity are promoted on the labour market.

The programme guidelines identify four target population groups in urban and rural areas: unemployed workers, principally unemployment benefit recipients and those seeking their first job; workers who are liable to become unemployed as a result of production restructuring processes and redefinition of economic policies; urban and rural small and micro producers and self-employed workers, members of cooperatives and self-managed enterprises (on the formal and informal markets).

The basic premise in identifying the four PLANFOR target groups is that they require, in principle, different vocational training and retraining strategies and methodologies. These differences basically reflect the background experience, current situation and prospects on the labour market for these categories; these variables should be reflected in the programmes drawn up for each group.

The characteristics of these target groups, combined with the criteria for preferential access to programmes, ensure that PLANFOR activities are focussed on the most vulnerable groups of the EAR

PLANFOR, with its philosophy of decentralization, participation and partnership, is implemented principally through two mechanisms:

Through these two mechanisms, the decentralized implementation of PLANFOR brings into play a network of existing vocational training institutes, schools and agencies, including: universities, technical schools, foundations, business confederations, national social and apprenticeship services (SENAI/SESI, SENAC/SESC, SENAT/SEST, SENAR and SEBRAE), trade union federations, trade union schools and other institutions specializing specifically in vocational training.

The main dynamic impact of growing competition is that companies seek to reduce costs, with a series of results. These include, principally, the adoption of new management techniques and the introduction of technological innovations, particularly through access to imported equipment. Both the new management techniques and the technological innovations have a positive effect on the productivity of labour and a consequent impact on the labour market.

EMP/SKILLS - Skills and Employability Department