Brazil Results Report 2021–2023

Nine of the 12 commitments in Brazil’s fifth action planAction plans are at the core of a government’s participation in OGP. They are the product of a co-creation process in which government and civil society jointly develop commitments to open governmen... achieved moderate early resultsEarly results refer to concrete changes in government practice related to transparency, citizen participation, and/or public accountability as a result of a commitment’s implementation. OGP’s Inde.... Coinciding with electionsImproving transparency in elections and maintaining the independence of electoral commissions is vital for promoting trust in the electoral system, preventing electoral fraud, and upholding the democr... and subsequent political transitions, the implementation period was cut short to 12 months. Despite strained relationships between civil society and the executive, Brazil’s open government movement continued to advance, which underscores the OGP process as a resilient space for participation and collective action.

Early results

There were no significant early results from the implementation of Brazil’s fifth national OGP action plan, although 9 of the 12 commitments achieved moderate early results. Stakeholders pointed to the lasting effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, a shortened implementation period, elections, and strained relationships between civil society and the executive as factors limiting the early results.

Among the commitments that achieved moderate early results, this report highlights those that advanced open government in areas that were under threat or were a relevant next step from previous action plans. 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... 1 (on access to quality environmental data) and 10 (on disclosure of environmental licensing data) advanced 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 open discussions of environmental issues. Commitment 8 (on promoting open science) continued Brazil’s regional leadership in open science and built on the work from the previous plan. Furthermore, these commitments set themselves apart as they produced specific deliverables and recommendations with the active participation of the involved stakeholders.

CompletionImplementers must follow through on their commitments for them to achieve impact. For each commitment, OGP’s Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) evaluates the degree to which the activities outlin...

Half of the commitments (6) in this action plan were substantially completed, two were fully completed, and four saw limited progress. Overall, the level of completion is comparable to prior action plans[1] with no notable differences in completion levels between civil society and government priority themes. In most cases, fully completed commitments benefited from active stakeholder participation (Commitment 8), lead agency’s capacity to enact change (Commitment 1), and a clear continuation of work from one milestone to the next. Those with limited completion did not deliver a final product that embodied the commitment expectations (Commitment 2), had ongoing coordination and weak participation that prevented from delivering co-created results (Commitment 6), or significantly delayed by due process (Commitments 7 and 11).

Participation and co-creation

The co-creation and implementation of the fifth action plan met the minimum requirements of the OGP Participation and Co-Creation Standards.[2] Two bodies make up the OGP Multistakeholder Forum of Brazil: the Interministerial Open Government Committee (CIGA) oversees the OGP process and the Civil Society Working Group (CSWG) advises this committee. CIGA was actively involved during co-creation but reduced its participation during implementation.[3] Throughout the action plan cycle, the CSWG had limited influence and remained an advisory body to the CIGA, without voting power.[4] The Comptroller-General’s Office of the Union (CGU) coordinates the operations of the multistakeholder forum.

As in past action plan cycles, implementation of the action plan saw less active involvement of civil society in monitoring the progress and government agencies in advancing agreed milestones. Organizational and individual changes across government and civil society brought implementation hurdles, given the need to restart conversations and re-orient new participants. Interviewed civil society representatives expressed challenges such as competing priorities, limited resources, explicit normative actions that limited civic spaces, and strained relationships with the executive. Furthermore, the election period reduced the availability of government officials and civil society representatives. The COVID-19 pandemic also posed challenges, although virtual modalities were successfully adopted. The role of the CGU has been highlighted as vital in navigating these challenges for having established good practices such as frequent monitoring meetings and progress reports submission for each commitment.

Implementation in context

Brazil’s multistakeholder forum decided to reduce the implementation period of the 2021–2023 cycle from two years to only one year (covering January–December 2022). This was to ensure the following action plan be in sync with the federal government plans and priorities for the 2023 administration following the October 2022 elections.[5] Nevertheless, the IRM assessed the progress of implementation to mid-2023 in line with the original timeframe.

The CGU’s steady and experienced coordination as well as the commitment of individuals within government agencies and civil society allowed the plan to advance open government and influence national policies to an extent. One of the main results of the fifth plan was keeping the open government movement going despite a challenging political context as well as the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, which required adapting to a virtual modality. The OGP process showed its resiliency as a space to advance open government with a notable expansion of civic spaces for decision-making, and the development of a Federal Open Government Strategy[6] following the elections, which further enhanced open government practices and provided a course correction to the participatory deficiencies surrounding the fourth and fifth action plan cycles.

[1] For the third and fourth action plans, respectively 62.5% and 72.3% of commitments were fully or substantially completed. The fifth action plan had 66.7% of commitments under these categories. See Fabro Steibel, “IRM End-of-Term Report: Brazil 2016–2018,” Open Government Partnership, 2 October 2020, https://www.opengovpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Brazil_EOTR_2016-2018_EN.pdf; Christiana Soares de Freitas and Pedro Espaillat, “IRM Transitional Results Report: Brazil 2018–2020,” Open Government PartnershipThe Open Government Partnership (OGP) is a multi-stakeholder initiative focused on improving government transparency, ensuring opportunities for citizen participation in public matters, and strengthen... More, Forthcoming.

[2] For compliance during co-creation, refer to Section III: Participation and Co-Creation of the Action Plan Review. See Luciana Tuszel, “IRM Action Plan Review: Brazil 2021–2023,” Open Government Partnership, 10 January 2024, https://www.opengovpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Brazil_Action-Plan-Review_2021-2023_EN.pdf. For compliance during implementation, refer to Section III of this report.

[3] Comptroller-General of the Union, interview by IRM Researcher, 9 April 2024.

[4] For additional information, refer to Section III of this report.

[5] Comptroller-General of the Union, interview.

[6] Examples of civic space expansion under the new administration are: (1) The 2024–2027 multi-year plan (PPA) which functions as the federal government’s main budget planning instrument, increased its 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 components, with a reported mobilization of 32 thousand people; (2) The Transparency, Integrity, and Anti-Corruption Council (CTICC) was established—in practice an expansion of a previous council—with 30 civil society members and increased scope; (3) An interministerial social participation system, created by Executive Decree No. 11.407/2023, will establish a Social Participation and Diversity Office within each ministry to coordinate dialogue between government and civil society; (4) A Social Participation Council, formed via Executive Decree No. 11.406/2023, will serve as a direct advisory entity to the president with 68 diverse civil society representatives; (5) As a result of an assessment in collaboration with the OECD, the CGU is developing a Federal Open Government Strategy. Confirmed information received from Comptroller-General of the Union, correspondence with IRM researcher, 24 January 2024.