Brazil

National Health Council

City/State/Region
Begin – End: 1990 – ongoing
Name of organization in charge: Presidencia da República
Type of organization in charge: government
Level: national

Impact

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Implementation: was the innovation effectively, partially or not put into practice at all?

Fulfillment of Aims: were the goals of the innovation completely, partially or not achieved at all?

Output: has the innovation generated recommendations, initiatives, decisions or policies?

Outcome: if there were a policy output, was it enacted or implemented?

Implementation: yes
Fulfillment of Democratic Innovation’s aim: yes
Output: yes
Policy Outcome: yes

The National Health Council was created in 1937 with the purpose of advising the Ministry of Education and Public Health. Since then it has suffered several alterations, and the council was adapted to accommodate to the Federal Constitution of 1988, to Act 8,080 (1990) and to Act 8,142 (1990). This last act is related to community engagement in the management of the Unified Health System (SUS). The council?s functions are to: formulate strategies and act in the control of public health policies, including economic and financial aspects; control the private sector?s actions in the health sector; create a timeline for transfers of financial resources from the federal government to other federal entities; monitor scientific development in the area of health, while taking ethical issues into consideration; work together with the Ministry of Health in the creation of new courses of higher education. The council is comprised of 48 members, 50% of which belong to social movements organized by SUS users, 25% are representatives of health professionals and the scientific community, and the remaining 25% are representatives of the federal government. Of the government officials, one is a member of the National Council of Health Secretaries, another, of the National Council of Municipal Health Secretariats, two are representatives of service providers and two are from business entities in the health sector. The representatives of health professionals and the scientific community are appointed by the presidents of the entities represented, and the members of social movements of SUS users are selected through an electoral process which single out the entities (and not the representatives) that can participate, held every three years from the first election.

Institutional design

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Formalization: is the innovation embedded in the constitution or legislation, in an administrative act, or not formalized at all?

Frequency: how often does the innovation take place: only once, sporadically, or is it permanent or regular?

Mode of Selection of Participants: is the innovation open to all participants, access is restricted to some kind of condition, or both methods apply?

Type of participants: those who participate are individual citizens, civil society organizations, private stakeholders or a combination of those?

Decisiveness: does the innovation takes binding, non-binding or no decision at all?

Co-governance: is there involvement of the government in the process or not?

Formalization: embedded in the constitution/legislation
Frequency: regular
Mode of selection of participants: restricted
Type of participants: civil society
Decisiveness: democratic innovation yields a binding decision
Co-Governance: yes

Means

Deliberation
Direct Voting
E-Participation
Citizen Representation

Ends

Accountability
Responsiveness
Rule of Law
Political Inclusion
Social Equality

Policy cycle

Agenda setting

Formulation and decision-making

Implementation

Evaluation