Civil Society, Development & Aid, Headlines, Latin America & the Caribbean

BRAZIL: Civil Society Wants Even Greater Participation in Lula’s Government

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jan 13 2005 (IPS) - The government of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva highlights the establishment of mechanisms for dialogue with civil society as one of its most significant achievements.

Some non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Brazil, however, complain that there is still little genuine popular participation at the actual decision-making level.

Lula, the leader of the leftist Workers Party (PT) and a former trade union leader, has adopted a number of measures aimed at promoting fuller democracy during the first half of his presidential term.

These include the creation of the Economic and Social Development Council (CDES) and the holding of 11 national conferences to review the results of public debates held throughout 2003 and 2004 at the municipal and state levels.

The CDES is made up of 90 members from a wide range of social sectors, including NGO and trade union representatives, academics and business owners, along with 12 government ministers. Its mission is to discuss guidelines for national development.

The national conferences, for which over a million people took part in preparatory meetings, helped to define policies in such areas as the environment, health care, food security, human rights and equality for women, among others.

The so-called Pluriannual Plan (PPA), which outlines the major programmes and projects to be undertaken by the Brazilian government between 2004 and 2007, was submitted to this broad-based discussion process, involving the participation of 2,170 organisations in the country’s 26 states and the Federal District, seat of the national capital.

The General Secretariat of the Presidency was made the agency primarily responsible for coordination between the government and civil society, while a number of other councils and bodies were created to promote consultation and consensus.

The Federative Coordination Committee, for example, was established to gather proposals from state and local governments on financial and tax issues. A number of projects and reforms were negotiated with the sectors primarily affected by them.

Nevertheless, "the results have fallen far short of the promises made," said Guacira César de Oliveira, co-director of the Feminist Studies and Advisory Centre (CFEMEA).

The councils do not actually carry out any meaningful debate, and the members are appointed by the government itself, she said.

As for the national conferences, they involved the participation of large numbers of people, "but it was participation without power, because no mechanisms were created to share power with organised civil society," de Oliveira told IPS.

A clear example of this is offered by the discussions on the PPA. Of the 374 programmes encompassed, "only 12 or 13 establish any kind of follow-up with regard to the issue of gender."

This has been one of the main demands made by the women’s movement, to prevent the perpetuation of the inequalities that are the most serious problem in Brazil, she said.

"There is a great deal that needs to be corrected," de Oliveira commented. Within the programmes aimed at creating jobs and raising incomes in the country’s rural areas, for instance, women continue to account for only seven percent of the recipients of state-funded credits, she said.

But the greatest source of frustration among activists has undoubtedly been the limited popular participation regarding the project to divert water from the Sao Francisco River to the drought-stricken Brazilian northeast, the country’s poorest region.

"All of the popular forums, with just one exception, spoke out against the project, but the government decided to go ahead with it anyway," de Oliveira said.

Opposition to the project stems from the high cost involved and the serious deterioration of the river over recent decades as a result of deforestation along its banks, sedimentation and a significantly reduced flow.

The various councils and forums created represent a certain amount of progress, but they have not translated into the adoption of recommended public policies, a fact that has led to frustration and disappointment, according to Mauricio Santoro, a researcher at the independent Brazilian Institute for Social and Economic Analysis (IBASE).

Moreover, in many cases, like that of the PPA, the government has used this consultation process to "legitimise decisions already adopted in advance," Santoro told IPS.

Within the inner circle of the government, namely Lula’s economic team, the voice of society is not heard, and this is precisely where the most important decisions are made, such as strong fiscal adjustment, fighting inflation with high interest rates, and the formulation of the budget, he said.

"Civil society can have a say on social issues, but the economy is the exclusive domain of the business community and technocrats," he added.

Last year, IBASE and another 11 NGOs decided to join together on a project called Active Monitoring of Societal Participation (MAPAS), aimed at evaluating the extent of participatory processes and the actors and issues that have had an impact on the government and the deepening of democracy.

The results of their analysis will be shared to help direct social struggles in the future and promote genuine popular participation in the Lula administration, said Santoro.

But Joao Felicio, secretary of the Central Unica dos Trabalhadores trade union confederation, told IPS that the Lula government has undeniably made major advances in the democratisation of the state, promoting a degree of participation that is not normally seen in Latin American political culture.

Accrording to Felicio, a large number of government decisions have been adopted through negotiations with civil society. The new minimum salary of 300 reals (roughly 110 dollars) a month, approved last month and scheduled to take effect in May, represents an increase of 15.4 percent and was adopted in response to demands from the labour movement, he said.

The CDES is an entirely new experience in Brazil, where harsh criticism of the government is voiced, and the ideas and opinions put forward have a definite influence on the authorities, said Felicio, whose organisation is the largest labour federation in the country and a close ally of the PT.

At the same time, he added, the results of the conferences and other participatory forums "are not automatically reflected in the government," which is made up of heterogeneous political forces. "Some sectors in it are sympathetic to the social movement, while others are not," he added.

Felicio stressed the need to mobilise and push for the adoption of desired policies, instead of simply waiting for "handouts", because "there is pressure from the right, too."

"This is the government most open to social participation that I have ever known," he concluded.