The Brazilian Public Management and Citizenship award is a joint initiative of the Ford Foundation and the Getulio Vargas Foundation of São Paulo, with additional support from the Brazilian National Economic and Social Development Bank -BNDES. The program seeks to identify and disseminate innovative initiatives from Brazilian sub-national governments. Since 1996 more than five thousand programs have taken part in the annual awards cycle. Among the many experiences that have been identifies are: methods of popular planning and participation, information systems, inter-municipal and regional arrangements, environmental preservation, solid waste treatment, water distribution systems, health, education, housing, transport, culture and sports, welfare, human rights, children and adolescents, minority groups, rural development, industry and employment. The experiences have come from all Brazilian states, from municipalities (by 2001 almost 10% of the nation's 5592 municipalities had participated) and from organizations of the indigenous peoples. There are initiatives focusing both on the rural zones and the urban areas.The selection process has several stages, which count with the participation of researchers and members from non-governmental organizations and a variety of institutions. The program's impact occurs through activities linked to the media, political actors, public sector technical staff and the academic community. Teaching material, books and articles have been developed from the program, produced by the program team and by members of its advisory Technical Committee, which also takes part of the annual award cycles.The study of the experiences gathered in the six years of the program has helped to identify new types and areas of public policy and new systems of management, decision-making and public service provision. Significant in terms of policy is the inclusion of new groups within the sphere of state action, such as women and those with special needs, as well as the adoption of new perspectives, especially in social policies, such as the adoption of the preventive perspective in health care and the rights perspective within the policies for youths who have infringed the law. Also significant is the way in which many different organizations from the public sector and from civil society are being involved in the search for effective local action and the general increase in active citizen participation.

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