All eyes have been on Brazil for last couple of years for many reasons: the World Cup in 2014, the Olympics in Rio in 2016 and other big events which put Brazil in the world news. The country is earning also attention internationally for its high growth rate and exciting business opportunities.
As Brazil develops, it becomes more economically attractive, and therefore more complex and demanding, both in government and society. More complexity requires transparency and easy access for citizens to official information to create a fair and safe business environment for companies and citizens. Increased transparency is one of Brazil’s biggest objectives at the moment and the UK has a lot to offer.
The State of São Paulo, Brazil’s business centre, is committed in improving the quality of government released data in different sectors and the Prosperity Fund is helping Brazil to do so using UK expertise. The project “Improving Business Environment through Transparency in São Paulo State” is supporting them to open up their databases, increase the datasets available by 70%, and link this data so that it becomes practical and usable information. This work demands a strong government focus and proportionate resource allocation. The expectation is for this to create new business opportunities in the Brazilian economy using the lucritive app market in areas such as transport, health, education and others – possibilities are infinite for those who have access to information. The British market has a big offer and São Paulo is their next destination.
In the last week of March, Post held the first UK-Brazil Transparency Week to promote and support this work. Antonio Acuña, Head of Data.gov.uk and I travelled to Brazil to share UK experiences with government at the federal and local level. During the week members of more than 15 Brazilian departments joined in a Workshop to propose which databases they would open using the Guidelines and hear how the UK did it and options for Brazil could do it. During the week, our project in Sao Paulo had the chance to close an important step of the project and presented the first Guidelines for Brazil to open up linked data in São Paulo State. The work has been described as state-of-the-art in the digital world by local experts.
Our FCO team in Brazil believe that the UK is a reference point for Brazil on transparency and open government and that the UK-Brazil Transparency Week has certainly strengthened the governmental bond; already generating possibilities for other future initiatives internationally. The project work now continues and soon São Paulo will have brand new datasets open and ready to use. Stay tuned!
Transparency promotes accountability and provides information for citizens about what their Government is doing. Openness strengthen democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.Public engagement enhances the Government’s effectiveness and improves the quality of its decisions. Knowledge is widely dispersed in society, and public officials benefit from having access to that dispersed knowledge. Th e root the Brazilian government has taken is the right one.
Just wanted to add that your team at the FCO, and most especially in your Digital Transformation Office, have been incredibly helpful to us in New Zealand too. Thanks for your great generosity in sharing your world-leading expertise.