Chapter 1. Brazil’s path towards a digital government for a digital economy and society

This chapter introduces the Digital Government Review of Brazil in terms of both a background of the analysis of the review and the contextual factors that will influence the Brazilian government in its digital transformation. It takes into consideration both social and economic factors in Brazil before looking at where the government is today in terms of digitalisation. The chapter provides a substantive introduction for the following chapters of analysis.

The framework for the Digital Government Review of Brazil

Brazil is one of the OECD’s key partners,1 contributing to OECD’s work in a substantive manner through participation in OECD bodies, adhering to OECD instruments, and integrating statistical reporting and information systems. Brazil has been invited to participate in all OECD meetings at ministerial level since 1999. Following more than 20 years of mutually beneficial co-operation, Brazil presented its application for OECD membership at the Ministerial Council Meeting (MCM) of May 2017 (OECD, 2018[1]).

Given the digital transformation of its economy and society, the Brazilian government is increasingly challenged to use digital technologies in effective and coherent ways across the different sectors and levels of the public sector and to use data as a strategic asset to provide efficient, convenient and high-quality public services to citizens and businesses.

The public sector in Brazil has made substantial progress in the last few decades, progressively integrating digital technologies so as to improve the efficiency and agility of its internal processes. The increasing availability of digital services has also upgraded the government’s capacity to interact with its constituents. These public efforts allow the Brazilian government to look forward to and further promote the digital transformation of the public sector.

Nevertheless, taking digital government efforts to the next level requires building on the complexity of the Brazilian public administration and securing the necessary capacity-building processes across the public sector, to develop the critical and system-thinking approach to face complex institutional and technological choices. The questions become:

How to rethink public sector organisations, capacities and relationships with citizens based on problem-driven approaches that leverage the opportunities brought by digital technologies from the early stages of policy and service design (digital by design)?
How to steer information and communication technology (ICT) investments across the public sector, to secure alignment with overarching strategic priorities and reform agendas, compliance with common technical standards, and to avoid overlaps and spread a shared service culture widely?
How to progress from coexisting government-centred or citizen-centred approaches to a real citizen-driven paradigm of digital service delivery?

In order to advance further towards digital government, the Brazilian government requested OECD support to identify the strengths and weaknesses in its policies and programmes.

The Digital Government Review of Brazil builds on the experience and knowledge acquired by the Reform of the Public Sector Division of the OECD Directorate for Public Governance through similar projects conducted over the past 15 years in a number of OECD and other countries. It also draws on several years of bilateral co-operation between the OECD and the Brazilian government.

The OECD Recommendation on Digital Government Strategies (hereafter, the “OECD Recommendation”), adopted by the Council in 2014, was used to conduct this review. It comprises 12 key recommendations grouped in 3 pillars that support the integration of decisions on digital technologies in the shaping of all-encompassing, overarching strategies in the modernisation of the public sector and public sector reform (Figure 1.1). The adoption of the OECD Recommendation helps governments to make the most out of technological change and digital opportunities to foster more open, innovative and participatory governments, without creating new forms of digital divides. It promotes a whole-of-government approach that recognises the use of technologies as a cross-cutting agent in the design and implementation of public policies.

The implementation of the OECD Recommendation by OECD member countries and non-member economies highlights the endorsement and commitment of governments to drive the digital transformation of the public sector. This paradigm shift builds on six key dimensions (see Box 1.1) identified by the OECD as policy fundamentals for a digital government.

Box 1.1. The six dimensions of digital government

1. From a user-centred to a user-driven administration:

A government that adopts approaches and takes actions to let the citizens and businesses determine and communicate their own needs to drive the design of policies and public services.
2. From reactive to proactive policy making and service delivery:

A government that designs policies and services in anticipation of societal and economic developments and around related users’ needs and brings a service to users before it is requested. Same applies to the release of data as open data (proactively) rather than reacting to a request for access to public sector information.
3. From an information-centred government to a data-driven public sector:

A government that is capable of anticipating societal trends, understanding users’ needs and transforming the design, delivery and monitoring of public policies and services through the management and use of data.
4. From the digitalisation of existing processes to digital by design:

A government that takes into account the full potential of digital technologies and data right from the start when designing policies and services, thereby mobilising new technologies to rethink, re-engineer and simplify internal processes and procedures in order to deliver the same efficient, sustainable and citizen-driven public sector, regardless of the channel used by the user to interact with public authorities.
5. From government as a service provider to government as a platform for public value co-creation:

A government that uses digital technologies and data to enable collaboration with and between societal stakeholders in order to harness their creativity and capacities to address challenges facing a country.
6. From access to information to open by default:

A government that has committed to proactively disclosing data in open formats and to opening up its processes supported by digital technologies, unless there is a legitimate reason not to.

Source: OECD (forthcoming[3]), “The Digital Government Framework”, Issue Paper, OECD Publishing, Paris.

This review benefits from the OECD knowledge base and exchange of best practices, visions and strategies deriving from the work of the OECD Working Party of Senior Digital Government (E-Leaders). The Working Party brings together government chief information officers (CIOs) (or equivalent positions) and senior digital government decision makers in order to discuss and reflect on how to better address the digital transformation of the public sector and create smarter, inclusive, productive, more innovative and responsive governments.

The Digital Government Review of Brazil aims to assist the country’s federal government in improving its digital government policies, programmes and projects by providing actionable policy recommendations based on the practices and experiences found in OECD countries. The targeted and practical advice will focus on how to strengthen the efficiency and effectiveness of Brazil’s digital policy achievements and strategically plan future policy development and implementation. In particular, this review will help the government of Brazil in its efforts to shift from an e-government to a digital government approach, treading the path towards the sustainable digital transformation of its public sector (see Figure 1.2).

The process and timeline for the Digital Government Review of Brazil

The Digital Government Review of Brazil assesses the level of digital government development in the public sector in Brazil. The analysis framework is focused on capturing the Brazilian digital government context, the policy vision that sustains it, the achievements, implementation gaps and overlaps, and guiding the collection of evidence to support and formulate key policy findings and policy recommendations (see Figure 1.3).

One of the first important steps for this review took place in April 2017 with a preliminary visit by the OECD to Brazil to articulate the planning of the review, the scope and the framework of analysis, the main activities foreseen and the next steps. A high-level workshop involving different stakeholders took place at this time.

The OECD fact-finding peer-review mission in Brazil – a cornerstone of the review process - took place in July 2017. The mission involved the participation of peers from Canada, Italy and Mexico that, together with the OECD Secretariat, held interviews with stakeholders from the public, private and civil society to identify opportunities and challenges for digital government development in Brazil.

Later in September 2017, Brazilian government representatives from the National School of Public Administration (Escola Nacional de Administração Pública, ENAP) and of the Ministry of Planning, Development and Management (Ministério do Planejamento, Desenvolvimento e Gestão) participated in the meeting of the Working Party of Senior Digital Government Officials (E-Leaders) in Lisbon, Portugal, where they shared their ongoing experience with the digital government review with other countries. After benefiting from comments from their above-mentioned international peers from Canada, Italy and Mexico, the preliminary findings of the review were shared with the Brazilian government.

Assuming a central role in the methodology of the review for fact-finding purposes, a survey was shared among the digital government ecosystem of public stakeholders in September 2017. The survey provided valuable evidence from federal and local government institutions that was used in the drafting of this report.

In May 2018, the “Key Findings of the Digital Government Review of Brazil” were launched in a high-level event in Brasilia, hosted by ENAP and the Ministry of Planning, Development and Management. Subsequent to this event the report analysis was completed. Figure 1.4 summarises the full timeline of the review.

Brazil’s economic and social contexts

Governments operate in ecosystems created by the convergence of citizen needs, business needs, technologies and infrastructures. There is a context of geography, society, economy and history that defines how and why governments exist as they do in any given country. As this review looks at digital government, it is understood that the digital transformation of economies and societies has a significant impact on, and a large role to play in, the transformation of government as digital societies and economies require digital governments and vice versa. It is therefore fundamental to better understand the Brazilian digital context as a whole that illuminates a convergence of citizen needs, technologies and infrastructures, private and public sector settings and priorities. Analysis of this digital context will provide a background for the following chapters of analysis and assessments of the Brazilian digital transformation of the public sector.

Brazil, officially known as the “Federative Republic of Brazil,” is the world’s fifth-largest country in terms of surface area, and has a population of 209.3 million people (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística, 2018_[4]). It is one of the largest and most populated countries in the world. The country is uniquely complex in terms of geography, cultural, social and economic norms. A brief background of these country norms will be beneficial to understand the context that informs the basis of the government.

Brazil’s economic context

Brazil is one of the world’s leading economies, showing both strong economic growth and social progress (OECD, 2018[5]). Table 1.1 depicts the country’s principal economic indicators.

Table 1.1. Principal economic indicators of Brazil
Population (millions, 2013)	209.3	GDP in current prices (billion USD)	1 796.2
Employment rate for 15-64 year-olds (%) Men	54 64.3	GDP per capita (th USD, Parity of Power Purchase [PPP])	15.2
Women	44.5	Real GDP growth (%, 2016)	2.2
Income inequality (Gini coefficient, 2013)	0.47	Budget balance (% of GDP, 2016)	-8.9
Relative poverty rate (%, 2013)	20	Current account (% of GDP, 2016)	-1.3
Source: OECD (2018[5]), Economic Surveys: Brazil 2018, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/eco_surveys-bra-2018-en and Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (2018[4])

However, Brazil’s economy is also very internally focused. Brazil ranks 125^th overall in the world in “Doing Business” rankings (see Figure 1.5), which provides room for improvement even within just the Latin American business environment. Even though Brazil is Latin America’s largest economy, the country does not participate in vast amounts of trading within the region. In fact, within Latin America, Brazil’s trade is centred on Argentina and globally, Brazil’s number one trading partner is China (OECD, 2018[5]).

Brazil’s social context

The OECD Better Life Index compares well-being across countries (OECD member countries and partner and other countries) based on 11 topics identified as essential in the areas of material living conditions and quality of life. Brazil performs well in some indicators of well-being, including subjective well-being and social connections. Brazil is below average, however, in income and wealth, jobs and earnings, housing, environmental quality, health status, safety, education and skills (see Figure 1.6).

The progress that Brazil has made in terms of becoming one of the world’s leading economies has been linked to its social progress. Tackling the complexity of improving outcomes and providing citizens with a better life is a demanding policy task. The United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide clear guidelines and targets for all countries to adopt in accordance with their own priorities and the environmental challenges of the world at large. The government of Brazil has utilised the SDGs to create strategies to eradicate poverty and promote a more prosperous and sustainable Brazil (Government of Brazil, 2017[8]). It is interesting to note how the government is considering the use of digital technologies to implement the SDGs. The vision of the National Commission for the SDGs is “To induce the implementation of the SDGs, through a cooperative and participative process in order to reach all goals and targets of the Brazilian 2030 Agenda” (Government of Brazil, 2017[9]).

To implement the SDGs, it is critical to work with civil society and the private sector. With this in mind, the Brazilian government is moving towards adopting a user-driven approach to implementing the SDGs. Civil society and private sector stakeholders are being given a platform to express their needs. Brazil is not only actively engaging civil society in its 2030 Agenda, but engaging it digitally.

Many new platforms have been co-created to better communication between the government and citizens. For example, the National System of Social Participation (SNPS) was created by Decree no. 8,243 of 23 May 2014 with the objective of strengthening and articulating mechanisms and democratic instances of dialogue and joint action between the federal public administration and civil society. The main digital instrument of SNPS is “Participa.br”.

One of the strategic initiatives found in the Brazilian Digital Governance Strategy, recently revised, is the publication of an overview of the evolution of Participa.br, with the purpose of facilitating the involvement of Brazilian society in the development of public policies. In addition, another initiative in this strategy aims to increase the number of public consultations (consultas públicas) via digital platforms, thus promoting social participation in public policies.

Brazil’s progressive digital change

The fast-paced development of digital technologies has brought new opportunities for citizens and businesses globally. Brazilians today operate in a digital landscape similar to other countries the world over. Digital technologies are ubiquitous in urban areas. Yet, the digital transformation varies from region to region. This section will briefly look at the evolution of digitalisation in Brazil.

How Brazil has approached digitalisation

The Brazilian government has been both innovative and collaborative in its efforts to promote the digitalisation of its economy and society. As far back as 1995 Brazil began a collaborative effort to understand and implement digital connectivity.

The Brazilian Internet Steering Committee (Comitê Gestor da Internet no Brasil) (CGI.br) was created in 1995 with the purpose of providing strategic guidelines related to the use and development of the Internet in Brazil, including the guidelines for the execution of domain name registration, Internet protocol allocation and administration pertinent to the domain of first level “.br”. Continuing to do so today, CGI.br also promotes studies and recommends procedures for Internet security and proposes research and programmes that allow for the maintenance of an appropriate level of technical quality and innovation in the use of the Internet. Composed of public institutions as well as representatives from access or information providers, users, and the academic community, the Committee co-ordinates cross-cutting standards and services for citizens and is an important foundational block. It creates the foundations for an ecosystem between citizens, the private sector and the public sector.

One of Brazil’s most forward-thinking initiatives is the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Households Survey, which has been conducted annually since 2005 by the Regional Centre for Studies on the Development of the Information Society (cetic.br). It has become an effective tool for monitoring the expansion of broadband and other technologies in the country, including their use by Brazilians for online activities related to communication, education, leisure, electronic commerce and electronic government. This survey connects with citizens and taps into their ICT needs. The data collection and dissemination practices have provided Brazil an immeasurable amount of capacity building in data, data visualisation and statistical expertise, as recognised globally by international organisations (Comite Gestor da Internet no Brasil (CGI), 2017[10])

With regard to investing in infrastructure, the Brazilian government established the National Broadband Plan (Plano Nacional de Banda Larga, PNBL) in 2010. The PNBL consisted of expanding the fibre network to the interior regions of the country, installing submarine cables and a South American optical ring, and reducing tariffs on networks and access terminals (OECD, 2015[11]).

Brazil offers tax breaks to investors who have bought debt issued by telecommunication operators to finance broadband infrastructure projects, as well as to the operators themselves who have investment projects to expand or modernise telecommunication networks (OECD, 2018[5]).

Today, as reported by the International Telecommunication Union’s (2017[12]) Measuring the Information Society Report in analysing the state of ICT across 176 countries, Brazil ranks 66th overall and 10th in the Americas, behind other Latin countries such as Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. Country performance is measured by the ICT Development Index (IDI), a combination of 11 indicators including access to tools, use and skills. The biggest gain seen in Brazil was in the ICT skills indicator, which has risen from 92nd to 71st place worldwide (ITU, 2017[12]).

Brazil’s rapid digital growth

As seen in many emerging economies, the digitalisation of the Brazilian economy in the last decade progressed quickly. For instance, with the exception of 2009 when it grew 2%, the Brazilian ICT sector sustained levels of growth of 12% and 13% between 2008 and 2012 (OECD, 2015[11]).

Internet use rates in Brazil have also shown steady growth (see Figure 1.7), increasing from 34% of the total population in 2008 to over 60% in 2016. While citizen Internet usage has remained above the average in the Latin American and Caribbean region, it is roughly 20% below the OECD average. This demonstrates Brazil’s significant potential for improvement in regard to digitalisation and digital inclusion in coming years.

Fixed Internet connectivity vs. mobile subscriptions

Though fixed broadband connectivity and mobile telephony are complementary to one another, it is interesting to note how the two are evolving in a country such as Brazil. Across OECD countries, fixed broadband subscriptions continue to rise, albeit slower than in past years. This is due primarily to already high penetration rates (OECD, 2018[5]). Mobile subscriptions, however, have grown very rapidly and outstrip the rates at which fixed broadband subscriptions are increasing.

According to the OECD Digital Economy Outlook 2017, from 2010 to 2014, Brazil achieved a 79% increase in fixed broadband subscriptions, that is, from 12.9 million to 23.1 million subscriptions. However, growth in fixed broadband has been stagnating over the last few years in Brazil and its penetration is 12.9 per 100 inhabitants (see Figure 1.8).

Over the same period, mobile broadband access rose 825%, reaching 123.6 million. As can be seen in Figure 1.9, Brazil’s mobile subscriptions are higher than the average for Latin America and the Caribbean region and were above the OECD average during a significant period.

While fixed broadband connections are on the rise, it is not at the same pace as mobility connections. Part of this may be due to the already present penetration in Brazil. However, affordability remains the most relevant barrier to connectivity in households. This is consistent with research that shows that Internet access prices in Latin America are expensive, particularly when taking into consideration income levels and wealth distribution (OECD/IDB, 2016[14]).

Affordability is in fact one of several factors that explain that approximately 200 million people remain off line throughout Latin America. And given the socio-demographic characteristics of this population, the private sector may not see the profitability of participating in a solution (Galperín, 2017[15]) .

One of Brazil’s primary concerns is whether or not the government is adequately positioned to develop an ICT-skilled ecosystem that can leverage the digital inter-connectedness of its citizens. Aligned with the fact that education is an area of focus for Brazil’s SDGs Action Plan, the government proposed a policy for bringing broadband to rural public schools: to obtain spectrum for commercial operation of mobile 4G services, companies must provide free broadband Internet access (wired, wireless or via satellite) to rural schools (OECD, 2017[16]). Though the policy of digital inclusion in Brazil falls under the responsibility of the Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovation and Communication (MCTIC), some ministries have complementary initiatives. The initiative mentioned above, under the responsibility of the Ministry of Education, is a good example of cross-government collaboration, as it deals with improving the infrastructure and connection of schools, which includes the expansion of the terrestrial broadband network, connectivity services, Wi-Fi infrastructure and the acquisition of a satellite with 10 Mb of speed connectivity. It involves also MCTIC, the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES) and the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee. It brings together a set of national guidelines that aims to ensure the implementation of innovative actions in the classroom, using technology, in all states and municipalities.2 It is worth noting, though, that at the federal level there is a strategic initiative that provides for the promotion of the connection of 22,000 urban and rural public schools with broadband of high speed, terrestrial or satellite networks.

Reaching remote regions and connecting communities further away from major telecommunications infrastructures are the goals of major public initiatives. “Connected Amazon”, for example, deploys telecom cables in riverbeds of the Amazon basin to form a backbone of fibre optics for remote areas of the country’s northern region.

Side by side with connectivity, affordability and digital literacy, content is considered one of the largest barriers to Brazilians using the Internet (Burger, 2016[17]). Language plays a significant role in the content available to Brazilians. Brazil is the world’s largest Portuguese-speaking country and Portuguese is the primary language in Brazil. Yet, English accounts for an estimated 52% of all Internet content (W3Techs, 2018[18]). If an individual in Brazil does not speak English, there will be significantly less content accessible to that individual on the Internet and therefore less incentive to use the Internet.

Digital technologies and access to public services

An increased citizen uptake of digital services shows that the Brazilian government is seeing dividends in investing in digital literacy initiatives and providing incentives for Brazilians to use the Internet. Over a period of six years from 2010-15, individuals’ use of e-government services in Brazil doubled, rising from 12% to 24% (OECD, 2017[16]). A more complete picture of how Internet users used or sought public services is presented in Figure 1.10, which compares use between 2015 and 2016.

The government is proceeding with digital projects that are evolving Brazil’s digital public service delivery. Several digital identity projects have been recently completed, e.g. Brazilian drivers’ licenses, Brazilian voting IDs (Título Eleitoral), workers’ IDs (Carteira de Trabalho), the electronic version of the National ID Card and Registry (enacted by Law no. 13,444/2017). Brazilian government digital service delivery has also been largely improved with the implementation of a services portal aggregating information (or e-services) from most (or all) Brazilian federal entities (https://www.servicos.gov.br/) (see Chapter 4).

To a certain extent, citizens’ needs and their using digital to voice their needs, seems to have produced very positive results in Brazil. The government has provided the foundational elements (e.g. through laws and regulations) for citizens to engage with the public sector and for the digital economy to operate. Nevertheless, further advances are needed to ensure the development of an integrated and cohesive digital ecosystem of citizens, private business and government.

As will be assessed in the following chapters, the Brazilian government is moving towards a digital transformation of the public sector. Digital technologies are being mobilised to rethink services, re-engineer business processes and simplify procedures to make sure they are up to the expectations of digital economies and societies. The government should be careful in the transformation to ensure a cohesive and government-wide approach is taken to avoid repeating silo-based actions and agency thinking that can generate infrastructure and data redundancies. Instead, widely adopted shared-service approaches together with a citizen-driven policy mindset should be incorporated to ensure that an entire ecosystem is brought into the model.

References

[19] Brazilian Internet Steering Committee (2017), ICT Households 2016, Survey on the use of information and communication technologies in Brazilian households.

[17] Burger, B. (2016), How digital connectivity is transforming Latin America, World Economic Forum, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/06/how-digital-connectivity-is-transforming-latin-america/ (accessed on 17 August 2018).

[10] Comite Gestor da Internet no Brasil (CGI) (2017), 2016 ICT Households Survey on the Use of Information and Communication Technologies in Brazilian Households, https://cetic.br/media/docs/publicacoes/2/TIC_DOM_2016_LivroEletronico.pdf.

[15] Galperín, H. (2017), Digital Society: Gaps and Challenges for Digital Inclusion in Latin America and the Caribbean, UNESCO, Montevideo, https://cetic.br/media/docs/publicacoes/8/PolicyPapers-Ministros-BrechaDigital-ENG.pdf (accessed on 17 August 2018).

[9] Government of Brazil (2017), National Commission for the Sustainable Development Goals (Brazil) 2017-2019 Action Plan.

[8] Government of Brazil (2017), Sustainable Development Goals Brazil 2017 Voluntary National Review on the.

[12] ITU, I. (2017), Measuring the Information Society Report 2017, https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Documents/publications/misr2017/MISR2017_Volume1.pdf (accessed on 16 October 2018).

[1] OECD (2018), Brazil: A key partner for the OECD, http://www.oecd.org/latin-america/Active-with-Brazil.pdf (accessed on 15 November 2018).

[5] OECD (2018), OECD Economic Surveys: Brazil 2018, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/eco_surveys-bra-2018-en.

[7] OECD (2017), OECD Better Life Index, http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org.

[16] OECD (2017), OECD Digital Economy Outlook 2017, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264276284-en.

[11] OECD (2015), OECD Digital Economy Outlook 2015, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264232440-en.

[2] OECD (2014), Recommendation of the Council on Digital Government Strategies, http://www.oecd.org/gov/digital-government/recommendation-on-digital-government-strategies.htm.

[4] OECD (2013), OECD Territorial Reviews: Brazil 2013, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264123229-en.

[3] OECD (forthcoming), The Digital Government Framework, OECD Publishing, Paris.

[14] OECD/IDB (2016), Broadband Policies for Latin America and the Caribbean: A Digital Economy Toolkit, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264251823-en.

[18] W3Techs (2018), Usage Statistics and Market Share of Content Languages for Websites, August 2018, https://w3techs.com/technologies/overview/content_language/all (accessed on 17 August 2018).

[6] World Bank (2018), Doing Business 2017, World Bank, Washington, DC, http://www.doingbusiness.org/rankings?region=latin-america-and-caribbean.

[13] World Bank((n.d.)), Databank, World Development Indicators, http://databank.worldbank.org/data/source/world-development-indicators# (accessed on 15 July 2018).

Notes

← 1. The other OECD partner economies are the People’s Republic of China, India, Indonesia and South Africa. For more information, see http://www.oecd.org/about/membersandpartners/.

← 2. Information provided directly by the Brazilian government.

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