2018-05-19
Experts Ricardo de Lins e Horta, Lead Coordinator for Institutional Relations at ENAP (National School of Public Administration), and Antonio Claret Campos Filho, ENAP's Lead Coordinator for Innovation, have attended a technical mission to the Joint Research Centre (JRC) in Brussels, Belgium, as part of the European Union-Brazil Sector Dialogues Support Facility on 14-18 May. Daienne Machado, an Expert in Public Policy and Government Management at ENAP, has also been joining the mission supported by the Brazilian government.
The purpose of this visit was to learn about the history of the JRC’s behavioural science facilities from its inception in order to use it as a reference for the establishment of similar facilities in the Lab of Government Innovation – GNova – focusing on tapping into the potential of behavioural sciences for the development, enhancement and implementation of public policies.
According to the Brazilian experts, since its launch, GNova’s projects have been primarily based on design thinking approaches when dealing with innovation as a complex, non-linear process. In order to boost the culture of innovation in the public sector, however, other approaches may be used in the development of public policies to explore and build new and better policy solutions. These innovative approaches to the public policy-making cycle include the use of behavioural insights.
As such, the European Union has been a pioneer in introducing the use of behavioural sciences in its policies and in the design of regulations in a number of policy areas, such as consumer protection, health care and employment, as demonstrated in the Behavioural Insights Applied to Policy - European Report 2016. The initiatives led by European institutions cover a wide range of potential theoretical applications, and can illustrate to the Brazilian experts the institutional developments arising from the application of behavioural sciences for the implementation of a long-term initiative.
On the other hand, creation of a centre within the GNova may also provide European researchers with exchange opportunities among experts in Brazil, where they could test behavioural assumptions in various policies and environments. The idea is to establish a bilateral dialogue involving Brazilian institutions such as the Ministry of Finance and its European counterparts that have conducted such experiments, such as the Ministry of Finance of Belgium or the Ministry of Finance and Public Administration of Spain, with a view to setting up a network to share success stories and lessons learned from applying the theory in specific policy areas.
Although the project is jointly conducted by Brazil’s Ministry of Planning, Development and Management and by ENAP, other governmental and paragovernmental institutions that are available for public policy trials stand to benefit from the establishment of a behavioural sciences centre within GNova.
Profile of delegation
Ricardo Lins e Horta – ENAP's Lead Coordinator for Institutional Relations; has a master's degree in Neuroscience from the Federal University of Minas Gerais and a PhD in Law from the University of Brasilia, and has recently completed doctoral studies in decision-making and public policies, as a researcher visitor at the École Normale Supérieure, in France.
Antonio Claret Campos Filho – ENAP's Lead Coordinator for Innovation, where he also teaches courses in behavioural economics. He is a specialist in public policies and government management, and has a master's degree in social psychology from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and a PhD in public policies from the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation.
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