March 12, 2002

SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY IN IDB ANNUAL MEETING Brazilian Environmental Councils are model for participatory decision-making in Latin America

FORTALEZA, Brazil -Experts and officials from the social and environmental sectors met here March 11 and 12 during the 43rd Annual Meeting of the Inter-American Development Bank to examine the successful experience of Brazil’s environmental councils with a view to their application in the process of social dialogue in other Latin America and Caribbean countries.

Participating in the inaugural session were IDB Executive Vice President K. Burke Dillon, ex-president of Chile Patricio Aylwin, and Brazil’s Environment Minister José Carlos Carvalho.

Dillon said that the recent decades have seen improvements in the identification of efficient social policies, but information on the most efficient and effective processes for defining and implementing these policies are still not available. “We want social policies that are embraced by all, and not just by specific governments, political parties and interest groups,” she said.

Aylwin emphasized the importance of the dialogue in creating a national consensus on principal social problems, priorities, and most effective policies for addressing them.

“Although nearly all of our countries have democratic governments, the political systems in many countries still lack solid democratic traditions and a clear common vision of the kind of society that is desired,” said Aylwin.

The Social Policy Dialogue, carried out by the IDB and the Justice and Democracy Corporation, which Aylwin heads, has attempted to demonstrate that in order to efficiently address major social problems it is necessary to create national consensus over a shared analysis of the characteristics and policies needed to overcome them.

Aylwin highlighted four areas in which the seminar would focus: 1) the identification of relevant sectors that should participate in dialogues; 2) the efficiency of the dialogue as a key tool for organizing dialogue participants; 3) the importance of education and training for informed and responsible participation; and 4) the ability to institutionalize the organization, participation, and the dialogue.

Brazil’s environment councils

The experience of the Brazilian National Environmental Council (CONAMA) and its counterparts at the state and municipal levels was the subject of the first day of sessions. Unlike other councils in Latin America, CONAMA is not just a consultative group, but rather a deliberative body created to settle conflicts, propose innovations, and resolve important environmental policy and resource management issues.

CONAMA is headed by the Ministry of the Environment and includes broad representation of all sectors of civil society and of the federal, state, and municipal governments. Its decisions have legal authority and are applied at the national level. As provided by law, it can resolve issues that in other countries are settled unilaterally by the action of the relevant ministry.

In the seminar, Haroldo Mattos de Lemos, president of the Brazil-PNUMA Institute, described Brazil’s national environmental system, CONAMA, and its impact on the quality of life. Expert José Claudio Junqueira Ribeiro spoke on the state and municipal environmental councils; José Carlos Carvalho outlined the future of the councils and their implications for society; and World Bank country director Vinod Thomas presented an overview.

“CONAMA is more than an experience in management, it is the most important experience in democracy in Brazil,” said Environment Minister Carvalho. “Through CONAMA we began to break the classic model of formal democracy. It is a departure from the scheme of monolithic and unilateral decision-making that is present in nearly all of the countries of Latin America.”

He called CONAMA the first major initiative for establishing legal mechanisms to enable society to participate in the decision-making process. “With this free and open participatory model we begin true state reform in Brazil and we eliminate political middlemen and patronage.”

From environmental dialogue to social dialogue

In the seminar’s second day, the chief of the IDB’s Social Development Division, Mayra Buvinic, conducted a panel that discussed the benefits and drawbacks of the process of dialogue according to different sectors of society. Participating were representatives from state and municipal councils, nongovernmental organizations, and the executive director of CONAMA Mauricio Andrés.

Carlos Sojo, of Costa Rica’s Latin American School for Social Sciences (FLACSO) identified a framework of reference to analyze other social dialogue experiences on the basis of the Brazilian example.

Another panel members presented other countries’experiences, including the Triángulo de la Solidaridad in Costa Rica; the creation of consensus for educational reform in Honduras, and the national dialogue on poverty in Bolivia.

Aylwin delivered the closing remarks and Carlos M. Jarque, manager of the IDB’s Sustainable Development Department, closed the meeting.

“One of the greatest challenges for carrying out social and environmental policies is the participation and involvement of the people,” said Jarque. “But there are very few experiences and very little understanding of how to do it well, that is, how to conduct efficient and transparent decision-making processes that involve the society and make society a participant and partner in defining and carrying out policies,” he added.

“The IDB is convinced that the processes of environmental and social dialogue are the essential foundation for ensuring effective and sustainable governmental policies,” he said. “We want to promote these processes in the region, and we pledge to support governments that wish to carry them out through our projects, our policies, and our technical cooperation mechanisms,” concluded Jarque.

The IDB social policy dialogue

The Social Policy Dialogue was launched by the IDB president following the Social Development Summit that took place in Copenhagan in 1995 and of the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women that took place the same year in Beijing. The initiative, designed to promote national consensus as a key contribution in the process of economic and social development in Latin America and the Caribbean, has been led since its inception by Aylwin and financed by the Danish International Development Assistance Agency.

During the past four years, the Dialogue has supported the process of consensus building in Costa Rica, Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic. It is expected that the program will be extended to Mexico and other countries.

The Social and Environmental Policy Dialogue carried out in Fortaleza, Brazil, was coordinated by the IDB and the National Environment Council of Brazil’s Ministry of the Environment. The event was cofinanced by the governments of Denmark and Great Britain.