26 August 2019, Curitiba, Brazil – The International Training Centre for Authorities and Leaders in Curitiba (CIFAL Curitiba) and The International Training Centre for Authorities and Leaders in Quito (CIFAL Quito) jointly with the Social Observatory of Brazil held the 3rd Congress Pact for Brazil. The objective of the event is twofold: to gather key stakeholders to promote dialogue on quality of public resources administration, transparency and accountability; and to improve public sector efficiency and to combat corruption.

The improvement and strengthening of public institutions are cross-cutting issues mirrored in many of the Sustainable Development Goals, and as a standalone goal (SDG 16) “Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions”.  The United Nations on the latest “World Public Sector Report 2019” pinpointed some of the challenges to measuring progress on SDG 16, including lack of standardization of principles and concepts related to transparency, accountability, participation, among others. This translates into ambiguity defining core principles at the international level, hence, the importance of international exchange of knowledge and best practices in these important topics within governmental officials.   

Reflecting on the urgency of improving public sector efficiency, CIFAL Curitiba and CIFAL Quito contributed to the successful development of this important event. The structure of the Congress comprised a series of workshops with different themes. The theme for the first workshop was “International Exchange between Local Governments”. With the objective of bringing together officials from the public sector from different countries of Latin America, the first workshop served as a platform to share best practices and successful tools in order to improve transparency, accountability and integrity of public institutions.

The three-day event included the participation of high level officials from different cities of Ecuador who shared best practices of transparency in their specific jurisdictions. For example, on the first day, Colonel Jorge Gonzalo Guamán, Mayor of Cotopaxi Province in Ecuador, shared his experience on transparency at the local level. In the same token, Mr. Guilhermo Herrera Villareal, Mayor of Carchi Province in Ecuador, participated as speaker on local public sector efficiency. Additionally, Ms. Priscila da Paz Vieira, coordinator of CIFAL Curitiba, participated as mediator on the first panel of Local Public Management Efficiency and Good Practices on Transparency.