By Eliane Saldan
The New Urban Agenda of UN-HABITAT, approved at the 3rd United Nations Conference on Housing and Development, held in Quito, Ecuador, in 2016, based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, international human rights treaties and the Declaration on the Right to Development, among other instruments, aims to promote cities and human settlements where all people can enjoy equal rights and opportunities and fundamental freedoms, guided by the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter.
The New Urban Agenda is linked to the 2030 Agenda for UN- Sustainable Development Goals (in particular Goal 11 – sustainable cities and communities) and recognizes the correlation between good urbanization and development, job creation, livelihood opportunities, prosperity and improving the quality of life, among other values that consolidate the concept of a “Right to the City”.
The Brazilian Charter for Smart Cities holds a national strategy for smart cities, in the National Urban Development Policy that is under construction, and presents a public agenda for the digital transformation of Brazilian cities, necessary to foster sustainable urban development. A result of a collaborative effort by several actors, it lists the characteristics of smart cities: diverse and fair, alive and for people, connected and innovative, inclusive and welcoming, safe, resilient and self-regenerating, economically fertile, environmentally responsible, articulating different notions of time and space, aware, act with reflection and are independent in the use of technologies, attentive and responsible with their principles.
Such reference documents contemplate the complexity of the challenges and the increasing demand for an adequate management of natural, financial, technological and human resources to promote sustainable development, wellbeing, quality of life and happiness. In such a scenario, it is essential that the management of public and private, physical and digital spaces and resources be innovative.
It is also important to contextualize these requirements in the current pandemic moment, which in addition to deeply impacting the concepts of wellbeing, quality of life and happiness, requires creative, innovative solutions and greater care with the management of available resources to deal with economic impacts in the public and private sectors.
It is worth remembering that innovation can be found in creative ways to improve an existing service, product or process or in new production, use or consumption paradigms – it is increasingly necessary to create new processes, products and services with reduction, suppression or reuse of waste to reduce pollution, prevent depletion of natural resources and enable sustainable development.
In relation to the legal tools available, the recent Law No. 14,129, of March 29, 2021, which consolidates principles, rules and instruments for increasing public efficiency without bureaucracy, with innovation, digital transformation and citizen participation, also foresees the creation the creation of innovation laboratories, open to society’s participation and collaboration for the development and experimentation of innovative public management concepts, tools and methods.
The aforementioned Law includes guidelines for the promotion of technological development and innovation in the public sector, experimentation with open and free technologies, software development and prototyping practices and agile methods for formulating and implementing public policies, encouraging innovation, supporting innovative entrepreneurship and fostering the technological innovation ecosystem directed to the public sector, support for data-driven and evidence-based public policies, in order to support decision-making and improve public management, among others.
It also highlights the duty of the public manager to report directly to the population on the management of public resources, providing access to information and public services in a single digital government platform, with digital tools and services common to the agencies, normally offered by government agencies. centralized and shared way, necessary for the digital offer of services and public policies.
In the scope of public policies, the Public Policy Control Framework developed by the Brazilian Federal Court of Auditors gathers some criteria for the evaluation of public policies and mechanisms for improving performance and results, with a focus on the formulation, implementation and evaluation processes. At the implementation stage, governance and management is structured, with the definition of the structures, the implementation plan, the processes and procedures necessary for the operation, the allocation and management of resources (sources of financing and timely availability of budget credits and resources financial), in addition to the operation and monitoring, when rules, routines and processes must convert intentions into real actions and concrete results.
Other quite recent and innovative legal mechanisms are provided for in the Law No. 14,133, of April 1, 2021 (Brazil), the new Brazilian law on public bids and contracts, which places sustainable national development and the incentive to innovation as principles and goals of bidding processes and authorizes the use of environmental sustainability criteria linked to the contractor’s performance to establish variable remuneration. It also created the open procedure of expression of interest and the competitive dialogue to obtain innovative solutions or that require adaptations of available solutions.
There are several other legal frameworks linked to urban planning, waste management, economic freedoms, innovation, the third sector, in addition to legal and tax incentives, financing policies and rules that protect the rights of investors and authors of industrial and intellectual creations – which will be the subject of future publications.
Innovative management is on the agenda of smart cities and can be carried out by several legal mechanisms, which are valuable tools for the proper management of natural, financial, human and technological resources, and also vital for sustainable development and the promotion of happiness.
1) Available in: http://uploads.habitat3.org/hb3/NUA-Portuguese-Brazil.pdf?fbclid=IwAR2koIM7MtgBh6i57G4fxWeWpbK52Jr7sXIrGdBbJF81bF2GSzY527FWdAY, acesso em 29 de abril de 2021.
2) Available in: https://www.gov.br/mdr/pt-br/assuntos/desenvolvimento-regional/projeto-andus/carta_brasileira_cidades_inteligentes.pdf, acesso em 10 de abril de 2021.
3) Available in: http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_ato2019-2022/2021/lei/L14129.htm, acesso em 5 de abril de 2021.
4) Available in: https://portal.tcu.gov.br/referencial-de-controle-de-politicas-publicas.htm, acesso em 15 de abril de 2021.
5) Available in: http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_ato2019-2022/2021/lei/L14133.htm, acesso em 5 de abril de 2021.
