RenovaBR and Anti-democratic Threat-proof Commitment and Innovation
Patricia Audi is CEO of RenovaBR and Counselor for Sustainable Economic and Social Development of the Federal Government. She has more than 25 years of experience in Brazilian public management at the federal, state and municipal levels. Graduated in Business Administration and specialist in Public Policy and Government Management, Patricia Audi was Secretary of Transparency and Corruption Prevention at the Ministry of Transparency; INSS Benefit Director; Coordinator of the International Labor Organization in Brazil; Management Secretary at the Ministry of Planning, Budget and Management of the Federal Government and Secretary of the Council for Economic and Social Development of the Civil House. For the past four years, she has served as Vice-President of Communication, Marketing, Institutional Relations and Sustainability at Santander.
This text was originally written for issue 78 of the WBO Newsletter, published on August 4, 2023. Fill in the form at the bottom of the text to access and subscribe to the WBO weekly newsletter in English.
In addition to the renewal of names on the ballot boxes each election year, our vibrant democracy increasingly needs qualified staff. New candidates for positions in the legislative and executive branches of government are not enough. Our representatives, whether new entrants into politics or old acquaintances of voters, need to be prepared to carry out transparent mandates that ensure ethical principles and dialogue, thinking about a national development project, and combating threats to democracy. That's where RenovaBR comes in.
We are a political training school that, since 2017, has been developing its own methodology and technology to transform the way politics is done in Brazil. We believe in using data and evidence to make decisions that impact the lives of thousands of people. Based on this principle, we offer, free of charge and in a variety of ways, without a partisan or ideological agenda, training paths that range from campaign organization to the creation of public policies, including the formation of a support network for leaders trained by the school.
Since the first class, in 2018, we have received more than 60,000 applications. We teach more than 600 hours of classes, train 2,000 leaders and support more than 175 people who are in elected offices. In 2022, we had seven leaders elected to the National Congress and eleven in the legislative assemblies. Last year our students received a total of 6.8 million votes. In addition to those who hold offices, today we have more than 470 RenovaBR leaders who have management positions in federal, state and municipal governments. One-third of the trained leaders already influence the lives of millions of Brazilian men and women.
For 2023, the challenge of training and educating leaders is even greater. First, due to the highly polarized environment of the last elections, which discourages many who do not fully identify with one of the poles from taking risks in politics, running for office is a task that naturally requires a series of personal sacrifices. With that in mind, RenovaBR redoubled its care when selecting the people taking its course, which this year alone attracted around 20,000 interested parties.
We developed an algorithm to evaluate responses to an extensive questionnaire applied by a chatbot to everyone who enrolls in the course. In addition, our selection team performs an accurate analysis of the candidates’ communication skills, among other criteria. In the second phase, the candidates are in virtual contact with us. At the end of the process, we will select up to 3,000 new leaders.
The effort can soon be seen in the next RenovaBR group that will prepare the names of those who intend to run in the municipal elections next year. This is committed work that can and should serve as an example for other public and private sector institutions. Reinforcing democratic values on a daily basis is a current imperative, and we hope it serves as an example for other initiatives.
As CEO of RenovaBR since January, I have been sharing with our team, our leaders and our supporters, the dream of a fairer and less unequal Brazil. We are living this dream together with valued partners, who dedicate themselves, invest and believe that the only way to improve politics and strengthen democracy is through politics. We will continue in our fight, keeping an eye on the new faces and the not-so-new faces that deserve their space to propose increasingly proactive and democratic policies. We call on everyone to do their part, study, inform themselves properly, support constructive debates and be aware of those that promise simple solutions and narratives for complex problems. Democracy in Brazil thanks you.
