The third and fourth sessions of the “Training of Trainers Course for Strengthening Collegiate Bodies and Councils” were held on October 1 and 15 in Brasília. The course is organized by the Secretariat-General of the Presidency of the Republic (SGPR) as part of the Training Program for the Strengthening of Collegiate Bodies and Councils.
One of the main themes of the third session was transparency in collegiate bodies and the use of digital participation tools. The functionalities available on the Brasil Participativo platform were presented, including tools for publishing information and documents from collegiate bodies, organizing participatory processes, and enabling society’s participation in decision-making on public policies. The training also covered topics such as Article 15 of the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen—which affirms that society has the right to hold every public agent accountable for their administration—and Law 12.527/2011, the Access to Information Law, which seeks to replace a logic of secrecy with a culture of transparency.
The fourth session focused on popular education and the development of training strategies aimed at the work of council members. The proposal is for each participating council to develop its own training plan and to form collectives capable of implementing this process internally.
The activity drew upon the Reference Framework for Popular Education of the Secretariat-General of the Presidency of the Republic, presented by Pedro Pontual, Director of Popular Education at the National Secretariat for Social Participation (SNPS). It also featured Renata Pekelman from the National Health Council, who shared practical training experiences.
During the meeting, participants explored techniques and tools used in popular education, took part in a dynamic activity involving mandalas as a playful and educational exercise, and began planning their training strategies, taking home a concrete task to continue working on.
A highlight of the session was the encouragement to create contextualized training strategies that consider the profile of each group—one of the core principles of popular education. The goal is to strengthen councils as spaces for learning and democratic participation.
Three sessions of the “Training of Trainers Course for Strengthening Collegiate Bodies and Councils” are still forthcoming, scheduled for November and December.
Researchers Monika Dowbor and Lizandra Serafim, from INCT Participa, are part of the pedagogical committee responsible for designing and developing the Program, alongside members of the National Secretariat for Social Participation (SNPS).
This initiative is part of the “Training Policy for the Strengthening of Social Participation Bodies” and follows the “Recommendations for Collegiate Bodies, Councils, and National Conferences” published by SNPS in July 2024. The program aims to strengthen collectives and training strategies within national participatory collegiate bodies, enabling them to reach subnational bodies, and to foster the development and coordination of sectoral training strategies. Learn more here.
