The regional issue and the Constitutional Financing Funds (FCFs) – Midwest Region

Result of Service The study will present a comparative assessment between the programming and application of the flow of resources from the Constitutional Financing Funds (FCFs), in the Midwest Region, with a view to improving the induction on the flow of resources from the agencies offering the funds. It is expected that the results demonstrate the difficulties to achieve better results in public policy

Work Location Brasília

Expected duration 210 days

Duties and Responsibilities The study is a continuation of the work started at IPEA to meet the demand of the Council for Monitoring and Evaluation of Public Policies (CMAP) on the evaluation of Constitutional Financing Funds (FCFs) in 2020. The findings pointed to positive correlations between the disbursements of the funds and economic-social indicators of the three macro-regions, as exposed in the CMAP reports, in addition to having developed a methodology for clustering the intermediate regions for the Brazilian Midwest, as shown in the studies by Pires et al (2022). It is important to note that in Brazil, efforts to evaluate public policies have been strengthened in recent years, as in the publication by IPEA and other ministries of the “Practical Guide for ex post analysis” and the “Ex ante Assessment Guide” to guide assessments carried out by the federal government. The ex post guide presents 10 types of evaluations, among governance, impact, results, design, or efficiency. In this sense, the present research is in line with the ex post evaluation guide and with the studies developed by IPEA to meet the CMAP, like what was developed for the state of Goiás in the study of Pires et al (2022). FCFs are the main instruments currently available to reduce regional inequalities in Brazil, which, like Latin America (CUERVO, 2003), is marked by regional inequalities in its territory, in which the North, Northeast and Midwest regions have historically presented economic and social indicators lower than those of the south and southeast regions. Since the beginning of the republic in 1889, and mainly after the creation of the Superintendence for the Development of the Northeast (Sudene) in 1959, the federal government has developed public policies aimed at reducing regional inequalities in the country (PORTUGAL; SILVA, 2020) taking, in certain moments, hierarchical and centralized decisions, and in others, acting in a cooperative way and in agreement with the federative entities. An important experience of agreed governance was the Deliberative Councils (Condel) of the Superintendencies for the Development of the Amazon (Sudam) and of the Northeast (Sudene) and of the Center-West (Sudeco). Created in the 1960s and composed of representatives of state governments, ministries and civil society, the councils gave a federative character to institutional deliberations, as Furtado (2013), the first superintendent of Sudene, had intended. Until the end of the 1990s, several meetings were attended by the heads of state governments and ministries, taking decisions, particularly in the allocation of resources for projects directed to these priority areas. Decisions were based on political arrangements and previous studies, which considered regional development plans and the model that would be implemented for the region. However, with the extinction of the superintendencies in 2001 and the prohibition of new claims by investment funds, the CONDELs were extinguished, and the decisions migrated to the then Ministry of National Integration from 2003, theoretically weakening the model of federative governance. The CONDELs were re-established in 2007, the year when the superintendencies were recreated, being composed again of state governments, state ministers, representatives of municipalities, civil society, superintendencies, and regional development banks. However, in this new moment, the proposal was part of the rescheduling of decisions, considering national and state institutions, but also municipalities - since 1988 considered federative entities - and relevant actors since then (ABRUCIO, 2005). The complementary laws re-creating the superintendencies assigned several powers to CONDEL, highlighting the approval of financing programs and the guidelines and priorities of the Constitutional Financing Funds (FCFs). In this sense, FCFs were created in 1988 by the Federal Constitution and regulated by Law No. 7.827, of September 27, 1989, with the objective of financing productive sectors in the North, Northeast, and Central-West regions of the country at subsidized interest rates, anchored in regionalized planning and having as main operating agents, the regional development banks. Over time, FCFs have become the main financing instruments for policies that could contribute to regional development in Brazil. The compulsory IR and IPI transfers constituted a substantial amount of funding to finance initiatives ranging from infrastructure to family farming and would theoretically be regulated by Decree No. 9.810 of May 30, 2019, which established the National Policy for Regional Development (PNDR), which was initially created and institutionalized between 2003 and 2007. The PNDR proposed a different policy from the past, as it carried out their planning on macro-regional, meso- and micro-regional bases, unlike the planning in force until then (SILVA, 2015). However, authors such as Alves and Rocha Neto (2014) and judgments of the Federal Audit Court (TCU), such as nº 1.827/2017, exalted the weakening of governance systems as a space for coordination and decision-making of policies that reduce regional inequalities in Brazil. In this sense, the question arises as to whether this also means the weakening of the direction regarding FCFs and, consequently, an induction of resources less connected to the scales of the territory and its new investment dynamics as of 2007, given the transfers from the treasury to the financial agents, which symbolize a cost related to the policy. The scope of this study is to investigate the direction of resources according to the priorities established by the regional policy. The compatibility between what is available, what is programmed and what is applied concerns the capacity of the regional and federative governance systems to coordinate the flow of resources and the decision-making of policies that reduce regional inequalities in Brazil. Therefore, the main purpose of the present work is to analyze the applications of resources according to the annual programming of the FCFs, seeking to help monitoring and evaluation systems on the applications of resources, producing possible suggestions and updates for the FCFs and regional policy, in order to continue the evaluative studies developed by IPEA within the scope of the CMAP. OBJECTIVES: The general objective of the study is to carry out a comparative assessment between the programming and application of the flow of resources from the Constitutional Financing Funds, seeking to harmonize and assist regional and federative governance systems. The main objectives are: a) Verify the volumes of resources transferred to the financial agents and the distribution of applications by federation unit (UF) and immediate geographic regions (RGI) and if the financial agents give due publicity to the origin of the resources. b) Analyze the territorial and sectoral distribution and its correspondence with the FCFs programming in terms of size and target audience. c) Investigate and identify the logic of action of the regional policy financing instruments, whether compatible or not with the programs prepared by the managing banks and with the objectives of the PDNR.

Qualifications/special skills Doctorate or Masters in one of the following areas: Public Administration or Public Management; Economy; Economic development; Geography; Urban and regional planning. Minimum of five years of experience in teaching and/or research in the areas of regional development, federalism, public policies and/or related areas. - Publications in the consulting area

Languages- fluency in Portuguese - Basic English

Additional Information Outputs/ Works Assignment: Product 1 – Report containing Survey of resources transferred to financial agents, in particular regional development banks, and their application in the territory of the Midwest Region . To be submitted 90 days after start Product 2. Report on the analysis of the level of consonance between the applications and the programming of the FCFs in the Midwest Region. To be submitted 210 days after start

No Fee THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CHARGE A FEE AT ANY STAGE OF THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS (APPLICATION, INTERVIEW MEETING, PROCESSING, OR TRAINING). THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CONCERN ITSELF WITH INFORMATION ON APPLICANTS’ BANK ACCOUNTS.