The Pratigi Environmental Protection Area Intermunicipal Consortium (CIAPRA) shared experiences during the National Meeting with Mayors, promoted by the Brazilian Federal Government, with the participation of the President of the Brazilian Republic, Dilma Rousseff. CIAPRA presented its experience with the administrative modernization being developed in the five cities that it represents – Ibirapitanga, Igrapiúna, Ituberá, Nilo Peçanha and Piraí do Norte, located in the Bahia Southern Lowlands.

With the theme “Strong Municipalities, Sustainable Brazil,” the event gathered more than 5,000 city mayors from the country from January 28-30 in Brasília. Dilma Rousseff opened the meeting and highlighted that this is the time for consolidating state partnerships. “It is important that the new mayors make the best use of the set of plans, actions and services that exist in the Federal Government for the municipalities,” she said.

The guests learned more about the main Federal Government programs being undertaken in partnership with the local administrations and the good practices by the municipalities and intermunicipal public consortiums in different areas and also participated in technical workshops.

Participation of CIAPRA
On January 30, the President of CIAPRA and the Mayor of Piraí do Norte, Heráclito Menezes, presented the consortium’s experience during the programming of “Good Practices” and also talked about the support offered to the administrative units that make up CIAPRA in terms of elaborating and implementing the Tax Management and Basic Social Sector Management Modernization Program (PMAT), an initiative promoted by the National Economic and Social Development Bank (BNDES). “The program will improve the transparency of public accounts and enhance security for the manager that must comply with the Tax Responsibility Law, in addition to adding revenue for the municipalities and making more services available to the population,” said Menezes.

The training of government workers, structure of the IT sector, improvement of the city government infrastructure, implementation of protocol and process control systems and budgetary and financial execution are some of the items financeable by the Automatic PMAT, a category of the program currently being implemented in the Southern Lowlands. The resources are being requested through the Bahia State Development Agency – DESENBAHIA and the different city councils approved laws that authorize the credit operation. The period for implementing the project is 24 months starting with the contracting of financing and the estimated investments total R$ 15.9 million.

Still during the meeting, Heráclito Menezes and the Mayor of Nilo Peçanha, Carlos Azevedo, signed a cooperation agreement that will make it possible to implement in their cities the Ministry of Communications pilot program “Digital Cities.” In addition to offering access to the network in public spaces, the initiative will also provide free Wi-Fi for unrestricted use.

Union of the Cities
Founded in 2008, CIAPRA seeks to serve as an interface between the federal and state governments and the city governments it represents. Its actions are geared toward the implementation and improvement of public services, infrastructure and the social and production actions in its area of operations, strengthening public policies.

Together with the federal, state and municipal governments, Civil Society Organizations of Public Interest and the Odebrecht Foundation, CIAPRA instituted the Bahia Southern Lowlands Environmental Protection Area Mosaic Program for Development and Growth Integrated with Sustainability (PDCIS). The challenge is to turn a rural area with important environmental assets into a prosperous and dynamic region, placing talented youth in the field.