Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Community participation in policy-making is believed to best respond to different community needs related to health delivery systems. Brazil has developed an impressive participatory structure with evidence suggesting a positive connection between participation and more equitable health service distribution. My research examines the content, purpose, and obligations of Brazil's law of participation and assesses the role the law plays toward improved health service distribution. As a corollary, the research contributes to the development of legal indicators through which participatory processes and their outcomes can be assessed. The research speaks to current research in constitutional law and policy analysis attempting to develop methodological tools to evaluate, and systematically compare, participatory mechanisms across Brazil. In particular, the proposed project intends to present two research chapters before two expert panels in law, public health and social science at the 2015 Abrasco Conference, a major collective health event in Latin America. One presentation will discuss the legal analysis chapter, with particular attention to the purpose of having community participation as part of Brazil's right to health and corresponding legal obligations. The other will discuss (a) the findings of naturalistic observations of two participatory policy-making meetings, and (b) the information collected through 27 qualitative interviews conducted with key informants involved in those meetings. In assessing how people apply the law of participation in light of the legal content and purpose, the goal is to inform Brazil's policymakers about what is happening in practice so they can address eventual problems related to the law and its applicability. The research can also provide some insights to other countries, including Canada, to design and evaluate legal frameworks towards more accountable health system decision-making and responsive health-related policies.