Company: Futurar & Talking City

Client: Fundação Maria Cecilia Souto Vidigal

Country: Brazil

A citizen being considered as the same person by different public administration departments is a challenge for governments worldwide. In Brazil, a continental country with federative administration, 27 states, 5,558 municipalities, countless administrative subdivisions and enormous societal diversity, the challenges around silos and user-centricity are even higher.

How can we ensure that regardless of the "entrance gate", pregnant women, children aged 0 to 3 years and their caregivers are cared for in a comprehensive and integrated way?

This critical question led to the creation of the Early Childhood(EC) Delivery Dashboard, a service aimed at supporting municipalities to link their health, education and social assistance secretariats for comprehensive care for EC. The project was born from the experience of building the Integrated Policy for Early Childhood Care (0 to 3 years old) for a Brazilian municipality - and represents a tested social technology that is open and adherent to the reality of new cities.

The project was developed collaboratively through the Service Design approach. A robust diagnosis which mapped the users' journey and transposed it with sectorial and cross-sectorial flows of 14 services was carried out in the first stage of the policy design.

This map was co-constructed, validated and iterated with more than 300 professionals from the top and strategic level to the implementation and frontline. As a result, a threefold actionable framework was designed to connect the secretariats of health, education and social assistance. Based on one strategy of this framework, a social technology was created to support other municipalities in this same integration endeavor.

The Dashboard is a free digital tool that helps municipalities to identify and visualise the provision and gaps of services to the EC users. It is organised by the user's life stages and connects to a list of services based on federal regulations. The project was co-designed and the usability tested in 5 municipalities of different sizes, regions and experience with EC service integration.

It is estimated that the Policy will impact 1.1 million children aged 0 to 6 years and that the integration between the departments will increase by up to 80% the access of children and pregnant women to basic services in that municipality (Source: Municipal Plan for EC). The Dashboard will have national reach, scaling its impact. By the first month, without any advertising, 36 different cities used the solution.

This project was born from the complexity of Brazilian reality and its social vulnerabilities. As a result, each municipality can choose, define and point out what makes sense for its community. The Dashboard can facilitate dialogues and institutionalise an integrated and comprehensive Early Childhood Protection Network.