investment capacity in the real estate market of Brasília; and the introduction of a rural credit line as part of the services of CAIXA, a large national bank.68 The collaboration with SEBRAE, the national service for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) which supported more than 12,000 SMEs at the bottom of the pyramid to become more competitive and inclusive, is one of the examples where UNDP supported downstream activities through strengthening upstream institutional capacities. Considering that SMEs account for 62 percent of total employment in Brazil and 50 percent of national value added,69 this support was highly relevant from an economic and social perspective. UNDP facilitated personnel management and missions abroad to fill knowledge gaps. SEBRAE has been able to diffuse the acquired knowledge across its capillary network, and stakeholders noted the complementarity between UNDP support to knowledge-building and SEBRAE’s capillary network. UNDP collaboration with the regional Development Planning Agency of the Northeast region (SUDENE) resulted in the first ever development plan of the Northeast region. The plan, which was being discussed in Congress at the time of the evaluation data collection, is expected to improve the coherence, synergy and effectiveness of public and private investments in the region. The evaluation noted that the institutional development of SUDENE as a planning agency and broker of constitutional funds (for finance and guarantee in PPPs) was evident in its renewed legitimacy vis-à-vis the constituent states and the holistic regional perspective, as opposed to individual state planning. Likewise, UNDP supported the restructuring and capacity development of the state of Mato Grosso do Sul’s Strategic Partnerships Office, which contributed to enhanced institutional capacity for the management of PPPs.
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Similar to the interventions in the social sector, UNDP’s operational support was crucial for facilitating the execution of these complex projects, dealing with highly technical interventions (e.g., PPPs, investment simulation models and public accounting taxonomy, etc.). UNDP was also recognized for its role in facilitating knowledge transfer through its global networks, as well as promoting mainstreaming of SDGs and gender concerns in development interventions. Other stakeholders perceived that UNDP had little or no technical inputs and follow up in the diffusion of results (discussed further under section 2.8).
2.2 Support to the 2030 Agenda and SDG localization and monitoring Brazil played a leading role in the global negotiations that led to the 2030 Agenda. In 2016, a national SDG Commission with wide civil society representation was established to provide a multi-stakeholder institutional coordination mechanism for the implementation of the SDGs. The commission developed a two-year action plan to advance SDG mainstreaming. Mainstreaming, Acceleration and Policy Support (MAPS)70 missions at national and sub-national level (Piauí state) were undertaken in 2018 to support the government in its implementation. In 2019, the new government dissolved the national SDG Commission. Brazil submitted its first Voluntary National Review in 2017, and had aligned its previous multi-year strategic framework, PPA 2016-2019, with the SDGs.71 The current national PPA (2020-2023) does not integrate the SDGs, however regional development plans submitted to Congress shortly after the current PPA referred to the SDGs as a basis for planning.
A public-owned national bank. OECD (2020) SME and Entrepreneurship Policy in Brazil in 2020. This was done jointly with IPEA and IBGE (MAPS is the UN common approach to support countries in SDG implementation at country level). Voluntary National Review 2017 Brazil, https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/memberstates/brazil
INDEPENDENT COUNTRY PROGRAMME EVALUATION: BRAZIL
