Mobilizing SUS: A strategy to strengthen participatory and democratic management

Mobilizing SUS: A strategy to strengthen participatory and democratic management

 

To promote health in Latin America is to compromise with the social movement towards mechanisms and experiences that allows the adoption of democratic social participation and effective processes, with power of decision in formal and informal spaces, participating in the formulation, implementation and evaluation of policies towards health and life quality, as a concrete expression of State and society democratization. Social participation has always represented a challenge to the establishment of democratic societies. In Brazil, the participation of social movements played a key role in the re-democratization of the country, and particularly to the formulation of the National Health System (SUS). The promotion of health interventions requires intersectorial actions, community qualification and increase of participation by the population. To strengthen participatory management of SUS in the State of Bahia, Brazil, contributing to a greater reflection about society’s control actions in the formulation, management and control of health policies and decision-making, the Department of Education and Labor Management of the State of Bahia Health Secretariat is developing a project that proposes a link between social movements, health professionals and advisers, Ministry of Education and Public Prosecutors Office to form a network that talks to popular movements, qualifies health advisory boards and encourages juvenile role in schools. The strategy is to develop regional Mobilizing SUS seminars in the State of Bahia, Brazil and to create a network of articulators of Permanent Education for Participatory Management of SUS-BA. Results show the relevance of this innovative, interdisciplinary project towards the consolidation of social participation for the right to health.