Prêmio Espírito Público

Eloy Oliveira has more than a decade of experience working with Governments in Latin America. In 2016, right after finishing his Masters of Public Administration degree at Columbia University, Eloy led the creation of Republica.org, an NGO focused on using data to improve the motivation, responsiveness, and effectiveness of people working in government in Brazil. Republica.org is now one of the main Foundations leading change within Brazilian national and subantional Governments, having created the most important prize for Public Servants in the Country, Prêmio Espírito Público, among other initiatives.

In Brazil, public servants confront a real lack of public trust and recognition for their work. Mostly because of recent corruption scandals and the media over exposure of negative stories. According to a survey by Ipsos, 75% of Brazilians think that “government does not prioritize the concerns of people”. Again, 75% of Brazilians believe that the excesses of bureaucracy is harmful and serve to facilitate corruption. The public perception is that public servants are not delivering public good to society.

In order to change this misconception, I´ve led a consortium of 20 NGOs and Foundations to create what has become the most important award for people working with Governments in Brazil: the Brazilian Public Spirit Award. 

The goal is to showcase some of the best public servants in the country, using national media channels to inform citizens and change their perception about the public sector. Also increase motivation and impact.

The Public Spirit Award aims to address the trust and transparency issues by celebrating the best public servants in the country and increasing trust across the public sector.

Brazil has over 12million public servants. The award directly affects them. By increasing their morale and showcasing their stories the award also impacts the 210million Brazilian citzens.

One part of the challange is to call atention from traditional media to the awardees, in order to show society that there are amazing public servants creating a lot of positive impact.

Using other international public service awards — like the US Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals — as a benchmark, Instituto República and ABF designed the award so as to celebrate successful careers in the public sector, demonstrating to this industry that good efforts could be recognised and even rewarded and reinvigorating even the most worn-out.

In order to be considered for the award, each candidate had to complete an application form available on the award site, following the eligibility rules. Almost 2,000 applicants started to fill a demanding application, and 375 of those entries were completed and submitted. Applicants from all the 27 Brazilian states completed the process.

An internal team screened applications to spot candidates that did not meet the eligibility criteria. After this process, a team of 60 jurors evaluated the remaining candidates, based on four criteria: (1) the ability to inspire the team and the work environment; (2) contribution in specific technical areas; (3) the impact of the results on the society; and (4) moments of overcoming and resilience in favor of the country.

At the end of the competition, the winners were awarded cash prizes and a training trip.

Brazil has over 12million public servants. They suffer a lot of prejudice from citzens, due to an over-exposure of bad examples by the media. There are a lot of unsung heroes within public servants, and the lack of recognition really affects their morale. The new generations do not want to join public service in Brazil, because they dont believe that they can achieve anything good from the public sector.

In order to change the negative cicle, in 2018 I´ve led a consortium of 20 plus Foundations and NGOs in the creation of the Public Spirit Award (Prêmio Espirito Público). It is the first award created to celebrate public servants in a national level. 

Now it is time to scale up the awards impact, by creating more awareness and spreading the story of the great public servants in the country.

Public Servants work to solve the hardest problems of our society. In Brazil 80% of public servants work at the Health, Education and Public Safety areas. Despite all challanges they face and all the great things they do, people still dont value public servants the way they should. My goal with the award is to build awareness around the great public servants we have, so they can be empowere and energized to increase impact. I also believe this is a good way to value all the public servants in the country and inspire a new generation of great public servants.

I was inspired by an article I´ve read in 2017 about the power of Prizes and Awards to inspire impact. After that I started researching other awards around the world that are focused on public servatns. I took me 1 year to reseach and design the award. I invited other Foundations and NGOs to support the awards and they decided to join me on such a meningfull challange.

I come from a family of public servants. Starting with my grandpa, mother, father, sister, uncles and aunts. I also fell in love with public service while working for the State Government in Brazil. I trully believe that we need to have empowered public servants that have the right tools to solve the hardest problems within our society. Despite knowing a lot of great public servants I see that Brazilian society has lost its faith in public servants. My goal is to change that misconception.

I´ve successfuly ran the Public Spirit Award in 2018 and 2019. So Im confident with the overall logitics of the award. In order to scale up the awards impact I need to gather more support and funds. The Elevate Prize will give me the extra help I need in order to scale up the award. 

During my time working as a public servant in Brazil I learned how to navigate complex system and achieve goals with very limited resources. I also learned to be resilient and always look to the big picture. Several times me and my team would work for months designing new public policies that would not be implemented due to changes in political scenarios. We would keep doing our work nonetheless, and making our best to deliver public good to society.

Also, when starting Republica.org, I faced several challanges and set backs. But I kept working hard and finding new ways to innovate.

At Columbia University I led a group of 5 students on the creation of Brazil Talk (www.braziltalk.org/), a non-partisan, not-for-profit online platform offering new perspectives about Brazilian issues through opinion articles, interviews, videos, graphics, and events. 

All students were working volunterly and I had to keep them motivated to work long hours and achieve our collective goal. We made it!

I´m currently part of Brazil Talk´s Advisoy Board and proud of what we have achieved.

The Public Spirit Award (Prêmio Espírito Público) was designed by Republica.org and currently currated by the same organization. The Prize is supported and co-sponsored by over 20 Brazilian Foundations and NGO´s. Here is the complete list of supporters:

República.org; Lemann Foundation; Brava Foundation; Institutos Humanize;  Agenda Brasil do Futuro; Centro de Liderança Pública; Fundação Itaú Social; Ensina Brasil; Fundação Victor Civita; Instituto Sou da Paz; Instituto Betty e Jacob Lafer; Instituto Igarapé; Instituto Desiderata; Vetor Brasil; SOS Mata Atlântica;  Instituto de Tecnologia & Sociedade do Rio; Instituto Clima e Sociedade; Instituto Semeia; Casa Fluminense; Arapyaú.

In 2017 the CLP (Centro de Liderança Pública) made a research with more than 30 Brazilian Foundations and NGOs that work to improve Brazilian public service. The research showed that no one in the sample had projects focused on recognizing and celebrating the people that do great on their work.

The Public Spirit Award is the first ever award to recognize the important contributions of the most distinguished public employees in Brazil. It is also an innovative tool to inspire a new generation of public servants and raise the morale of actual public servants.

PROBLEM I´M TRYING TO SOLVE: most Brazilians believe that all public servants in the country are corrupt and ineficiente (this is a misconception widely spread in Brazilian society). This misconception reduces the morale of current public servants and scares away young talented people from joining public service.

GOALS: 1- Change the way people see public service by showing how many talented people we have working within public service. 

2- To inspire and attract more incredible people to join public service.

3- To have a better group of empowered public servants and improve public service delivered to citzens.

 ASSUMPTION: People are flooded everyday with bad news about public service and the good examples are rarely showcased. By calling attention to good examples I´m going to reverse the misconception about public servants in Brazil and attract more young talented poeple to join public service.

CURRENT: we had over 1.000 applicants in 2019 (180% growth from previous years) and we reached 1.1 million people via social media

ONE YEAR: we expect to have 3.000 applicants in 2020 and reach 2 million people on social media.

FIVE YEAR: we plant to have 120.000 applicants (1% of all public servants in the country) and reach 10 million people via social media and TV.

I believe that Governments are the best tool to fight the hardest problems of our society (Brazil has over 12 million public servants in Federal, State and local levetl). Despite the large possibility of creating social impact, Governments have a hard time to attract young talented people, because of loss of credibility. I wat to change the way Brazilians look at public service and Governments and help guarante we have the most talented people solving the hardest problems within Governments.

In 5 years I want Brazil to have one of the best and most effective public services in the world.

The number one challenge to accomplish my goals is to create more awareness around the Public Spirit Award. In order to accomplish my goals I need more great public servants to apply for the award and more citzens to see the results of the award and to be inspired by it.

In order to get more awareness we need to invest a lot more on media. So I would say that our greates barrier is financial.

Also, it would help to have more access to people that are famous and that could share news about the award on their networks. So to have access to this people would alos help.

1- Financial: We are reaching to more possible funders to invest in the award, so we can increase the media budget.

2- Networks: We are reaching to more people and networks that could help call attention to the award. The Elevate Prize would also help us to access new networks and reach more people.

The Prize is supported and co-sponsored by over 20 Brazilian Foundations and NGO´s. Here is the complete list of supporters:

República.org; Lemann Foundation; Brava Foundation; Institutos Humanize;  Agenda Brasil do Futuro; Centro de Liderança Pública; Fundação Itaú Social; Ensina Brasil; Fundação Victor Civita; Instituto Sou da Paz; Instituto Betty e Jacob Lafer; Instituto Igarapé; Instituto Desiderata; Vetor Brasil; SOS Mata Atlântica;  Instituto de Tecnologia & Sociedade do Rio; Instituto Clima e Sociedade; Instituto Semeia; Casa Fluminense; Arapyaú.

These Foundations support the award with funds, by helping to advertise the Prize and also by appoint judges to the award.

Here is a list of ways I´m creating value to public servants:

1- The winners will showcase their work on national media. This is a way to celebrate and recognize their achievements.

2- People will be inspired by the work of the winners, and might be influenced to join public service.

3- The winners will have an immersive experience and travel abroad to visit public departments (it is the first time some of them travel abroad)

4- The winners will join a unique network that will grant them access to exclusive events and support.

100% of our funds currently come from sustained donations and grants. One of my goals is to create a Fund that will cover the basics cost in perpetuity. Also, as the Prize gets more notority, it will be easier to bring big companies to sponser the award.

The estimated expenses for 2020 are US$250.000

The elevate Prize will help me to overcome the current challenges I face to achieve my goals:

• First, the prize of USD $300,000 spread over two years, will help me increase the investments in social media and also speed up the creation of the Endowment for the Public Spirit Award.
• The Elevate Prize Foundation’s two-year program will help me improve the Awards efficiency by getting feed-back from mentors.
• The media and marketing campaign will directly help me with my goal, which is highly connected with increasing the media cover around the Public Spirit Award.
• By accessing a dynamic network of Elevate Prize Global Heroes and partners, I will have the chance to gather more support to the award, specially from social media influencers.

I´d like to attract more partners to fund the Public Spirit Award and also to help advertise it. 

There are several organizations that could help me achieve my goals:

1- Other Foundations that run Prizes and Awards around the world: Nobel Prize, Varkey Foundation; World Economic Forum.

2- Social Platforms that could help me advertise the Award: Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Instagram.

3- Large companies that could invest in the Award: Google, Microsoft, Amazon.