TY - JOUR
T1 - Contested leadership and the governance of COVID-19 in Brazil: The role of local government and community activism
AU - Ortega, Francisco
AU - Behague, Dominique
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by a Fundación BBVA grant for the project, ‘New solidarity networks in COVID-19: emotional communities, activism, and mutual aid’. We would like to acknowledge Thainã de Medeiros, journalist and museologist, co-founder of the Coletivo Papo reto, Complexo do Alemão, Rio de Janeiro; Gizele Martins, journalist and activist, Favela da Maré, Rio de Janeiro for their collaboration and insights. Many thanks also to GPH editor Richard Parker for his insightful comments, and to the reviewers for their very helpful feedback.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2022/1/24
Y1 - 2022/1/24
N2 - Strong public health governance and leadership driven by scientific evidence, community participation, and attention to social and structural determinants of health are key to effective covid-19 containment. Given the failure of the federal government in Brazil to adopt effective public health measures, state and municipal governments, as well as community activists, have stepped in to fill the void. This essay examines the synergistic role that local governments, public universities, public health institutions and mutual aid initiatives have played in Brazil to advance pandemic control and mitigate the damaging effects of central government policies and neglect. Drawing on literature, media reports, and insights from journalists and activists based in Rio’s favelas, we show how grass roots groups take actions that bear complex and vital relationships with local governments, NGOs, universities, and public health institutions. Effective local public health governance goes beyond technical public health responses and involves strategies for countering chronic marginalisation and disempowerment of local communities which open new pathways for creative intermunicipal collaboration, social change, power redistribution. It remains to be seen if actions and emerging networks at the local level can exert pressure on national government while not further exacerbating the polarising politicisation of the pandemic.
AB - Strong public health governance and leadership driven by scientific evidence, community participation, and attention to social and structural determinants of health are key to effective covid-19 containment. Given the failure of the federal government in Brazil to adopt effective public health measures, state and municipal governments, as well as community activists, have stepped in to fill the void. This essay examines the synergistic role that local governments, public universities, public health institutions and mutual aid initiatives have played in Brazil to advance pandemic control and mitigate the damaging effects of central government policies and neglect. Drawing on literature, media reports, and insights from journalists and activists based in Rio’s favelas, we show how grass roots groups take actions that bear complex and vital relationships with local governments, NGOs, universities, and public health institutions. Effective local public health governance goes beyond technical public health responses and involves strategies for countering chronic marginalisation and disempowerment of local communities which open new pathways for creative intermunicipal collaboration, social change, power redistribution. It remains to be seen if actions and emerging networks at the local level can exert pressure on national government while not further exacerbating the polarising politicisation of the pandemic.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85123492553&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/17441692.2022.2028304
DO - 10.1080/17441692.2022.2028304
M3 - Article
SN - 1744-1692
VL - 17
SP - 483
EP - 495
JO - Global Public Health
JF - Global Public Health
IS - 4
ER -