In 2023, the Juntos pela Saúde (Together for Health) Program was launched, a Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) initiative managed by IDIS –Institute for the Development of Social Investment – Aimed at strengthening the Unified Health System in the North and Northeast regions of Brazil, the Program supports health projects that operate in places with coverage gaps, prioritizing municipalities with less than 1 doctor per 1,000 inhabitants. The financial support offered to these projects is based on the logic of matchfunding, a fundraising model known as “turbinado” for its strategy of multiplying the donations collected.
In practice, the BNDES initiative works as follows: for every real (brazilian currency) donated by partner organizations, the BNDES adds another R$1,00, doubling the amount that will be transferred to health projects. The goal is to have approximately 200 million reais by 2026 for these projects, which can be awarded through public notices for proposals – to be published on the official Juntos pela Saúde website – or through structured financing. In both cases, there is a validation process for the organizations, and then the projects go through different evaluation bodies made up of specialists, until they reach the Validation Committee, where the funders confirm the investment. In order to receive support, projects must focus on priority municipalities in the North and Northeast regions and aim to benefit public health actions and services within the Unified Health System.
To learn more about the selection of new projects, click here.
To date, Juntos pela Saúde has five major supporters in addition to the BNDES, and has three wide-ranging projects that together will reach nearly 300 municipalities, with the aim of improving the Unified Health System management and service processes in their Basic Health Units, through access to technological tools, infrastructure and training for professionals.
Learn more about the first three projects awarded by Juntos pela Saúde, which are already underway:
Ciclo Saúde Proteção Social (Social Protection Health Cycle)
The Social Protection Health Cycle is an initiative of CEDAPS and the Vale Foundation, which aims to contribute to the strengthening of Primary Care (AB) in the Unified Health System (SUS), expanding its capacity to diagnose, plan, operationalize, monitor and evaluate its services through shared work plans with public management, guided by the health needs of the local population.
It is currently present in 8 municipalities in the state of Pará and will be implemented in 24 municipalities in the state of Maranhão through a partnership with the Juntos pela Saúde Program. Wheaton Precious Metals, BNDES and IDIS are also part of this partnership.
By 2026, the project is expected to reach 396 Basic Health Units (UBS), 55 Social Assistance Reference Centers (CRAS) and an average of 5,000 professionals, with the aim of supporting and strengthening the Basic Health Units in the participating municipalities, with a focus on social protection and the promotion of the population’s individual and collective health.
“The partnership with Juntos pela Saúde allows us to extend the activities of the Social Protection Health Cycle Program to 32 municipalities in the states of Maranhão and Pará, expanding our reach in the North and Northeast of Brazil. The focus is on improving public management and creating a training agenda for health professionals and, in a complementary way, for social assistance and other possible intersectoral partnerships in the municipalities. The program’s basic methodology, called Shared Construction of Local Solutions, allows us to involve and engage teams in the development of actions that focus on local needs and strengthen connections between health units and the community.” Katia Edmundo, Executive Director of CEDAPS.
“The Juntos pela Saúde Fund helps promote social investment in areas that require a special focus on access to quality health care. Through this partnership, we have been able to bring the Social Protection Health Cycle to 32 municipalities where we already work with education projects in Pará and Maranhão. In partnership with the municipal departments, we hope to work together in a structural way to improve public services and benefit the entire population.” Pâmella De-Cnop – Executive Director of the Vale Foundation
Impulso Previne (Impulse Prevents):
The project, designed by the nonprofit organization ImpulsoGov, aims to prevent cervical cancer in the North and Northeast regions of Brazil. With financial support from the Dynamo Institute and Umane – and as part of the Juntos pela Saúde initiative – Impulse Prevents will expand a free platform to help fight the disease, which is the third most common cancer among Brazilian women, according to the National Cancer Institute (INCA).
To this end, it will invest in the development of the cytopathology test indicator and give access to 10 municipalities, as well as invest in the development of the vaccine indicator, create the messaging application and expand it to 240 municipalities.
The platform provides free support to municipalities in managing and monitoring primary care indicators. The solution enables the monitoring of cervical cancer screening, which is provided free of charge by the Unified Health System (SUS). Local managers will be able to improve their prevention strategies for cervical cancer, which accounts for 17,000 new cases each year, according to INCA’s 2023 data.
“Cervical cancer is preventable and highly curable in its early stages, but the risk of death increases significantly in advanced stages. Screening is the most important preventive measure for this disease, but public health professionals struggle to know who is up to date. Our tools transform the SUS data into simple lists so that professionals know who the people are who have not been tested and can search for them,” said Isabel Opice, ImpulsoGov’s Operations Director.
“Everyone should have access to the highest quality HealthCare; This involves having a stronger SUS, capable of making good use of the resourses it already has. There is no point in creating parallel paths; we need to leverage the SUS and strengthen public healt policies” João Abreu, Executive Director of ImpulsoGov.
Painel de Indicadores de Saúde Mental (Mental Health Indicator Panel)
The project, designed by ImpulsoGov, aims to improve access to simplified data and information for mental health managers in municipalities in the North and Northeast of Brazil. With the financial support of the RD Group – within the framework of Juntos pela Saúde – the initiative aims to develop, implement, and improve a panel of mental health data and indicators for the management of the municipal health department. The goal is to guarantee the population access to more qualified and efficient care.
The “Mental Health Indicators Panel” project has a partnership with the Cactus Institute, a non-profit organization that aims to broaden the debate and care in disease prevention and mental health promotion. Since its first version in Aracaju (SE), the Cactus Institute has co-chaired and funded the project and continues to support its expansion to other municipalities.
“There are no established standards for evaluating the quality of the services provided by mental health care networks, and managers often don’t have access to information such as the profile of the people who uses the municipal network and the services they receive. Our goal with the Mental Health Indicator Platform is to facilitate the access of these professionals to reliable information that will help them make decisions and contribute to the improvement of mental health services,” says Daniela Krausz, Mental Health Project Manager at ImpulsoGov.
