A contribuição da organização de base comunitária Redes da Maré para o controle social da política de enfrentamento ao COVID-19 na favela da Maré.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the invisibility of the impoverished territories of Rio's favelas in the face of public policies aimed at controlling the transmission of the coronavirus virus. The case study investigates whether the strategies implemented by the social organization Redes da Maré, in the favelas of Maré, contributed to the social control of the policy to combat COVID-19, from March 2020 to July 2021. The specific objectives of the study were to understand the perceptions of the coordinators of Redes da Maré about the transparency of information and governance during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is qualitative research in which semi-structured interviews were carried out with coordinators of Redes da Maré, community leaders, and the health coordinator of a local health unit and a focus group was carried out with residents of Maré. The results were analyzed through thematic content analysis according to Lawrence Bardin, in which 12 categories were found. In this sense, it was concluded that the design of governance and communication strategies, the participation and mobilization of Redes da Maré in the territory contributed to the control of the pandemic and to the social control of the policy to face COVID-19 in the favelas of Maré. Other findings of the study were that, according to the vision of the coordinators of Redes da Maré, it is necessary to reinforce the culture of transparency of official information and that governance is perceived as the articulation and dialogic mobilization of public and private partners to carry out collective actions for the common good. This study reinforces the leading role of civil society in achieving access to health and the right to life for fragile populations in pandemic context and contributes to understanding the social control carried out by civil society over the State from the perspective of governance and transparency, which are relevant topics for area of knowledge of Controllership and Public Management and for the improvement of state action in health emergencies.