On Monday, 5th October, at the ENAP headquarters in Brasilia, the International Course on Development and Social Protection in Latin America and Europe started, bringing together international attendees and some 50 civil servants from different ministries in the social area (Social Development, Education, Health, City, etc.) and cross-cutting continuing education programmes in ENAPS's Professional Development Programme (Aperfeiçoamento para Carreiras).

The objective is to re-evaluate the Brazilian track record on social protection policies in light of recent experiences in Latin America and Europe. The course proposes a broad reflection on the challenges of consolidating policies in terms of the imperative of advancing in social inclusion and social development in the country. Within this framework, the issue of building a future agenda for strengthening the Brazilian social system was addressed, taking into account the current economic context.

The inauguration included the participation of the President of the ENAP, Gleisson Rubin; the Secretary of the SAGI, Paulo Januzzi; the European Union Delegation Ambassador to Brazil, João Gomes Cravinho; and the Coordinator of the Social Policies area of the European Union´s EUROsociAL Programme, Francesco Maria Chiodi.

Gleisson Rubin emphasised that the course is going to provide a comparative analysis of social development strategies and social protection models. He also stressed that “the State entrusts to career civil servants the responsibility of maintaining policies that are conceived of within a perspective of continuity and intended to provide structure for action in favour of the least privileged sectors of society”.

For his part, Ambassador João Gomes Cravinho recalled that the development and social protection model created in Europe after the Second World War has been consolidated and today serves as a “beacon for the world”. According to the head of the European Union Delegation in Brazil, “exchange of information on public policies between Europe and Latin America is fundamental for the societies, mainly when they are seeking better paths and formats for the future of this agenda”.

EUROsociAL's support is part of the programme's collaboration in diplomas and courses on social protection promoted by some countries in the region (Mexico, Costa Rica, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile). EUROsociAL provides European and Latin American experts in each country. In addition,  it will be organising a Regional Specialisation Programme within a short period of time. For one week, the top students from the 2015 training programme in each country will meet with European and Latin American experts in order to deepen their understanding of certain issues, exchange experiences between countries, and carry out site visits in the host country.