According to the Brazilian Constitution, each city has the same responsibilities for the implementation of public policies. It does not matter if it has 10,000 inhabitants or 10 million. But out of the more than 5,500 cities in the country, 97% have fewer than 200,000 residents and lack the institutional capacity to manage complex public services, which can translate into efficiency problems in matters such as health care and education.
Although most of these problems would be solved if more public funds were available, when there is not, it is necessary to find other solutions. And that is exactly what Rodolfo Fiori has done with his data analysis software capable of identifying inefficiencies in municipal management, as well as possible solutions to correct them. His approach increases the efficiency of public money and whatever amount is saved can be used to improve other services. Fiori's program, which he has dubbed Muove for Cities, has made him one of the winners of the Innovators Under 35 Latin America 2018 from MIT Technology Review in Spanish.
Thanks to a city scholarship, this young Brazilian was able to access a good college, which led to a good university and good job in logistics management and supply chains. Gratefully, Fiori set out to turn his efforts to help improve the processes of the city that helped him. "Small cities lack the social capital and institutional capacity to implement policies, and in many cases, officials and mayors do not even have higher education or the means to understand the problems that weigh on them," Fiori says.
That is why in 2016 he founded the company Muove Brasil and developed an algorithm. By comparing the management of all municipalities, it is possible to find out if the concrete application of a policy costs more than is expected in a particular city. The cities that hire Muove for Cities have access to this analysis and also to a tool for their public officials that guides them in a simple and intuitive way about the steps to take to avoid incurring excessive expenses.
Muove for Cities has already been implemented in 15 cities in the country, which have improved by an average of 11% in the number of resources available. This success has helped Muove Brasil to sign an agreement with the State of São Paulo (Brazil) so that 645 cities can begin to use the software, which is expected to result in the release of 1.5 million dollars for the benefit of 48 million citizens.
The founder and CTO of Sourtech, Hernán Roig, jury member of Innovators Under 35 Latin America 2018, concludes that "the project has an innovative character since it brings analytical technology to the smaller public institutions, the city councils, that they would not be able to access."
