Pernambuco's Priorities: Three Ways Delivery Units are Driving Impact

Parents in Pernambuco seeking to enroll their children in early childhood education centers may have a hard time: The State currently has a deficit of over 173,000 placements for children ages 0 to 3, with only 20% of children in the age group enrolled. But Pernambuco wants to change that, and they’re using Delivery Units to help. Governor Raquel Lyra, in a collaborative effort with state agencies and nonprofit organizations, implemented the Delivery Unit model to prioritize health, education, and environmental policies. With support from Delivery Associates, the State incorporated citizens’ feedback in identifying top priorities, ensuring everyone felt part of the solution.

Why Delivery Units are Effective

The Delivery Unit model—a core component of DA’s work with governments, philanthropies, and NGOs globally—prioritizes effectiveness and tangible results in public policy implementation. The approach shifts teams' focus from a macro vision to a more detailed, pragmatic perspective. Delivery Units enable leaders to measure, evaluate, and adjust their actions precisely and efficiently. The model optimizes processes, reduces bureaucracy, and increases the effectiveness of service delivery, all resulting in an optimized administration aligned with citizens’ needs that empowers the public and builds trust.

A central aspect of implementing Delivery Units is training teams on the necessary processes to achieve agile management. Capacity building, another cornerstone of the model, enables more immediate delivery and helps create positive public perception.

How Pernambuco is Using Delivery Units to Drive Progress In:

Health

Pernambuco prioritized increasing the number of available prenatal beds to improve maternal and child health. They plan to build five strategically located State maternity hospitals to expand access to high-complexity obstetric care.

Using the Delivery Unit model, the team set goals to:

• Reduce high-risk births and Cesarean sections
• Increase the availability of services, thus reducing the distance required to access care from up to 22,000 km (over 13k miles) to around 100 km (roughly 60 miles)

The Environment

Pernambuco used Delivery Units to establish a robust plan for enhancing public conservation units (legally protected areas of land). The plan involves:

• Promoting reforestation and increasing vegetation cover
• Combating deforestation and coastal erosion
• Problem-solving legal issues like planning requirements and organizational regulations that often stand in the way of advancing public land conservation
• Establishing sustainable socio-economic activities in conservation units

The team also defined success indicators to monitor progress toward their goals.

Education

Pernambuco plans to expand access to early childhood education, with a goal to create 60,000 additional daycare spots. This would more than double the number of current daycare enrollments, as the State has a deficit of over 173,000 spots for children aged 0 to 3 and coverage for this age group is only slightly above 20%.

The State offered financial and technical support, identifying new sites and contracting architectural projects for the first daycare centers. The Department of Education led the process, ensuring cities adhered to the plan. Pernambuco opened the bidding process for the construction of the first 51 daycare centers in May 2024; the State aims to build 250 daycare centers with an investment of over R$750MM (US$150MM) by the end of 2026.

Reflecting on What’s Working

In a time when society demands more efficient, transparent, and results-oriented public management than ever, Pernambuco is stepping up to the challenge by harnessing the power of Delivery Units. As we reflect on accomplishments to date, we have identified three key drivers of success:

1. Clearly defining priorities and goals: Establishing clear priorities and goals at the outset of the project ensured a focused scope, enabling Pernambuco’s Delivery Unit team to develop a precise definition of success. This clarity promoted coordinated efforts toward achieving set objectives.

2. Building capacity and empowering the team: This project highlights the critical importance of empowering local teams through skill development and confidence building. Establishing clear management and monitoring routines was vital for enabling the Delivery Unit team to independently lead and sustain delivery.

3. Utilizing effective engagement and communication strategies: Effective communication and proactive stakeholder engagement proved crucial. Increasing the frequency and quality of interactions between the Delivery Unit team and the implementing departments, as well as ensuring that progress and successes were well communicated, were essential for maintaining alignment and ongoing project support.

Through strategic planning, administrative efficiency, and a commitment to improving citizens' lives, Pernambuco has positioned itself at Brazil's forefront of public management. Their approach demonstrates that it is possible to transform public administration and positively impact citizens' lives. This is the kind of sustainable impact we’re proud to support. 

At Delivery Associates, we help governments and social impact organizations turn ambitious goals into everyday reality for the people they serve. To learn how we can partner with your organization to accomplish big things, connect with us here.