Innovating from within: How Brazil is testing new models of public entrepreneurship

The world is transforming, yet many institutions – public and private – remain anchored in outdated operating models. While change accelerates across climate, technology and society, systems of governance, service delivery and political representation often remain reactive.

The gap between institutional logic and lived reality is widening. One reason is that many institutions still invest heavily in diagnosing the past, but struggle to design for the future.

Addressing complex challenges today requires a willingness to take risks – investing intellectual and social capital, understanding that meaningful progress comes out of trial and error.

In many democracies, public trust in institutions is declining. According to the Edelman Trust Barometer 2024, trust in government remains below 50% in 18 of the 28 countries surveyed. The study also highlights rising scepticism toward political leadership and media across regions.

In Brazil, institutional trust has fluctuated significantly in recent years amid concerns about corruption, bureaucratic inefficiency and democratic backsliding.

Still, new forms of public entrepreneurship are emerging, including from within the system. These efforts recognize that innovation in the public sphere requires alternative capabilities: negotiation, consensus-building, adaptability and above all, legitimacy.

These three Brazilian initiatives provide examples of new approaches to public service, political leadership and civic participation. They operate within the boundaries of existing systems, seeking to expand their potential.

Launched in 2013, Colab is a civic technology platform designed to strengthen communication and collaboration between citizens and governments. Through web, mobile and WhatsApp channels, residents can report local issues, participate in public consultations and access dozens, sometimes hundreds, of municipal services in a single place.

Rather than focusing solely on complaint management, Colab’s approach integrates citizen input directly into government workflows, enabling faster responses and better-informed policy decisions, incorporating international best practices in civic technology and open government.

Recognized as a leading GovTech platform, it uses technology to connect citizens and governments to increase transparency, responsiveness and participation.

To date, Colab has worked with more than 300 local governments in Brazil. In Niterói, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, for example, its adoption contributed to a 25% reduction in average response time for citizen-reported issues and expanded the use of data for municipal planning, according to internal data.

In other cities, citizen reach through the platform has surpassed 40% of the population, demonstrating the scale that digital participation can achieve when tied to real government action.

Colab’s experience shows that public entrepreneurship is possible even in systems where “ownership” belongs to everyone. Success hinges on more than technology – it requires continuous legitimacy-building: engaging stakeholders, aligning with institutional constraints and balancing agility with accountability.

RenovaBR was founded in 2017 in response to Brazil’s political legitimacy crisis as a non-partisan, non-profit initiative to strengthen democracy by training new leaders. It tackles structural challenges such as low political engagement, distrust in institutions and barriers to political entry.

Since then, it has received more than 135,000 applications and trained over 3,500 leaders from 1,100 cities, using a model of merit-based selection, evidence-based training and continuous support across a leader’s public life.

By 2024, more than 440 alumni had been elected across 29 parties and all 26 states, including city councillors, mayors, vice-mayors and members of state and federal legislatures.

In the 2024 elections alone, 1,470 Renova-affiliated candidates ran in 280 municipalities. Beyond elections, the initiative supports alumni in office through advanced training in digital governance, negotiation, legislative strategy and urban innovation.

Independent evaluations reinforce its impact: a 2022 study, When Democracy Refuses to Die, found that Renova-trained politicians outperformed peers in productivity, transparency and responsiveness.

These elements position RenovaBR as a case of structured public entrepreneurship – a replicable model for building political capacity and renewing institutions from within.

The Orçamento Participativo (OPA) is a participatory budgeting initiative implemented by the state government of Piauí. In 2025, over 270,000 citizens engaged in the process, submitting more than 8,000 proposals and voting for projects to receive BRL 87 million in public funding.

All phases (submission, voting, implementation tracking) are managed digitally. The initiative’s design ensures transparency and auditability and marks one of Latin America’s largest state-level, tech-enabled participatory budgeting programmes. OPA is a testament to how citizen participation is possible at scale and within state governance structures.

While operating in different sectors and contexts, all three initiatives highlight common lessons on how to innovate from within the system rather than around it.

All three models seek systemic improvement from inside existing frameworks. Rather than bypassing government, they collaborate with it at the municipal, legislative or state level, showing that institutions can evolve through internal entrepreneurship.

Whether designing training for future lawmakers or budgeting public funds, these initiatives put people at the centre of the process. Participation isn’t just a democratic principle; it’s a strategic design choice to improve outcomes and legitimacy.

Technology, when combined with good design and intent, enables smarter, more accountable decisions. All three initiatives use digital tools to generate actionable data, monitor results and inform continuous improvement.

In a political culture that often rewards shortcuts, these programmes demonstrate the long-term value of transparency, responsiveness and dialogue. Building trust is slower than scaling fast but it’s what sustains democratic innovation over time.

Perhaps the most important insight: lasting change requires leadership capacity. Whether it’s through political education (RenovaBR), civic engagement (OPA) or digital collaboration (Colab), each initiative recognizes that institutions only change when people do.

As democracies face polarization, disinformation and declining trust, Brazil’s efforts offer tangible frameworks for rebuilding from the inside. These cases highlight that political renewal does not have to rely on disruption or disintermediation: it can emerge through structured, inclusive and data-informed processes led by civic entrepreneurs.

Rather than importing solutions, Brazil may be entering a new phase: exporting public innovation models that blend legitimacy, participation and courage to act. Brazil’s next major contribution may well be bold leadership, institutional creativity and democratic entrepreneurship.