Parcerias municipais com o terceiro setor: o caso do conselho municipal dos direitos da criança e do adolescente de Natal

The relationship between the State and the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) needs to be analyzed and debated by the objective to extinguish or to reduce the existent failures in this partnership in order that the whole society may benefit from it. To understand how the partnership between the public and NGOs work is fundamental. The present study searches to contribute to a better understanding of this matter. With this aim, the research focused the partnership formed between Natal Child and Adolescent Council (COMDICA) and NGOs which were selected by public notice in 2007. Theoretical references were based on the Continuum of Collaboration proposed by Austin (2001) that serves to differentiate the degree and the mode of interaction between the two organizations. It was observed that in some points there is a lack in the interaction between COMDICA and the NGOs. The frequent change of the government counselors makes difficult a more intense involvement and partnership awareness with the NGOs. The NGOs members need to be more involved with the activities of COMDICA and search for a larger participation in the assemblies, on the discussions and on the intrinsic council actions. The relationship must also be rethought, since that the partnership must not be limited to financial resources support. The channels of communication must be improved and become more frequent. The evaluation and monitoring of social projects are poor and own methodologies need to be elaborated. Therefore, it is necessary to make some adjustments in this relationship involving not only the partnerships made by the selected ONGs, but also all those who assist the child and the adolescent. A closer relation makes possible a greater effectiveness of the public policies on one side and on the other side improves the performance of the COMDICA and the NGOs