2026 - Edition 109 | November 03

IMDS's collaboration with Parceiros da Educação RJ shows how technical and methodological support can contribute to the continuous improvement of the management of educational programs.

Hello reader,

Producing knowledge about the factors that influence social mobility is one of the main fronts of action of the Institute for Mobility and Social Development (IMDS). In addition to this production, the Institute seeks, through partnerships and Technical Cooperation Agreements (TCAs), to provide technical and methodological support to governments and civil society organizations, contributing to the improvement of the planning, management, execution and evaluation of social programs and public policies.

This year IMDS started an important collaboration with Parceiros da Educação RJ, a non-profit organization that, since 2009, has been working in partnership with the Municipal Department of Education of Rio de Janeiro to support public elementary schools (1st to 5th grade). The organization mobilizes companies and individuals to develop initiatives aimed at improving learning, which include strengthening school management and pedagogical practices, access to reading and culture, and identifying visual difficulties that can compromise student performance.

Our partnership aims to support the structuring of the monitoring and evaluation system of the School Development Plan (PDE) implemented by Parceiros da Educação in Rio de Janeiro. The work plan includes the construction of the Theory of Change, the structuring of the Monitoring Plan and an impact evaluation of the program.

Within the scope of the partnership, the steps already carried out involved qualitative interviews with managers, technical teams and professionals from the schools, workshops with the Parceiros da Educação RJ team, document analysis and survey of references on the challenges for improving the quality of education.

From these activities, three instruments were constructed: the problem tree, which identifies the central problems that the PDE initiatives seek to address, their causes and consequences; the Theory of Change, which relates resources, activities and expected results to explain how the initiatives intend to achieve their objectives; and the risk matrix, which allows analyzing and prioritizing the identified risks, considering their probability of occurrence and their potential impact.

Although the work plan is still in execution, Parceiros da Educação RJ has already incorporated the instruments developed together with the IMDS technical team into its internal processes, especially the strategic planning and review of the action plans of its programs, with a focus on improving their execution.

The next stages of the cooperation include the impact assessment and the preparation of a monitoring plan, the development of which has already begun. This plan will be based on the Theory of Change and the risks identified in the previous stages, guiding the definition of indicators and mechanisms to monitor the execution of the programs and their results. The impact assessment, in turn, seeks to identify the effects of the interventions, producing evidence that can support decisions on the continuous improvement of the programs.

IMDS's collaboration with Parceiros da Educação RJ illustrates how the combination of the knowledge of those who implement programs and technical and methodological support can contribute to improving planning, management and evaluation processes.

This complementarity makes it possible to bring the analysis instruments closer to the concrete challenges faced by civil society organizations, improving their use in decision-making and the continuous improvement of social programs.

See you in the next "Letter from IMDS"!

Paulo Tafner
CEO