Introduction

Unlike what happened in countries such as Canada and the US, Brazil did not experience the institutionalisation and the academic or professional maturation of traditional policy analysis. At the same time, today, it has to address contemporary dilemmas and discussions in this field. That is perhaps the very reason why the mix of policy analysis styles and methodological approaches is so particularly intense in this country.

The purpose of this chapter in studying this mix is to contribute to a broader understanding of how policy analysis is being assimilated in Brazil. It does so – taking as its example non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that advocate for diversity – by showing how the encounter between the production and use of statistical evidence, arguments and advocacy contributed to the process of constituting actors who were an influence in deconstructing negative discourses about certain social segments, each characterised by a different identity attribute. These actors clamoured for different types of recognition and the institutionalisation of policies designed to reduce the inequalities anchored in these adverse discourses. The chapter also attempts to show how the practice of policy analysis can be linked to specific features of the contextual changes that simultaneously allow it to occur and are modelled by it. It also traces different pathways by which policy analysis is learnt even in the absence of the traditional formal structures generally involved in teaching it.

The chapter draws on a diverse set of sources, both print (congress annals, open letters, personal correspondence, policy council minutes, research reports, and so on) and oral (interviews of members of various different groups and government representatives on rights councils).

Struggles to secure respect for diversity in Brazil

The feminist movement, the black movement, the gay rights movement and others have been crucial in spreading the diversity debate throughout Brazil. Especially since the 1970s, in the context of Brazil's re-democratisation, such movements led the struggle to defend and assert cultural differences and went on to demand greater recognition for the rights of segments with a history of social exclusion.

Despite their numerous differences, these movements’ activities have been animated by at least one common element: the endeavour to dismantle adverse discourse on women and black and gay individuals.