The Public Management and Citizenship Program was set up in 1996 as a joint initiative of the Ford Foundation and the Getulio Vargas Foundation with the added support of the BNDES. Its objective is to identify and disseminate information about innovative practices in sub national governments in Brazil that improve the quality of public services and produce a positive impact on the construction of citizenship. In the programs eight years to date, some 6,200 different experiences have been identified coming from state and local governments and the governments of the indigenous peoples. In this paper the theme of innovation is discussed using as a basis the answers of the different programs, projects activities to the same question. The result offers a new perspective of the discussion of the differences between innovations and "best practices".
public sector inovations; pratical definitions; local government; Brazil