“The fact is that I am opening a role within Promundo. This function did not exist and inaugurating a function, at the same time as it is a place of celebration, is also a place of even stronger commitment, isn't it? I have a duty to make this role the best it can be so that other directors and other assistant directors come after me and that it works well.”
Today a new position opens at Promundo: deputy director. The former senior program & project consultant, Luciano Ramos, takes over.
To understand the changes that will come with his appointment, Promundo's communication invited him to talk a little about his expectations, about the position of senior consultant for programs & projects and the new position of deputy director.
Bruna Martins (Junior Communication and Research Consultant)
We can start by talking about your relationship with Promundo: How you arrived at Promundo, your entry into the institution, your positions in the institution and your historical relationship with Promundo.
Luciano Ramos
So, the first time I heard about Promundo was through Leonardo Yanez, from Bernard Van Leer [ a foundation that works in the area of Early Childhood Development ]. At the time, he was former director of Bernard Van Leer in Latin America. Through a project that I was developing in another organization, a community development project, in which we worked with teenage girls and young women who had discovered motherhood and were in the pregnancy period. Leonardo provoked a lot so that we could also work with father figures. This must have been 2013, 2014, more or less. And then I discovered Promundo because of Program P, which is the paternity and care program. There, my team and I, at that time, underwent training with Promundo in Program P to understand how to access father figures. Since then, we have created a very close relationship with Promundo. And it was an institutional relationship. Promundo participated in a local seminar that we were doing about pregnancy, talking about the father figure, talking about the partner's prenatal care. At that moment, I also met Angelita [ current president of the Deliberative Council of Promundo ], who was not, at that time, president of Promundo, but was from the National Coordination of Men's Health, of the National Secretariat of Men's Health. So, we did some very interesting work together with Promundo. Years later, I think it was 2017 or so, I was leaving the organization I worked for and Norma Sá, who was one of Promundo's project coordinators, invited me to consult on a project she coordinated. So, I did some consultancy and, in 2018, she invited me to take on the project with her. She left and I remained in charge of coordinating this project. So, before coordinating this project, I developed workshops and training with professionals and workshops with young people about masculinity. Soon after, I was invited to take over the coordination of the project. It was the Young People for the End of Violence project, in partnership with KNH (Kinderhothilfe) and Comic Relief. KNH was also very excited when they found out that I would take on the coordination of this project and we continued there with Promundo. At the end of 2019, beginning of 2020, Miguel [ founder and current executive director of Promundo ] invited me to take on senior program consultancy at Promundo. Since 2020, I have been developing this program management format, working on how these programs work. And also in the training sector, creation of methodologies, training and creation of methodologies, as we have defined now, in our strategic planning. I think this is the path that I created a little within Promundo and for Promundo.
Bruna Martins
Wonder. So, you stayed as a senior consultant for a long time, right? I would like you to share a little about what this position is like, how this position works, quickly, so that we can think about the change in relationship you will have with Promundo and what your role will be now and your expectations regarding he.
Luciano Ramos
In senior consultancy for the programs, I think the main thing was to be at the forefront of the projects, developing the projects and establishing institutional relationships, whether with government departments or with social assistance, health and education services so that the projects could move forward. good. So, it was a very external relationship but based on the projects, based on what the projects demand and, at the same time, being attentive to the indicators of that project and the results of that project. And providing quality in the action we develop. That's the central point, you know? It's like I look at the results of this project for its development, thinking about the quality of it, because Promundo is also recognized for being a quality organization and, within what it sets out to do and, at the same time, maintain a institutional relationship with the partners of that project specifically. In practice, this is the role of senior consultancy: It is to ensure that the project is actually delivered, within what it was predisposed for within the technical proposal, in addition to having some specific projects in which I actually coordinated and was in charge. of them, and in a large part of them also in execution. This is the position I held until now. Now in the position of deputy director, mainly, my role is to articulate the internal projects that Promundo has, which it develops through its partners, looking at the projects as a whole. Now it is no longer just the projects that I coordinate, but the projects that are within the organization as a whole, forming an institutional relationship inside and outside. It means talking to funders and, at the same time, talking to project partners, but also talking to institutional partners through networks, through forums and so on in which the world participates. And guarantee quality for all projects, ensure that they are, in fact, quality projects, that function well institutionally, extremely connected to the institutional mission and institutional values. Now the perspective is this: stay focused on programs, stay focused on projects and, to some extent, reduce participation as a consultant within some programs in order to look at the whole. It means looking externally and internally at the same time to ensure that projects are working in the best way possible. And, at the same time, continue bringing innovations into Promundo. Thinking about these innovations means contributing a lot to some sectors, such as the advocacy sectors, the institutional communication sector, collaborating so that the sector works based on themes and well-structured planning. It is, finally, articulating all the internal actions that we have based on the axes and strategic planning that we have defined. Now, something that I think is important and helps a lot is the fact that we have a well-designed strategic plan. This helps you look at the bigger picture without getting lost. Because, for a large organization, like Promundo, well-done planning helps us move forward. Guide yourself from it. So, planning would say that it is the great document, it is the great regiment that will guide the work for the next few years.
Bruna Martins
And in light of this, what are your prospects in relation to working with Promundo, its activities and the institution itself because the term of your position is for one year, subject to renewal. I would like to know how you see this year of work and thinking about the institution in the long term, what changes and continuations do you see?
Luciano Ramos
I was saying something the other day to Angelita: the fact is that I am opening a role within Promundo. This function did not exist and inaugurating a function, at the same time as it is a place of celebration, is also a place of even stronger commitment, isn't it? I have a duty to make this role the best possible so that other directors and other assistant directors come after me and that it works well. This position is for 1 year with a possible renewal for another 3 years, but my desire is to continue ensuring that Promundo has all the notoriety it has and continues to be seen as a very serious organization and very committed to its causes we propose to do, is to give even more visibility to the work we do. It’s about giving even more quality to what we develop. And, on the other hand, I think it is also about continuing to do what I have done to date: placing what has always been seen and what is always seen a lot by many organizations as transversal themes, as priority, necessary and urgent themes. I think that in recent times we have put a lot on the Promundo Traditional Communities agenda, for example, as an urgent and necessary agenda and the agenda. Traditional communities, indigenous communities, black populations or black populations, as some people prefer. Think about riverside communities, look at these communities. The LGBTQIAP+ community itself: looking at these themes that always appear as transversal themes, bringing them as priority themes and carrying out these analyzes based on masculinities. The Promundo theme is very necessary and I think it continues to be very necessary and increasingly necessary in these times we are living in. So my job in this case is to ensure that this continues to occupy a central place within Promundo. How do we carry out discussions related to masculinity themes based on these other themes that are so necessary for the agenda? And, above all, within such a sexist context, right? Is it such an ultra-conservative context that we have been living in? And how do we do this considering everyone? How do we do this by bringing everyone into this dialogue? Without excluding anyone, because it is not possible to carry out this dialogue excluding anyone who even wants to be in this circle. Because there are also people who won't arrive, but there are necessary people who can arrive and who we can raise awareness about this process. So, I think my job is to promote, to make sure there is a seat in the circle for people to sit, come and do it. And, on the other hand, it is also about continuing to learn. I think I'm trying to learn all the time because it's the process, isn't it? I'm also in deconstruction all the time. When I sit with you, I learn about traditional communities. When I go to sit with Kelly [ extension dean at the State University of Amapá, who carried out the Paternity and First Childhood Project with Wajãpi and riverside indigenous people along Promundo ], she teaches me about traditional communities, when I sit with someone who study and learn more about sexual diversity, I will deepen my understanding of the topic. I put myself in that position a lot and from listening, I think this is also the place I need to be to occupy the management position. I think that's it. I don't really know what this place is like, but I'm going to learn.
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