Social movement, public policy changes and partnerships building for local development

the paper debates the rural social movement's influence on policy changes for small-scale rural producers and the creation of partnerships between government and local organizations for local development in amazonia, particularly in pará state. the paper's goal is to examine partnership as a result of an interactive process of both changes of public policies and the demands of social movements. the paper shows that although social movements are part of a relation of conflict between state and society, in pará they were a precondition for changes in public policy, financing and in the priorities of regional agencies that resulted in propositions for cooperation between local government and local organizations at município level.