Intersectoriality in the limelight! Although present in public management it is an area that is as yet insufficiently evaluated and theorized. In this respect, the debate article suggests a research agenda that encourages theoretical input such that intersectorial action may establish itself as praxis of government.

As a trainer, caregiver and researcher, the centaur Chiron indicates the relationship between knowledge and practice. His half-animal body, planted firmly on the earth, simulates the practical world, while the other human half indicates the world of training with the arrow in his hands being the world of research. Like Chiron, in this issue we seek dialogue between sundry knowledge, volitions and truths in which intersectoriality serves as a possible option in the quest for promoting equity and addressing the social determinants of health.

This thematic issue you are now reading makes approximations to the theme; it lists as yet unanswered questions; it reveals public policies of the Brazilian government that address intersectorial management, especially the National Health Promotion Policy (PNPS) as well as the Family Allowance Program (Bolsa Família); the National Food and Nutrition Policy in conjunction with the National Food Security Policy; the Family Health Strategy; and it discusses the socio-environmental and territorial determinants of sustainable development.

We emphasize the PNPS adopted in the context of the Unified Health System (SUS), assessing its performance in the period from 2006 to 2014. We also examine the multiple simultaneous movements called into action to accomplish the Review of the PNPS in the five regions of the country with the participation of government actors, health service workers, health counselors, social movement representatives and universities. The Review was conducted between April 2013 and May 2014 and was organized by the Ministry of Health (MS), the Steering Committee of the PNPS, the Pro Network on Health Promotion and Sustainable Development Thematic Group (GT) of the Brazilian Association of Public Health (ABRASCO) and PAHO. As a next step, the revised PNPS will be analyzed together with the Tripartite Commission and the National Health Council.

Seven regional workshops, and one with national and state counselors, discussed and committed to values, principles, guidelines, thematic angles and priority issues. Over 1,500 people responded to the Unified Health System questionnaire (FORMSUS); rounds of the Delphi technique sounded out the perception of health managers, other sector managers and researchers; an intersectorial meeting brought together representatives from various ministries and identified the joint challenges that must be tackled to promote the health of the Brazilian population.

This intersectorial meeting provided resounding proof that health equity should be on the political agenda of all sectors of society, since the health sector cannot promote it in isolation. An intersectorial panel with six government managers and technical notes for intersectorial advocacy made by the GTs of ABRASCO are also presented in this issue providing a practical outcome of these efforts.

This broadened dialogue appears to us to be increasingly essential as a device to build bridges between public policies and social needs, which are often overlooked in policies. For this reason, one of the articles highlights the development of local plans to promote health, and the importance of attributing value to the experience of individuals in their daily lives and territories.

In his article "Notes on experience and the knowledge of experience," written in 2002, Bondia supports this approach when he says that experience is the possibility that something will happen to us or touch us, requires an act of interruption, a gesture that is almost impossible these days: it requires stopping to think, stopping to look, stopping to listen, thinking more slowly, looking more slowly and listening more slowly; stopping to feel, feeling more slowly, poring over the details...

In this exercise of connection between what is established and what is necessary from a standpoint in which sensitivity prevails, it is worth remembering and paying tribute to Ariano Suassuna with his Brazilian Regional Heritage Movement (Movimento Armorial) that sought to build bridges between erudite culture and popular culture.

Marco Akerman, Deborah Malta, Patrícia Jaime, Ronice Franco de Sá

Guest Editors

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