A highly successful program to help Brazil’s civil society organizations (CSOs) deliver more effective social services has been extended by another 18 months. The program, run by Brazilian non-government organization Comunidade Solidária with financial support from the IDB, was extended thanks to the country’s January 1999 devaluation, which increased the value of the resources remaining from the original $8.3 million IDB grant that financed the initiative.
Comunidade Solidária also raised additional revenue from other sources. For each $1 donated by the Bank, Comunidade Solidária raised $5 more from both private and public partners including all of the national television networks, major advertising agencies, automobile and insurance industries, as well as the Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social and the Fundo de Amparo ao Trabalhador.
Activities carried out by the Comunidade Solidária program include studies that have led to the approval of a bill that facilitates the legal establishment of CSOs and clarifies their relationship with the federal government. The studies have also resulted in the creation of a regulatory framework that enables CSOs to expand credit operations for microentrepreneurs.
The program has also created a website (see link at right) where the CSOs can get online technical assistance on subjects such as business philanthropy, fundraising, and administration of NGOs. By providing an interactive space where CSOs exchange valuable information among themselves, the site has fostered the creation of CSOs networks.
The website, which is currently being consulted by 200,000 viewers monthly, is gradually being changed into a paid subscription service. In addition, Comunidade Solidária has created 34 regional volunteer service centers — 24 more than originally planned — to serve as clearinghouses for volunteer services.
Finally, the program is designing ways to replicate the private sector partnerships that have proven successful in three innovative initiatives in the area of community outreach and social action by universities, literacy for young adults, and training programs for at-risk youth.
Vocational and life skills. One such initiative, known as Capacitação Solidária, provides vocational and life skills training for poor youth from urban slums. The program, which was strengthened and expanded in 1998 with the help of a $5.3 million grant from the IDB-administered Multilateral Investment Fund, has offered 356 courses in Recife, São Paulo, and Rio de Janeiro.
In 1999, the IDB approved a $10 million grant to further consolidate the program. In this operation, the program adopted measures to better target low-income beneficiaries and strengthen the participating CSOs’ abilities to address the social factors that put them at risk. As a result, more than 20,000 young people from Belém, Fortaleza, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Recife, Salvador, and São Luís have received training, bringing the total number of direct beneficiaries of Bank funding for Capacitação Solidária to 28,121.
In addition, Bank financing mobilized additional contributions from the private sector, including the Federation of Industries in Rio de Janeiro, Microsoft, Motorola, Banco Itaú, among others, in order to train an additional 36,753 young men and women.
Through the program’s innovative monitoring and technical assistance, more than a thousand CSOs improved their ability to manage social projects, including project design, implementation, and evaluation. The result is to increase their competitiveness in fundraising.
"This initiative is proof that public–private sector relationships are not only possible, but indeed preferable, for achieving greater social justice" says Tracy Betts, IDB project manager.