IFC adopts municipalities in Brazil under the Fome Zero program

Português

In Brejao, a city in the Pernambuco state of northeast Brazil, Nadia Maaze was standing in front of the mayor and 32 representatives of local associations, talking about the possibility of funding a potable water project for the municipality. It was September and the heat was starting to fill the mayor’s office during the last meeting of Nadia’s two-day visit to Brejao.

The meeting would be a normal activity for some investment officers at the International Finance Corporation, who are used to traveling and assessing projects around the world. But Brejao was far away from Nadia’s office in Sao Paulo, and quite different from her daily responsibilities as the administrative support and right hand for IFC’s country manager in Brazil, Wolfgang Bertelsmeier.

IFC and the Fome Zero Program
Nadia’s visit to Brejao was part of an initiative that started a month before, when she and some of her colleagues attended the launch in Sao Paulo of the IFC-sponsored framework to facilitate participation by the Brazilian private sector in the Fome Zero (Zero Hunger) program. Fome Zero is President Lula de Silva’s flagship plan to alleviate hunger and poverty in Brazil.

The centerpiece of the framework, announced in a packed auditorium by Bernard Pasquier, of IFC’s director for Latin America and Caribbean, was the launch of the Fome Zero web site and a database, both of which had been created in partnership with Instituto Ethos and the nongovernmental organization Polis and with the support of a $300,000 IFC grant. The database provides information about the social and economic needs of 1,000 of the poorest municipalities in Brazil, including the specific projects that the communities have identified to address these needs. It allows each private company to identify one of the municipalities and adopt it by funding its project.

“This can be a virtual matchmaker between the poorest municipalities in Brazil and the private companies willing to help,” Pasquier said to the audience. “I am optimistic about the response and engagement in this effort not only by private companies, but also by NGOs.”

The IFC-sponsored framework has the potential to benefit more than 4 million families, a total of 19 million people. The Fome Zero Program is aimed at assisting the 9.9 million Brazilian families—some 46.5 million people—who lived on less than $1 per day in 2001.

Others were also listening
The launch of the Fome Zero web site was intended as a call to Brazilian private companies to adopt a municipality. What Pasquier did not expect was the response of his team, who were also listening and ready to act.

After the event, a group of administrative personnel of IFC’s Sao Paulo office approached him to talk about the Corporation itself adopting a municipality, thereby becoming an active example to private companies in Brazil. Pasquier encouraged the organization of teams to identify and evaluate projects listed in the database, and committed to providing a grant to a winning project. A month later, four teams were heading north to visit four of the municipalities listed in the Fome Zero web site and evaluate the projects.

Nadia Maaze recounts, “I told the mayor of Brejao and the community representatives that we were there because we wanted to encourage our clients. We wanted to give the example and to show them that we would participate too.” Nadia, along with her colleague Nely Raposo, program assistant in the Rio de Janeiro office, chose the potable water project in Brejao.

The teams came back to Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro and wrote a grant proposal with the help of IFC investment officers, in particular Anna Lucia Horta, based in Sao Paulo, and Antonio Carlos Simas, principal investment officer in IFC’s Rio office.

One of the teams dropped the project because it didn't meet the sustainable development criteria.

The projects
An October 2003 visit to Rio de Janeiro by Dorothy Berry, IFC’s vice president for Human Resources, was a good opportunity to present the three final projects. The teams, armed with PowerPoint presentations, introduced each project. For the Brejao municipality, the objective was to provide piped drinkable water to more than 1,300 people in a rural area; for the Setubinha municipality in Minas Gerais state, to set up a laboratory for pathological exams in the newly built clinic; and for the Granjeiro municipality in Ceara state, to provide modern machinery to help harvest and prepare sisal hemp, increasing production and potentially benefiting 500 people.

All the projects had a strong sustainable focus, because of their developmental impact and because the community and mayors in the municipalities were committed partners, willing to share the costs and work to build and maintain the improvements.

“I was so impressed by the energy of the teams. It was clear that the team members were inspired, knowing they could make a real difference in people's lives. All of us in the audience were touched. We wanted all of the projects to succeed, to help people in need,” said Dorothy Berry.

At the end of the presentations, all the staff in the Sao Paulo and Rio offices voted. The Brejao project was declared the winner with 19 votes, followed by the Setubinha project with 14 votes and Granjeiro with eight votes. A decision was made to fund all three projects, with the most funding to the winning one. Later, the fourth team was given another project, to help small farmers and a local community grow fruits, vegetables, and medicinal plants, potentially benefiting 500 people and 20 schools in the Aimores municipality.

For Bianca Azevedo, research assistant at the Rio office and member of the team that visited the Setubinha project, this was “the best experience I ever had.” Bianca says, “Sometimes we complain about small things. But these people don’t have water, food, or a good place to live. Their houses are not built with rock, but with mud. We cried at what we saw. It was really sad. And if IFC was not going to give us the money we would have gone to one of our client companies.”

Antonio Carlos Simas, who is helping the teams prepare the projects, noted, “This was a great initiative by our administrative colleagues in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. The four projects will not just provide grants, but also technical assistance, and some of them require additional funds from private sector companies. We hope to finalize the draft of the grant agreements by the end of January 2004, and to disburse in February. IFC is taking the lead and we expect that other companies will follow.”

Looking forward
There has also been strong participation by Brazil’s private sector in adopting projects in the poorest municipalities. Currently IFC is talking with Associacao Apoio Fome Zero Empresarial, a recently founded association of private companies in Brazil, to transfer management of the Fome Zero web site and database. “The idea is to motivate private companies to follow IFC’s focus on sustainable initiatives rather than giving donations only.” said Simas.

Anna Lucia Horta observes that this initiative is giving administrative staff a more active role. “They are happy and delivering a lot. We are writing the grant proposals and making sure that there is a long-term developmental impact. We feel these projects reflect the vision that IFC is bringing to our clients in Brazil: a long-term partnership, a strong added value in terms of social and environmental impact, and a greater involvement of the private sector in corporate social responsibility.”

The potable water project in Brejao will receive a grant of $50,000, the Setubinha project will receive $20,000, Granjeiro $10,000, and Aimores $10,000.

For Nadia, Maricy, Nely, Bianca, and all their colleagues in IFC’s offices in Brazil, this continues to be a rewarding and challenging experience. It also provides a better understanding of IFC’s operations and mission. “People in Brejao who now have piped potable water told us that they used to walk a kilometer and a half to get a bucket home,” said Nadia. “They showed us the new faucets in their homes and would say, ‘Look: water at home. It is so marvelous!’ And they cried. We were very touched by seeing up close the ways people are changing their lives.”

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Project Teams

"Brazil is a special country for IFC. It was the first country where the Corporation first invested, back in the 1950s, and today it has our largest portfolio in any country. Brazilian companies are leaders within Latin America on social responsibility, so we are optimistic about their response and engagement in the Fome Zero initiative."

Wolfgang Berteslmeier, IFC's Country Manager in Brazil

Brejao
Nadia Maaze, Program Assistant, Sao Paulo
Nely Raposo, Program Assistant, Rio de Janeiro

Setubinha
Bianca Azevedo, Research Assistant, Rio de Janeiro
Catia Hernandes, Team Assistant, Sao Paulo
Adriano Lima, Office Assistant, Rio de Janeiro

Granjeiro
Monica Dunko, Office Administrator, Sao Paulo
Marcia Guimaraes, Office Administrator, Rio de Janeiro
Vanilda Julio, Office Assistant, Rio de Janeiro
Antonia Paiva, Office Support, Rio de Janeiro

Aimores
Maricy Vieira, Administrative Assistant, Rio de Janeiro
Andrea Rosenbaum, Administrative Assistant, Sao Paulo
Claudia Dinepi, Team Assistant, Rio de Janeiro
Juliana Belusci, Office Assistant, Sao Paulo
Marcos Correa, Driver, Sao Paulo