by by Wanda Engel*

06 December 2001

BONN: At the start of the third millennium, Brazil is living through its greatest explosion of national solidarity. There is an unbelievable increase in the number of people involved in social activities on a voluntary basis. This represents an enormous opportunity for a country that throughout its history has carried one of the most unbearable burdens of inequality and social injustice. This real boom of voluntary work in Brazil in recent decades makes us think that the major challenge for the Government today is to strengthen, organize and integrate this gigantic force into a project to build a fairer society.

Voluntary action is not a recent phenomenon in Brazilian society. Providing time, money or various other resources for the benefit of other persons, groups or institutions is to be found at all stages of our historical evolution. We could identify the basic principles of voluntary work in activities that we might qualify as religious philanthropy, community solidarity, political philanthropy, social militancy or citizens' social responsibility.

In terms of religious philanthropy, we can identify voluntary social action as underpinning the work of the "Santas Casas de Misericordia" (Holy Houses of Mercy), one of the oldest Brazilian social institutions.

In the form of community solidarity, voluntary work has always been a characteristic feature in pockets of poverty, where a strong community network represents one of its basic symbolic principles and becomes a strategy for survival.

Under the guise of political philanthropy, the provision of goods and services to the poorest, as a form of political action, is also well rooted in the past. This form of voluntary activity has gained institutional support from the Federal Government since 1979. At the initiative of the "Legiao Brasileira de Assistencia", or LBA (the Brazilian Assistance Legion), which for six decades was the body responsible for the Government's social protection policy, the "Programa Nacional de Voluntariado", or PRONAV (the National Volunteers Programme) was set up. From a national coordination level, a network of volunteer groups was created, coordinated by the First Lady, at state or municipal level. These groups prompted the setting up of bodies in charge of promoting voluntary work and donations. This was the first Government initiative, and ended up by comprising nearly 6,000 groups supported by all the states. It terminated in 1992.

The 1980s set the scene for a new type of voluntary work, which we might call "social militancy". Movements, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), centres for the defence of rights, and indeed, a whole range of structures focusing on issues of gender, race, children and the environment, will undertake actions as a type of social involvement leading to change.

The highest expression of this type of voluntary work was the Citizens' Action against Poverty and for Life, launched by the sociologist Betinho in the early 1990s. This great movement encourages the setting up of factory or neighbourhood committees. The Government is once again involved, offering incentives to establish these committees in state undertakings, which massively endorsed the initiative. Hundreds of these bodies were thus created. Today, these committees in state undertakings still remain, joined by some in private businesses, for a total of 700 such bodies in 20 states.

The 1990s see the consolidation of the notion of citizenship as a set of social rights and responsibilities. Voluntary work becomes a way of expressing this citizen social responsibility, both for businesses and for ordinary citizens.

Research on the social responsibility of enterprises has shown that about half carry out some form of social action, and that in one per cent of cases social incentives provided by the Government are used.

The need to organize the supply and demand of the voluntary work of individuals has prompted the Council of the Solidarity Community Programme, a collegial body linked to the Presidency of the Republic and responsible for proposing actions for combating poverty, to promote the setting up of volunteer centres. The role of these centres is to encourage a volunteer culture, to train volunteer and social bodies with a view to a better use of resources; they establish a bridge between supply and demand and develop strategies to show appreciation and acknowledge the volunteers' work. Today, there are volunteer centres in the main Brazilian cities, relying on a considerable supply of volunteers. But they face a shortage of social institutions offering opportunities for these volunteers.

The choice of 2001 as the International Year of Volunteers is contributing to a substantial increase in supply, widening further the gap with demand. Slow growth in demand may be explained both by the negative image attached to some historical forms of volunteer work, and by the fear of labour issues involving volunteer workers. To tackle this problem, the Government, as suggested by the Solidarity Community Council, adopted the Volunteer Service Law in 1998, guaranteeing that the volunteer has no employee ties with the undertaking. We could say that voluntary work in Brazil is a matter of considerable proportions, albeit multifarious, haphazard, fragmented, fragile in its new forms, showing a gap between supply and demand, unevenly spread out over the country (with supply concentrated in the rich regions and demand in the poor ones) and without any consideration of impact assessment.

This overview presents the Brazilian Government with some challenges that are being tackled.

The first would be to strengthen the volunteer centres, still institutionally weak and too few in number. Financial support combined with the offer of institutional expertise for these organizations are being made available.

A second challenge would be that of stimulating demand. The Secretariat of State for Social Aid of the Ministry of Social Security and Welfare, through the recently created National Centre for Community Training, is implementing a programme of training for leaders, social bodies and local government, with a view to promoting the concept of volunteer work and developing skills for the management of voluntary human resources.

Thirdly, the challenge of regional imbalance needs to be tackled. The Government, in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), is devising a project for national volunteers, including national UNVs. It is thus hoped to identify the demand for volunteer work in Brazilian cities with the lowest human development index, to encourage the supply of skilled volunteers from the richer regions of the country and to subsidize their transfer and upkeep in the pockets of poverty.

As a fourth challenge, we might point to the urgent need to integrate all these efforts in strategic plans. Along these lines, we would highlight two experiences that are proving successful. The first is the proposal that each state in the federation would draw up a social agenda, showing the social indicators considered as priorities. This agenda would make it possible to catalyse the efforts of the Government, enterprises, NGOs and voluntary organizations into a civic joint undertaking with a view to achieving the agreed goals. These social agendas are being set up in all Brazilian states.

Another structural strategy is the "Projeto Alvorada" (Sunrise Project). This plan for combating Brazilian social inequalities, launched in 1999 by President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, applies additional appropriations of about $5.5 billion for education and health programmes and revenue for Brazilian states and municipalities with a low human development index. This plan's guiding principles are the convergence of the actions of all social sectors, including voluntary work and the commitment to achieve results.

There is, however, still the challenge of assessing the impact of these efforts. This is possibly the most delicate area that requires careful and priority attention.

Without any doubt, we are living in an unprecedented historical era with regards to social issues in our country. Today, we are aware that social inequality is the worst of our evils. Governments at all levels consider this is a priority issue, also in terms of resources, programmes and services provided. Organizations in civil society and ordinary citizens are taking part in social actions in ever-increasing numbers. We must therefore consolidate the definition of specific objectives, enhance the convergence of our efforts, train actors and institutions as well as monitor and assess results. This is a task for the whole of Brazilian society, under the leadership of its Government. The Brazilian Government is performing this role.

* Wanda Engel is Secretary of State for Social Welfare of the Brazilian Government and coordinator of the "Projeto Alvorada" (Sunrise Project)