Latin America - Brazil

IS in Brazil
IS Co-funded Projects in Brazil
IS Partners in Brazil

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IS Jobs in Brazil
 

Country information

Brazil is the world’s fifth largest country, extending over half the landmass of South America. Its national economy is one of the most powerful, but its wealth is highly unevenly distributed amongst the population of over 160 million. Brazil comes second only to Bangladesh in the unevenness of its wealth distribution.

Whilst some of the most advanced technology in fields such as medicine and engineering has been developed in the country, the majority of people are denied access to their basic rights and the benefits and income generated remain concentrated in the hands of the elite.
Despite its significant levels of agricultural, mineral and industrial production, 60% of the population live in poverty. 32 million people are estimated to go hungry daily, while 20,000 have been found to be working in conditions that approximate to slavery.

Partly as a consequence of this skewed income distribution and lack of services, many of the rural poor have migrated to the favelas (slum areas) of the huge cities, where they feed a pool of cheap labour or join the informal economy. This extreme inequality rather invalidates any national indicators of human development (as can be seen by life expectancy of indigenous peoples in the Amazon).

The country’s population is a mixed one. About 50% of the people are descendants of African slaves (slavery was only abolished in Brazil in 1888), while most of the remainder are of European or mixed origin. The number of indigenous people has been reduced since colonisation from an estimated 5 million to 300,000 by violence, destruction of their environment and previously unknown diseases imported to the region by colonisers.

After 25 years of dictatorship, Brazil again adopted a formal democratic system, but one that up until now has been dominated by the traditional ruling class. It has a federal system of government and is composed of 26 states, which are themselves further divided into municipalities, and a Federal District.
At the end of 2002 Brazil voted in its first left wing President in over 40 years. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Lula) is an ex-metal worker and union representative who after three failed attempts, was successful in winning the presidential election for the Worker’s Party. There is much optimism within Brazil about the social improvements that Lula will be able to bring about. However, it is still not clear to what extent the political alliances that will need to be made may impact on Lula’s objectives.

Civil society has a strong tradition within Brazil. During the dictatorship this was focused within the Catholic Church, which continues to play a significant role.
However, with the "democratisation" of the country a number of non-governmental organisations and community groups have emerged which are battling to address the problems facing the population and their environment.

IS work in Brazil

International Service has been active in Brazil for more than 20 years and we usually have between 14-18 Development Workers (DWs) in post. The DWs are attached to local partner organisations based throughout the North (The Amazon Region) and North-East of the country.
The North and North-East are the two regions of the country with the highest levels of poverty and the worst on social indicators. The two also share many of the same problems, principally poor access to health care, sanitation, clean water and education. However, there are also many differences.
The North is a region faced with serious issues of accessibility and low population density. However, the people here have one key advantage over their neighbours in the North-East, the availability of a free, if not always easily accessible, food supply, including fish, some prey, and native fruits from the forest and more importantly water.
The Northeast has faced many years of drought. This has lead to severely inadequate levels of nutrition for the poorer sectors of society in the interior of the region.
In Brazil, IS works in the thematic areas of health, sustainable livelihoods and social development. All of our work aims to increase the participation of local people in the decision-making that affects them. Many of our partner organisations work closely with the local populations to protect the environment.

Field office in Brazil

Boats setting off for the Interior Amazon

Postal Address: Unais, Serviço Internaçional, Rua Caio Pereira, no.100 Rosarinho 52041-010 RECIFE-PE, Brazil
Tel: 00 55 81 3244 6391
Mobile +55 81 9607 2463
Fax: 00 55 81 3243 2381
Email: info@isbrasil.org.br

IS Brazil website (in Portuguese): www.isbrasil.org.br

Field Director: Luca Sinesi
Email: Luca@isbrasil.org.br

Programme Officer: Sue Sargent
Email: Sue@isbrasil.org.br

Administrator: Odete Borba
Email: odete@isbrasil.org.br

IS-Irish Aid Project Manager – STD/HIV/AIDS: Susannah Pritchard
Email: Susannah@isbrasil.org.br

IS-EU Project Manager – Sustainable Livelihoods: Cristiano Cardoso 
Email: cristiano@isbrasil.org.br
www.parceriasagroecologioas.org.br

IS-BLF Proj. Manager – STD/HIV/AIDS: George Truckenbrod 
Email: george@isbrasil.org.br
www.aidsamazonas.org.br

Other Brazil links

IS Co-funded Projects in Brazil

Promoting Organic Family Agriculture in Pernambuco
Co-ordinated by IS Brazil and co-financed by the European Union
Family agriculture, agroecology, healthy food production, growing organic foods without agrochemicals, community self-management and fair trading – more than just words, these are key actions needed for the sustainable development of the Semi-Arid area(s) of Brazil.

With the objective of meeting these needs, International Service is coordinating a project in the interior of Pernambuco in partnership with 4 local NGOs (CHAPADA, CECOR, CNMP and AQCC - see below).  Photos
www.parceriasagroecologicas.org.br/eng/

IS Partners in Brazil

IS works with the following Brazilian partner organisations: