Spensy Pimentel
Reporter Agência Brasil

Florianópolis – Brazil's Small Business Administration - Sebrae (Serviço Brasileiro de Apoio às Micro e Pequenas Empresas), The UN Development Program (PNUD) and the Citizenship Institue (Instituto Cidadania) and a number of NGOs have begun drawing up a proposal for a unified national policy for local development which will be presented to president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva at the end of this year.

The kickoff was at a seminar in Florianopolis last Friday, which will be followed by a series of similar events during the rest of the year. The seminars, to be held in all five regions of Brazil (North, Northeast, Central-West, Southeast and South), will provide an opportunity for public consultation on the proposal and an exchange of ideas and experiences. The focus will be on those involved in local development.

Paulo Vannuchi, a political scientist and president of the Citizenship Institute, points out that there are numerous policies for assisting local development around the country. The problem is that the policies are isolated and disconnected. "We know of the existence of 12,000 of these initiatives. What we have to do is get them organized and coordinated. That way we can double, even triple, their potential in promoting social inclusion, poverty combat and generation of jobs and income," said Vannuchi.

The Citizenship Institute is a São Paulo ONG. Under the direction of president Lula it drew up plans for the government during the period 2000 to 2002. Among them, the Zero Hunger program and other efforts in food security. The institute also hatched a number of ideas which became part of the Lula administration, such as the creation of the Ministry of Cities, and the national secretariats of Public Security, and Youth.

Translator: Allen Bennett