CIDA to leave Brazil

Yesterday (Monday) we visited the office of the Canadian International Development Agency located in the Canadian consulate in Recife. The CIDA program officer, Simone Direito, had offered to meet with us after we made a request. We were given an opportunity to talk about our experiences and also hear about CIDA's work and future in Brazil.

Brenda and Graça, our EQUIP companion for the meeting, spoke about the work that EQUIP has been doing with the Centre for Youth Communication (CCJ) and how lives have been turned around by the programs they offer. Sandy related our experience in Santa Maria de Boa Vista with the Quilombo communities whose lives and culture are threatened by hydro electric projects.  I spoke about our experiences with the landless and recently settled landless.

Graça, Brenda, Caroline, Danny, Simone Direito of CIDA,
Ann, Kerrianne, Sandy and Leo

Simone told us about the various funds that Canada, through CIDA, has offered in their current five year program which ends in 2011. There have been many worthwhile projects supported by CIDA within a program that is geared to create better equity in society (more equitable access to health services and education for example)  EQUIP was one of the beneficiaries of CIDA funding for a very successful popular education project that ended last year.

Graça and indeed all of us were dismayed to hear that CIDA will have just 20 priority countries next year and Brazil will not be one of them. The reasoning is that Brazil is a country that now has the resources and capacity to lead its own development. I explained that D&P also recently went through a process to determine priority countries and the reasons why Brazil remains a priority country for D&P. The two main reasons are that, first of all, despite its wealth and the good face Brazil is showing to the world, it remains one of the two worst countries in terms of economic disparity. The fact that 50% of the land is owned by 1% of the population is a very alarming statistic that translates into extreme poverty for masses of people. Favellas, dangerous, dirty urban slums, exists through Recife and most other Brazilian cities and the plight of the rural landless has been well-chronicled in this blog. The other key reason for D&P remaining in Brazil is that its sheer size, population and potential all make it a continental leader. If Brazil's development can be done with a strong social conscience and preferential treatment of the poor, what an example it can set for other developing Latin American nations. Unfortunately none of this will stop the process of CIDA closing its office in Recife and two other Brazilian cities by next year.

Simone has been meeting regularly with colleagues in other agencies and their conclusion is that the non-government organizations (NGO's) will need to rely more and more on the middle class of Brazil. The middle class will need to value and trust the work of the NGO's and begin to contribute more private funding to their work, which is essential to equitable development. The government must also contribute more to this work. The sector she most fears will be hurt as more and more donor countries think of Brazil as a non-priority, is the rights organizations - groups working on land rights, human rights, access to services - groups like MST and MAB who help the poor find their voice in the face of incredible odds stacked against them. It is a shame that Canada is also pulling out of a country when so much poverty exists everyone one looks and where organizations that still need outside support will find it harder and harder to find that support.

Danny