Country partner of the Global Exchange, Comunitas, monitors sustainable development and the role of business in facilitating social impact in Brazil. Comunitas’ Director of Management and Social Investment, Patricia Loyola, outlines some of the most significant developments in corporate social responsibility in Brazil.
Please highlight some of Brazil’s key corporate social responsibility trends, and how these compare to other developing nations.
Environmental issues, integrated with social problems such as preserving biodiversity, which demand systemic solutions, are leading themes. Social inclusion and diversity have also gained prominence, with companies making public commitments and adopting gender/racial equity policies and inclusion programmes.
Brazil has extremely high social inequality and income disparities and faces similar challenges to other developing countries. Its unique biodiversity is a source of global pressure for environmentally responsible practices.
What progress has Brazil made towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and how is business contributing?
Strategies to address the SDGs are well-developed among major companies, and the Brazilian Network of the UN’s Global Compact is the third-largest in the world, with 1 500 members. However, we live with enormous challenges that have been intensified by the Covid-19 pandemic, which slowed and even reversed advances in health, education, and food security, among others.
What progress has been made in greening the economy, and how is business helping?
The business sector is advancing the transition to a green economy and helping the country achieve its global leadership potential. Brazil will host the G20 summit next year and COP 30 in 2025. Business priorities are to regulate the carbon market, help safeguard the Amazon rainforest, move forward with the implementation of the energy transition, improve Brazilian participation in the global bioeconomy market, and play a key role in universal sanitation.
What are the key focus areas of corporate giving in Brazil?
In 2022, cultural sponsorship (23%), education (19%) and infrastructure (13%) received the most resources from companies, showing that corporate giving is quite diversified. When comparing corporate giving during the pandemic with its performance now, the major loss is evident in the health area, although support remains above 2019 levels.
To what degree do Brazilian companies work with the government to address social issues?
In recent years, the alignment of social impact actions with public policies has grown. This does not necessarily mean that partnerships are made directly with governments. A lot is being done through the intermediation of social organisations. Comunitas specialises in modelling collaborative projects between the public and private sectors, focusing on social impact.
We co-create and prototype solutions to be tested with private social investment for subsequent gains in scale via public policy. This methodology has already resulted in diverse outcomes, such as a reduction in the homicide rate, a reduction in the infant mortality rate and an improvement in the healthcare networks of Brazilian cities.
Water governance is a major issue in Brazil. What are companies doing to help, and what is Comunitas’ involvement?
Brazil is a global leader in achieving SDG 6: Clean water and sanitation for all. The UN reports that Brazil increased the quality of its watercourses by eight percentage points between 2017 and 2020, in addition to building 900 new wastewater treatment plants, getting closer to guaranteeing access to drinking water and providing basic sanitation for its entire population. Besides individual initiatives, many companies are working together to have a systemic impact, and 35 have committed to several goals established by the Global Compact Brazilian Network.
In the state of Pará, Comunitas is supporting the development of a modern management system for requesting, assessing, and granting water use rights. The aim is to ensure water availability across the state, promote population wellbeing by offering access to water, and protect the sustainable exploitation of the state’s water resources.
Have any notable policy or regulatory changes affected CSR in Brazil?
In August 2023, the federal government established the National Impact Economy Strategy and the Impact Economy Committee (Enimpacto). The aim is to promote an environment favourable to economic development through solutions to social and environmental problems. Enimpacto plans to expand investments in businesses that sustainably generate positive financial results, gather data, and promote the culture of socio-environmental impact assessment in institutions, companies, and businesses.
Looking ahead, how do you think Brazilian CSR will evolve?
CSR is well established among large companies, having gained momentum with the Covid-19 pandemic. With increased awareness in the business sector, more medium and small companies are getting involved. The expectation is that business investments in the ESG agenda will reach US$53 trillion by 2025, up from US$35 trillion in 2022.
Patricia Loyola
Director of Management and Social Investment
patricia.loyola@comunitas.org.br
https://communitas.org.br
Source: The original version of this article was published in the Trialogue Business in Society Handbook 2023 (26th edition).
