The National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES) will give more support to social and environmental projects developed in slums or communities across the country. For this, the bank announced on Tuesday (22), in São Paulo, a budget of R $ 135 million for new edicts and two new fronts of the BNDES Periferias program.
One of the news is the launch of two edicts that will select BNDES PERSONAL PARTNERS PERFERIES, aiming at strengthening social organizations that operate in communities and peripheral regions of the northern and northeastern regions of the country. Each of these notices provides for R $ 17.5 million.
The bank also announced R $ 50 million for the new front of BNDES Periferias Verdes, which supports projects for recovery, conservation and environmental preservation focusing on the productive inclusion of the local population with circular economy actions, urban agriculture and climate resilience. This front was included in the third call from BNDES Periferias, which is open until May 30.
BNDES’s socio -environmental director, Tereza Campello, highlights the climate schedule of Periphery Verdes – MARCELO CAMARGO/FILE/AGENCY BRAZIL
In addition, R $ 50 million will be allocated to projects from BNDES BNDES FRENY AND BNDES ENTERPRISE BNDES. The ongoing call will change the counterpart percentage from 50% to 10% to non -profit non -business entities and without access to recurring resources.
“We have the process of selecting the first and second calls of the BNDES Periferias and now opening this third call, which we announce today. And the great news is the BNDES Periferias Green,” said Tereza Campello, BNDES Socio -Environmental Director. “The green peripheries enter with a whole climate schedule: you can do a vegetable garden and also prevention actions from the point of view of climate change.”
According to Tereza, the program demonstrates that BNDES “dared to take this initiative”, turning to these territories. “Everyone, when you look at BNDES, look at a bank focused on industry and innovation, and we now innovate, showing that you can reach the peripheries.”
At the launch event, the National Secretary of Peripheries of the Ministry of Cities, Guilherme Simões, cited data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) and Datafavela, according to which approximately half of the 16 million Brazilians living in slums and urban communities are entrepreneurs. However, six out of ten of them have no formalization.
“These numbers demonstrate a little the capacity and economic potential, now underused, of these regions of our country,” he said.
For the secretary, initiatives like this one from BNDES are not just a form of historical reparation, but show that there is economic, political and cultural potential within these territories. “This is not just a debt payment initiative [histórica] Or, whatever it is, but it is precisely the most rational, more objective and more assertive reading about the role of the peripheries in the economic development of our country, ”he said.
The Treasurer of the Union of Nuclei, Association of Residents of Heliópolis and Region (UNAS), José Geraldo de Paula Pinto, told the report of Brazil agency which considers the initiative of BNDES a kick -off and could even inspire private banks. “I think that [a iniciativa] It is provoking [um debate] And tends to improve, ”he said.“ It’s a challenge to get the counterpart with private initiative, but I think this is already a breakthrough, ”he said.
But the UNAS treasurer points out that it is possible to do more. “It takes a direct project with the residents. If you give resources to the poorest, they will know how to manage.”
BNDES Peripheries
The BNDES Periferias program was launched in March 2024 to support projects that foster entrepreneurship in peripheral territories. According to the Bank of Development, the first two public calls, which received contributions of R $ 50 million from BNDES each, totaled 101 registered proposals, of which 17 continued for the analysis phase.
In addition to the BNDES Periphery Green and BNDES Forter Periphery, the initiative operates on two more fronts: BNDES periphery, which support projects focused on the construction or revitalization of adaptable poles in peripheral territories, and BNDES Entrepreneurial Periphery, aimed at priority women, young people and black people, through training, mentoring and support of seed capital.
