There is much to talk about programs for the inclusion of blacks in the economy – 05/24/2023 – Cida Bento

There is much to talk about programs for the inclusion of blacks in the economy – 05/24/2023 – Cida Bento


Africa Day reminds us of one of the main markers of our nationality, which is the African ancestry of the majority of the Brazilian population.

The recognition of this ancestry in our identity, so rich and present in different civilizing contributions to Brazilian society, since the time when work was only a “black thing”, means to demarcate the richness of plurality that allows Brazil to be unique in its diversity.

So much time of expropriation of the work of people of African descent requires us to focus on economic justice in this event, as the elimination of inequalities and racism that make the majority of the population vulnerable is an inseparable and main element of the democracy we want.

This is how we celebrate the important event that took place under the leadership of the BNDES (National Bank for Economic and Social Development), which provided a rich debate on equity and racial diversity in the experiences of Brazil and South Africa in the context of the economy. With the presence of the bank’s president, Aloizio Mercadante, and the organization’s top leadership, who participated throughout the day, the debates involved researchers, businessmen, public managers and organized civil society.

Hot topics, such as quotas at universities and the reservation of vacancies in the federal public administration and in many states and municipalities, brought about a scenario in which important initiatives, some of them with significant results, need to reach the entire population.

The Brazilian experience in the banking sector was discussed, highlighting the important milestone of the collective bargaining agreement, signed in 2002, in which there was a clause promoting equality. Trade union, women’s and black movements appealed to the Public Ministry of Labor, evidencing data from a broad survey that explained racial and gender inequalities in the sector. In turn, the MPT provoked Febraban to implement a program aimed at promoting racial equity.

This program and others developed in the country have similarities with aspects of Black Economic Empowerment (BEE), implemented in South Africa, and also face similar challenges in periods of economic crisis, when they tend to weaken. There is much to discuss about the various programs that have been implemented in the economy and the world of work, with the certainty that the solutions involve the debate between the public, business, trade union and black movement sectors to reach solutions that effectively change the picture of inequalities.

Government measures defining criteria and conditionalities that ensure that resources can be effectively directed to the economic strengthening of the black population and the exercise of their fundamental right to decent work need to be instituted, with the definition of goals to be met and monitoring metrics that accompany the change of the framework of inequalities.

But another dimension of the celebration, also fundamental, took place in the precious fields of culture and memory, materialized in the launch of the Valongo Initiative, located in the port area of ​​Rio de Janeiro, representing the touchstone of the event. Under the executive coordination of BNDES, this Historic Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO received R$ 10 million and intends to attract more investment to start a long and broad process of restructuring the entire region, with a view to preserving the memory of the port that most enslaved people received in the world, as a monument not only to the memory but to the future of a country that will only really be a democracy to the extent that it consolidates an anti-racist society.


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