UNESCO in Brazil and Petrobras sign partnership to support early childhood development
UNESCO in Brazil and Petrobras signed a cooperation agreement for the “First Childhood First” project. The social development initiative focuses on improving public policies and social assistance services for early childhood (0 to 6 years old and pregnant women). The action will be divided into three stages, lasting 43 months. The first has the objective of identifying the good practices of civil society organizations (CSOs) working in early childhood; the second aims to recognize good practices related to this theme, and the third stage aims to carry out an external evaluation of the project.
The project aims to qualify representatives of 210 CSOs, located in 15 municipalities, distributed in the states of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Espírito Santo, and at least one municipality in the states of Rio Grande do Norte and Sergipe. Among the criteria for the selection of locations, it is necessary that Petrobras’ business already exists in the municipality and, at the same time, the presence of social assistance CSOs working with the early childhood public. The selection will be made after the preparation of the didactic material of the project, in 2021. And if it is not possible to complete the 210 CSOs in the 15 municipalities, the initiative will be expanded to other locations.
Next year, a 40-hour classroom course will be held, divided into 32 hours with specific content on Early Childhood and 8 hours on the adequacy of organizations to the new legal framework for Early Childhood, the name by which the new Law No. 13,019 / 2014 became known. A distance learning course (distance learning) will also be made available through a digital platform on the Ministério da Cidadania (Ministry of Citizenship) website (in Portuguese), with the same content as the presential course.
The Private Social Assistance Network of the Unified Social Assistance System (SUAS) is formed by civil society organizations that perform social assistance functions. CSOs recognized by social assistance perform public services. They can receive public funds or obtain funds from other sources (donations, financial income, events, etc.). CSOs have a complementary role to the direct action of the State, which is why they are understood as strategic and co-responsible partners in the process of guaranteeing social rights. Social assistance policy regulations allow social assistance CSOs to provide some of the services, programs, and projects provided for within the range of social assistance policy offerings.