Mobilising against hunger and for life: An analysis of capacity and change in a Brazilian network

Publication date: Friday 09 September 2005

This paper examines a Brazilian social solidarity network, COEP - o Comitê de Entidades no Combate à Fome e pela Vida (the Committee of Entities in the Struggle against Hunger and for a Full Life) - through the lens of organisational and social capacity and change. COEP is committed to building a just and inclusive society for all Brazilians, one without hunger and poverty. Its members include government agencies, parastatals, and organisations from the private sector and civil society. COEP is in fact a network of networks, active federally, in all of Brazil's 27 states, and now also at the municipal level. Its strategies include encouraging its members to support and participate in development projects to combat poverty, organising campaigns to mobilise public and institutional resources to end poverty, and promoting cooperation among its affiliates in their development work and campaigns.

The analysis of COEP is one of several case studies within a multi-country study, Capacity, Change and Performance, organised by the European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM). The study seeks to understand better what 'capacity' is, what strategies are effective in developing capacity, and what 'performance' looks like from the perspective of capacity.
COEP attracted the interest of the organisers of the wider study for several reasons.

• It is uniquely Brazilian, part of that country's renewed democracy and of the broad social movement against hunger. Created by Brazilian initiative, COEP has been sustained by Brazilian resources.
• It is an intriguing hybrid - a voluntary nationwide network that embodies many aspects of a civil society organisation, but which operates in the border area between the state, the parastatal sector, private business and civil society.
• It is engaged with the paramount development issues of the day, mobilising citizens and organisations to work to end poverty and for social justice. It commands legitimacy as a development actor, legitimacy that helps to keep these issues on the public agenda.

The case study examines three broad areas of COEP's organisational life: its origins, growth and change over a decade; its performance; and the factors that explain its capacity.

Related links:

http://www.ecdpm.org/Web_ECDPM/We...9D29FA4C1256F69002FBD59?OpenDocument