Capital Finance International (CFI) recognized the Odebrecht Foundation with the CFI Awards Programme, which identifies people and organizations that have adopted best practices around the world that can be replicated. The recipients of the award are nominated by readers, subscribers, employees and those visiting the CFI website, and the winners are chosen by a judges’ committee. According to the institution’s website, the goal is to discover good ideas and demonstrate that it is possible to learn from one another.

The Odebrecht Foundation promotes social inclusion actions in the Bahia Southern Lowlands through the Bahia Southern Lowlands Environmental Protection Area Mosaic Program for Development and Growth Integrated with Sustainability (PDCIS). The challenge is to turn a rural area with important environmental assets into a prosperous and dynamic region, placing talented youth in the field.

The actions focus on the youth and their interaction with their families, aiming to transform the reality of the rural zone. The activities are made possible through the contributions of different partners from the public and private areas. For Mauricio Medeiros, Executive Chair of the Odebrecht, Foundation, the main differential of PDCIS is its innovative Participative Governance system, which creates a synergistic and collaborative space for coming up with different social initiatives, generating benefits for all those involved. “Governments, Organized Society and Private Initiative work together, focused on a single goal: the structuring of a rural middle class, on which takes control of its own destiny,” emphasized Medeiros.