Over 400 people gathered in June in Brasília (DF) during the Entrepreneurial Alliance Summit 20 Years — a meeting dedicated to the construction of public policies, sustainable development, and strengthening the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the country. Microentrepreneurs, authorities, and representatives from organizations across all regions of Brazil attended, with a special focus on representatives from the North and Northeast, which are emerging as strategic hubs of national microentrepreneurship, driven by female leadership and solutions tailored to local realities.
Among them, participants of the Roots Business Project — an initiative by the Entrepreneurial Alliance, supported by Youth Business International (YBI) and funded by the Standard Chartered Foundation through the Futuremakers program. Aimed at strengthening the entrepreneurial ecosystem of the bioeconomy in the North and Northeast regions, the project has already benefited over 800 microentrepreneurs in its first cycle alone.
The meeting also brought together government officials, including representatives from the states of Pará and Maranhão, who actively participated in discussions on public policies to strengthen microentrepreneurship. The agenda combined two events held annually by the Entrepreneurial Alliance: the National Meeting of Microentrepreneurs and the Brazilian Microentrepreneurship Forum, the latter conducted through the Entrepreneur 360 Program.
Female leadership in the spotlight
More than just gathering experiences, the Summit highlighted the leadership of these two regions, not only due to the significant presence of entrepreneurs, but also the involvement of public officials and local organizations committed to regional development. An example of this was the participation of the State Secretariat for Women of Pará (SEMU), represented by Clarice Laonel, Director of Articulation and Policies for Women, who presented several initiatives focused on sustainable female entrepreneurship in the region.
Among SEMU’s many actions, the Entrepreneurial Alliance is a partner for inclusive training, access to credit, and boosting the self-esteem of entrepreneurs, especially those in vulnerable situations. ‘The Entrepreneurial Alliance deserves all our recognition for the excellent didactic way of using this platform (Summit) for collective articulation between government, civil society, and the private sector, aimed at inspiring more women to transform their realities,’ said Clarice. She emphasizes that the event contributed to a more representative collective construction, aligned with local realities and segmented by region, promoting the sharing of knowledge and experiences with a focus on economic development.
Clarice also highlighted the growth of female participation in informal entrepreneurship, despite the challenges of family care. According to her, the material produced during the Forum will serve as a basis for improving public policies, decentralizing actions, and aligning strategies with the socioeconomic realities of municipalities in Pará.
After the exchanges at the Summit, SEMU intends to implement active listening spaces to map local needs, capacity building and access to credit, as well as develop training paths with certification in business management and digital marketing, among others. It is in conversation with the Aliança Empreendedora for deepening the partnership. The adoption of digital platforms for public policy management and monitoring is also planned, expanding the effectiveness and visibility of initiatives aimed at female entrepreneurship in the state.
Women micro-entrepreneurs from Negócio Raiz also participated
The Negócio Raiz project made presence at the event with eight entrepreneurs, including Aline Rodrigues da Silva Costa, Izabela Conceição Lopes, and Jéssica Santos da Cruz Moraes, participants of the first cycle of the initiative, which lasts for three years. Participation in the event was an opportunity for them to exchange experiences, strengthen networks, and establish new partnerships for the growth of their businesses.
Psychologist Aline Rodrigues highlighted that the Summit provided significant connections with other entrepreneurs and representatives of institutions aligned with her mission. According to her, there were many learnings on topics such as management, impact, networks, and purpose. ‘The connections made will certainly directly reflect on the growth and expansion of the social impact of my work,’ she said. In a current moment of expansion, Aline is taking her projects focused on women’s mental health to new spaces, with more clarity of purpose and future vision.
“Seeing how each entrepreneur, even coming from different backgrounds, faces similar challenges and seeks creative and powerful solutions is something that greatly strengthens our journey. What caught my attention the most was the strength of collectivity, collaboration, and the ability that each business has to generate social impact in its territory, regardless of size or available resources,” she concluded.
The diversity of profiles and fields of activity among the participants was also a highlight for Isabele Conceição, from Iza’s Delicacies Confectionery. For her, the event highlighted the power of cooperativism and partnerships as drivers for the growth of small businesses. “The greatest learning was to realize how each business can grow when supported by other partners. This showed me how important these connections are for the development of our work,” she stated.
In the same vein, Jéssica Santos, from the initiative Women of Fiber, classified her experience at the Summit as a true “key turning point” for her business. She highlighted the unity among entrepreneurs, regardless of regional differences: “It was wonderful! What caught my attention the most was the unity. Even though we were from different places, we were there pursuing the same purpose, seeking experiences and knowledge.” For her, the event was also an invitation to overcoming challenges and finding the right spaces to achieve goals: “Overcoming and breaking paradigms, as living this moment was incredible.”
Strategic Partnerships
A Credisol, microcredit organization, also actively participated in the event, represented by ESG coordinator Stefano Mattei. For him, the Summit deepened the understanding of the diversity of realities faced by microentrepreneurs, especially in the North and Northeast regions. The exchange of experiences reinforced that the most effective solutions are those built based on local characteristics, avoiding centralized models that have little dialogue with contexts marked by informality and community ties.
According to Stefano, many entrepreneurs from these regions presented initiatives rooted in their communities, with solutions adapted to the local reality – whether in language, in the way of distribution, in sales channels, or in the use of available resources. “At the same time, I realized that a common point among the partners in the region is the need to create products and services – financial and non-financial – that recognize this diversity from the beginning. Ready-made models, designed in a centralized way, tend to fail where informality and community ties are stronger than formal structures,” he points out.
The experience at the event also highlighted the strategic role of Credisol as a regional articulator within the impact ecosystem, especially in fostering partnerships with entrepreneurial training institutions, such as the Entrepreneurial Alliance. In this sense, the collaboration between the two organizations opens up new possibilities to expand access to microcredit and training, contributing to productive inclusion with a focus on social impact.
Among the main learnings, Stefano highlights the importance of understanding the profiles of the audiences served in more depth, adjusting not only the credit offer but also the support provided in a more sensitive and contextualized way. Additionally, he emphasizes the need to strengthen the institutional visibility of the organization, occupying spaces for public and sectoral debate, and underlines the value of active listening as a tool for joint construction with entrepreneurs, as well as the importance of measuring and communicating clearly the impact generated.
For Lina Useche, co-founder and Head of Institutional Relations at Aliança Empreendedora, it is this diversity of voices that makes the Aliança Empreendedora Summit and the Brazilian Microentrepreneurship Forum unique events on the national scene. “The events are very strategic moments where we can gather narratives from the entire country, which stimulate income generation and productive inclusion from end to end when we talk about entrepreneurship at the base of the pyramid. Having guests that represent this power from the North and Northeast contributed to a rich agenda of debates, where the uniqueness of each region directly influences the construction of effective solutions for microentrepreneurs.”
