Over 400 people gathered in June in Brasília (DF) during the 20th Anniversary of the Entrepreneurial Alliance Summit – a meeting dedicated to the construction of public policies, sustainable development, and strengthening the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the country. Microentrepreneurs, authorities, and representatives of organizations from all regions of Brazil attended, with a particular focus on representatives from the North and Northeast regions, who are establishing themselves as strategic hubs for national microentrepreneurship, propelled by female leadership and solutions adapted to local realities.
Among them, participants in the Project Root Business — An initiative by the Entrepreneurial Alliance, supported by Youth Business International (YBI) and funded by the Standard Chartered Foundation, through the Futuremakers program. Focused on strengthening the entrepreneurial ecosystem of the bioeconomy in the North and Northeast regions, the project has already benefited over 800 micro-entrepreneurs in its first cycle alone.
The meeting also brought together public authority figures, including representatives from the states of Pará and Maranhão, who actively participated in discussions on public policies to strengthen microentrepreneurship. The programme combined two events held annually by the Entrepreneurial Alliance: the National Microentrepreneur Meeting and the Brazilian Microenterprise Forum, the latter held through the Empreender 360 Programme.
Female protagonism in the spotlight
More than just gathering experiences, the Summit highlighted the leading role of these two regions, not only through the significant presence of entrepreneurs, but also the involvement of public managers and local organisations committed to regional development. An example of this was the participation of the Pará State Secretariat for Women (SEMU), represented by Clarice Laonel, Director of Articulation and Policies for Women, who presented various initiatives focused on sustainable female entrepreneurship in the region.
Among SEMU's many activities, the Entrepreneurial Alliance is a partner in providing inclusive training, access to credit, and building the self-esteem of entrepreneurs, particularly those in vulnerable situations. "The Entrepreneurial Alliance deserves all our recognition for the excellent way it used this platform (Summit) to facilitate collective articulation between government, civil society, and the private sector, with a focus on inspiring more women to transform their realities," stated Clarice. She highlights that the event contributed to a more representative collective effort, 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 in 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, decentralising actions, and aligning strategies with the socioeconomic realities of Pará municipalities.
Following the Summit exchanges, SEMU intends to implement active listening spaces to map local needs, skills development, and access to credit. They also aim to develop training paths with certification in business management and digital marketing, among other initiatives. They are also in conversation with the Entrepreneurial Alliance to deepen their partnership. Furthermore, the adoption of digital platforms for managing and monitoring public policies is planned, increasing the effectiveness and visibility of initiatives focused on women's entrepreneurship in the state.
Microentrepreneurs of Root Business Also participated
The project Root Business Attended the event were eight entrepreneurs, including Aline Rodrigues da Silva Costa, Izabela Conceição Lopes, and Jéssica Santos da Cruz Moraes, participants in the initiative's first cycle, which spans three years. For them, the event provided an opportunity for exchanging experiences, strengthening networks, and establishing new partnerships to grow their businesses.
Psychologist Aline Rodrigues highlighted that the Summit provided significant connections with other entrepreneurs and representatives from institutions aligned with her mission. According to her, there were many learning opportunities in areas such as management, impact, networking, and purpose. "The connections made will definitely reflect directly on the growth and expansion of the social impact of my work," she stated. In a current period of expansion, Aline is taking her projects focused on women's mental health to new spaces, with greater clarity of purpose and vision for the future.
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 most caught my attention was the strength of collective action, collaboration, and the ability of each business to generate social impact in its territory, regardless of its size or resources available," he/she added.
The diversity of profiles and areas of activity among the participants was also a highlighted point by Isabele Conceição, of Iza's Delights ConfectioneryFor her, the event highlighted the strength of co-operation and partnerships as drivers for the growth of small businesses. "The biggest learning was realising how each business can grow when there's support from other partners. This showed me how important these connections are for the development of our work," she stated.
Along the same lines, Jessica Santos, of the initiative Women of Steel, She described her Summit experience as a true "turning point" for her business. She highlighted the unity amongst entrepreneurs, regardless of regional differences: "It was wonderful! What struck me most was the unity. Even though we were from different places, we were all there seeking the same purpose, looking for experiences and knowledge". For her, the event was also an invitation to overcome challenges and find the right spaces to achieve goals: "Overcoming challenges and breaking paradigms, because experiencing this moment was incredible".
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Credisol, a microfinance organisation, also had an active presence at the event, represented by its ESG coordinator, Stefano Mattei. For him, the Summit deepened understanding of the diverse realities faced by micro-entrepreneurs, particularly in the North and Northeast regions. The exchange of experiences reinforced that the most effective solutions are those built from local characteristics, avoiding centralised models that poorly engage with contexts marked by informality and community ties.
According to Stefano, many entrepreneurs in these regions have developed initiatives deeply rooted in their communities, with solutions tailored to the local context – whether in language, distribution methods, sales channels, or the use of available resources. "At the same time, I noticed a common thread among the region's partners: the need to create financial and non-financial products and services that acknowledge this diversity from the outset. Pre-packaged models, designed centrally, tend to fail where informality and community ties are stronger than formal structures," he points out.
The experience at the event also highlighted Credisol's strategic role as a regional facilitator within the impact ecosystem, particularly in fostering partnerships with entrepreneurial training institutions, such as the Entrepreneurial Alliance. In this regard, the collaboration between the two organisations opens up new possibilities for widening access to microcredit and training, contributing to productive inclusion with a focus on social impact.
Among the key learnings, Stefano highlights the importance of gaining a deeper understanding of the profiles of the target audiences, adjusting not only the credit offer but also the support provided, in a more sensitive and contextualised manner. Furthermore, he points to the need to strengthen the organisation's institutional visibility, by occupying public and sectoral debate spaces, and emphasizes the value of active listening as a tool for collaborative development with entrepreneurs, as well as the importance of measuring and clearly communicating the impact generated.
For Lina Useche, co-founder and Head of Institutional Relations at the Entrepreneurial Alliance, it's this diversity of voices that makes the Entrepreneurial Alliance Summit and the Brazilian Microentrepreneurship Forum unique events on the national scene. "These events are very strategic moments where we manage to gather narratives from across the country, which stimulate income generation and productive inclusion from top to bottom when we talk about entrepreneurship at the base of the pyramid. Having guests who represent this power from the North and Northeast contributed to a rich agenda of debates, where what's unique and special about each region directly influences the construction of effective solutions for micro-entrepreneurs."
