1. Background (brief history)

SESI is an initiative under the National Confederation of Industries, that was created in 1946 to improve safety and well-being of workers in this sector. It does so by offering safety, health and life quality promotion programs, aiming also to improve productivity. It provides such services to over 400,000 private companies throughout the country. In addition, SESI also prepares youth to professional environments through a network of schools and a number of educational technologies

In 2009, SESI established a partnership with the UNFPA to provide around 1 million workers with information about sexual and reproductive health, gender equality and violence prevention.

 

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   2. Areas of expertise

As above mentioned, SESI has two main areas of action:

• SESI Network of Education.

  • SESI offers education for workers and their dependents. It has over 710 operational units throughout the country, 511 schools that offer basic education, youth and adult and continuous education. It also has a network of libraries, theatres and cultural centers.

  • It offers online education, and also reinforcement courses in mathematics and Portuguese, as well as work competencies, security and health, and well-being habits.

• Security, Health and Quality of Life for Industry Workers

  • This program aims at improving productivity and well-being of workers by promoting a better and safe work environment and training workers on specific skills.

  • They organize Networks SESI that interact with the companies and workers, and also articulate international partnerships to implement Innovation Hubs. These Hubs develop research in areas such as Ergonomics, Safety Technology, Psychosocial factors, Health Promotion, among others.

 

   3. Strengths in the ICPD

SESI promotes youth development and health, through its many schools and professional training programs. One of the main examples of the institution’s actions in ICPD is the previously mentioned partnership with UNFPA and Promundo, signed in 2009. Through such partnership, the UNFPA and SESI developed educational leaflets, magazines, cardboards, among other products, that aimed at educating workers on gender equality, sexual health, and violence prevention. Those were developed after extensive research on industry workers’ needs, best language to be used to address the problem, etc. It is an innovative program, once it targets SRH and gender equality throught the perspective of men, an approach that is not often chosen.

It also has other programs such as ViraVida (Turn your life around), a program for social inclusion of youth who have been through sexual violence. The program provides education in sports, health, culture and professional training, in addition to providing psychosocial services to youth from 14 to 24 years old. One of the partners for ViraVida is UNICEF.

 

   4. Quality assurance/ previous evaluation

SESI has successfully implemented projects with high-level partnerships with international organizations such as UNICEF, UNFPA and the Finland Institute of International Health (FIOH), and renowned universities such as Harvard and Stanford. Sesi has also received international awards for its projects, like the Green Project Awards to SESI-PR.

 

   5. Experience in South-South Cooperation initiatives

SESI develops cooperation through other Brazilian institutions, such as the Brazilian Agency for Cooperation (ABC). It has established partnerships for technical cooperation with Colombia and Uruguay, for instance, to export the program Cozinha Brasil (Cook Brazil), a program that provides food and nutrition education, promoting healthy eating habits that can be adopted at low costs.

The National Confederation of Industries (CNI), that encompasses SESI, also sends delegations in international missions to business roundtables.