How to strengthen urban micro-entrepreneurs: Bahia’s “Vida Melhor” Program

Abstract

The first WWP Case Study – part of a series on successful productive inclusion initiatives in Brazil – features the Bahia State Government’s Better Life (Vida Melhor) Program, launched in 2011 with a focus on vulnerable citizens working informally (e.g. street vendors, trash pickers and craft artists), excluded from formal labor markets and often ignored by official aid mechanisms. Through an innovative approach, the program developed a specific strategy aimed at the needs of this target group: self-employed, low-income workers, whose main characteristic is not differentiating the work resources from the family’s expenses.