On an otherwise reasonable evening, more than 1,000 people packed an auditorium in Boulder, Colorado, for the culmination of the 2011 Unreasonable Institute. They came to see 27 ventures present their solutions to some of the world’s greatest challenges.
Tiago Dalvi, CEO and Founder of Solidarium, shares how his venture is lifting Brazilians out of poverty and creating a market revolution in South America through connecting local artisans with large market opportunities.
There is more than 39 millions of our fellow citizens in Brazil (23% of our population) who, despite working extremely hard, survive on less than U$2 per day. Worldwide, is more than 2 billion people living in the same situation. Poverty and hardship limit people’s choices while market forces tend to further marginalise and exclude them. This makes them vulnerable to exploitation, whether as farmers and artisans in family-based production units (hereafter “producers”) or as hired workers (hereafter “workers”) within larger businesses.
Solidarium promotes the development of new products through a network of recognized and highly qualified design studios, identifying, qualifying and integrating a network of non-food local producers to increase their production capacity through shared techniques and orders in an operation model called “Decentralized Fair Trade Industry”. Differently from its peers in the Fair Trade sector, Solidarium distributes its products through major retailers such as Walmart, Lojas Renner (JC Penney) and TOK STOK, being able to generate scale and a greater income monthly to the producers.