Anchor Institutions

Anchor institutions in Brazil’s platform cooperativism and Digital Solidarity Economy ecosystem
• SENAES (National Secretariat for Popular and Solidarity Economy)
A federal executive body within Brazil’s Ministry of Labor and Employment, originally created in 2003 during the first Lula administration to formulate, coordinate, and implement public policies for the solidarity economy sector. Dismantled in 2019 under the Bolsonaro government and reinstated in 2023, SENAES is the main federal interlocutor for platform cooperativism and the Digital Solidarity Economy.

• SEDES/MCTI (Secretariat of Science and Technology for Social Development)
A secretariat within the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation (MCTI) responsible for applying science, technology, and innovation policies to social inclusion, popular cooperativism, and community-based development. SEDES manages programs that connect scientific research with marginalized communities and is a key potential partner for funding solidarity-based digital infrastructures.

• CONAES (National Conference on the Solidarity Economy)
A periodic, decentralized, and participatory deliberative conference convened by the federal government to formulate national guidelines for the solidarity economy. Organized in stages from municipal to national level, it brings together delegates from civil society, social movements, and government. The 4th CONAES was held in 2025 to formulate the Second National Solidarity Economy Plan.

• CNES (National Council for the Solidarity Economy)
A multi-stakeholder advisory and supervisory body created in 2003, bringing together civil society, academia, and government to ensure participatory governance and policy oversight of the solidarity economy field.

• CADSOL (National Registry of Solidarity Economy Enterprises)
The federal registry that certifies entities eligible to access solidarity economy public policies and procurement programs.

• PRONINC (National Program for Popular Cooperative Incubators)
Created in 1998 as a partnership between the Ministry of Labor and public universities, it links higher education to cooperative incubation through Technological Incubators of Popular Cooperatives (ITCPs), inspired by Paulo Freire’s popular education methodology.

• FNDCT (National Fund for Scientific and Technological Development)
The main federal fund supporting science, technology, and innovation in Brazil, managed by FINEP under the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation (MCTI). It is a strategic potential funding source for cooperative and community data infrastructures and open repositories of cooperative technologies.

• Diffuse Rights Fund (Fundo de Direitos Difusos)
A federal fund administered by the Ministry of Justice, financed primarily through fines collected from violations of collective rights (consumer protection, environment, antitrust). It has been the main funding source for the development of the Liga Coop and UFSC public platforms for workers, and represents one of the few federal mechanisms currently financing platform cooperativism initiatives.

• Labor Justice System and Labor Public Prosecutor’s Office (Justiça do Trabalho – Ministério Público do Trabalho)
The specialized branch of the Brazilian judiciary responsible for adjudicating labor disputes and protecting workers’ rights, complemented by the Labor Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPT), which investigates and prosecutes violations of labor law, including abusive practices on digital platforms. Both institutions are strategic allies for reporting exploitative conditions on proprietary platforms, disseminating information about platform cooperativism among precarious workers, and incorporating cooperative alternatives into broader campaigns for decent work.

• Rosa Luxemburg Foundation (Fundação Rosa Luxemburgo)
A German political foundation associated with the German left-wing party Die Linke, with regional offices around the world, including Brazil. It supports research, publications, and political mobilization on social justice issues. In Brazil, it played a central role in introducing platform cooperativism through the publication of Prof. Trebor Scholz’s book in Portuguese in 2016, and later co-published the 2024 Digital Solidarity Economy book with the Ministry of Labor and DigiLabour.

• PCC/ICDE (Platform Cooperativism Consortium / Institute for the Cooperative Digital Economy)
Two interconnected international hubs founded by Trebor Scholz at The New School in New York. The Platform Cooperativism Consortium (PCC) is a global network advancing platform cooperativism through advocacy, research, and a directory of more than 600 cooperative platforms across 50 countries. The Institute for the Cooperative Digital Economy (ICDE) is its applied research arm, producing reports, fellowships, and policy work on cooperative digital economies. Both organizations have been central in connecting Brazilian actors to international debates and held the PCC’s annual global conference in Rio de Janeiro in 2022, the first time it was hosted in the Global South.

• DigiLabour Research Lab (University of Toronto)
A research initiative investigating digital labour, workers’ organizing, platform cooperativism, and the digital solidarity economy in Latin America. It is the founding home of the Platforms & Society journal and coordinates the Worker-Owned Intersectional Platforms (WOIP) project with cooperatives in Brazil and Argentina.

• SOLTEC/UFRJ (Technical Solidarity Nucleus, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro)
An interdisciplinary program for extension, research, and teaching at UFRJ, the largest federal university in Brazil, working in the fields of Social Technology and Solidarity Economy through participatory and territorially grounded projects.

• UFSC (Federal University of Santa Catarina)
Coordinates the development of the white-label public delivery platform funded by SENAES, designed as a customizable infrastructure to be adapted for different cooperatives.

• FURG (Federal University of Rio Grande)
Technical partner of Liga Coop in the development of its mobility platform, ensuring national data hosting and worker-centered design.

• MTST Technology Nucleus (Núcleo de Tecnologia do MTST)
The technology branch of the Homeless Workers Movement (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Teto), one of Brazil’s largest grassroots social movements organizing precarious urban workers. The nucleus develops worker-owned digital tools and is best known for the Contrate Quem Luta platform, a chatbot launched in 2021 that connects movement members with people seeking services such as painting, domestic work, and repairs.

• EITA Cooperative
A tech cooperative of developers producing open-source digital solutions and data tools for social movements and the solidarity economy, and a key author of policy assessments on platform cooperativism in Brazil.

• Liga Coop (National Federation of Urban Mobility Cooperatives)
A federation of driver cooperatives originating from the Comobi cooperative in Caxias do Sul (RS) in 2021 and now spanning more than 5,000 drivers across 18 states. It is the beneficiary of the largest federal investment in platform cooperativism to date.

• Platform Cooperativism Observatory
Launched in 2021 at Unisinos, the Observatory has mapped initiatives across Brazil, analyzed their socio-economic dynamics, and produced critical reflections on cooperative alternatives to corporate platform models.

• OCB (Organization of Brazilian Cooperatives)
The entity legally responsible for the formal representation of cooperatives in Brazil since the General Cooperative Law of 1971, when the military regime granted it a de facto monopoly over cooperative representation. The OCB operates through a centralized, hierarchical structure and maintains powerful lobbying capacity in Congress, representing primarily large-scale and commercially oriented cooperatives, particularly in the agricultural sector.

• UNISOL Brasil (Union and Solidarity Cooperative Network)
A national federation of cooperatives, associations, and self-managed enterprises founded in 2004, linked to the solidarity economy, the labor movement, and the Workers’ Party tradition. UNISOL represents an alternative to the OCB’s institutional model, advocating for solidarity-based and democratic forms of cooperativism, and currently dialogues with the OCB on the reform of the General Cooperative Law.