building sustainable societies through the ethics of care, and to protect biodiversity and socio-biodiversity.” In Brazil, the eff orts of society and of social movements are to build public policies with an abundance of social and popular participation. National councils, conferences with broad participation on the most diverse topics – health, fam- ily agriculture, human rights, people with disabilities, com- munication, agroecology, education, youth, women’s rights, traditional peoples and communities, the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) community, our environment – ombuds- man, dialogue and negotiation tables, the participatory bud- get, are part of the building process of policies from bottom to top, respectful of regional diversity and originating from local organisations. The Rede de Educação Cidadã (RECID), in existence since the first Lula government in 2003, works to train educator multipliers and grassroots leadership. It includes policies of solidarity economy, the Territories of Citizenship, popular health education, environmental education, human rights edu- cation, youth and adult literacy. The intention of RECID is to develop educational practices based on the production of knowledge that can serve as instruments capable of influ- encing decision-making. To have an impact, these practices should question and propose the transformation of structures that generate social, economic and regional inequality, ex- clusion, hunger, sub-citizenship or non-citizenship. The overall objective of RECID is to “…develop, together with socially vulnerable families, a process of education and organisation aiming to increase their actual access to public policies (emergency services, local, work and income, edu- cation, health and food security structures, etc.) and subjective characteristics (critical awareness, citizen participation, self- esteem) that increases the potential for the formulation and proposal of new policies, respecting reality and Brazilian diver- sity. This is a process to foster a new generation of policy subjects and the expansion of work at the base, with a view to strengthening democracy in all social spaces” (RECID 2005). Not the end “Globalisation cannot and must not create conditions which crush each individual and each community, crush the right of people to keep alive their rites, their mystical aspects, their culture, their own ways of seeing life and the world. There can be no global colonisation. Accordingly, the local remains a privileged space for quality of life, respect for na- ture, the (re)knowing of the other. The increasing global pov- erty, misery and social exclusion can be traced back to the world economic crisis of 2008. This crisis is also social, envi- ronmental and represents a paradigm of values. To combat the crisis it is essential to preserve a local and regional iden- tity: with bread guaranteed on the tables of all people, with the word, the message, with rights and citizenship, and the project, with hope, the future and utopia” (Heck, op. cit.). The challenges are many and gather on the horizon every day. Latin America, throughout its history, through popular mobilisation, the experiences of each community and its social movements, and especially in recent decades, through popular democratic governments, supported by so- cial organisations and progressive sustainable development projects, has provided answers to their historical problems and served as a point of reference for the world. Note 1 / A member of a class of persons who are small farmers or farm la- bourers of low social rank in Europe, Asia, and Latin America. References Dowbor, L. (1995): Da Globalização ao Poder Local: a Nova Hierarquia dos Espaços. Heck, S. (2010): Políticas de Emprego e Inclusão social: o Pão, a Pala- vra e o Projeto – Políticas redistributivas de Renda orientadas ao Desenvolvimento local. Leal, M. and Frei Görgen, S. (2015): A Hora e a Vez de um Programa Camponês. RECID (2005): Programa de Formação de Educadoras/es Populares e Nucleação de Famílias. Sachs, I.; Lopes, C.; Dowbor, L. (2010): Crises e Oportunidades em Tempos de Mudança, Documento de Referência para as atividades do núcleo Crise e Oportunidades no Fórum Social Mundial Temático – Bahia. About the author Selvino Heck is a practitioner of Popular Education, founder of Centro de Assessoria Multiprofi ssional. He was a Special Advisor to the Cabinet of President Lula (2005–2010). He is currently Special Advisor at the Gen- eral Secretariat of the Presidency of the Re- public, coordinator of RECID and Executive Secretary of the National Agroecology and Organic Production Committee. Contact Secretaria Geral da Presidência da Repú- blica Palácio do Planalto, Anexo II Ala A, sala 101 - 70.150-900 Brasília/DF selvino.heck@presidencia.gov.br selvinoheck@terra.com.br 82 2015 Global Citizenship Education 103