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Good practice Imported

CDI/Recode – Community IT & Citizenship Schools in Brazil's Favelas

Brazil · Rio de Janeiro · See the Brazil profile · See the Rio de Janeiro profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 9% 96/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Founded in a Rio favela in 1995, CDI (rebranded Recode in 2015) runs community 'IT and citizenship schools' pairing computer literacy with civic and entrepreneurship education, later expanding to 15 countries. An independent university study of one site documented real outcomes.

1.9 million
People reached cumulatively since 1995 (1995–2025)
69306
People served in 2025 (Brazil) (2025)
23-24
Regional offices in Brazil (2025)
842
Installations globally at peak
100000+
Students reached by UK affiliate Apps for Good (across ~655 schools)
CDI/Recode – Community IT & Citizenship Schools in Brazil's Favelas

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
CDI (Comitê para Democratização da Informática) / Recode
Period
1995–present
Keywords
community telecentres, digital literacy, citizenship education, youth

Context

CDI (Comitê para Democratização da Informática) was founded by Rodrigo Baggio in 1995 in the Morro Dona Marta favela in Rio de Janeiro. It pioneered community-run 'IT and Citizenship Schools' pairing basic computer training with citizenship and entrepreneurship education for low-income youth. The organisation rebranded as Recode in 2015 and expanded to 15 countries, including Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Portugal, the UK and the US.

Objectives

The model aims to build digital literacy alongside civic and entrepreneurial skills, using community-embedded schools rather than a centralised delivery model.

Activities

Local schools deliver computer literacy training combined with citizenship and entrepreneurship education. The UK affiliate, Apps for Good, runs a related but separately reported programme in schools.

Results

The network reports around 1.9 million people reached cumulatively since 1995, with 69,306 people served in 2025 through 23-24 regional offices in Brazil, and 842 installations at its global peak. Apps for Good separately reports reaching over 100,000 students across roughly 655 UK schools. An independent graduate-level study at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) assessed a CDI project in Alvorada (RS), providing genuine third-party academic scrutiny, though scoped to a single site.

Conclusions

Most cumulative reach figures are self-reported by the organisation rather than independently audited. Documented criticism holds that CDI/Recode has relied on sponsorship from proprietary IT vendors such as Microsoft rather than open-source systems, which critics argue limits what graduates practically learn. Because the network operates through many semi-autonomous local schools, quality and impact likely vary significantly by site, and the single-site Alvorada study should not be assumed representative of the whole network.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Very high (> €5M) — No specific budget figures are given in the source material; conservatively banded very_high given a 30-year, multi-country network with paid regional offices and cumulative reach of roughly 1.9 million people.
Time to results
Long (> 3 years) — Operating continuously since 1995, over 30 years to date.
Staffing & skills
Regional office staff across Brazil (23-24 offices), Local community-school instructors at semi-autonomous sites, Recode/CDI national organisation staff

Conditions for success

  • Community-embedded, locally-run schools rather than centralised delivery
  • Pairing computer literacy with citizenship and entrepreneurship education
  • Vendor/sponsor partnerships (e.g. Microsoft) providing hardware/software access

Common failure modes

  • Reliance on proprietary vendor sponsorship limits graduates' exposure to open-source alternatives (documented critique)
  • Quality and impact vary significantly across semi-autonomous local schools

Where it fits

Governance type
NGO-led network of semi-autonomous community schools
Scale
national (Brazil, 23-24 regional offices) plus an international network across 15 countries
Income level
originated in low-income favela communities

Commonly funded by

Philanthropic / foundation funding

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

Attachments

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