Our History

Igarapé co-organized a high-level roundtable on transnational organized crime at the 61st Munich Security Conference. Moderated by our Head of Innovation, Robert Muggah, and featuring leaders from Interpol, Europol, and UNODC, as well as ministers from Argentina, Costa Rica, Moldova, Peru, and Spain, the debate focused on innovative strategies and approaches to combat cross-border criminal organizations.

Igarapé participated in high-level international meetings in London, Bonn, and Seville to build consensus and promote concrete actions against the climate crisis. During London Climate Action Week, our president Ilona Szabó discussed the issue at an event with King Charles III of the United Kingdom. At the pre-COP30 conference in Bonn, Igarapé put forward the theme of climate–nature synergies. In Seville, in partnership with the Brazilian government and the Club de Madrid, we organized a debate on resources for the green transition, especially in vulnerable countries, during the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development.

“Working with nature, not against it, is key for countries like Brazil to become biodiversity superpowers.” With this message, Igarapé president Ilona Szabó offered a new perspective on the value of nature at the TED Countdown in Nairobi. In Belém, during TEDx Amazonia, the Institute’s central message as a partner was that solutions to the climate and environmental crises “are embedded in biomes like the Amazon and in the tens of thousands of people who live in the region,” as co-founder Robert Muggah emphasized during the event.

Preventing and reducing violence against women was a central pillar of our work. In addition to reports on Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia, we released the study “Violence Against Women in the Legal Amazon in the Last Five Years” and launched the data platform Women in the Amazon: Conflicts and Violence, highlighting the challenges faced by women in the Amazon Basin.

We brought together key leaders at the Bellagio Center in Italy, in partnership with the Arapyaú Institute, to discuss strategies to reduce risks and improve the business environment for scaling up nature-based solutions in the Amazon. This was the first step of our Green Bridge Facility platform, designed to reduce territorial risks and connect responsible capital with high-integrity green ventures. Soon after, with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), we launched the report “Re-imagining Bioeconomy for the Amazon”, examining the region’s eight countries.

In June, we celebrated a historic milestone with the Brazilian Supreme Court’s decision to decriminalize possession of cannabis for personal use. This victory for fairer policies was grounded in a 2015 Igarapé Technical Note—cited in several judicial opinions during the ruling—and in our global legacy on the issue, including the Monitor for Drug Policy in the Americas.

As the only Brazilian organization involved throughout the UN Our Common Agenda process, which culminated in the Summit of the Future and the Pact for the Future, Igarapé took part in the Action Days and the conference itself in New York, held alongside Climate Week. At both events, we reaffirmed our leadership on multilateralism, climate governance, and financing for bioeconomy and nature preservation.

At COP16 in Cali, the International Advisory Panel on Biodiversity Credits (IAPB)—of which Ilona Szabó is a member—launched a reference framework for developing biodiversity credits. Beyond this, Igarapé led discussions on territorial risk and resilience, bioeconomy financing, eradicating environmental crimes, and tackling illegal gold mining in the Amazon.

With Brazil presiding over the G20, the leaders’ summit in Rio was preceded by the first-ever Social G20, where we presented issues addressed both in the Bioeconomy Initiative Support Group—which fed into the principles unveiled at the historic G20 meeting at the UN headquarters—and in the T20 think tank group, where we joined the National Council and co-led the task force on multilateralism. At COP29 in Baku, we highlighted synergies between the G20 and COP agendas, particularly on responsible investment for the preservation of the Amazon and other biomes.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, we launched a new data platform underscoring our focus on climate security. With interactive maps and charts covering all 772 municipalities of the Legal Amazon, the Amazon in Loco platform deepens the understanding of these territories.

The HLAB published its report “A Breakthrough for People and Planet”, with proposals for effective and inclusive global governance. In September, our president Ilona Szabó joined UN Secretary-General António Guterres in New York during the UN High-Level Week to discuss civil society’s role in advancing the SDGs.

We launched the Follow the Money series, a pioneering in-depth investigation into the links between money laundering and environmental crimes in the Amazon Basin. Promoting regional cooperation against the illicit economies fueling this ecosystem was the focus of our first Regional Meeting in March, in Manaus, with police and prosecutors from across the region. In August, these efforts bore fruit with the inclusion of environmental crimes in the Belém Declaration at the Amazon Summit.

Through the “What Gun is That?” transparency ranking, we evaluated the quality—or lack—of information on firearms provided by Military, Civil, and Forensic Police forces in Brazil’s 27 states.

We took our efforts for a green and just transition, and for financial solutions for nature, to both Climate Week NYC and the UN High-Level Week. Igarapé contributed to the Brazilian government’s Ecological Transformation Plan and co-organized a meeting between Finance Minister Fernando Haddad and international policymakers to present the proposals.

At COP28 in Dubai, we launched the “Global Futures Bulletin – Global incentive mechanism to protect standing forests”, presenting the main lines of our next challenge: transforming the ecosystem of environmental crimes into an ecosystem of sustainable businesses, by reducing territorial risks.

The release of the study “The Ecosystem of the Environmental Crime in the Amazon: an analysis of the Illicit Rainforest Economies in Brazil” marked the consolidation of this concept, which places the security of people and forests at the heart of public debate and decision-making in Amazon countries. From that point on, we developed a robust agenda on the topic, which became one of our main areas of focus.

Following our engagement with the Our Common Agenda process and strategic briefings for UN agency leaders, Igarapé co-founder Ilona Szabó was the only Latin American appointed to the High-Level Advisory Board on Effective Multilateralism (HLAB), created by the UN Secretary-General to make international cooperation more effective and inclusive in addressing global challenges and advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Igarapé took a leading role in civil society advocacy for responsible arms control. We were decisive in the creation of the Parliamentary Front for Arms and Ammunition Control, for Peace and Life. We provided inputs to the Supreme Court, Congress, and the media through data in our Out of Control bulletin series—including a special focus on the Amazon—and through technical notes.

In Brazil’s crucial presidential elections, Igarapé directly influenced the debate. In August, with Instituto Sou da Paz, we launched the agenda “Public Security is the Solution”, with ten objective proposals for presidential candidates. The following month, we presented a multidimensional vision for security in the Brazilian Amazon in the agenda “Govern so as not to surrender”, which later fed into the analyses and data provided to President-elect Lula’s transition team.

We launched the EcoCrime data platform, bringing together stories, videos, information, and solutions related to environmental crimes in the Amazon Basin. The platform was showcased at the Paris Peace Forum and COP26 in Glasgow. We also initiated a project to protect and train women environmental defenders in the Amazon. In subsequent years, this project led to the first survey with women defenders in Brazil, Colombia, and Peru, as well as qualitative reports and protection guides.

After compiling data on 104 initiatives, 78 documents, and 10 sectors, Igarapé launched the Brazilian Cybersecurity Portal, a collaborative repository to foster a safer digital environment. In the same month, we released a multi-sector agenda for digital security in Brazil, which was later presented to presidential candidates during the 2022 elections.

We celebrated a decade with impressive numbers: activities in over 100 countries, around 300 studies and 2,000 op-eds published in newspapers and magazines, and the development of 28 technological tools. By 2021, we had a team of 47 people working in a hybrid format across all Brazilian regions and in Canada, Colombia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. We had partnerships and projects in more than 20 countries. And we set ourselves a new challenge: building the next decade.

With the campaign “Civic Space is Our Space”, we mobilized 40 civil society organizations and 45 influencers nationwide, calling for the rebuilding of Brazil’s democratic institutions during the most challenging moment since the 1988 Constitution. Since the start of the year, through the Civic Space GPS bulletins—published until the end of 2022—Igarapé monitored attacks on democratic spaces and the resistance to these restrictions.

Igarapé conducted the global digital consultation that fed into Our Common Agenda, launched by UN Secretary-General António Guterres on the UN’s 75th anniversary. We gathered input from NGOs, philanthropic organizations, universities, and underrepresented groups, analyzing 523 proposals from 1,759 participants across 147 countries. The summary was published by Igarapé in the report “Accelerating inclusive global cooperation”.

In a year when science and democratic institutions were increasingly under threat, we engaged in multiple efforts to address the Covid-19 pandemic. We collaborated with direct aid initiatives for affected populations and mapped the pandemic’s relationship with issues such as homicides, prisons, violence against women, deforestation, and threats to Indigenous peoples. Internally—literally at home—we reorganized our thematic areas: Public Security, Climate Security, and Digital Security.

Igarapé co-founder Robert Muggah and Oxford University professor Ian Goldin published the book “Terra Incognita: 100 Maps to Survive the Next 100 Years”, illustrating humanity’s impact on the planet and the ways we can save it. The book uses over 100 satellite maps from EarthTime.

With the strategic paper “Environmental Crime in the Amazon Basin: A Typology for Research, Policy, and Action”, we launched a new line of work to improve mapping and combating environmental crimes. That year we signed a cooperation agreement with Brazil’s Federal Prosecutor’s Office. We expanded analyses and partnerships in the region, joining networks and forums such as the The Brazilian Coalition on Climate, Forests and Agriculture and Amazon Concertation. In other reports, we began stressing the importance of the financial sector in fighting deforestation.

Amid the rise of populism and authoritarianism worldwide and in Brazil, we created a new program: Civic Space, aimed at engaging civil society in the defense of democracy. Our president, Ilona Szabó, published the book “In Defense of Civic Space”. In parallel, we launched the podcast “You Can Change the World”, where civic leaders from across Brazil discussed projects, actions, and ideas that had driven concrete public policy changes. The podcast ran for two more seasons—dedicated to women’s issues—and became a TV series aired in 2022 on Canal Futura.

The newly installed far-right government issued the first of nine decrees to loosen firearm regulations. In response, we worked with political leaders and civil society groups to expose the risks these measures posed to public security. We coordinated letters from 14 state governors and 11 former Ministers of Justice calling for more responsible regulation, acted as amicus curiae in unconstitutionality cases before the Supreme Court, and supported the We Are Not Targets campaign.

To reveal the scale of violence against women and improve governmental responses, we launched the EVA platform (Evidence on Violence and Alternatives for Women and Girls), in partnership with Uber. This data repository identifies patterns and trends in Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico, offering a striking portrait of both lethal and non-lethal violence against women in Latin America.

At our first global climate conference, COP25 in Madrid, we presented the report “Climate and Security in Latin America and the Caribbean”. By then, Climate and Security was already one of our programmatic areas. We began to deepen our understanding of climate-security linkages in Latin America and their global and local impacts.

On the International Day against Drug Abuse, we launched this platform, updated annually, which has become indispensable for those working on the issue. The Monitor for Drug Policy in the Americas provides information and data on national drug legislation and policies across the continent, as well as a historical perspective in timeline format on changes in this field.

We addressed climate change by highlighting its relationship to global security. Using satellite data and analyses, and in partnership with several governments and the UN Secretary-General, Executive Board, and expert panel, we helped strengthen the UN Security Council’s engagement on this agenda.

The festival “Turning the Tide”, organized by Igarapé and eight partner organizations at Circo Voador in Rio, combined debates and performances by emerging music talents to mobilize, inform, and seek solutions for public security. Amid a crisis marked by military and police interventions in several states and a high-voltage presidential election year, public security was at the center of Igarapé’s work. The book “Public Security to Turn the Tide”, launched the same month by Ilona Szabó and then-counselor Melina Risso, presented proposals developed by Igarapé in various partnerships with state and federal governments.

For the first time, Igarapé won recognition as one of the Top 100 NGOs in Brazil from Instituto Doar, and also as the best human rights organization. We received this award again in 2019, 2021, 2022, and 2023.

We began the year at the World Economic Forum in Davos, presenting EarthTime, an interactive platform developed with Carnegie Mellon University’s CREATE Lab to monitor global climate and humanitarian risks. In the following months, we launched the Forced Migration Observatory, tracking internally displaced populations in Brazil, and the Violence Prevention Observatory in Paraty, mapping crime in the historic city in Rio de Janeiro state, one of Brazil’s most insecure at the time.

Igarapé co-founder Ilona Szabó drew on her experience in drug policy to craft the fictionalized portraits of five characters representing Brazil’s drug universe. The book “Drugs: The stories they didn’t tell you”, co-written with journalist Isabel Clemente, was launched in São Paulo with a debate featuring former president Fernando Henrique Cardoso and physician Drauzio Varella. Launch events were later held in major Brazilian capitals.

With the release of the report “Brazil and the Civil Rights Framework for the Internet – The State of Digital Governance”, we advanced and influenced Brazil’s debate on cyber security governance, contributing to the identification of emerging challenges. In 2020, our work was cited in Brazil’s National Cybersecurity Strategy (E-Ciber).

Launched in April at the World Economic Forum in Buenos Aires and the following month in Brazil, the Instinct for Life campaign gathered over 60 organizations across seven Latin American countries to reduce homicides by 50% in ten years. In addition to generating about 500 governmental commitments, the campaign, led by Igarapé, spurred the creation in December of Brazil’s Parliamentary Front for Violence Prevention and Homicide Reduction, bringing together 198 members of Congress from 25 parties.

In partnership with the World Economic Forum, United Nations University, and 100 Resilient Cities, Igarapé developed a data visualization system for 2,100 cities worldwide with populations above 250,000. Aimed at monitoring urban fragility and resilience, the initiative was launched at TEDSummit in Banff, Canada, and in six other cities: Tokyo, The Hague, Stockholm, Quito, San Francisco, and Davos.

At the first Olympic Games ever held in South America – in our home city – Igarapé brought security innovation to the arena. During the Games, we launched CrimeRadar, the world’s first public crime prediction platform, using machine learning and five years of data from Rio’s metropolitan area. Alongside World Vision International, we also led a digital campaign on child safety throughout and after the event.

In partnership with Rio de Janeiro State’s public security sector, we developed and implemented ISPGeo, a real-time crime mapping and analysis system, which remains a reference today. Enabled by the Public Security Partners Program, a platform for integrating public and private actors in the field, the tool uses georeferencing to merge distinct databases into a single map, identifying crime hotspots and times of higher incidence.

We developed a new logo and website, highlighting our mission of building connections across multiple audiences, combining our commitment to new technologies with respect for our roots. Our thematic areas expanded to include: citizen security, drug policy, cyber security, peacebuilding, and sustainable development.

We launched the Homicide Observatory, a global data visualization tool monitoring homicide trends in over 200 countries and territories. In the following years, it evolved into the Homicide Monitor platform, the most visited page on our website, with an average of 20,000 monthly accesses.

A technical note coordinated and published by Igarapé proposed objective criteria to distinguish between drug traffickers and users. It directly influenced the historic ruling of Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court (STF) on the decriminalization of cannabis possession, initiated that year. In his opinion, Justice Luís Roberto Barroso cited our work to defend removing cannabis use from the criminal sphere. Justice Gilmar Mendes, the rapporteur, embraced our argument extending the definition to other types of drugs.

We established our presence in sustainable development by engaging Brazil and Latin American and Caribbean governments in the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Igarapé participated in the UN High-Level Panel on the topic and, in Brazil, joined the Civil Society Working Group on the 2030 Agenda, influencing the country’s stance on including SDG 16 – peace, justice, and violence reduction – in the final document.

Igarapé was the only South American institution among the ten winners of Google’s Digital New Era award, granted to organizations using technology to tackle global challenges.

Igarapé coordinated the research and publication of the Global Commission on Drug Policy report “Taking Control: Pathways to Drug Policies that Work”, launched in New York by former presidents of Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Portugal, and Switzerland. The document proposed five approaches to make drug policies more humane and effective. The following month, Ilona Szabó, Igarapé’s co-founder, spoke on the issue at TEDGlobal in Rio, where Robert Muggah, the other co-founder, was also a speaker.

We entered this theme decisively. From publishing the study “Promoting Gender and Consolidating Peace: The Brazilian Experience” to organizing events in Brazil and abroad, we influenced the Brazilian government’s agenda and were cited in a speech at the UN Security Council’s open debate on Women, Peace, and Security.

Igarapé organized its new governance model by creating Advisory and Honorary Boards and strengthening others. The Institute consolidated its thematic areas: citizen security, drug policy, and international cooperation. We also carried out an internal reflection process, reinforcing our vision, mission, and values, and defining levels of engagement at local, national, and regional levels, with a global focus on the Global South. The team grew, strengthening research and technology areas in Brazil and adding members in Colombia and Mexico.

Through high-level dialogues and analysis, Igarapé assumed a leading role in policy proposals on international security and foreign policy in Brazil. We helped expand the debate on Brazil’s role in areas such as UN Security Council reform, Responsibility to Protect (R2P/RwP), and civilian capacity for peace operations and political missions. Globally, we influenced the direction of the post-2015 development agenda by advising the UN High-Level Panel.

As a partner of the Open Empowerment Initiative (OEI), Igarapé researched how the digital environment shaped citizen actions and state-society relations. In the year of massive street protests in Brazil, we analyzed social media in the country, the impacts of cybercrime, and the rise of black blocs in reports for the Organization of American States (OAS).

We connected experiences and managers, disseminating best practices through Citizen Security Dialogues, involving participants from Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and Central America. We mapped 1,300 citizen security interventions across 30 Latin American countries and launched a series of assessments on fragile and resilient cities. We also published analyses on youth violence prevention programs in Latin America, and humanitarian responses and crime in Central America and the Caribbean, with a special focus on Haiti.

Igarapé’s first official publication reflected its line of thought on Brazil as a catalyst of social technologies that could support countries in situations of fragility. “The Brazil Effect – Brazilian Civilian Experts in Fragile or Post-Conflict States” addressed the country’s role in peace operations and marked our vision of Brazil’s importance and potential in tackling global challenges.

During international negotiations of the Arms Trade Treaty, Igarapé developed the Mapping Arms Data tool, the world’s first visualization of international arms and ammunition trade flows, in partnership with Google Ideas and PRIO-NISAT. The map was viewed by more than 5 million people. The app created new opportunities for cooperation with the Federal Police, the Rio 2016 Olympic Committee, and the Rio State Military Police in 2013.

As Secretariat of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, composed of former heads of state, intellectuals, and business leaders, and chaired by former Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Igarapé promoted and influenced the global debate on drug policy. By coordinating the Pense Livre Network, which brought together young Brazilian leaders, we also created new fronts in the national agenda for a fairer, more humane, and more effective drug policy.

Two technology initiatives against violence were launched this year and went on to become global references. With Google Ideas, the Rio State Military Police, and NGOs from South Africa and Kenya, we developed a mobile app to monitor police activities, later adopted in several countries. We also launched the Child Security Index (CSI), a tool to spatially and graphically map how children experience violence in poor neighborhoods. In 2016, Human Rights Watch used our case study to recommend body cameras for police.

While still in its early stages, Igarapé organized the seminar “Expanding the Civilian Role in Peace Operations: Assessing Progress and Addressing Gaps”, in partnership with SIPRI, IRI, and PUC-Rio.

A new kind of think tank: headquartered in Rio and partnered across Brazil, Latin America and the Caribbean, North America, Western Europe, and Sub-Saharan Africa, we already carried innovation in our DNA, working on security and development from Brazil to the world and bringing lessons from around the world back to Brazil.

In articles published with partners, Igarapé presented its credentials as a Brazilian think tank by reinforcing the country’s relevance in innovating and exporting social technologies to countries with socioeconomic vulnerabilities. This line of work had already begun prior to the official creation of the Institute, in publications such as the one authored by Ilona Szabó and Robert Muggah in partnership with the OECD in 2009.