A retired research scientist and agronomist, Rita had spent years working on agricultural issues affecting small farms in the United States. She was thrilled to bring one of her innovations, using yacon root to create healthier food ingredients, to her hometown in Brazil and start a small business. But innovation was not the problem. Bureaucracy was.

For five years, Rita navigated a maze of approvals, permits, and requirements. What should have been a breakthrough became a burden. The stress consumed her. She couldn’t sleep. After Marcelo Faria’s team at Instituto Liberal de São Paulo (ILISP) helped government officials implement the national Economic Freedom Law in her state and municipality, removing many licensing barriers for business activities deemed low-risk, Rita was finally able to start selling her products.

“Now I sleep,” she said. Before recent reforms, Rita’s experience was not unusual. In a city in central-western Brazil, a street vendor spent ten years trying to obtain a license to sell hot dogs. When he finally succeeded, the permit expired within a year, pushing him backinto illegality. And Brazilian cheesemakers won awards in France for their products while still being blocked by domestic licensing rules from selling legally in many Brazilian states.

Nearly 40% of Brazilian workers earn a living outside the formal economy, meaning their businesses lack official registration. Informal workers have no legal protections and no access to business loans. Licensing requirements that should protect the public often do the opposite, giving local officials unchecked power over who gets to work legally and creating opportunities for corruption.

For far too many, working informally is not a choice. It is a necessity. Marcelo Faria knows this reality well. “As a child, I watched my grandfather walk the streets of our hometown, selling cheese to make ends meet. Even in his 80s, he kept going. It was inspiring to see him talking with people, finding a way to provide. That’s where I first understood what entrepreneurship really means.”

Marcelo’s own path to becoming a think tank leader in the freedom movement began with a refusal. As a young entrepreneur, he built a company and secured government contracts. Then came a demand: pay a bribe, or lose everything. “They told me very clearly: either you pay, or you don’t keep the contract,” he recalled.

“Atlas Network was the organization that gave us the first grant for this project,” Marcelo said. “They really helped us a lot to start this project as professionally as possible.”

Over nine months, the team mapped cities with over 10,000 inhabitants across all 27 states and created an open-data website where the public and government officials could check whether the law was being implemented in their area.

ILISP worked directly with local governments to pass the law, city by city, state by state. Freedom to Work combines legal analysis, model regulations, direct technical support to governments, and public pressure through rankings comparing states and municipalities.

“One thing we realized is that competition matters, even in politics. When a lower-income state passed a law classifying more than 900 activities as low-risk, we used it to persuade officials in wealthier states. We told them, ‘Look, this state is doing better than you, and you’re one of the richest states in the country. ’“

The message reached the governor of the other state. Not willing to be left behind, he pushed to adopt the law. “Competition made the difference,“ Marcelo said.

By 2023, Freedom to Work was gaining traction; 118 municipalities had implemented the law, 53 with ILISP’s support. In the state of Rio Grande do Sul, reforms expanded low-risk activities from 24 to 770, benefiting 11.5 million people.

As the project scaled, Atlas Network deepened its investment in Marcelo as a leader. In August 2023, he attended Executive Accelerator, an intensive week-long program with fellow think tank leaders from around the globe.

“Spending a full week in the same place, exchanging ideas and discussing the real challenges of managing a nonprofit, was extremely valuable. It's still shaping the way I think and operate. To this day, I consider it one of the best training programs I’ve ever attended.“

The following year, he was paired with Andy Mayer, COO of the Institute of Economic Affairs in the United Kingdom, through Atlas Network’s Executive Mentorship Program.

“The mentorship was especially impactful, and having that international perspective made a big difference. I was mentored by Andy, which gave me the opportunity to see firsthand how IEA operates. I’m still implementing ideas from that experience today. In fact, I came back with more than 100 ideas, and I've been working through them ever since.“

Recognition from Atlas Network, including winning the Smart Bets pitch competition and the Latin America Liberty Award, gave donors and policymakers a clearer picture of ILISP’s record and reach, signaling that their work had earned international standing. That credibility helped sustain the work as it scaled.

In São Paulo, reforms removed licensing requirements for roughly 900 economic activities, affecting more than 44 million people. New business creation in municipalities that implemented the law increased by 88.9%.

Today, 129 million Brazilians have been reached by these reforms, the result of implementing or updating the Economic Freedom Law in 470 municipalities and nine states. For Marcelo, the number matters because of what it represents. Not a policy metric, but people—people like his grandfather.

“For him, work meant dignity,“ Marcelo said. “It meant freedom.“ That is what he is fighting to protect. And he is not finished. “Our goal for this year is to expand the project to benefit 150 million Brazilians.“

See Marcelo’s story in full in Atlas Network’s documentary Freedom to Work: From Survival to Success in Brazil.