Goal 1. Brazil

Goal 1: Brazil
Alexa Coleman

Senior, Political Science major and minors in Media Studies, Spanish and Global Studies. Hopes to go to law school and specialize in international adoptions. 

                Brazil has successfully achieved goal one on all three targets. The cash transfer program, Bolsa Familia, has been noted by many as the key reason for the swift alleviation of extreme poverty in Brazil. 2013 was the celebration of Bolsa Familia’s 10-year anniversary.

                Achieving target one of halving the proportion of people whose income is less than one dollar a day was achieved in just nine years. According to the U.N., 6.3% of Brazilians were living on just a dollar a day in 2000 and by 2009; the proportion was reduced by half to around 3%.

                The Bolsa Familia program is so extensive that it reaches 50 million people each month. President Dilma Rousseff of Lula’s Workers’ Party said the program was not a charity. “It’s a social tool for tackling inequality. That is the issue. Income is purchasing power.” Over the first 10 years of the program, the average amount of Bolsa Familia benefits increased from R$73.70 to R$152.35 per month, or between $30 and $63 a month in program members’ bank accounts as of September 2013 (Rapoza, 2013). The Brazilian government this year said it will spend R$24 billion ($10 billion) on the Bolsa Familia program, representing 0.46% of Brazil’s GDP. An October study by the Brazilian Institute of Applied Economic Research (IPEA) showed that the Program was responsible for a decline of 28% in extreme poverty in Brazil in the last decade.

                Between 2003 and 2009, the income of poor Brazilians has grown seven times as much as the income of rich Brazilians  (International Food Policy Research Institute, 2010). The idea of a conditional crash transfer program came from Mexico, where it first began on a national scale and has been equally successful at reducing poverty.

                The second target, to achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all, is an area in which Brazil has struggled in the last two decades. In 1990 the unemployment rate in Brazil was 3.7%. The unemployment rate skyrocketed to 9.3% in 2000, but has seen a decrease in recent years. In 2010 the unemployment rate was 7%. Bolsa Familia gives incentive for people to look for, and find jobs. However, the quality of work is an element of development Brazil still struggles with (UNDP, 2011). The latest data by the Brazilian Institute for Statistics and Geography (IBGE) showed that employment is now at 5.8%.

                The final target of goal one of reducing hunger by half has also been achieved. Thanks to Bolsa Familia and other initiatives the percentage of people living in extreme poverty has gone from 19.95% in 1990 to 7.28% in 2010. (UNDP, 2011) The proportion of population below the minimum level of dietary energy consumption fell from 14.9% in 1999 to 6.9% in 2011 (UNDP, 2012).

                

(Photo Courtesy of Alexa Coleman, Buzios 2012)