Bolsa Família

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Bolsa Família, roughly translated as "Family Stipend" or "Family Scholarship" in English, is a part of the Brazilian governmental welfare program Fome Zero. Bolsa Família provides financial aid to poor and indigent Brazilian families on condition that the children must attend school and be vaccinated. The program attempts to both reduce short-term poverty by direct cash transfers and fight long-term poverty by increasing human capital among the poor through conditional cash transfers.

The program is a centerpiece of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's social policy, and is reputed to have played a role in his victory in the 2006 national elections [1]. Bolsa Familia is currently the largest conditional cash transfer program in the world, though the Mexican program Oportunidades was the first nation-wide program of this kind.

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[edit] History

Bolsa Escola, a predecessor which was conditional only on school attendance, was pioneered in Brasilia by then-governor Cristovam Buarque. Not long after, other municipalities and states adopted similar programs. President Fernando Henrique Cardoso later federalized the program. In 2003, Lula formed Bolsa Família by combining Bolsa Escola with Bolsa Alimentação and Cartão Alimentação (all part of Lula's Fome Zero anti-hunger program) and Auxílio Gas (a transfer to compensate for the end of federal gas subsidies). This also meant the creation of a new Ministry - the Ministry of Social Development (MDS). This merge reduced administrative costs and bureaucratic complexity for both the families involved and the administration of the program.

[edit] Benefit

Bolsa Família currently gives a monthly stipend of fifteen reais (about $7 USD) per child attending school, to a maximum of three children, to all families with per-capita income below 120 reais a month (poverty). Furthermore, to families whose per-capita income is less than sixty reais per month (extreme poverty), the program gives an additional flat sum of 50 reais per month. This is called the Basic Benefit, and has no conditionalities[2].

This money is given preferentially to a female head of household, through so-called Citizen Cards which are mailed to the family. This practice helps to reduce corruption, long a problem in Brazil; also, the names of every person enlisted in the program and the amount given to them can be found in the internet through the Portal da Transparência or the program's website.

[edit] Cost and Coverage

In 2006, Bolsa Familia is estimated to cost about 0.5% of Brazilian GDP and about 2.5% of total government expenditure. It will cover about 11.2 million families, or about 44 million Brazilians[3].

[edit] Perception

The reaction from multilateral institutions to Bolsa Família has generally been enthustistic. The current president of the World Bank, Paul Wolfowitz said in a recent trip to Brazil "Bolsa Familia has already become a highly praised model of effective social policy. Countries around the world are drawing lessons from Brazil’s experience and are trying to produce the same results for their own people." [4]

[edit] Effects

It is difficult to measure in any empirical way the efficacy of this program, though it has clearly contributed to Brazil's recent improvements in its fight against poverty. An ex ante econometric evaluation of Bolsa Escola did, however, find significant effects on both school attendance rates and the number of children involved in child labor[5].

A study by the UNDP Poverty Centre found that over 80% of the Bolsa Familia benefits go to families in poverty (making under half the minimum wage per capita), thus most of the benefits go to the poor. BF was also found to have been responsible for about 20% of the drop in inequality in Brazil since 2001, which is welcome in one of the most unequal countries on the planet[6].

One positive effect of the program which is not immediately apparent is that it makes a significant impact on the ability of the poorest families to eat. Children in public school receive one free meal a day -- two in the poorest areas -- and so less of their family's limited income is needed to pay for food.

In a survey of Bolsa Familia recipients, 82.4% reported eating better, and it increased the incomes of the poorer familes by about 25%[7].

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ [1]
  2. ^ [2]
  3. ^ [3]
  4. ^ [4]
  5. ^ [5]
  6. ^ [6]
  7. ^ [7]

[edit] External links

[edit] Bibliography

Britto, Tatiana Feitosa de. "Conditional Cash Tranfers: Why Have They Become So Prominent in Recent Poverty Reduction Strategies in Latin America." Institute of Social Studies 390(2004) Also available here

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