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Bolsa Família: A Summary of Its Impacts
Abstract
Targeted and Conditioned Cash Transfers (CCTs) began hesitatingly and somewhat chaotically in Brazil in 1995 and have grown in relevance ever since. From 1995 to 2003, there were many CCT programs, run by all levels of government and, within the federal government, by five different ministries, with very little coordination among them. While the lack of coordination certainly reduced their effectiveness, there is little doubt that the municipal and state level experimentation was crucial in the design of what was to follow. (?)
Nearly one in six people in Brazil live in rural areas, representing a diverse population facing a variety of challenges that often differ from their urban counterparts. Access to basic food and the alleviation of poverty are key issues in many rural communities and this article provides an overview of the scope of public policies designed to improve food security and support poverty reduction in rural areas of Brazil. In particular we discuss actions implemented since 2003 under Brazil's Zero Hunger Program. The context for this important programme is described by reporting various indicators of poverty and food insecurity used for both rural and urban areas in Brazil. We argue that Brazil has been successful in reducing rural poverty and in improving the nutritional status of many people living in rural areas and that the Zero Hunger Program has played a significant role in achieving these positive outcomes. However, although poverty and hunger have been considerably reduced in the last decade, and there have been important improvements in rural areas, there is still a long way to go before Brazil can claim to have eliminated poverty and hunger.
The voting of Lula in 2006 excited hypotheses on the repercussion of the public politics of the first mandate in the electoral results. The social programs of direct transference of income, in special the "Bolsa Família", had been associates to the great growth of its voting in the cities poor of the north and northeast. We use concepts and methods of modern electoral geography to inquire which the participation of the "Bolsa Família" in this geographic change. The results show a new standard in the space distribution of the votes of Lula, confirming that he still receives the support from its previous bases, but disclose that the regional blocks of cities of high voting in 2002 had lost the cohesion in 2006, becoming more vulnerable. The results confirm the participation of the "Bolsa Família" on the local income was a determinative one of the new contour of the electoral-geographic basis, and the factor of big weight in the explanation of the municipal voting.
Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programmes, including the Bolsa Família programme, have been extensively studied over recent years. The books, working papers and articles that have been written on the subject, if placed on top of each other, would pile up very high indeed. What excuse do I have for spending my time writing this one and asking you to spend yours reading it? My excuse is twofold. The first excuse is that, in spite of the aforementioned pile of studies, much about the programme is still not common knowledge. In the different forums in which I have been I have seen that many elementary facts about Bolsa Família are still relatively unknown to audiences beyond (some) Brazilian policymakers and government officials. How did the programme come about? What exactly was the Lula government?s role in its creation? What impact has it had on poverty, inequality, education, health and labour supply? Did it have any significant political effects? What are its contradictions and possibilities for the future? My objective is to give brief and, if possible, conclusive answers to all these questions in a single text. (?)
It is the Economy, Companheiro!": An Empirical Analysis of Lula's Re-election Based on Municipal Data
- Otávio Damé
- Menezes
Damé, Otávio Menezes. (2009) "It is the Economy, Companheiro!": An Empirical Analysis of Lula's
Re-election Based on Municipal Data. In Economics Bulletin, 29(2).
- Gláucio Soares
- Sonia Ary Dillon And Terron
- Luiza
Soares, Gláucio Ary Dillon and Terron, Sonia Luiza (2008). "Dois Lulas: A Geografia Eleitoral da
Reeleição (Explorando Conceitos, Métodos e Técnicas de Análise Geoespacial)" Pp. 269-301
in Opinião Pública, 14(2) Campinas.