Bolsa-Família: template for poverty reduction or recipe for dependency?
Now
10 years old, Brazil's biggest welfare programme has so far benefited
50 million people and become a reference for social protection
programmes from Ghana to New York.
Mother of four, Maria Nilza, 36, shows her "Bolsa Familia" social plan card.
Photograph: Vanderlei Almeida/AFP/Getty Images
Ten years ago, Brazil was just one of many countries struggling against extreme poverty. Today, it has become a worldwide reference – an example of how to fight poverty.
Thanks to a programme that no Brazilian politician now dares to go against: Bolsa-Família.
Evoking
admiration and criticism, the programme is now 10 years old. Brazil
still struggles to create real alternatives of income generation and
decent employment for all citizens. But Bolsa-Família is one of the
largest existing instruments of income transfer, benefiting 13.8 million
families (almost 50 million people.) It means that approximately one in
four Brazilians receives the benefit – the total population is about
198 million people. Considering the scope of the programme, it has a
major impact on the Brazilian economy and on people's lives.
According to the survey,"Bolsa-Família: a decade of inclusion and citizenship,"
published recently by the Brazilian Research Institute for Applied
Economics, the programme was responsible for approximately 28% of the
total poverty reduction in Brazil. Between 2002 and 2012, the number of
Brazilians living with less than BRL70 (£20) has decreased from 8.8% to
3.6%.
In 10 years, about 12% (1.7 million people)of the total
beneficiaries have even been able to give up the benefit. However, some
experts warn that a wide majority cannot get out of this dependence
relationship with the government. The benefit is for the "extremely
poor", those with a per capita income of BRL70 per month, and for the
"poor", those with a per capita income between BRL70,00 and BRL140 per
month. The average monthly stipend is BRL152. But will Bolsa-Família
alone solve the problem of poverty?
For Francisco Menezes, a
prominent Brazilian researcher on Bolsa-Família and food security, the
programme is an important instrument of hunger reduction and social empowerment, especially for women, the main beneficiaries. In spite of that,
the big challenge is to reduce the dependence the handouts create,
providing recipients with more job opportunities and more access to
basic services, such as education and health care.
"Today, hunger
is almost nonexistent in Brazil and many people have left poverty. That
is undeniable. But there are still many deprivations imposed on the
poor. Bolsa-Familia won't solve this. We need other social investments,"
said Menezes, who works for the Brazilian Institute for Social and Economic Analyses, one of the oldest NGOs in the country.
One
of these deprivations is access to housing. In rural areas, many
Brazilians do not have access to land. In urban environments, rental
fees are getting more expensive. Many people, thus, depend on
Bolsa-Família to pay for housing.
Bernardete Monteiro, 41, lives
with her two children in Santa Marta, a favella (Brazilian slum) in Rio
de Janeiro. The area's proximity to the World Cup venue increased the
cost of living, and her monthly rental nearly doubled. For a tiny room
with no windows, she has to pay BRL480. She works as a maid and almost
all of her salary is spent on housing expenses.
"Without
Bolsa-Família, I cannot buy food for me and my children. It is really
good help. But I still feel we don't have an alternative to be able to
one day say that we don't need the benefit anymore."
According to a recent UN study,
hunger has decreased from 22.8 million people in 1992 to 13.6 million
in 2012. The national secretary for income and citizenship in the
ministry of social development and hunger combat (MDS), Henrique Silva
de Paiva, says that Bolsa-Família has been integrated with 19 other social protection
programmes. He said that the country needed to invest primarily in cash
transfers because the situation of poverty and inequality was very
serious when the programme was introduced in 2003.
"We know that
the programme has to be improved every year. We are also planning the
development of other programmes to facilitate people's access to the
labour market," Paiva said
.
Another researcher on Bolsa-Família and executive co-ordinator of Action Aid Brazil,
Adriano Campolina, highlights the impact of Bolsa-Família in reducing
internal migration. "The northeast is going through one of the worst
droughts ever. But people are not migrating. Bolsa-Família is helping
them tackle this. On the other hand, there are some negative aspects. It
is necessary to combine transfer income with access to productive
inclusion and public services that ensure basic quality of life," said
Campolina.
To receive the monthly stipend, parents must ensure
their children attend local schools and must be brought for regular
medical check-ups. Social workers are now also looking for other people
living in extreme poverty still not included in the programme.
These
surveys are part of Plano Brasil Sem Miséria—Brazil Without Misery.
Such is the fascination of Bolsa-Família that Brazil is now being
consulted for advice on income transfer programmes by countries across
Africa (Ghana, Angola, Mozambique), the Middle East (Egypt, Turkey) and
Asia (including India). Even New York City has implemented a version of
the programme.
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