Conditional cash transfer: impact over food security and poverty reduction

The Bolsa Familia programme in Brazil as a social policy fostering economic development

There is a tight link between rural development and poverty: hunger, poverty and health vulnerability are usually concentrated in rural areas. How can governments break the vicious circle connecting these three elements? How to interrupt their intergenerational transmission and reduce future poverty?

Social welfare and safety net programs for sure can help a lot in the short term but there are concerns over their effectiveness in a durable way, with criticisms saying they create dependency, disincentives for work or make poverty “more comfortable” (Schneider, 2014).

Yet the conditional cash transfer programme Bolsa Familia (PBF) launched more than 10 years ago in Brazil so far proved to be successful in reducing poverty and increasing food security. The PBF is one of the three policy pillars of the wider national cross-sectorial strategy called Fome Zero (Zero Hunger, launched by the former President Lula in 2003) which recognizes the strong connection between poverty reduction, food security, and support for small-scale agriculture (the other two pillars being The Alimentação Escolar – for free school meals – and The Fortalecimento da Agricultura Familiar – strengthening family agriculture) (Oxfam case study, 2010).

The PBF consists of a stable monthly allowance granted to families below the extreme poverty line (US$ 1,25 per day according to the World Bank) of about US$19 per child to a maximum of 5 children. The money is credited on electronic cards preferably issued on behalf of women. The conditionality consists in the strict obligation for the children to attend school until they’re 17 and to have regular health checks.

According to this presentation (FAO, 2011) as of September 2011 the PBF programme had already reached more than 12 million families and 48 million people over 5500 municipalities, making it the largest cash transfer programme in the world.

With a total cost of 1% of its GDP Brazil has managed to promote the immediate relief of poverty and – through the conditionalities – it strengthened the access to basic social rights (education, health and social care). This program has helped million of people to buy adequate food in a country where the main problem is the access to it, not the production (Oxfam case study, 2010) and it also supported the emergence of small businesses in poor areas (due to the increase in household consumption).

“Between 2003 and 2009, over 20 million people were removed from poverty, particularly in rural areas, where 5 million people found a way out of it” (Da Silva, Del Grossi, De Franca, 2011). PBF helped Brazil progress: inequality cut by 17% in just five years; poverty rate fallen from 42.7% to 28.8%. (Bunting, 2010). To note that Brazil it is the only BRICS country in which income inequality has decreased from the early 1990s to the late 2000s (Ivins, 2013)

These positive achievements over food security and poverty reduction recalled a large interest: this approach was taken as a model and internationalized as a tool for hunger reduction (Kilpatrick, Beghin, 2010) with adaptations in almost 20 countries such as Chile, Mexico, Indonesia, South Africa, Turkey, and Morocco. Even New York City announced its “Opportunity NYC” conditional transfer of income program. (World Bank, 2013).

From this perspective, the PBF can be seen as an example of how emerging economies can play a leading role in the international arena of aid and development (Bunting, 2010).

Comments Off on Conditional cash transfer: impact over food security and poverty reduction / 28 Feb 2014 por guidopreti
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