The impact of the
Bolsa Familia Programme on the
development of the
Brazilian Northeast region
Luiz Marcelo Videro Vieira Santos
University of London
Government of Brazil
Overview
• Theoretical Framework
– Poverty and Inequality
– Development: capabilities approach
• Social policies and Conditional Cash transfer
• Case Study
– Bolsa Familia Programme
– Evidence
Poverty
• Absence of economic resources
(Barrientos, Hulme & Shepherd 2005)
– Transitory poverty: Lack of asset returns
– Structural poverty: Lack of assets
• Lack of empowerment
(Narayan in Beall & Piron 2005)
– Multidimensional problem associated with risk and
vulnerability related to absence of political voice
• Lack of access to government infrastructure and
services
• Lack of opportunities do develop capabilities
Poverty
• Economic participation
– consuming goods and services and selling their
work force
• Political influence
– Empowerment and political voice
• Social inclusion
– housing, health, education, sanitation, etc
Inequality
• Unfair / unbalanced distribution of the wealth.
Unequal appropriation of the wealth of a
nation
• Unbalanced opportunities for the citizens to
fully develop their capabilities
Capabilities approach
• Development as Freedom (Amartya Sen)
– Freedom is condition, means and end of development
– To do things: study, work, rest, to have fun, etc
– From suffering things: any kind of coercion or
violence that affect their rights of opinion, political
participation, security, human and civil rights, etc
• Capabilities approach (Sen and Nussbaum)
– Use capacity of doing and being (Capabilities)
– To acquire valid doings and beings (Functionings)
Overview
• Theoretical Framework
– Poverty and Inequality
– Development: capabilities approach
• Social policies and Conditional Cash transfer
• Case Study
– Bolsa Familia Programme
– Evidence
Social Protection System (Welfare State)
Objectives (Bastagli 2008)
• Insurance against risks
– Old age
– Unemployment
• Protection against shocks
– Drought
– Flood
– SAP
• Assistance and protection to vulnerable groups
– Disabled
– Children
• Redistribution
• Promotion of rights and citizenship
Social Protection System (Welfare State)
Policy Instruments
• Transfers in-kind
– School feeding
– Price subsidies (food, energy, housing)
– Service fee waivers (school, health care
• Tax/Fiscal tools
– Deductions
– Reliefs
• Public works programmes
– Low paid, public employment, labour intensive, infrastructure
• Social funds
– Emergency / temporary resources to poor communities
• Cash transfers (the most common in developed countries)
– Family allowance
– Unemployment benefit
Cash Transfers: Types
• Universal
– flat-rate to entire population
• Categorical
– particular vulnerable group (elderly, war veterans)
• Means-tested
– Based on income, consumption, assets, etc
• Contributory
– Protection against risk for workers and their families
• Contingency-based
• Conditional (CCT)
– Depends on beneficiary compliance with a a pre-defined
behaviour
Cash Transfers: Forms
• Basic income
– Regularly paid independently of situation
• Social dividend
– Payment made once in a life
• Minimum income
– Complement low incomes up to a poverty threshold
• Negative income tax
– Universal
– Benefits / tax payment vary inversely with income
• Conditional Cash Transfers
– Requires to follow pre-determined behavior
– Targeted
Conditional Cash Transfers
• Growing popularity
– >100 programmes implemented
• Reasons
– Political feasibility (De Janvry, Finan & Saudoulet
2006)
– Low cost (Morley & Coady 2003)
– Subjected to external evaluations (Rawlings 2004)
• Positive results
– Health, under-nourishment, inequality, gender issues,
etc
Overview
• Theoretical Framework
– Poverty and Inequality
– Development: capabilities approach
• Social policies and Conditional Cash transfer
• Case Study
– Bolsa Familia Programme
– Evidence
Bolsa Familia Programme
• Brazil (2003)
– Poverty
• 28% pop (44 M) = poor (1USD/day)
• 7.4% pop (13.8 M) = extreme poverty
– Inequality
• 1% richest = 50% poorest share of income
Bolsa Familia Programme
•
•
•
•
Launched in 2003
Attend 12.4M families (49.5M people)
Budget: 7.6 Billion USD
2 main objectives:
– Reduce current poverty and inequality
– Avoid future poverty
• Conditionalities
– Keep children at school (break intergenerational poverty)
– Attend health centres: vaccines and exams
• Benefit (average)
– 52.50 USD per household / month
Bolsa Familia Programme
States
Alagoas
Bahia
Ceará
Maranhão
Paraíba
Pernambuco
Piauí
Rio Grande do
Norte
Sergipe
Northeast
BFP04
Public Budget
2003
1.875.104.870
6.644.491.750
4.328.968.240
2.211.151.180
2.669.454.820
6.544.227.630
1.565.508.180
BFP 2004
137.724.223
541.949.496
392.696.286
264.708.557
194.184.458
145.552.629
94.239.719
2.365.597.750
1.465.023.760
29.669.528.180
112.379.849
34.160.467
1.917.595.684
PB03
7%
8%
9%
12%
7%
2%
6%
5%
2%
6%
Year
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
Total per year
0.57
3.79
5.69
8.23
9.95
10.85
13.20
13.68
Budget Increase
6.649122 1.501319 1.445557 1.210178 1.089910 1.216707 1.036363
807
261
181
25
298
794
636
Inequality
Pro-Poor Growth
20,00
Pro-Poor Grow th Rate
15,00
10,00
5,00
0,00
1995-1996
1996-1997
1997-1998
1998-1999
1999-2001
2001-2002
2002-2003
-5,00
-10,00
-15,00
Grow th Rate
Pro-Poor Grow th Rate
Gain / Loss
2003-2004
Real Variation
GDP x Industrial Production x Retail Sales
Retail Sales
References
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•
•
•
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BARRIENTOS, A., HULME, D. & SHEPHERD, A. 2005. Can social protection force tackle
chronic poverty? European Journal of Development Research, 17(1) 8-23.
BASTAGLI, F. 2008. The Design, Implementation and Impact of Conditional Cash Transfers
Targeted on the Poor: an Evaluation of Brazil’s Bolsa Família. PhD Thesis submitted to the
London School of Economic and Political Science, London, September 2008.
BEALL, J. & PIRON, L.H. 2005. DFID Social Exclusion Review. London: Overseas
Development Institute.
BESLEY, T. & BURGESS, R. 2003. Halving global poverty. Journal of Economic Perspectives
17(3).
DE JANVRY, A, FINAN, F, and SADOULET, E. 2006. Evaluating Brazil’s Bolsa Escola Program:
Impact on Schooling and Municipal Roles. Mimeo: Berkeley, CA: University of Berkeley.
MORLEY, S., and COADY, D. 2003. From social assistance to social development. Targeted
education subsidies in developing countries. Washington, DC: International Food Policy
Research Institute (IFPRI).
RAWLINGS, L. 2004. A new approach to social assistance: Latin America's experience with
conditional cash transfer programmes. Social Protection Discussion Paper N. 0416
Washington, DC: The World Bank.