SOCIAL ISSUES IN BRAZIL
Steve Blackmon
Rhoumer Dumapat
Aswin Gunasekar
Adrian Harb
Amrin Malik
Sarah Victor
SOCIAL ISSUES IN BRAZIL
• Pobreza
• Questões raciais
• Gangues/Drogas
• Educacao
SOCIAL ISSUES IN BRAZIL
• Pobreza (Poverty)
• Questões raciais (Racial Issues)
• Gangues/Drogas (Youth gangs and
drugs)
• Educacao (Education)
RACE & ETHNICITY IN BRAZIL
• Indigenous populations: Tupi, Ewe, and Ge
• 1500’s: Portuguese Settlers and African populations
• Late 1800’s – 1900’s: Italian, Spanish, German,
Japanese, Middle East, and Eastern Europe
• Sugar cane crops, gold and diamonds = increased
slave trafficking
• Last country in the Americas to end slavery (1888)
SOCIAL APARTHEID
Indicators
White Brazilian
Black Brazilian
Illiteracy
5.9%
13.3%
University Degree
15.0%
4.7%
Life Expectancy
73.13%
67.03%
Unemployment
5.7%
7.1%
GDP Per Capita
R$ 22,699
R$ 15,068
29%
65.5%
Homicide Deaths
THE FUTURE
POVERTY
•
•
Most visually represented by Favelas
In part attributed to economic inequality
•
•
•
•
> 50% of population lacks resources for basic survival
Poor segment is 33% of population. Extremely poor is 13%
Richest 10% receive 42% of nation's income
Poorest population receives < 1.2% of nation’s income
GINI COEFFICIENT
0  perfect income equality
1  maximal inequality
Gini-coefficient of national income distribution around the world (using 2009 info)
POVERTY MITIGATION & OUTLOOK
• Fight extreme poverty and income inequality
– Public policies of social intervention
– Increased social spending (21.9% in 2005)
– Decentralization of social policy
• Municipalities share of social spending rose
53.8% from 1980 to 2008
– ‘Zero Hunger’ program
– ‘Bolsa Familia’
• Reach social indicators of developed countries by
2016
– Projected poverty rate of 4%
YOUTH GANGS & DRUGS
• Drug gangs control
majority of favelas
around cities.
• Gangs recruit children
as young as 10 to
run/sell drugs.
• Kids can earn up to
$150/day.
Brazil
US
YOUTH PROGRAMS & EDUCATION
• Locally/internationally sponsored youth programs
are helping break the low poverty/education
cycle.
• +Oportunidades program is preparing kids for a
brighter future through education and training.
REVIEW OF THE EDUCATION SYSTEM
• Primary Education
• Free for all
• Most elementary schools maintained by
municipalities or the States
• Richer cities have better schools due to
better tax revenue
• Biggest problem is non attendance due to
malnutrition, children working and high
examination failure rate
• Standards falling, middle class turn to
private schools further making public
schools worse
• Official programs that have worked well:
Bolsa Escola; now rolled into Bolsa Familia,
FUNDEF
SECONDARY EDUCATION
• Not mandatory in Brazil
• Most intermediary schools are
maintained by the municipalities
and States
• Access to University based mainly
on merit, measured by performance
in
ENEM
(previously
called
'vestibular’)
• Private schools prepare students
better for University
• Students who could afford the best
intermediary schools or cursinhos
approved into the free public
universities
• Inherent handicap for poor students
HIGHER EDUCATION
• Majority of federal education funds
goes towards public universities
• Better lobbying power
• Public universities are best in quality
1.
2.
3.
Universidade Federal do Rio de
Janeiro
Universidade de São Paulo
Universidade de Brasília
• Have funds needed for investments
in Medicine and Engineering
programs
• Private universities offer Human
Sciences, Administration, Accounts
OUTLOOK
• Some notable successes
– 700,000 scholarships for low income students
– 180 vocational schools compared to 140 and 93 over that last 2 years
– School enrollments climbing, Middle school graduation rate risen from 34% to 47%
• Yet, Education - the biggest disadvantage for Brazil compared to China,
India & Russia
– More than 22 percent of the roughly 25 million workers available to join Brazil’s work
force in 2011 were not considered qualified to meet the demands of the labor market
• Many parents say, ‘Why should they study if there are no opportunities?’
• ‘Unless that gap is filled soon, Brazil may miss its demographic window
over the next two decades in which the economically active population is
at its peak’ - World Bank
OBRIGADO!