According to the World Bank, conditional aid programs linked to criteria, such as school attendance, are an effective tool against poverty in Latin America and are ready to enter a second phase, reports the World Bank press review Tuesday.
Brazil was the first country in the region to implement, in 1995, a local initiative that over time has evolved into the current “Bolsa Familia” or “Family Stipend” program. Kathy Lindert, an economist at the World Bank in Brazil, said that the program drew attention of the Mexican government, which copied the idea and implemented it for the first time at the national level in 1998.
The current government of Brazil, under President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva, decided to merge all four existing local programs in the country into a single national program.
One of the most innovative aspects of the new Brazilian plan is that the recipients receive a bank card with which they can withdraw money every month. The system, said Lindert, “allows poor people to access banks for the first time in their life.” In the last few years these kinds of programs have also been implemented in Nicaragua, Honduras and Chile, among others countries.
The “Bolsa Familia” program, and similar programs in the region, grants a fixed monthly stipend, which, in the case of Brazil, amounts to approximately 40 US dollar (248 DKR) and applies to more than 8 million families, which is some 35 million people.
Beneficiaries must be committed to the fact that the assistance is tied to children’s school attendance (with a minimum of an 85 percent attendance rate) in addition to certain sanitary requirements, such as childhood vaccinations.
The “Bolsa Familia” program is financed by the Brazilian government (this year it was assigned 2,5 billion dollar), and is supported by the World Bank with a two-year loan amounting to 572 million dollar.
For Eleith Nogueira and Albertina de Sousa and the 10 percent of the Latin-American population that live on less than one dollar (6,20 DKR) per day, or the 25 percent that live on less than two dollar per day, the amount is not insignificant.
Nogueira and De Sousa are two of the inhabitants of the Varjao “favela” (a very poor neighborhood) that World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz visited Tuesday as part of his six-day tour of Brazil.
They explained Tuesday how the monthly assistance helps them feed their family. -The most important thing is that they can eat, one of the inhabitants of Varjao, who was happy to know that when the fruit truck comes by she will have money to buy some fruit, explained to Wolfowitz during his visit to a school in the “favela.” And for these mothers, putting something on the table every day is always a challenge.
Recent official figures point that the poverty rate has declined from 14,5 to 12,3 percent between 2003 and 2004, and inequality has also decreased thanks in part to increased education.
However, Lindert warns that this program is not a panacea. The World Bank expert believes that the region should support a second phase of the program to focus on the increased quality of basic social services, such as education and health.
Lindert considers that in the future, aid should also be linked to other services, such as access to microfinance, or to initiatives against domestic violence, as is the case in Chile.
Meanwhile, the World Bank is considering specifically focusing on the areas of power and infrastructure to reinforce the impact its programs have on the developing world, and a pilot project will be launched in Brazil, newspaper Panamá América reported.
The Banks new focus fits in with the interests of President Luis Inácio Lula da Silvas government, which sees the Bank as a „niche“ institution, the paper said. Brazil is looking for financial backing and advising from the World Bank for interregional power programs and development of transport corridors.
Improved infrastructure would result in higher growth, said World Bank Brazil director John Briscoe, which would help to reduce poverty in the country.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
