Poverty reduction in Brazil - Essay Example

It is essential to adopt development strategy in order to achieve global prosperity, freedom, dignity, peace and equity along with sustaining progress already achieved. In order to carry out the study Bolsa Familia program, an initiative to combat poverty has been selected as the case. This case has been chosen for the further study as it is the major social program in the Social Protection System in Brazil. Moreover, Brazil has been selected as the country in concern for the study because Brazil by the end of the first decade of 21st century has emerged as one of the rapidly growing economies in the world.

Moreover, Brazil has over the years engaged in conducting researches on poverty and inequality, thus there has been certain prominent changes witnessed by the country in the last decade that have drawn significant attention (Soares, Ribas and Osorio, “Evaluating the Impact of Brazil’s Bolsa Familia: Cash Transfer Programs in Comparative Perspective ”). (ii) THESIS STATEMENT The local adoption of the Bolsa Familia program failed to promote the desired outcome. . offers monthly transfer to poor families with children to extent of 15 years of age and/or pregnant woman as well as the program provides monthly transfer to extremely poor households irrespective of their composition.

The Bolsa Familia program was launched on October 2003 by the government of President Lula da Silva under the Provisory Rule n.132 which was transformed in the law n. 10.836 in January 2004. The program is primarily a unified form of four major programs including Bolsa Escola, related with minimum income grant for primary education; Fome Zero and Bolsa Alimentacao, two major income subsidies associated with food security; and Vale Gas, a grant to help poor families buy cooking gas. The primary reason behind the implementation of the program was to achieve the objectives towards effectively combating hunger, poverty and inequalities through monetary transfer related with meeting the basic needs of household comprising health, education, food security and social aid.

The program also aimed at promoting social inclusion for emancipation of the beneficiary household by assisting them to overcome vulnerable situations in which they are living (Soares, Ribas and Osorio, “Evaluating the Impact of Brazil’s Bolsa Familia: Cash Transfer Programmes in Comparative Perspective”). The program is implemented in a decentralized manner in almost all the Brazilian Municipalities. It implements unverified method of testing that is conducted at the municipal level to select its beneficiaries.

The program is firmly directed towards poor and indigent families who have per-capita income R$ 60 (US$ 33) and R$120 (US$66) (Souza, “Poverty, Inequality and Social Policies In Brazil, 1995-2009”). Correspondingly, those households with per-capita income of R$ 60 (US$ 33)