Brazil aid program making inroads against hunger

Now he and his family can afford shoes, electricity and a  daily meal of rice and beans.

Alves and more than a quarter of Brazil’s 190 million  inhabitants receive a monthly stipend called Bolsa Familia, the  flagship of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s broader Zero Hunger program designed to cut poverty and eradicate hunger.

Lula, who was born dirt-poor in Brazil’s northeast and  often went without meals as a boy, has spent much of his seven  years in office rallying at home and abroad to combat hunger.

Under Bolsa Familia, poor families receive up to 200 reais  ($115) a month, depending on their income and how many children  they have. In exchange, children must attend school and  pregnant women and infants must get regular medical check-ups.

Recipients are paid through a state bank and registered in  a continuously updated database to reduce error and fraud.

The program’s simplicity, cost-effectiveness and quick  results have been widely praised and held up by the World Bank  and other international agencies as an example for other  countries. While critics say it creates dependency on state  handouts, the program stands in stark contrast to previous  attempts in Brazil to reduce hunger that were bogged down by  food distribution problems and theft.

“It’s cheap and it works — we’ve found a technology to  reduce hunger,” said Marcelo Neri, chief economist for social  policies at the Getulio Vargas Foundation business school in  Rio de Janeiro.

Brazil’s experience is likely to stoke debate at a United  Nations food summit next week in Rome, where leaders are  expected to focus more on boosting agricultural output as a way  of reducing world hunger.

Brazil, whose economy has powered ahead in recent years  under Lula, has consistently spent about a quarter of gross  domestic product on social programs, but the strategy that had  little effect on reducing poverty.

Bolsa Familia has proven much more effective. It costs just  0.4 percent of GDP but has helped lift millions out of poverty,  allowing more people to put food on their plates. Recipients  spend around 70 percent of aid on food, a recent study showed. The program helped reduce child malnutrition between 2003  and 2008 by 62 percent, using body weight comparisons.

“No other developing country in recent years has made as  much progress in reducing hunger as Brazil,” said Rosana  Heringer, executive coordinator in Brazil for ActionAid, an  international anti-poverty agency.

“We’re still hungry some days but we’re doing much better,”  Alves said in his adobe hut, standing before a rickety  refrigerator held together by a large rubber band.

Despite isolated allegations of favoritism in granting the  aid, the program is less corruption-prone because of its  electronic database and payments registered by debit card. Decentralization has helped cut red tape, experts say.

Local governments draft and manage the recipient list and a  board made up of community representatives acts as a watchdog.

Many poor people who get enough calories often don’t get  enough nutrients to remain healthy. According to a 2006 study,  21 percent of Brazilian children under 5 suffered from anemia.  Some government programs may now be making a difference.

Anderson Gomes da Silva, a 12 year-old with anemia,  regained his strength after supplementing his diet with  vegetables his family received from the government. In Piaui,  the program benefits over 400,000 people with food and 5,100  farmers by paying retail prices for their produce.

A farmers’ association outside Teresina doubled its income  and escaped bankruptcy after joining the program in 2003.

In downtown Teresina, nearly 1,400 people stand in line for  over an hour to get lunch for 1 real ($0.60) in one of around  100 government cafeterias nationwide.

“It’s a balanced meal I couldn’t afford anywhere else,”  said Jose de Alinateia, a 45 year-old school teacher, who  spends most of his 650 reais salary on child support, clothes  and utility and medical bills.

When Lula launched the Zero Hunger program in 2003, he  boasted it would also teach people how to fend for themselves.  That is proving difficult. While some were taken off the  program when their income rose, many shirk self-help.

“They’re afraid they’ll lose their benefits. They don’t  want to hear about job training,” said Rosangela Sousa, a  coordinator for the Zero Hunger program in Piaui.

Some aid workers propose limiting benefits to five or 10  years, but others say that could reverse inroads on poverty.

“Forcing people off welfare before solving the underlying  reasons of poverty will backfire,” says Sergei Soares with the  government economic research institute Ipea.

Blessed with booming agricultural output and cutting-edge  farming techniques, Brazil has clear advantages in tackling  hunger, but political will may have made the difference. “Lula was able to mobilize society and negotiate a national  pact around the issue,” said Heringer, of ActionAid. “Political  will is the key ingredient.”