[EQ] The Brazilian experience with conditional cash transfers: A successful way to reduce inequity and to improve health

The Brazilian experience with conditional cash transfers:
A successful way to reduce inequity and to improve health

Leonor Maria Pacheco Santos1, Romulo Paes-Sousa2. Edina Miazagi1, Tiago Falcão Silva2, Ana Maria Medeiros da Fonseca2

1 University of Brasília, Brazil

2 Ministry of Social Development and Fight Against Hunger, Brazil
Background paper: WHO - World Conference on Social Determinants of Health, 19-21 October 2011, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Available online PDF [16p.] at: http://bit.ly/n7A1QW

Concerns about poverty and inequity have been present in the Brazilian society for some decades.

“….The use of Conditional Cash Transfers (CCT) as an instrument of social policy reflects the widespread belief in Brazil that people are poor due to the “fault of an unjust society”. The 1988 Constitution established a legal foundation of social assistance as guaranteed rights for the needy – and also an obligation of the state to provide health and education services, among others, the access to which is established as a basic right of all citizens….”

 

“…..Bolsa Familia Program (BFP) and largely expanded. The BFP seeks to invest in human capital, by associating cash transfers with educational goals and uptake of health services

 

The BFP operations are very well regulated in the 5,564 Brazilian municipalities. There is one Law, nine Presidential Decrees, one Ordinance and about 50 Operating Instructions. This legislation guarantees direct cash transfer to families in poverty or extreme poverty contexts, which have in their composition pregnant women, nursing mothers, children between zero and twelve, and adolescents from twelve to fifteen years old. …”.

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