International

Review of
Administrative
Sciences

Article

Anti-poverty and progressive social

change in Brazil: lessons for other
emerging economies

International Review of
Administrative Sciences
78(4) 733756
! The Author(s) 2012
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DOI: 10.1177/0020852312455553
ras.sagepub.com

Moses N Kiggundu
Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Abstract
This article examines Brazils experiences with anti-poverty and progressive social
change, and spells out possible lessons for emerging economies with similar challenges.
It draws on the Bolsa Familia conditional cash transfers (CCT) and the continuous cash
benefits programmes and discusses important aspects of programme leadership, management and coordination. After a brief discussion of poverty, it presents a framework
synthesizing key success factors for effective and sustaining programme implementation.
Brazil does not offer a blueprint for other countries to copy; only lessons from experience. Therefore the article concludes by discussing key ongoing challenges and suggests
areas for future research, focusing on comparative studies across countries.
Points for practitioners
Progress has been made against global poverty, notably in countries experiencing sustained economic growth like Brazil. In spite of these remarkable efforts, challenges
remain especially for countries which focus only on macroeconomic growth but not
equity or inclusive development. Growth without equity does not eradicate poverty.
Accordingly, emerging economies are being urged to pursue multipronged strategies:
crafting innovative public policies, reshaping institutions for macroeconomic management, reaching out and engaging target communities, democratization, legislated and
constitutionally mandated progressive social change. This article provides practical lessons from experience from Brazil, which practitioners from other emerging economies
can adapt to their own circumstances for the effective and sustaining implementation of
anti-poverty and progressive social change. It also provides a holistic framework for
better understanding the institutional context, leadership, management, inter-government and cross-sectoral coordination and private sector participation. Finally, it identifies some of the key ongoing challenges in Brazil, and suggests areas for applied
comparative research.

Corresponding author:
Moses N Kiggundu, Sprott School of Business, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, ON
K1S 5B6, Canada
Email: moses_kiggundu@carleton.ca

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Keywords
anti-poverty, Bolsa Familia, Brazil, conditional cash transfers, coordination, decentralization, emerging economies, inequality, poverty, programme management, progressive
social change

Introduction
Addressing the United Nations International School (UNIS) on pledges to meet
the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and in line with the United Nations
End of Poverty Now campaign, the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon stated
on 16 October 2009 that poverty is the biggest global challenge because more than
1 billion people are still in extreme poverty and over 70 million children cannot go
to school (see www.endpoverty2015.org).1 In 1970, Myrdal published The
Challenge of World Poverty: A World Anti-poverty Program in Outline and exposed
the weaknesses of the then Western countries trade and aid policies towards
developing countries. He observed that while aid may be strategically and contingently necessary, it is not sucient to lift millions out of poverty. Developing
countries needed to do more in terms of political, economic and social reform
and change. About the same time, Pearson and other World Bank
Commissioners published Partners in Development (1969), calling for more multilateral foreign aid to developing countries. Today, almost half a century later, the
debate still rages on with no end in sight.
The world is sharply divided among those who believe in foreign aid, charity and
the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as the solution to global poverty (e.g.
Sachs, 2005), those who believe in the market and private enterprise (e.g. Hubbard
and Duggan, 2009; Prahalad, 2006), and those who prefer to isolate themselves
from the global economy and global society (e.g. North Korea). Although the
good copbad cop approach to this debate is tempting and attention grabbing,
experience, especially from the more successful countries in South-East Asia, shows
that the truth is much more nuanced (e.g. Landes, 1999; Narayan et al., 2009;
Rodrik, 2007; Smith, 2005); what works is much more contextualized, bounded
by time, geography and culture; oftentimes moderated by natural or chance events
(e.g. location, war, charisma, natural disasters, world events). Still what countries
do or do not do governments, businesses, civil society and ordinary citizens
together with the international community, makes a dierence. It is with this background that this article looks at Brazil and its potential lessons from experience for
other countries. It is important to note, however, that this is not a comprehensive
review or evaluation of Brazils anti-poverty policies and programmes several of
these already exist in the literature (e.g. Bastagli, 2008; Hall, 2006; Lindert et al.,
2007). Rather, the objective is to draw out lessons from experience, potentially
applicable to other emerging economies.

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The state of poverty in Brazil

According to the World Banks Growth Commission Report (2008), Brazil is one
of only 13 success story economies in the world to have achieved high sustained
growth in the post-war period of at least 7 percent annual GDP growth continuously for at least 15 years (195080 for Brazil). Brazil is the sixth biggest economy
in the world with an estimated total GDP of $2.5 trillion (2011), and one of the
most attractive economies for foreign investment. Yet, Brazil is also one of the
most unequal nations in the world. Brazils inequality is comparable to some of the
poorest countries in Africa and Asia. With a national Gini index of 0.61 a measure
of income inequality the countrys richest 1 percent of the population less than
two million people have 13 percent of household income, while about 50 percent
of the population over 90 million people share only 13 percent of household
income. (Comparable Gini indices for other countries are: China, 0.47; India,
0.368; Indonesia, 0.343 and South America and the Caribbean, 0.615.) About 22
percent of the population about 42 million people are below the national poverty line (Beghin, 2008). According to data provided by the countrys Institute of
Applied Economic Research (www.ipear.gov.br), about 11.5 percent of the population over 20 million people are categorized as very poor. Brazil has large
ruralurban income inequalities and unequal access to land, housing, infrastructure, water and other social and economic services and opportunities such as education, health, employment, credit, extension services, Internet, etc.
Brazil is a large and diverse country with a federal system of 27 states and 5564
municipalities, all of which experience poverty, extreme poverty and inequalities.
For example, the State of Rio de Janeiro presents high percentages of poverty and
misery 22 percent and 6 percent, respectively. It displays a strong pattern of
income inequality, registering the highest gap among the most developed states
in Brazil. With a Gini index of 0.61 in 2000, Rio Janeiro showed indices greater
than those of Sao Paulo (0.59) and Santa Catarina (0.56) (The State of Rio de
Janeiro Strategic Plan, 20072010, State Government of Rio de Janeiro). These
numbers, however, must be understood in the context of how poverty is dened
and measured in Brazil and globally (see Table 1).
It is important to note that although poverty and inequality are both repugnant, they are conceptually and empirically dierent. For example, using
World Bank data in a study of 130 developing countries, Ferreira and
Ravallion (2008) found strong positive relationships between economic
growth rates and poverty reduction. This means that high rates of sustained
economic growth can lift people out of poverty. The study, however, also
found no signicant relationships between economic growth and changes in
inequality. This means that by itself alone, economic growth does not necessarily lead to reductions in economic inequality. Inequality is a factor in
moderating the relationships between economic growth rates and poverty
reduction. In the short run, it is more prudent to tackle poverty rst.
Experiences from Brazil and other emerging economies (e.g. China, India)

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Table 1. The debate about poverty and inequality in Brazil and globally
The debate:
There is no consensus as to whether or not global poverty and inequality are increasing, decreasing, levelling off, and at what rates. World Bank numbers (e.g. Chen and Ravaillion, 2001) have
been criticized for both underestimating and overestimating global poverty. Bhalla (2002) and
Sala-i-Martin (2002) argue that the number of people living in extreme poverty has actually fallen
more sharply than World Bank numbers seem to suggest. Bhalla argues that the first Millennium
Development Goal (MDG1) of reducing poverty by one-half of the 1990 1$ a day poverty rate
by 2015 was achieved in 2000. Other researchers (e.g. Reddy and Pogge, 2002) concluded
that the rate of decline of poverty and inequality have been overestimated by the World Bank.
Much of this debate hinges on what and how is being measured. Global poverty estimates vary
according to the type of data sources used (e.g. national accounts; household surveys), the
variables measured (e.g. income, consumption, transfers) price adjustments used over time and
space (e.g. purchasing power parity, ppp), the unit of analysis used (e.g. men or women, household,
care giver), and how missing and zero data points are treated in the analysis.
These debates are even more relevant in countries like Brazil, which until recently lacked accurate
statistics and the institutional capacity to collect, store, analyse and make available in useable form
socioeconomic data on a sustaining basis.
Definition and measures:
1. The World Bank (2011b) defines poverty as whether households or individuals have enough
resources or ability to meet their needs. It focuses on three aspects of well-being; poverty,
inequality and vulnerability. Inequality is defined as the distribution of income, consumption or
other attributes across the population. Vulnerability is the probability or risk today of being
in poverty or falling deeper into poverty in the future. The focus is mainly on income and
consumption, not other aspects of well-being such as education, health and ownership of
assets.
2. In Brazil, poverty measures are based on the annual household survey called Pesquise Nacional
por Amostra doDomicilios (PAD; www.ibge.gov.br/home/estastica/popularo), which provides
household, not individual, income. PAD uses a nationally representative random sample of
households based on three selection procedures of municipalities, census sectors and households. Although attempts are made to provide a representative sample by estimating population weights, some remote municipalities, with low population densities such as Ace and the
Amazons representing about 2.1 percent of the total Brazilian population, are excluded.
Drawing on the FGT (Foster, Greer, and Thorsbecke) class of poverty measures, researchers
such as Bourguignon and Chakravarty (2003) and Salardi (2008) have developed methodologically better reformulations, which decompose poverty within and between homogeneous
groups, using differentiated poverty lines. This is particularly important for a country such as
Brazil with huge regional disparities, whose population is differentiated not only by differences
in income but also in terms of social and demographic variables such as ethnicity, religion, family
structure and urbanrural divides. This contributes to better understanding of the relationship
between poverty and inequality. For example, Salardi (2008: 4) observes that by looking at
absolute poverty lines within and between groups, it becomes clear how inequality affects the
level of poverty between groups. Many other emerging economies such as China, Egypt, India,
Indonesia, Nigeria and South Africa share similar demographic characteristics with Brazil.
While Brazil attempts to provide multidimensional measures of poverty similar to the
World Bank by focusing on poverty, inequality and vulnerability, it does not provide comprehensive information on all measures of poverty and well-being as defined by the UNDP or the
Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the OECD (Maxwell, 1999).
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suggest that sequencing is important for lifting millions out of poverty; ghting
poverty rst, then inequality. Societies coming out of poverty seem to have
high tolerance for inequality (Whyte, 2010).
Table 1 summarizes the debate about the conceptual denition and measurements of poverty and inequality in Brazil and globally. The concepts of
poverty and inequality are complex and multidimensional; they mean and
manifest themselves dierently in dierent settings. This is particularly the
case for large and diverse emerging economies such as Brazil undergoing fundamental political and socioeconomic transformations at dierent rates across
the population. This explains why dierent organizations and jurisdictions use
dierent denitions, methods and mix of variables to measure and track the
eects of poverty and inequality. For example, Brazils Bolsa Familia and
Mexicos Oportunidades both focus on human development by including
health and education, the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme)
includes measures related to gender (development, empowerment), and the
Development Assistance Committee of the OECD (Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development) includes child mortality to reect
changes in Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In spite of these conceptual and methodological challenges, measures of poverty and inequality provide
useful indicators of human development and well-being within and between
countries and over time.
With such a gloomy situation of poverty and inequality, it would appear that
Brazil has nothing positive to share with the rest of the world when it comes to
ghting poverty and advancing social justice. Yet Brazil has a history of
ghting poverty and inequality, advancing democratic political reform, progressive
socioeconomic development and, over the years, accumulated lessons from experience, which when carefully studied can prove potentially useable for other countries with similar challenges (Kinzo and Dunkerley, 2003; Skidmore, 2007). The
World Banks World Development Report on tackling poverty rightly states in its
opening sentence that poverty amid plenty is the worlds greatest challenge
(World Bank, 2001: v). Therefore, experiences gained in one country are instructive
in others.
This article is based on the belief that sustained achievement of the Millennium
Development Goals will depend not only on increasing resources but also on
renewed commitment to adapt and accelerate implementation of successful
approaches both within and across countries. This is consistent with several
ongoing initiatives by the international community to nd solutions to global poverty. For example, the Shanghai Conference and Agenda on Poverty Reduction
(2627 May 2004), drawing on case studies from dierent countries, provided a
unique opportunity to learn from the rich and diverse experiences on growth
and poverty reduction both successes and failures and to explore ways in
which ingredients of success at the project, country and global levels can be built
upon and adapted to scale up progress on poverty reduction in all parts of the
world.

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Why focus on Brazil?

Why focus on Brazil if other countries have anti-poverty and progressive social
change programmes? For example, in a relatively short period of time, China has
lifted almost 400 million citizens out of poverty. South Africa has halved the
murder rate, virtually eliminated malnutrition for under-ves, increased school
enrolment for 715-year-olds to almost 100 percent, set up the worlds biggest
antiretroviral treatment programmes for HIV/AIDs, and is addressing intergenerational transfer of poverty and inequality (The Economist, 5 June 2010; Samson,
2009). Others such as Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and
Zambia are aggressively pursuing anti-poverty policies and inclusive development
(The International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth, www.ipc-undp.org). Like
Brazil, many of these countries are in the midst of one of humanitys greatest
transformations and, within the realities of their unique contexts, they have
much to learn from one another.
Brazil is a good country to study and from which to draw out lessons from
experience for others to learn from for a variety of reasons. The country has one of
the worlds largest public conditional cash transfers to the poor, diused in dierent states, municipalities and reaching an estimated 44 million people or 24 percent
of the national population (Bastagli, 2008). The countrys anti-poverty and progressive social policies, programmes and experiments have attracted attention
nationally, in South America and globally. International (e.g. the World Bank,
UNESCO, UNDP and FAO) and faith-based organizations continue to provide
material and moral support, including international recognition and awards
(Sugiyama, 2007). They are encouraging other countries (e.g. Ghana,
Mozambique) to take advantage of Brazils experiences.
Brazil shares many of the characteristics and challenges facing other emerging economies including uneasy combinations of high levels of economic
growth, deep poverty and extreme inequalities, and growing risks to economy
and society associated with climate change (Brainard et al., 2009; World Bank,
2009). Many emerging economies are big in size (population and geography),
diverse economically, socially, geographically and demographically (by race,
colour, creed, ethnicity, ideology, etc.). They have decentralized federal systems
of governments and are democratizing and undertaking other forms of political
and institutional reforms, often after long periods of dictatorship and human
rights abuses. Brazil has maintained a prolonged period of relative peace both
within its borders and with its neighbours. Countries are better able to sustain
focused attention on anti-poverty and progressive change when they are experiencing internal harmony and peace with others (Myrdal, 1970). This is particularly relevant for conict, post-conict and fragile countries (e.g.
Afghanistan, Burma, Ethiopia, Colombia, DRC, Iraq, Liberia, Nigeria,
Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Sudan, Uzbekistan and Zimbabwe) and those
going through popular political transformations (e.g. Egypt, Libya, Tunisia,
Yemen).

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The country is credited with pursuing growth policies and institutional development aimed at achieving economic convergence with living standards of
advanced industrialized economies. It is also credited with a deep appreciation of
the fact that the challenges of igniting growth dier signicantly from those for
sustaining it (Rodrik, 2007). Over time, the country has managed to mobilize a
national network of individuals, groups, organizations, institutions and communities from both the public and private sectors to work together to advance antipoverty and progressive social change. The network includes public agencies at
dierent levels of government, faith-based organizations (e.g. the Roman Catholic
Church), trade unions, professional associations, universities (e.g. the Six Citizens
Universities), state-owned enterprises, NGOs and political parties. This has
allowed the country to create a national deliberative platform for dialogue and
consensus on policies relating to anti-poverty and progressive change. Brazils
anti-poverty programme is much more broadly based and embedded in institutions, families and communities (Saxby, 2004, 2011).

Brazil and Mexicos Oportunidades compared

Oportunidades is the principal anti-poverty programme of the Mexican government. Originally known as Progresa, it started in 1997 only in rural areas, but
was extended to include the urban poor in 2002. It helps poor families to invest
in human capital by improving childrens education, health and nutrition, and
giving them the opportunity to escape intergenerational poverty. It provides
CCTs as incentives to keep children in school, promote preventive health care,
improve food consumption, and nutrition for infants and pregnant and lactating
women. Monthly CCTs are paid to the mothers in the household on condition that
children and adolescents attend school, infants receive micronutrient supplements,
mothers attend sessions on nutrition and health practices, and all family members
have regular health check-ups. It was conceived and is managed by highly educated
and experienced federal government ocials, with strong support from the
President. There is strong coordination among the key federal government ministries of education, nance and social security. In 1999, its budget was only
0.2 percent of Mexicos GDP (compared to about 1 percent of GDP for Brazil).
It now covers about 4 million families, over 60 percent of them rural. It beneted
from a well-designed evaluation study by an external independent US organization,
the International Food Policy Research Institute (Gertler, 2000; Skouas, 2005),
which found that after only three years, poor rural Mexican children on
Oportunidades were better o than the control group. Specically, school enrolment improved 20 percent for girls, 10 percent for boys, with better balanced diets,
better medical attention received, and new-born children grew better with reductions in child stunting. This prestigious evaluation study gave the programme credibility both domestically and internationally, making it possible for President Fox
to extend and modify it to include the urban poor, and introduce education grants
to high school students with a new component called Youth with Opportunity

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(Jovenes con oportunidades). Mexicos experience points to the importance of

undertaking early, independent monitoring and evaluation so as to demonstrate
results for lessons from experience.
Although Mexicos Oportunidades has been deemed successful, the Brazilian
anti-poverty programme is dierent and better in several respects. In terms of
size and scope, Brazils programme is among the biggest in the world, and right
from the beginning it covered both urban and rural areas. Skouas (2005) found
that targeting poor families in rural areas created tensions between those who are
included or excluded from receiving CCTs. This may be due to the fact that poor
rural families tend to be more closely connected, making it socially unacceptable
for government to choose between winners and losers. In poor rural communities,
it may be preferable to include all residents in the programme instead of discriminating among households. This problem was not apparent in Brazil, especially in
the urban areas highlighting dierences between rural and urban anti-poverty
strategies.
Brazil is mainly urban with about 80 percent of the population living in urban
areas. Although the rural population tends to be poorer, developments in agriculture and agribusiness, especially in the Midwest states, have modernized the countryside and helped to close the ruralurban income gap. After the 200809 nancial
crisis, the economy is growing again, unemployment is low (about 6 percent) and
millions of Brazilians are now actively participating in the economy as wage earners, producers and consumers. A growing number of hard-working families are
moving out of favelas (urban slums) and joining the growing middle class in better
serviced neighbourhoods (Perlman, 2010). Bolsa Familia has been instrumental in
improving family well-being and helping children to do better in school thus
reducing intergenerational transfer of poverty. Internal migration away from the
biggest cities has helped to keep unemployment levels low, reduced concentration
of poor people in urban slums, and made it easier for social services to reach the
poor and those in most need (Andrews, 2011, personal communication). Similar
changes have not taken place in Mexico.
The Brazilian programme also diers from Mexico in the way it is managed and
coordinated. Mexicos Oportunidades is essentially owned and managed by the
federal government. Brazils programme is much more decentralized, jointly
owned and implemented by the three levels of government federal, state and
local civil society and the private sector. Lula da Silva, the former charismatic
president, was perceived as more of a champion for the poor than President Fox.
While the Mexican programme is horizontally decentralized and coordinated
within federal government ministries, in Brazil, the programmes are both horizontally (within federal government) and vertically decentralized and coordinated with
state, municipal and non-government stakeholders. In Brazil, more so than in
Mexico, urban citizens are much more actively involved in anti-poverty activism.
For example, the 2005 Carnival in Rio de Janeiro was used as a platform for
promoting awareness among the citizens of the MDGs in partnership between
the UNDP and the local Portela samba schools (Thomas, 2006: 40).

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Grassroots support helps to protect the long-term nancing of anti-poverty

programmes and avoid policy reversal, especially when governments change or
budgets are cut. Mexico appears to depend more on remittances than publically
funded conditional cash transfers, while in Brazil it is the other way round.
Mexicos remittance inows were US$22.6 billion compared to only US$4.3 billion
for Brazil (World Bank, 2011a). We do not know the relative importance of remittances and conditional cash transfers for reducing poverty and inequality. We
speculate, however, that large and growing remittance inows may reduce pressure
on governments to use public nances such as CCTs to address poverty and
inequalities. President Dilma Rousse has introduced a multibillion dollar plan
called Plano Brazil sem Miseria (Brazil without Misery) to complement BFP by
targeting 16 million citizens living in extreme poverty, promising to eliminate
extreme poverty in four years. However, continuing incidents of corruption leading
to resignations of ministers and senior public servants, growing budgetary pressures, and a strong currency reducing exports and threatening jobs, all detract from
needed anti-poverty and progressive social change (The Economist, 2026 August
2011: 3637).

Methods
This article is part of the authors ongoing work on improving SouthSouth
cooperation by drawing out lessons from experience across countries, sectors or
globally signicant cross-cutting issues such as poverty and inequality. It is based
on the belief that countries of the South are better able to eectively address their
development challenges by learning and drawing lessons from experience among
themselves. The article draws on the growing literature on poverty reduction programmes in emerging economies with a focus on Brazil. It is based on a rather
limited and focused review of the literature, unpublished institutional reports and
studies, visits to Brazil, and ongoing contacts with Brazilians working on issues of
poverty, inequality, NGO management, and democratic development and social
justice. Unpublished studies include doctoral theses (e.g. Bastagli, 2008; Sugiyama,
2007); World Bank reports (e.g. Lindert et al., 2007); and the International Poverty
Centre (Medeiros et al., 2008), whose work is supported by the UNDP. While in
Brazil, the author conducted unstructured interviews and discussions with the sta
of the Federal School of Public Administration, academics, graduate students and
community leaders. Contacts and consultations continue by email and occasionally
face-to-face meetings and conferences.
The article beneted from the dierent perspectives provided by representatives
from government, civil society organizations and academics. For example, government ocials are knowledgeable about policy development, resource mobilization, programme management and the challenges of vertical and horizontal
coordination within ministries and across levels of government. NGO and community leaders provided useful information about how the NGO and business
sectors work together to mobilize both governments (federal, state and municipal)

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and the population, especially in poor isolated, underdeveloped parts of the country such as the Northeast. Senior ocials with experience working in the Federal
government oce of the Presidency, state-owned enterprises such as FURNAS,
and NGOs like COEP provided useful insights on the challenges of keeping public
institutions such as universities and municipalities focused on issues of social justice
when they are not directly related to revenue generating projects. In addition to
sharing some of their ongoing research and unpublished work, academics who
acted as advisers, consultants and advocates provided insights on the role public
institutions like universities can play to strengthen anti-poverty coalitions at
national, state and community levels.
Yet this approach has several limitations. This is not an exhaustive review of the
literature or assessment of Brazils or any other countrys poverty reduction programmes. The article is not an evaluation of Bolsa Familia or conditional cash
transfers in general (e.g. see Bastagli, 2008), nor is it a comparison of Brazilian
and other countries poverty reduction programmes. Rather, the purpose of the
article is to draw out lessons from experience from Brazils poverty reduction programmes for other emerging countries to learn from, reect and adapt to their own
national, local, institutional or policy situations. Although the article is based on
selected, targeted and limited studies and personal contacts in Brazil, at the time of
the study these were among the most informed and authoritative sources.

Brazils Bolsa Familia (BFP) and Beneficio de Prestacao

Continuada
The two most prominent anti-poverty programmes in Brazil are BPC (Continuous
Cash Benets) and Bolsa Familia (Family Grant, BFP). Bolsa Familia combines
four components, previously administered by separate ministries, ranging through
education, health and mines and energy. The four pre-existing programmes and
their respective ministries were: Bolsa Escola (Education), Bolsa Alimentacao
(Health), Cartao Alimentacao, Fome Zero (Health), and Auxilio Gas (Mines and
Energy). This functionalsectoral dierentiation resulted in several drawbacks
relating to programme management and coordination. Separate bureaucratic structures resulted in high implementation costs, political interference and lack of focus
on the needs of the poor. There were problems of inter-ministerial coordination, as
each ministry worked within its own hierarchy, protected its own mandate, power,
inuence and resources. By bringing all the components together under a single
Bolsa Familia programme, integration helped reduce costs, standardize procedures
and outcomes, and improve targeting (reducing undercoverage and leakage), scaling up and coordination. In 2004, the creation of a new super Ministry of Social
Development and Fight against Hunger (MSD), and the transfer of management
and executive responsibilities from the Presidents Oce to the new ministry,
brought together and improved coordination under one structure for all anti-poverty and social programmes (Hall, 2006). Zero Hunger, an earlier component of
Bolsa Familia, integrated about 50 policies and programmes ranging from direct

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nancial aid to small farmers to low-cost restaurants all aimed at feeding the
poorest and alleviating extreme poverty.
Brazils anti-poverty programme is both centralized and decentralized. While
Bolsa Familia is funded by the Federal Government, it is implemented at the municipal level. Each municipality is required to set up a social council (Counselhode
controle Social), which oversees the administration of the programme. The council
is responsible for the registration of potential beneciaries under a single registry
(cadastro unico), data collection, monitoring and enforcing programme conditionalities. Members of the council are appointed by elected civic ocials.While this
may cause undue inuence or political interference from the mayors oce, it
enhances community participation and ownership.
Reviews of the benets of these programmes have been quite positive. The
International Poverty Centre (Medeiros et al., 2008) found that the programmes
are accomplishing their goals of reducing poverty and inequality, have no negative
eects on incentives to work and contributions to the pension system, and their
impact on the national budget is manageable. A World Bank review of Bolsa
Familia commended the decentralized approach and recommended the programme
to other countries (Lindert et al., 2007). Others have been more critical, referring to
BFP as charity for beggars (Andrews, 2004; Hall, 2006: 707).
Table 2 summarizes key attributes of Brazils two most important anti-poverty
programmes (Bolsa Familia and BPC, Benecio de Prestacao Continiada). Over the
years, both programmes have been transformed and enlarged in size, coverage and
cost. They are the practical manifestation of the 1988 Constitution, which established new social rights in education and health for all citizens, thus linking progressive social protection with a constitutionally protected legal framework.
Intergenerational transmission of poverty, inequality and marginalization are serious concerns in most emerging economies. The Bolsa Familia programme
addresses these problems by imposing conditionality on the beneciaries such
that benets are conditional on continuing access to public investments in education, maternal health and child development. Children must stay in school, pregnant women must access prenatal and postnatal medical services, and child labour
force participation is monitored.
The programme has provided the country with the opportunity to develop
policy and operational coordinating and integrating mechanisms, horizontally
across sectors and functions such as education, health, social child protection
and development, and vertically across dierent levels of government. Lessons
from experience gained here can be instructive for other countries whose governments wish to avoid the rigidities of bureaucratic silos and develop synergistic
leadership, programme management and coordination. Over time, Brazil has developed a natural laboratory for social innovation in areas of anti-poverty, social
policy debates, development and decentralization. These cover a range of
issues including conditionality, targeting, sequencing, exit policies, centralized
decentralized programme management, coordination, incentivizing, monitoring,
learning, enforcement and avoiding policy reversals.

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Table 2. Summary of key facts about the two CCT programmes (BPC and BFP)
BPC
Cash transfer policies are now permanent feature of Brazilian social protection system
These programmes redress historical imbalances: 60 percent of the national labour force (about
48 million people) work in the informal sector, not covered by public or private pension schemes
Both programmes considerably expanded with demonstrated positive impacts on poverty and
inequality. The 1988 Constitution established new social rights to life, education and health. These
programmes are the practical expression of the constitutional guarantees
BFP in an income supplementation programme (assumes other sources of income); BPC does not
assume that beneficiaries may have other sources of income
BPC benefits are much higher than BFP, better able to lift families out of poverty
BFP concerned with intergenerational transmission of poverty; conditionality to promote investments
in human development: education, health, and child and maternal development; PBC does not
demand behavioural compromise
On targeting, these programmes are quite efficient and reach most targeted citizens using a much
more decentralized delivery system
No negative effects on labour force participation have been documented
Costs are reasonable, impact on national budget manageable (annual cost about 1 percent
of GDP)
BFP
One of the biggest in the world, reaching over 11 million families over 46 million people (almost
25 percent of total population) consolidated four pre-reform programmes into one, building on
Brazils decades of experience with CCTs
Good targeting, positive effects on poverty/inequality indicators, decentralized implementation,
innovative performance-based management, incentives for quality, addresses principalagent
problems
Serves as unifying force and integrating mechanism, horizontally across sectors/functions (education,
health, social development/academia, public administration) and levels of government (federal/
state/municipal/villages)
Natural laboratory for innovation in decentralized context on various issues: exit policies, transfer,
targeting, conditionality, institutional arrangements, administration, monitoring, evaluation, learning, transformation and sustaining
Stimulates and raised the scope and quality of national debates, promotes civic education and social
justice among the poor
Builds strong families, communities, promotes social harmony, creates social capital, and contributes
to national unity
Note: BPC Continuous Cash Benefit Programme; aka Beneficio de Prestacao Continuada; BFP Bolsa Familia
Programme; CCT Conditional Cash Transfer. Compiled from Bastagli (2008), Lindert et al. (2007) and
Medeiros et al. (2008).

Open discussions of poverty, inequality and social justice by dierent political

parties at dierent levels of government, professionals, academics, NGOs, the
media and faith-based organizations within the country have stimulated and
raised the level and quality of public debate, especially relating to the Brazilian
essence of the state (raison dEtat), and greater awareness by the poor in terms of

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their rights and responsibilities as citizens. The high quality of public debate contributes to good governance, widens and enriches the national policy community,
and sets the stage for more transparent and accountable public administration.
Lack of open quality debate leads to state capture, poor policy options and greater
abuse of power. When the poor and marginalized are aware of their citizenship
rights and the obligations of public ocials, they are more likely to hold public
agencies accountable. Civic education protects against ignorance, poverty, inequality, marginalization, discrimination and injustice. It is an eective mechanism for
mobilizing the poor to protect their rights, educate themselves, hold governments
to account and sustain progressive social change. According to the work done by
COEP in the north-eastern part of the country, NGOs routinely provide civic
education to the poor regarding their constitutional rights under Bolsa Familia
and similar social programmes. Informed citizens receiving social benets are
more likely to stay in the programme and to observe the necessary conditionalities
(Saxby, 2004, 2011).

Programme management and coordination

Table 3 summarizes the features and possible lessons from experience from Bolsa
Familia, in terms of programme design, institutional arrangements for policy development and implementation, results achieved to date, and some of the ongoing
challenges. One of the important lessons from experience is the need to balance the
forces of centralization and integration at the federal level with the downstream
imperatives for decentralization and dierentiation at the state, municipal and community levels. Brazil attempts to achieve this balance by applying several constitutional and administrative tools, including federal legislation, mandating and
regulating national standards, a strong central coordinating body, MSD, delegated
implementation to local authorities, and the active engagement of civil society.
Programme ownership, management and control is embedded and diused across
society. This contributes dierent capacities and competencies relevant for the
programmes value chain and ensures commitment, success and sustainability.
Careful crafting of formal (e.g. hierarchy, standards) and informal (e.g. empowering citizens) management, coordination and decentralization contribute to the
eective and sustaining implementation of the programme (Rosenberg et al., 2000).
At the local level, three interrelated factors have contributed to the success of
progressive change in Brazil: rst, the 1988 progressive constitution, which introduced new citizens rights to life and entrenched progressive social change. Second,
the transition to democracy; creating deliberative space for the development of
associative and networking communities, mobilizing the poor, providing protection against policy reversal and state capture because of frequent elections and
because voting is mandatory. Third, the successful diusion of social change resulting from shared ideology and social networking among various political, administrative, religious, civic and professional organizations. Diusion of progressive
social change occurs in Brazil when elected ocials feel ideologically compelled

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Table 3. Bolsa Familia: summary of lessons from experience

Programme design:
Progressive growth in size and coverage (spending, geography and population)
Emphasis on nationwide standardization: levels, coverage, procedures
Bottom-up approach: first nationwide application in 2001, following state and municipal experimentation with CCT
2003, four separate CCTs run by different ministries, different target groups of poor, implemented nationwide. New
president (Lula de Silva) elected, launched Bolsa Familia as own programme (strong personal leadership at the top),
consolidation, targeted poor families, reorganized social assistance, introduced legislation mandating and regulating
national standards and practices. No income test for beneficiaries
Dual purpose: Reduce family income poverty with guaranteed minimum income (short-run), and improve human capital
outcomes in education and health to prevent intergenerational transfer of poverty/inequality.
Institutional arrangements:
MSD serves as strong central coordinating body. Ministries of education and health responsible for consolidation of
conditionality, monitoring, information, service delivery
Municipalities responsible for programme implementation: registration of beneficiaries, monitoring conditionality
compliance
Local authorities and local organizations (e.g. NGOs, universities, and corporations) participate in programme implementation and monitoring at own levels.
Management:
Federal legislation governs policy, programme design and management to ensure national standardization
Public administration and management tools used across sectors and levels (e.g. indicators of decentralized administration; terms of agreement, targeting, information collection, selection of beneficiaries, benefit payments, suspension, etc.)
Key ongoing functions: registration of claimants into the Cadastro (registry of client records); registration updating
and monitoring of conditionality, private sector participation.
Summary results:
BFP keeps poor children in school, but results differ by biography (e.g. age, gender) and family attributes (e.g. parents
education, rural vs urban, income, employment status, etc.)
No significant impact on child labour force participation
Improved school attendance but less so for the very poor and older children.
Increased public awareness of citizenship rights/responsibilities and roles of different government agencies
Challenges:
Need for capacity building, especially at lower levels of government and across sectors
Enforcing national standards and maintaining programme integrity, accountability and transparency
Possible hazards of dependency, abuse, targeting, disincentives to work, avoiding taxes, public accountability, challenges
of reaching underserviced citizens, policy reversal
Need for continuous innovation, improvements, programme redesign, new management and ICT tools
Sustainability: constitutional requirements, institutionalization, political/public support, transformation, funding, etc.
Management and coordination: within and across ministries and agencies, with state and municipal governments, and
with private sector participators

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to replicate successful programmes tried elsewhere, and when policy professionals

both in government and in the private sector engage in relevant networks that
promote socially progressive professional norms (Sugiyama, 2007). Here we see
the need for the convergence between the interests and beliefs (ideology) of the
political leaders and those of the professional class, resulting from the development
of organized professionalism and professional norms of conduct, networking and
shared values (ideology) among various segments of society. Therefore, countries
undertaking administrative reforms need to pay more attention to the development
of professionalism and professional associations and associative communities
among various professions in both the public and private sectors.
Organizations from dierent sectors and mandates contribute dierent
resources, competencies, values, management and coordinating tools. They need
time (about ten years) to learn how to work eectively together and achieve synergy. One of the coordinating mechanisms among these organizations is the shared
belief that poor communities must be empowered to dene their own development
needs, actively participate in setting priorities, mobilizing resources, implementing
programmes, sharing lessons from experience and learning together. Corporations
in energy like FURNAS (www.furnas.com.br) and natural resources with experience working in rural, isolated and poor communities are actively involved in
progressive social development as part of their corporate social responsibility
(CSR), developing sustainable communities in the areas where they do or expect
to do business. Faculty and students (e.g. the Six Citizen Universities) are actively
involved in advancing anti-poverty and progressive social change, not only as
researchers, educators and consultants, but, more importantly, as advocates and
activists. Fighting poverty and injustice is everyones business (see Table 3).
Under the Cabinet Oce, MSD has the overall responsibility for policy and
supervision, including horizontal and vertical coordination with other ministries
and agencies, sub-national governments, civil society organizations and the private
sector. MSD as a super ministry created organizational management challenges
such as redening and aligning mandates, roles and responsibilities, pooling
resources, coordination and standardization. It needed a strong and inuential
Minister close to the President to manage the transformation. The Bolsa Familia
Secretariat (Secretaria Nacional de Randa de Cidadania; SENARC) oversees overall
programme management and registry.
In order to link BFP beneciaries to other complementary services within a
more comprehensive social protection framework, SENARC works very closely
with the National Secretariat for Social Assistance (Secretaria Nacional de
Assistencia Social; SNAS), which deals with specic vulnerable groups such as
the elderly and disabled, the National Secretariat for Food Security, which focuses
on hunger and food security for the poor, and the Secretariat for Institutional
Articulation and Partnerships (Secretaria de Articulacao Institucional e Parcerias;
SAIP), which coordinates inter-government and inter-ministerial partnerships and
outreach with NGOs relating to workers and incomes. Three federal control agencies, the General Controllers Oce, Federal Audit Court and the Oce of Public

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Prosecutor, together are responsible for formal programme oversight and coordinate control functions of nance, accounting, audit and enforcement. The management and coordination of the programme works on the principle that what gets
measured gets attention, what gets rewarded gets reinforced and what gets punished tends to disappear.
Within this decentralized environment, state governments play a signicant role
providing technical assistance and building capacities for municipalities, especially
those with limited resources. State governments support training of municipal
employees and help prevent abuse by providing identication and documentation
for individuals and families in the cadestro unico. Although municipalities have
direct responsibilities for programme implementation, they do not all have adequate resources or capabilities. Participating private sector and civil society organizations provide resources and checks on corruption and abuse. For example,
Caixa, with country-wide coverage, provides nancial services such as payments
systems, maintenance and upgrading of the registry. Private sector participation
promotes competition, innovation and diusion.

Tools for programme management and coordination

Various factors contribute to the challenges of managing and coordinating the
programme. It is large, growing and comprehensive, attempting to reach previously
underserved citizens in remote villages or urban favelas, with limited physical and
institutional infrastructure. The multidimensional nature of the programme with
multiple objectives and multiple sectors adds to its complexity. Various government and private sector participating organizations, each with their own mandate,
leadership style, value chains, institutional arrangements, operating systems and
ideological biases all add to the challenges; so do distances among participating
organizations and dierent types of beneciaries.These distances may be physical
(geography, infrastructure, ruralurban), economic (income, wealth, opportunities), socio-cultural (e.g. human development, family structure, language, ethnicity, illiteracy), or political (e.g. ideology). Dierences in size and power among the
dierent municipalities contribute added challenges. For example, mayors of smaller municipalities with limited resources resent the power and inuence of mayors
of bigger cities, municipalities and ocials from the more powerful state governments. While frequent elections at dierent levels of government help to strengthen
democratic support for the programme, they also inject a dose of uncertainty in
terms of dierences in ideology, policies, political support, personal leadership
style, trust and relationships when governments change.
Over the years, through experimentation, experience and careful study, Brazil has
developed various management and coordination mechanisms and application tools
to deal with these and similar implementing challenges. These tools fall under four
broad but closely related categories: (1) Legal and Constitutional; (2) Organizational
Design and Management; (3) Capacity Building and Utilization; and (4) Informal
Mechanisms. Table 4 provides details of these tools and their applications.

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Table 4. Programme management and coordination tools and their applications

Management and coordination mechanisms

Applications tools

Legal & constitutional

1988 Constitution provides legal foundation:

citizens rights to life, responsibilities to
vote
Government legislation, policies and
procedures
Regular democratic and competitive elections
at all levels of government
Political leadership and support by way of
parties platforms
Federal Government maintains overall programme policy and control; applies tools
such as national guidelines, standards,
financing, administrative and political ownership. Programme consolidation
The Decentralized Management Index (IGD)
is used to monitor and evaluate quality of
each participating municipality
Incentives: performance-based contracts with
enforceable sanctions for inadequate
standards by way of audits and oversight
controls (e.g. Caixa)
Potential principalagent dilemmas handled
through the formal hierarchy (federal),
informally through capacity building
NGO/private sector participation compensates for government shortfalls
Ongoing programme risk/vulnerability assessment and management by all actors
Establishment of joint management agreements among levels of governments: helps
municipalities to develop programme management capacities and institutional framework for effective implementation: clear
roles and responsibilities, minimum standards of performance, financial incentives,
audits, monitoring and evaluation, etc.
Vertical integration by way of hierarchy
among levels of government; ICT
resources, capacities and competencies.
Mechanisms to promote learning, cross-fertilization, innovation and sharing of experiences across states, municipalities and
other actors

Organizational design and management

Capacity building and utilization

(continued)

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Table 4. Continued
Management and coordination mechanisms

Informal mechanisms

Applications tools
Establishment of inter-municipal consortium:
pooling resources (finance, equipment)
together among municipalities; council of
mayors makes decisions, facilitates learning
and sharing of information and lessons of
experience among municipalities; improves
management and coordination,
standardization
Annual BFP Innovation Award (Premio) used
to promote sharing of experience, including
field visits, published case studies, workshops, etc.
Strengthening individuals, families, communities and inter-community relations for
more effective utilization of programme
benefits
Strong popular programme support related to
national identity, rights and responsibilities.
NGO/private sector contacts and lobbying of
all politicians and public officials ensure
support and informal coordination
Civic education, mobilizing and educating the
poor about their rights and responsibilities
as citizens

Eective programme management and coordination combines legal, constitutional and hierarchical formal mechanisms with the more informal or organic tools,
strengthening programme implementation both vertically and horizontally. The
Decentralization Management Index (Indice de Gestao Descentralizada) was
designed by the Federal Government to monitor and evaluate the quality of implementation of each municipality on four measures: (1) The share of families registered with a valid registry to measure consistency and completeness of information;
(2) The share of families with registries updated at least within the past two years;
(3) The share of BFP children with complete information on compliance with
education conditionalities; and (4) The share of families with complete information
on compliance with health conditionalities (see Lindert et al., 2007: 26). This and
similar formal tools are designed to ensure national standards and to help weaker
municipalities to acquire the necessary resources, build and utilize capacities and
competencies to achieve national standards. This fosters unity in a vast and diverse
country, characterized by inequalities at all levels of society.

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Lessons in civic education for individuals and families about their rights and
responsibilities as citizens and their programme entitlements, facilitate building
local capacities to eectively access and utilize programme benets. BFP is seen
by the people not only as an anti-poverty programme, but also as a social contract,
a unifying force for the countrys overall social policy reform, democratization,
human rights and overall progressive social development. This provides informal
but powerful tools for social cohesion and shared values, thus helping the citizens
to accept ownership and internalize programme goals and successful implementation. Local leadership provides ongoing programme support and coordination by
way of frequent contacts and lobbying politicians of major political parties at
dierent levels of government and senior public servants, mainly through their
professional associations. Access to the Internet connects and empowers poor
people.
These ndings are consistent with the literature on management in developing
countries. Within organizations, simple routine tasks are coordinated by simple
coordinating mechanisms such as hierarchy, rules and standardization, and MSD
uses many of these. Complex policy or strategic management tasks are coordinated
using correspondingly complex and informal integrating mechanisms such as
shared values. Where two or more organizations are involved, integration is
achieved by applying inter-organizational coordination such as the establishment
of joint management agreements among the three levels of government, mayors of
participating municipalities, or the private sector.The more complex coordinating
mechanisms are more dicult to manage and require advanced management capabilities (Kiggundu, 1989: 130141).

A model for progressive social policy

Drawing on the analysis of the Brazilian experience and the wider literature, we
have identied four key factors which help to explain and possibly predict eective
and sustaining anti-poverty strategies and progressive social change. These factors,
shown in Table 5, are:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Contextualized enabling environment

Reaching out and engaging the community
Policy, programme design, management and coordination, and
Institutional and constitutional entrenchment

While these drivers appear intuitive, the important lesson is not to see them in
isolation. Rather, they must be seen as holistic, interdependent and mutually reinforcing. For example, constitutionalism or macroeconomic management individually do not lead to sustaining anti-poverty and progressive social change. Exclusive
focus on internal aspects of programme management and coordination without
careful consideration of the eects of the nature and constraints of the external

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Table 5. Drivers of anti-poverty and progressive social change

Contextualized
enabling environment
Macroeconomic
management
Political/democratic
development
International community
recognition/support
Social cohesion/harmony
Quality of national and
sub-national leadership
Competitive-indigenous
enterprise sector
Experimentation and
learning

Reaching out and

engaging the
community

Policy, programme
design and
management

Institutional and
constitutional
entrenchment

Community mobilization
and organization
Networking among
professional organizations
Coalition formation:
Business
(SOEs)-NGOs-gov-faithbased orgs
Political
education and activism
BOP-type initiatives

Improved and
coordinated public
management
(federal-state-municipal)
Grassroots capacity
building
Active
Involvement of national
institutions (universities,
SOEs, research institutions,
political parties,
religions organizations, etc.

Consensus on the essence

of the state and citizenship
Institutionalization of social
protection
Public-political
irreversible support and
commitment
Constitutional
entrenchment
Regional and international
recognition and support

environment would undermine the long-term success and support for the programme. Reaching poor underserviced citizens or the bottom billions is a serious
challenge for Brazil and other emerging economies (Collier, 2007; Kiggundu, 2009;
Prahalad, 2006). The challenge programme managers face is to continually align
management and coordination with the changing programme context and participants at dierent stages of implementation.
The key drivers necessitate building national and local capacities for eective
macroeconomic management for growth with equity, political and democratic
development, social cohesion, leadership, reaching out and engaging communities,
policy and programme management, and institutional and constitutional entrenchment. The national constitution denes citizens rights to life and responsibilities to
vote and participate in the political process. Macroeconomic management is
important because without a functioning, productive and globally competitive
economy, it is not possible to sustain anti-poverty and progressive social change
(World Bank, 2005). Social cohesion facilitates peaceful coexistence, shared learning, equality, and a non-discriminating harmonious society based on the rule of
law for all, development and preservation of social capital (Aga Khan, 2008;
Putman, 1993).
Finally, eective, credible and ethical leaders are needed at all levels of government, society and the economy (e.g. political, administrative, business, faith-based,
military, academic). This involves a good mixture of charismatic, wise, decisive,
technocratic, advocacy and spiritual leadership at dierent stages. Leadership is
needed beyond those holding political oce. Dierent leadership styles are needed
at dierent stages of programme inception and implementation. At the beginning,

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there is a need for strong charismatic leadership, ideologically driven to give the
programme vision, public support, legitimacy, and overcome opposition, resistance
or distortions. During the early stages of implementation, there is need for technocratic leadership to mobilize resources, build systems and capacities for programme management. Administrative tools and control systems (e.g. registration,
monitoring, enforcement) and ICT (information and communications technology) are critical for all participating organizations. Leadership is also needed to
build a smart government for progressive social change (Kliksberg, 2000). The
next stage requires institutional building leadership for institutionalizing the programme: consolidation, scaling up, deeper penetration, more precise targeting,
depoliticization and sustainability; avoiding policy reversal, neglect or institutional
decay.

Summary and discussion

This article provides lessons from experience relating to policy and programme
leadership, management, coordination and the context within which anti-poverty
programmes are implemented. Still, much remains unknown and there are always
ongoing challenges. For example, Borins (2001) identied ve generic challenges of
innovation and diusion in government including the use of the systems approach
and information technology, process reengineering and improvement, the involvement and participation of the private or voluntary sector, and empowerment of
communities, citizens and sta. All these ve apply to the challenges of managing
anti-poverty programmes and driving social change in Brazil and elsewhere.
Finally, the key challenge that motivated this article relates to the need for crosscountry fertilization: experimentation, drawing out evidence-based lessons from
experience, shared learning and adaptation according to country-specic conditions. The idea is not to blindly copy policies or implementing modalities from
other countries. Rather, the objective is to undertake serious analyses of experiences, especially in countries from the South with sound eld experimental
approaches to progressive social change, identify key success factors (what
works, what doesnt), the conditions under which these factors work or do not
work, and compare with ones own country-specic conditions. Based on this
knowledge, one can adapt appropriate context-specic policies and design implementing strategies and tools, and continue experimenting. This approach eliminates some of the guessing and wasteful trial-and-error initiatives.
One interesting area for further research is the study of incentives, disincentives,
sanctions and enforcements in the management and coordination of anti-poverty
and progressive social change. The Brazilian programme applies a variety of tools
for incentivizing and sanctioning programme participants in government (e.g.
public ocials), among beneciaries (e.g. lactating mothers) and private sector
organizations (e.g. Caixa). Incentives and sanctions can have intended or unintended consequences, especially when applied in diverse and changing

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circumstances. Looking ahead, we follow Riggs by calling for comparative studies

of anti-poverty and progressive social change among developing countries and
emerging economies. Such studies must be empirical, nomothetic, and ecological
(Riggs, 2010: 758).
Note
1. See Pledges to Keep World Focused on Meeting Millennium Development Goals by
2015. Secretary General SG/SM/12549 DEV/2765. Http://www.un.org/News/press/
docs/2009/sgsm12549.doc.htm, accessed 22 October 2009.

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Moses N Kiggundu is Professor, Management and International Business, at the

Sprott School of Business, Carleton University, Canada.

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