| Resumen: |
This draft background paper is one of several in a series commissioned by the World Health Organization for the World Conference on Social Determinants of Health, held 19-21 October 2011, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The goal of these papers is to highlight country experiences on implementing action on social determinants of health.
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”.
In January 2003 President Lula promised to eradicate hunger and fight poverty in his inaugural speech and in fact, conferred high priority to the Zero Hunger strategy. This strategy included several interventions / programs, including the Bolsa Familia Program (BFP). The BFP is the world’s largest conditional cash transfer program. It reaches all 5,564 municipalities in the 27 states of Brazil and about 12.9 million families, or roughly 52 million people (25% of the Brazilian population). The BFP seeks to use financial incentives to change certain attitudes and behavior among impoverished families and, in the long run, to break the intergenerational poverty cycle.
The documents shows that social security approaches to addressing economic and education disparities have reached important achievements over the last two decades. However this model is starting to show some limitations, and may be ultimately insufficient for the Brazilian society’s needs. Systems integration
looks like the next step for building a better and more egalitarian society, the challenge for the next decades to come. |
