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In the case of Brazil, the issue of decentralization...
Some paths are methodological: how to approach this issue.
Other paths are political.
All this contributes to focus the program.
We created the intersector forum to manage conditionalities.
Apart from Latin America we focus on Africa.
Africa can learn from this,
specially not to repeat mistakes Latin America made.
Consolidating its institutionality.
The family is the axis of the systemís organization.
Guarantee a set of equal opportunities.
The reduction of poverty
did not correspond to a reduction in inequality.
Hunger is a political phenomenon created by man, by society.
It is critical, specially in the field of economy,
that the State is able to intervene.
If Brazilian municipalities receive federal funds,
we need to follow up on how they are used.
Has this program made a difference in anyoneís life?
That is a question we want to answer.
Both the nutrition and food security
and the rural development policies in Brazil
demand, presuppose a strong State.
We have the world's largest
free school food program.
It serves 45 million meals a day.
Promoting a dialogue among societies in different countries
is critical.
INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL PROTECTION
Social protection includes many social policy features.
Classically, it covers social security on the one hand
and, more traditionally, it covers social assistance.
Bolsa Familia is no residual policy.
The easiest way to attract African governments
to a social protection policy is by linking social protection
to economic investment mechanisms.
The link between economic growth and social protection...
To me, this debate has two sides.
One that sees social protection as an expense
and will only be paid with growth.
And others say the country will only grow
in an inclusive, even and equitable way
if as it grows, it distributes
the fruits of growth equitably,
and if it is able to assist first of all
the poorest and most marginalized populations,
which are excluded from the process of economic growth.
Latin America traditionally chooses programs
of income transfer and social pensions,
which are stronger than guaranteed employment.
In many Latin American countries
assistance pensions are prior to other pension models.
Conditioned income transfer programs
in Latin America were very popular among governments
and international agencies.
The optimism of most of these agencies
is due to impact assessments of the program,
which showed a very important impact in various ways.
Not only an impact from the point of view
of the results or outcomes of those programs.
It is also a result in terms
of the necessary institutional rearrangements
for them to achieve those results.
Thus, we have a change in the relationship
between the State and citizens benefited by these programs.
In interviews, qualitative surveys
with beneficiaries throughout Latin America,
they say: "Itís the first time the State saw me."
But I think Africa can learn from this,
specially not to repeat mistakes Latin America made.
As scholars of social protection, its impact
on the fall of inequality interests us.
As the minimum wage rises,
so does the income of the poorest.
Access to Bolsa Familia is mostly for the poorest.
Around 70% of the benefits of Bolsa Familia
go to the poorest 30%.
In a country with very low incomes, where, as you said,
almost all are poor, if itís not very unequal
and mainly if institutional tools
aimed at targeting are not present,
the argument for a program for all
becomes a very strong one.
Organized under one single registry, under one ministry
implementing it, one set of rules, and so forth,
more results are achieved.
Implementation details are important, and should be adjusted.
And itís important to give the registry credit.
Our social welfare state is inclusive,
with many positive points, but very expensive.
We spend 1/5 of the GDP on the social welfare state.
I wouldnít try to justify a social protection system
with the growth argument.
Iíd justify it with the argument, which is the original one
for all social protection systems,
the human argument: itís unacceptable to leave people
in extreme poverty without acting.
There are three social security policies in Brazil:
social welfare, health,
and social assistance policies.
Social welfare is linked to the contribution market,
the labor market. Rights and benefits
are linked to contribution to the welfare system.
Then health comes as a second pillar,
which in Brazil is a single, universal access system
for the whole population, seeking to address various demands
both in health promotion and prevention
as well as health care.
Social assistance has an interesting mechanism
to coordinate inter-government actions,
namely inter-managing commissions.
These commissions exist in every state
and at the federal government.
Most of the federal resources
go to the poorest families.
Other rights were recognized after the Constitution.
We should stress the case of the right to food,
a very strong policy of Brazilís government,
specially in recent years,
e.g., with "Zero Hunger", which placed the right to food
at the top of the agenda.
This process peaks in 2010 with the Constitutional amendment
which includes food as a social right.
The big challenge is to guarantee a set of equal
opportunities for all, for all Brazilians.
We have a long way to go before we can guarantee
equal conditions so everybody can carry out their lives
with greater autonomy and dignity.
INCOME TRANSFER IN BRAZIL: THE BOLSA FAMILIA EXPERIENCE
The Bolsa Familia program reflects in its goals
a focus on the family. In this model of Bolsa Familia,
the family is seen as a whole.
It also includes other possibilities,
like working on poverty
in the prospect of future generations
and also development actions for the families.
We are working on goals by municipality.
The Bolsa Familia program, from this perspective,
developed its management mechanisms
considering the execution autonomy of the municipalities.
There is a very high cost for municipal funds,
so the government created a contribution for municipalities.
Sharing the management tasks of the program is voluntary,
but today all 5,565 municipalities have made this choice.
Intersector management of public policies
is not trivial or simple.
First there was a broad debate
to decide the role to be played
by each ministry in managing those policies,
the responsibility each would have, and how to regulate it.
We created the intersector forum to manage conditionalities.
The programís selection rules are quite simple.
The municipality creates a unified family registry,
manages this registry, and based on the entries stated
by those families, we do the first selection process.
Our withdrawal efficiency is very high, with 97%.
We have a payment calendar known by each family,
with the payment dates for a whole year.
Bolsa Familia and the single registry became
a platform to carry out social policies.
We have a great challenge
which is to integrate the three dimensions:
the immediate relief of poverty, which is income transfer,
contributing to reduce intergenerational poverty,
and enabling family development.
Legally, the process was, letís say...
The programs were cancelled when Bolsa Familia was created.
What does it mean?
No admittance of new beneficiaries
to old programs: School Aid, Gas Benefits,
Food Card, Food Aid.
According to the problem you find more important,
you start with certain values,
make a diagnosis, and recommend a solution.
Transforming an intervention model into another
implies a political process rather than administrative.
Every country will go through what we did in various degrees,
which is having a hybrid program.
Lessons learned: the political sustainability issue
in these initiatives cannot be underestimated,
and I don't think this was the case.
Another important point is that the program set up a process,
a shared management model,
which was formalized from 2005 on,
and the Union supports states and municipalities
so they can manage the program.
If the country grows and keeps producing inequity,
there must be a way to address the population
in need of income transfers to complement their budget.
A system of regular readjustments of those benefits,
institutionalizing the system,
is still missing, I think.
Another thing missing is seeing what type of coverage we have,
both contributive and non-contributive
of social protection, and finding segments that are left out.
Enhancing the conditionalities
is also important in my opinion, that is,
relating them to education and health priorities,
because these change and we need to adjust.
By definition, it depends on government coordination
and the coordination among federal agencies.
Conditionalities in Bolsa Familia,
like in other programs of conditioned transfers,
also have a long-term goal,
which is breaking the vicious circle
of poverty reproduction,
aimed at developing human assets.
One very important aspect for us
is to reinforce matters of health, education and social assistance
as social rights.
Despite the existence of universal policies,
we know that part of the beneficiaries of the program
have more difficulties to access the service.
Brazil is a very big country. We have a federation issue
which is important, thus the program is decentralized,
its implementation is decentralized.
That required building...
We had to build a network, actually.
We receive support from the states, the municipalities,
which are also supported by the states,
and within each of these government spheres
our actions must be of cooperation,
intersector actions between the areas of social assistance,
where the program is, education and health.
This network has been essential to provide us
with an operational mechanism, which is critical.
This close contact between municipalities and the families.
But without information systems,
the foundation of the follow-up, it would be impossible.
The follow-up process starts when we tell
the Health or Education Ministries
which families should receive follow-up.
A family without follow-up is not in breach.
They are in breach if they are using the service
and did not vaccinate their child or seek prenatal care.
In the case of Brazil, with the issue of decentralization,
a decentralized implementation model,
this intergovernment coordination
exists, but is not trivial.
But undoubtedly, the intersector issue is even harder.
Managing intersector activities is not simple at all.
We know that conditionality is broadly criticized.
I think it has a promising role,
a major role in intersector work.
Income transfers are key but not enough.
Other actions should be added.
We can delve in the diagnosis, in the areas.
We see, for example, the issue of drug use
which is recurrent everywhere.
The system shows us this.
Bolsa Familia states the need of conditionalities
in education, so families can receive the benefit.
The follow-up of those conditionalities,
done by the Ministry of Education, is very complex.
A follow-up of school frequency is done.
Children aged 6 to 15
must have a monthly minimum school frequency of 85%,
and teens aged 16 to 17
must have a monthly minimum frequency of 75%.
We collect data in 5 bimonthly periods per year.
We have a 98% return average on frequency data.
When creating institutions, that is,
being a federal republic, we need a federal agreement.
In each municipality in Brazil,
and there are 5,564 municipalities,
we need the municipal secretary of Education to appoint someone,
the "municipal operator of school frequency"
of the Bolsa Familia program, to represent the Ministry
in the municipality regarding returns,
data quality, school frequency rates.
We have formalized an agreement
with municipalities and states to supply data.
Children with low school frequency are a concern
for the Education and Social Development Ministries,
because they cannot drop out of school.
We are dealing with vulnerable and poor children.
We have a list of reasons for low frequency
linked to education or a to wider social context.
Whichever the reason for the low frequency,
we need to monitor the family.
We are dealing with communication needs,
intersector communication.
We have a family follow-up base that is potentially
very interesting, very rich,
enabled by the single registry of Bolsa Familia
which gives us these conditions once we have the agreement,
a link between the State and families in the program.
One major challenge of dealing with conditionalities
in the Education Ministry
is guaranteeing that these children living in poverty
or extreme poverty, beneficiaries of Bolsa Familia,
attend school year round.
SINGLE REGISTRY: A FOCUSING TOOL
The municipalities are key in managing the single registry.
The registry has a data collection form
which identifies each family member,
their relationship within the family,
and the social and economic description of each family member.
The municipalities joined the single registry
and the Bolsa Familia program, and pledged to register
all low-income families in the single registry.
Nearly 1/3 of the poorest, most vulnerable Brazilian population
is in the single registry of social programs.
The registry includes features of the household,
where the people live, if they have access
to basic sanitation, their income, schooling...
This enables the three federation levels
to better implement the programs.
With all this data, the use of the registry
is not exclusive to the Social Development Ministry.
Data in this single registry are confidential
because they can identify people.
What methodology is used to verify
the low-income status of the registered population?
In Brazil, it is self-stated income.
All this contributes to focus the program
from a targeting approach of how to reach
the public to be reached,
rather than a more restrictive approach
or of only caring for the poorest of the poor.
No. It's targeting in the sense of making
the government perceive the needs of the poorest
and most vulnerable population, which often is the one
with more difficulties in stating their demands
to the government.
Thus we say, using a metaphor,
that the single registry, apart from a map of poverty,
is a view representing sight, voice and action.
After seeing and hearing demands, the government must act
to improve its programs, making them more synergic
and effective, to build a social protection system
focused on equality, care,
and the rights of all Brazilians.
We never encourage families to keep relying
on Bolsa Familia forever, as a kind of crutch.
Itís a ladder. We offer them Bolsa Familia
to enable their financial emancipation
and mainly to improve their self-esteem, their dignity.
We work a lot to emancipate the families.
The beneficiaries are selected by the Ministry.
In the municipalities, we only have
the duty of sharing the data,
of informing about a familyís reality through the system.
We inform them and they have a list of priorities,
which we now know from our experience.
We see that they give preference to families with more children
between 0 and 15 and disabled or elderly members.
They have a list of priorities.
We also work raising awareness among families,
of the importance of children going to school,
of attending health centers to control their weight.
We work on raising awareness, which must still be done,
but has been very much achieved.
We work hard to prevent desertions.
Upon the first hurdle or sign,
we seek the families to do a follow-up,
to see why the children are missing school,
why mothers donít take the kids to the doctor,
why their data arenít updated.
So we also work on family follow-up.
SUAS INTEGRATED SOCIAL ASSISTANCE SYSTEM
The great change brought about by SUAS in Brazil
is understanding that protection is necessary.
Protection, in the field of Brazilís social security,
is understood not only as protection for the poor,
but as protection from a vulnerable situation.
The top key issue for SUAS, which is extremely important,
is that SUAS must be organized having the family
as the axis of the systemís organization.
It must strengthen
Brazilian families with its protective role.
Municipalities must have referral centers of social assistance
so beneficiary families
and those in need of the services can refer to it.
Our big challenge is ensuring the quality of the system,
so that we are able to build
a Brazilian protection system
with quality management and supply.
Another very important lesson is the need of a strong structure
for monitoring and assessment.
So the assessment and data management secretary
shows, researches, evaluates, monitors,
shows us the indicators, where we went wrong,
where we did well,
also showing things we do right.
In the case of child labor,
the social assistance area
takes part by offering services and benefits.
Families receive income transfers,
children join cohabitation services,
and families are accompanied.
But only social assistance is not enough
to tackle and eradicate child labor.
Policies must be strongly coordinated,
specially with the Labor Ministry policies,
in auditing, control, education...
Thatís why SUAS is very important.
It places in all of Brazilís municipalities
the real presence of social assistance,
because health alone is not enough.
Jennifer, until she was 8,
received care at the health clinic.
Every month she had a doctorís appointment.
I buy them school materials.
Whatís left is for clothes, shoes...
What I earn, my salary, is for food.
For the home expenses.
I have to finish my studies, because I went back to school.
Iím in the first year of high school.
And my daughter will graduate this year,
and my wish is that she can go to university.
So I also save from my salary
to see if I can pay for university.
Iím my childrenís father and mother.
This is Daniel. My other son is Gabriel.
Heís 7 months, the other is 2 years and 7 months. Iím 18.
Generally we buy things for the kids.
We also help when thereís not enough at home.
Normally that's it, I buy things for the kids.
My dream is to have my own home...
And to keep going, with God's help.
Bolsa Familia are 90 reais. She keeps 30,
and with 60 I buy things for the house.
We do many activities, like
capoeira, soccer, basketball, swimming, ballet.
But I take more part in dancing.
NUTRITION AND FOOD SAFETY AND FAMILY AGRICULTURE
Social protection means protection against hunger.
This is an important existing notion.
It takes us also to the field of rights.
Thus I could say that protection against hunger
is a human right.
In this notion, national food security
was gradually upgraded
to the status of a strategic goal
that guides development.
There is a direct link.
Such a notion of food security
is not fulfilled with the physical availability of food.
We use the focus on food security
to question the agricultural model.
Who said that having food in supermarkets
and not having scarcity is food security?
What do you eat? What can you buy?
Can everybody else eat?
Where is the market that solved this?
Hunger in the world is rising!
We must legitimize tools to promote food access
to those who cannot get food by themselves.
I refer to income transfers and school meals,
and any another tool you might mention,
tools which favor access to food
for those who cannot do it on their own.
We have the world's largest
free school food program.
It serves 45 million meals a day.
Studies show that for a large percentage of those children
itís the most important and often only meal of the day.
Results have started to appear.
The census shows a rise in the centers.
The rate of rural flight must have fallen.
Family farmers find more space
to live more decently in the countryside.
Our food policies have two aspects:
their intersector character
and social participation.
What do we mean by intersector?
Food and nutrition status of individuals,
families, social groups, have multiple causes.
The causes being multiple, we must treat them
in the most integrated way possible,
and this means intersector policies.
Hunger is a political phenomenon created by man, by society.
Hunger should be politically deconstructed.
Public policy is an investment policy,
not a cost.
The creation of a national system of food security
was decided in the 3rd National Conference of Food Security.
Hunger has many causes.
Several causes evidence this political phenomenon.
Thus, it must be fought with several multi-sector actions.
Brazil has over 4 million 300,000
farms with a family agriculture system.
We have the PA, a program that purchases
food from family farms, which is beautiful.
It combines strengthening
the production of healthy food
by families, traditional family farmers,
while it supplies our social protection network.
We consider access to water as a fundamental right,
as is the right to adequate food
and the right to life.
Political strategies
can only become sustainable, permanent,
with the presence of organizations,
of the social players directly involved.
We adopt a way of intervening in the area
with land policies.
We have learned to transform small projects,
that can solve and tackle different issues,
by taking them off the small scale.
And must definitely confirm
this new paradigm created by Brazil.
Maybe this is the biggest lesson learned.
Starting with essential rights,
such as citizens' rights, food,
water, health, education, public services...
Starting from there, enabling
a full, complete development
of the communities, the regions, the country.
A country that neglects its food frequency and quality,
apart from lack of supply issues,
will have an inflation process.
The food program is linked
to the Social Development Ministry.
With the Social Development Ministryís resources,
food is bought from family farms
and distributed to a population with food insecurity.
A country that works with rural loans
must take care of the source of resources.
The loan must be followed up
or it will turn into debt.
We need to refurbish a system of rural outreach
and technical assistance.
This outreach system was recreated.
The governors of the 27 states recreated,
hired or revitalized public structures.
NGOs have a very strong presence in Brazil.
Itís a very complex social grid, quite present
in cores of poverty,
and in issues such as agro-ecology or Amazonian development.
The government wants to bring that complexity
of state agencies and NGOs to operate rural loans
with their complexity.
Brazilís agriculture is complex, plural.
One achievement of ours was to show that the rural context
is larger than simply a working space.
We must look at rural areas as a space of living.
Without a very well organized food security strategy,
first a country will have provision problems,
something that affects all countries.
Secondly, monetary policy problems ó inflation.
The environment issue gets most of the attention,
and will do so in the next 5 or 6 years.
Policies that benefit a few are pointless.
This issue of opportunity and skill
must be addressed by public policies.
The loan sector has a different design,
but itís still micro-loans.
Like in Bangladesh, in India...
This is an important chapter, because you link with the world
of monetary policy, of globalized economies.
Without policies, the issue of poverty does not change.
It's useless to mobilize the poor, make them participate,
without offering public policies.
Food and nutrition safety, from our work logic,
is seen as a development strategy.
Thus, it establishes a direct relationship
in view of what we seek for the rural areas.
The State as an entity that unites
the several interests of society...
It is critical, specially in the field of economy,
that the State is able to intervene.
In that sense, it is essential to have public institutions
that actually perform that regulation process
of intermediation.
That leads to the need of a new work methodology
and the ability to establish a complex political dialogue.
One thing is to work with products such as corn or rice,
products that are commodities, letís say.
With peasant family farming
we have to do real work
from collecting data to interacting in training
these groups so they can access public policies.
Thatís why there was a significant change.
Now the institutional recognition achieved in the society,
specially toward this sector,
is the big positive balance in this process.
The issue of food security
has huge challenges and is very didactic
in the sense of enabling us to try to establish
intersector, interdisciplinary,
and interinstitutional relations.
This may have been the main breakthrough:
having placed food,
due to a constitutional amendment,
as a human right,
which brings it to another level.
And then weíll have effective conditions
to give food and nutrition
the same status as health,
education, housing...
Food security has an interesting context
given that it implies
a multidimensional notion.
Being multidimensional, we must address it
through a multisector approach.
Nutritional food security is not just food production,
is not just access to food.
It includes several sectors, such as health, education,
water access, basic sanitation, income transfers...
All of this requires a dialogue among government sectors.
Regarding the relationship between food security
and rural development, I believe that Brazil
has interesting things to share.
I would point out in particular the relationship
between support to food production
and access to food, jointly.
One thing we learned
and began to emphasize more
is that the context of land reform is not limited
to land redistribution.
It starts, perhaps, with land redistribution
and then it requires a support structure through programs.
Public support to the construction of that space
where these people are now living,
so that it becomes a productive space,
a space of social interaction, which is sustainable.
Both the nutrition and food security
and the rural development policies in Brazil
demand, presuppose a strong State.
The State must have a strong institutional capacity,
strong financing ability,
not only regarding the size of the public budget
but of the financial institutions in the country,
so they can be used for loans or
to bridge the gap between financial institutions
and rural populations.
The Stateís ability to respond and act
in these areas may be limited in other countries.
This doesnít mean that these programs cannot be shared.
But the interest of a country that's in an exchange with Brazil
in reinforcing its public institutions
and that countryís ability to reinforce them
must be carefully analyzed and taken into account.
MONITORING AND EVALUATION
The first incisive statement to make
is that evaluating and monitoring
have nothing to do with auditing.
Evaluating and monitoring are a chance
to give a level of transparency, never very defined
in federal public management,
to programs, services, projects and benefits
in Brazilís social area.
When public management operates in a result-oriented manner,
we cannot achieve results unless we evaluate and monitor.
The Secretary of Information Evaluation and Management
is the structure underlying the actions
of evaluation and monitoring.
It is necessary to act with caution and clarity.
What do we need indicators for? Why do we need them?
Rather than defining an indicator,
it is important
to determine what we want from them,
what they'll be useful for.
Here we develop information tools that support
evaluation and monitoring, as well as the training area.
Thus, these information systems produce data
that turn into information
for evaluation, decision-making by managers,
course correction, an increase in the programs,
for the issue of public transparency,
and for a continuous bet on result-oriented management.
One of the lessons learned in this matter was to organize
the Secretary of Information Evaluation and Management
with very clear goals.
The evaluation division, the monitoring division,
the information management division,
and the training and communication division.
What is SAGI's main challenge today?
To continue with the work it started,
consolidating its institutionality.
Our challenge is to leave an institutional legacy
of a secretary such as this for it to grow
toward comprehensive or coordinated actions
with other research and evaluation institutes
we have in Brazil, from a government perspective
but without being self-centered.
Social protection, from our point of view,
implies more than income transfers,
be it conditioned or not.
It involves a reasonable set of actions and services
linked to social assistance,
and food and nutritional security.
One such action is to supply people with water.
To guarantee people in arid regions in Brazil
two types of water: drinking and eating water,
meant to strengthen agro-ecologic production.
We had important results and success
that I think are worth mentioning to encourage African colleagues
to see the importance of an evaluation and monitoring area.
What are them? Strengthening the program management,
possibly allowing it to be reoriented,
if it werenít implemented as well as it should,
or making it stronger to keep going,
if the implementation was adequate.
Weíve had some very successful experiences.
Iíd like to mention, for example, the evaluation of a project
which was called "Young Agent".
It was meant for teenagers aged 15 to 17.
The evaluation results were absolutely decisive
for "Young Agent" to become
the "Pro-Youngster" program.
This is a great experience, which I like to set as an example
of the need to keep evaluating, strengthening management
also with evaluation results.
Sometimes even failures or problems detected in the program
are valuable to turn it into a better program.
Sometimes, the opposite. We find unexpected things
which strengthen even more the work of a social area.
We must consider the stages of implementation of a program.
From the time it is being planned,
when weíre thinking about the program,
we must already consider how we will do the follow-up
and we have to devise how we are going to assess
whether our plans,
whether our goals are being reached,
and also recognize or identify bottlenecks,
which faults we have in the implementation.
When we talk of impact assessment, what we mean is:
has this program made a difference in anyoneís life?
That is a question we want to answer.
What impact did the program have in that personís life?
When we talk of impact on someone, we refer specifically
to the impact of those goals
the program had set out to achieve.
Another outcome, which I considered very interesting,
was the familiesí consumption pattern,
because we know that when a family has a very low income,
a large part of the family budget goes to food.
We started to notice that among beneficiary families
there is more diversification.
Women make more decisions than their husbands
regarding some consumption products, what to buy.
They make decisions concerning childrenís education and health,
whether to have children or not,
and who should work and who shouldnít.
That is, it shows that women are empowered
regarding decisions in the family.
If Brazilian municipalities receive federal funds,
and basically all municipalities receive funds,
since they receive this federal money,
we need to follow up on how it is used.
We visit the homes of Bolsa Familia beneficiaries
to verify that the beneficiaries in fact
are receiving the funds.
Any citizen, without the need of a password,
from any computer, anywhere in the world
can access the transparency website
and verify how each penny of the federal government is spent.
Control isnít just the Stateís responsibility,
not only monitoring agencies should and can audit.
If the society is not involved, we wonít be able to guarantee
the good use of public moneys.
We know that it isnít easy, first to engage society,
second, to provide tools, offer information
for society to monitor the use of public money.
Of course, considerable political will was necessary
for this website to exist.
And obviously transparency has a cost,
a political cost that must be faced.
Perhaps the main lesson
that we have learned recently
about the promotion of transparency
is that transparency
is the big antidote against corruption
and in fact contributes to improving management.
We still need to make progress in a transparency process
also at the other federal levels,
and this has already begun
with the enactment of a law,
Complementary Act 131, by which states and municipalities
with over 100,000 inhabitants must disclose in real time
all information related to public spending.
SHARED EXPERIENCES THROUGH THE SOUTH-SOUTH COOPERATION
South-South cooperation begun at the MDS
with the inception of the agency.
In the Ministryís basic structure,
international assistance was planned.
Apart from Latin America we focus on Africa.
We cooperate since 2005,
establishing some cooperation mechanisms.
"Zero Hunger" attracted demand for cooperation.
When Bolsa Familia became
more popular, with international renown,
due to studies made by international agencies,
it became the most sought after program.
Several countries we've cooperated with
made great progresses
in conceiving, designing this system.
We've had a very good experience with Ghana.
From our experience, they structured
a conditioned transfer program,
following the design of Bolsa Familia.
In our cooperation with Ecuador, we help the government
to implement pilot projects in two regions
involving food security.
We cooperate with El Salvador,
sending Ministry technicians
and municipal and state government managers
to set up a national social assistance policy.
I notice that the Brazilian government
has great concern with responding better
to these cooperation demands.
This is reflected in the initiatives
that the Brazilian Cooperation Agency
and the Foreign Affairs Ministry
are doing in close coordination with the ministries
to verify all the initiatives
being carried out by the ministries,
to better respond to the demands and enhance the impact.
I see a growing concern, which is important
and follows the growing demand
which I think must continue,
must continue to grow,
to better respond and seek more impact
for the activities developed.
A number of people rely on agriculture.
A lot of people are employed in rural areas as family farms.
In Kenya small-scale farmers are the majority,
and that is happening also in Brazil.
There are some commercial farms here,
large scale, which is also happening in my country,
and we realize that family farms, family units,
are the basis from where this country, Brazil,
derives food to feed the whole population.
We have the same problem in our country,
which is low production.
We need to improve on family farms.
Technology cannot be adopted by farmers
until we have technical assistance.
Technical assistance is paramount.
We try to work an extension to change the farmers' attitude
on what to think about technology, but we need to go to the details.
What has attracted me very much in Brazil
is that the social aspect has been focused.
In our country we are using the Ministry of Agriculture
for social actions.
We need to find the reasons why small-scale farmers
are not changing, adopting technology.
Firstly we'd like to learn from South-South Cooperation.
There's a lot of dialogue and debate which will bring out new ideas.
And we like to learn from that,
from the nature of the partnership between Brazil and Africa.
Secondly I think we can offer something to the process.
It might be small resources to facilitate exchanges or visits,
it might be experience of what has worked in the past or not.
We wouldn't like new development partners, like Brazil,
simply to follow in some of our old bad ways.
I think that's another process.
Thirdly, the main question is: we're all in this together.
Global poverty is a global challenge,
it affects everyone in the world, rich or poor.
So we all need to work in a complementary way,
with our different resources and approaches.
A lot of people recognizes the
experience that Brazil has in social areas, in social protection.
And Bolsa FamÌlia is very important
in food security and hunger.
I also think that some of the best experiences are about processes.
For instance, the way that the Brazilian Government recently
has managed to integrate and coordinate various social programs
to provide a platform of assistance
which has tremendous benefits in poverty reduction
and inequality reduction in Brazil.
We need to try to work with Brazil
to bring key messages at key points.
For instance, because the G20 is so important at the moment,
if we can get a good way, with Brazil's agreement
and the agreement of the rest of the G20, as to how to
take account of the interest of low-income countries
in the inclusive growth framework
that the G20 is trying to forge,
and to take account of these interests
in international financial institutions,
and try to reduce vulnerability and risks for them.
That's one important step.
The great issue behind South-South cooperation
is that it is not only about
an economic relationship.
South-South cooperation
is not only about technical cooperation
related to programs,
it is also cooperation related
to views on development.
So whatís new about the South-South cooperation?
A cooperation in the social protection area.
Thereís a long history of economic cooperation,
but not of social protection cooperation.
Partly because the experience of emerging countries,
specially from Latin America,
in building successful social policies
is something recent.
Social protection cooperation is receiving more emphasis,
specially with income transfer programs.
From that construction of successful policies
comes this successful experience exchange.
But this exchange is not easy,
also due to the lack of skills in the emerging nations,
in preparing to achieve that experience exchange.
Thus, the big challenge
regarding Brazil and other emerging nations
is creating their own institutions to enable
an effective experience exchange.
Thatís why we need to invest more and more
in the nationsí ability to think their own development,
to conceive alternatives
that are more sustainable,
more inclusive alternatives.
One common question is:
how far does South-South cooperation
differ from North-South cooperation?
Do they have the same paradigms? The same values?
That's why the need for emerging nations
to show results to the global community will be big.
Now we have India, China, South Africa
addressing not only their own domestic interests
but also those of the international community.
We must think of opening this to other players.
There comes the key role
of research agencies in Southern countries,
and the key role of social movements
and non-governmental organizations.
Also, to think about the cooperation
between Brazil and Africa,
we need to consider the various institutional contexts,
the challenges that cooperation implies,
and not only that, but also the experiences
that each context presents.
In this way thereís something interesting
in Brazilís experience.
When Brazil addresses social policies
it combines, in an interesting way,
both universal social policies
and targeted social policies.
We see, in the case of Brazil,
that education and health according to the Constitution
are universal rights.
Also, we see that social assistance policies
are targeted by nature.
So we manage to have policies that in a general way
cater to the whole population
and policies that focus on the poorest.
Promoting a dialogue among societies in different countries
is critical.
MESSAGE FROM THE MINISTER M¡RCIA LOPES, BRAZIL
From the beginning, the government briefed its team
about the importance that Brazil advanced
in its vision, knowledge and experience exchange
with a number of nations.
We believe that there is a strong identity
among developing countries,
among countries seeking new guidelines
to strengthen the State and to guarantee and expand
their citizensí rights.
This requires structuring universal systems.
We receive missions in Brazil, particularly
in the Social Development and Fight Against Hunger Ministry,
almost every week.
And this is great, right? It allows us to mature,
to open up for this exchange,
for a vision that transcends the worldís boundaries.