The Consolidation of Social Assistance Policy in Brazil
"Brazil's trajectory in the field of income transfers is quite well known internationally. Especially after the implementation of Bolsa Familia, Brazil's experiences in the field have been the object of constant references, studies and analyses. Such experiences were even used as a foundation for a wide array of South-South cooperation initiatives. Less known, however, is that conditional cash transfers are just a part of the non-contributory social-protection system that Brazil has been developing over the past 20 years." (?)
The Consolidation of Social Assistance in Brazil and Its Challenges, 1988?2008
The federal constitution enacted on 5 October 1988 was a landmark for Brazilian citizens in that it reorganised the bases of the country?s protection system. The new charter recognised social security as a guiding principle of social protection, as expressed in social insurance, social assistance, health and unemployment insurance policies. The constitution recognises a set of needs and provisions, previously restricted to the private sphere, as an object of public intervention and as social rights. Social protection for the elderly, the disabled, rural workers and people without access to social insurance began to be understood as the responsibility of the state, and as a civil right. Until then, the only options available to many socially vulnerable people were ?family solidarity? strategies and, if they were absent or insufficient, philanthropic or charitable initiatives. This was the case for all those individuals not covered by social insurance, who were unable to continue working because of disability, illness or old age. That was why guaranteed access to social assistance was ensured to all those who needed it. The new approach taken to social assistance is part of a broader movement to review the principles on which the Brazilian social protection system was organised. The constitution consolidated benefits and expanded the coverage of the pension system by introducing a differentiated and partially contributory regime for rural workers in a ?family economy?. It also established a universal right to healthcare by creating the Unified Health System (Sistema Unico de Saude, SUS), which was both public and free. Social assistance became a public responsibility under the social security system, and was integrated with policies on health and contributory social insurance. The 1988 constitution thus broadened the concept of social rights. Despite adverse circumstances arising from the economic difficulties of the 1990s and the opposition of political elites to the expansion of social protection, there was a gradual trend towards the consolidation of such rights. The focus on social vulnerabilities that were subject to guarantees of legal protection was broadened, thereby expanding public responsibility to address various problems that thereto were thought to be confined to the private sphere. In this process, state intervention began to refer to a broader aspect of social life, and its goals were to equalise access to opportunities, reduce inequalities, and tackle poverty and social risks. Its had important impacts on policy design and on the definition of beneficiaries and benefits. (...)
Focalização e Cobertura do Programa Bolsa Família: qual o significado dos 11 milhões de famílias?
Em 2006, o Programa Bolsa Familia (PBF) atingiu a sua plena expansao, pretendendo cobrir 11 milhoes de familias, que era a meta de cobertura previamente estabelecida e foi mantida ate o ano de 2009. Este trabalho visa avaliar se o aumento na cobertura do programa provocou uma deterioracao na sua focalizacao/ progressividade e se esta meta de fato leva a cobertura completa do publico-alvo do PBF. Nossos resultados demonstram que o aumento da cobertura foi acompanhado por uma pequena reducao na progressividade da transferencia. Contudo, nao encontramos evidencia de que a expansao do programa nas unidades da federacao em si causou piora na focalizacao. Alem disso, a meta de 11 milhoes nao cobre todo o publico-alvo devido aos inevitaveis erros de focalizacao e ao tamanho do programa. Levando em conta esses erros, estimamos que, para cobrir toda ou quase toda a populacao-alvo, o programa deveria expandir-se ate alcancar 15 milhoes de beneficios. Mostramos, ainda, que parte do erro de inclusao observado no programa pode ser explicada pela volatilidade da renda das familias mais pobres. Isso faz com que o publico-alvo real do PBF (aquele que esta ou estara abaixo da linha de R$ 120) seja consideravelmente maior que o que seria calculado por meio de uma estimacao transversal da distribuicao de renda em um dado momento. In 2006, the Bolsa Familia Program completed its expansion, expecting to cover 11 million beneficiary families. The objective of this article is to evaluate whether this implied in deterioration in the program’s efficient targeting and whether the target of 11 million families in fact covers the entirety of Bolsa Familia’s eligible target population. Our results are twofold. First, the increase in the coverage was followed by a slightly fall in the targeting. However, we do not find evidences that the coverage increase caused a worse targeting by itself. In addition, that coverage target is insufficient to cover the eligible population due to targeting errors and the size of the program. Taking into consideration the inevitable targeting errors, we estimate that the program should expand up to 15 millions of beneficiary families. Additionally, we show that a considerable part of the so-called inclusion error may be explained by the income volatility of poor families that makes the real target population of Bolsa Familia (those families that are or soon will be below R$ 120 per capita) considerably larger that that calculated using a cross-section estimate of the income distribution in a given moment.