Bolsa Família - Ideias para erradicar a miséria

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 program’s 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, let’s 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.