Cairo – The experience of Family Purse, the Brazilian government’s income transfer program, will be presented today (16th) to the participants in the forum on social protection, organised by the World Bank, that started yesterday in Cairo, the capital of Egypt.
The event, which will continue until Wednesday, brings together nearly 200 participants, mostly professionals in the social field and public policymakers from the world over. The main goals are to exchange information and identify best practices for the social field, and for fighting the crisis in the financial system and in the food and fuels industries.
Over the course of three days, approximately 30 participants will discuss experiences implemented in countries such as Indonesia, Bangladesh, Colombia, China, India, Yemen, Jamaica, Peru, Kenya, Nepal, Thailand, Turkey, the Philippines and Pakistan, in addition to Brazil.
Brazil is represented in the forum by Cláudia Regina Curralero, of the Ministry of Social Development and Hunger Alleviation.
“Many countries are looking to minimise the effects of the ongoing triple crisis – finance, food and energy – by devising social protection policies,” said the chief economist of the Social Protection Unit and Human Development Network of the World Bank, Margaret Grosh. According to her, the countries are, however, faced with a variety of problems and challenges when the time comes to implement their policies. “For that reason, it is generally very useful for a given country to learn what is going on and what is being successful in other countries. It is a way of promoting exchange and learning in the social field among Southern countries,” she added.
Seeking solutions for the three dimensions of the crisis that are being approached at the forum, the lecturers discuss the repercussions in their countries, and present some of the responses that are being adopted in order to address them. “The responses encompass a range of programs and policies, illustrating their complexity and the variety of choices available,” said Margaret. “We want to learn lessons from past crises and to understand how they have determined the responses that are being chosen right now,” she explained.
According to the american economist, the criteria for participating in the conference consist solely of a country’s willingness to share its successful experiences in the social field, or to gain better knowledge of the practices adopted in the field by other nations.
The Family Purse program of the Brazilian government is one of the highlights of the event. “The Family Purse is enjoying an extremely positive repercussion and impact in the social field, meaning that it is currently regarded as a mechanism for modernising social assistance,” stated Margaret. “The Brazilian initiative is an excellent example of how to operate a decentralised environment, and the adoption of a unified social register to identify those who benefit from the program is also one of the experiences that we are trying to share with many other countries facing serious poverty-related problems,” she added.
According to her, the Family Purse experience is presently being applied in more than 30 different countries worldwide.
To the head of the social policies and economic analysis sector of the Department of Political Affairs of the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), Gaspar Fajth, the Family Purse is regarded as an extremely important experience in the social scenario, especially for the Unicef. “The reduction of poverty is one of the greatest challenges facing humanity right now. That is why the Family Purse initiative, which not only provides [financial] aid to families in need, but also conditions that help in the education of children, is fully in line with the foundations of the Unicef,” he said. “Social protection to children and the struggle to guarantee their basic rights are our chief concerns, and they can be easily identified in the experience and workings of the Family Purse,” he claimed.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
