Randa Achmawi*
Cairo – Egypt is going to start implementing, in pilot form, an income transfer project to be inspired on the Zero Hunger social program developed by the government of Brazil. Between the end of last week and the beginning of this week, the director of Information Management and Technological Resources at the Ministry of Social Development of Brazil, Roberto Rodrigues, participated in a seminar in Cairo, where he transferred to the Egyptians the Brazilian experience in the social area, mainly with the Bolsas Família (Family Purse), the Brazilian program that includes the Zero Hunger and provides financial assistance to impoverished families that keep their children in school.
The Social Research Centre of the American University of Cairo, which organized the workshop, is developing, together with the Ministry of Social Solidarity of Egypt, a pilot program to be implemented in the Ain El Sira district in Cairo, one of the poorest in the city. This information was provided by the organiser of the program and associate professor at the university, Hania Shalkania. According to information provided by the government of Brazil, the project should start being put into action in April. Hania says that the plan has been under evaluation for a year and a half and should initially be tested with 600 families.
"But we wanted, before advancing and concluding our project, to talk to specialists of these three countries to learn about their successful experiences," stated the Egyptian. The workshop in Egypt presented not only the Brazilian experience but also those of Mexico and Chile. Egyptian specialists in the social area participated in the meeting. All three models were analysed, according to the professor, so that aspects could be selected from each one to be included in the Egyptian program.
According to her, the most interesting characteristics in the Brazilian program were the mechanisms for progress and evaluation of the Family Purse. Another interesting characteristic is the way in which the Brazilian program inserts impoverished families in the banking system. Hania believes that it is safer for a woman who receives the assistance and lives in a place with little safety to keep her money in a bank and collect what she needs little by little. What the Family Purse program does is supplying those benefited with a bankcard with which they may collect the money when needed.
The Egyptian program, however, should have some novelties when compared to the Brazilian. "What we would like to add to the Brazilian plan, in the conditions imposed to those receiving the assistance, is that it should be compulsory not only to have their children in school, as is the case with the Family Purse, but also for there to be search for work after completion of secondary schooling. In our program this will be one of the conditions for the granting of assistance," said Hania.
Roberto Rodrigues recalls that the Family Purse was developed to supply the Brazilian reality, but that does not stop the program from being adaptable to other realities. "Before Egypt, we visited other countries like South Africa and Kenya and they showed interest in learning about our project and also ended up implementing it according to the reality of their countries. And that also does not stop us from adapting some of the ideas we saw in these nations to our program. This is exchange dedicated to helping the largest possible number of people and we will only be satisfied if this happens," stated Roberto Rodrigues. In Brazil, the Family Purse benefits 11.1 million families, and reaches 50 million people.
Exchange between Brazil and Egypt, in the social area, started when the minister of Social Development, Patrus Ananias, participated in the Arab-South American Meeting for Alleviation of Poverty and Hunger, in Egypt in 2005. In the second half of last year, the minister of Social Solidarity of Egypt, Ali El-Sayed Al-Moselhi, visited Brazil, with an Egyptian committee, learning more about the Brazilian social programs.
*Translated by Mark Ament
