São Paulo – Representatives of the Ministry of Development and Hunger Alleviation (MDS) are in Cairo, Egypt, once again, to present details of the social programs developed in Brazil and to provide incentives to the exchange of knowledge with the government of Egypt. The country is promoting, starting today (10), a meeting for technical cooperation with the Ministry of Social Solidarity of the country.
Including the presence of Egyptian minister Ali El-Sayed Al-Moselhy, the director of the Secretariat for Articulation and Information Management at the MDS, Roberto Wagner Rodrigues, the advisor of the National Secretariat of Social Assistance, Luziele Tapajós, and the coordinator of the National Secretariat of Income and Citizenry, Anderson Brandão, are going to speak about mechanisms for the financing of social programs, information systems and other themes for income transfer. The Brazilian delegation should be accompanied by the ambassador of Brazil to Egypt, Cesário Melantonio Neto.
Early last year, representatives of the Ministry visited the Arab country to help the local government elaborate a program for income transfer following the example of the Family Purse, an initiative of the Brazilian government that guarantees minimum income for impoverished families. Apart from this initiative, the government of Egypt has been seeking Brazilian assistance to develop social programs since 2005, when Social Development minister Patrus Ananias participated in an Arab-South American meeting on social matters and development in the capital of Egypt.
The Egyptian interest in Brazilian social programs is so great that minister Al-Moselhy himself was in Brazil in 2007. At the time, he signed an agreement for cooperation with Ananias to take to his country know-how in the collection of figures about impoverished families, on the integration between different ministries and on the articulation between public and private sectors.
It is not just Egypt that has been seeking the assistance of the MDS. Last week, for example, the national Food Safety secretary, Crispim Moreira, of the MDS, received a delegation from Nigeria. The country is interested in Brazilian social programs. Among the countries that have also sought the support of the Brazilian ministry are East Timor, Ethiopia, Morocco, Paraguay and Haiti.
The Ministry
The MDS is responsible for implementation of the main income distribution program in Brazil – the Family Purse –, which is executed by the National Secretariat of Income and Citizenship and reaches 11.1 million families in all the Brazilian cities. The action contributed to a reduction in extreme poverty and inequality and improvement in the food and nutrition situation of families benefited.
Through the National Secretariat of Social Assistance, the MDS also develops other programs, like the Eradication of Infant Work Program (Peti), the Integral Attention to Family Program (Paif) and the ProJovem Adolescente (for youths and teens) among others.
*Translated by Mark Ament