Cash Transfers and Guaranteed Minimum Income Programs:
Research, Evaluation, and Policy
Prague, Czech Republic
September 9-10, 2024
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“Trajectory, Challenges, and Outcomes of CCTs: Analyzing 20 Years of the Bolsa Família Program”
Fernando Burgos, Fundação Getulio Vargas
Over the past 25 years, conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs have become increasingly prevalent worldwide. For instance, in 1997, only three countries in Latin America and the Caribbean - Brazil, Mexico, and Honduras - had implemented these programs. Twenty years later, these programs were active in twenty countries, each with unique formats, scopes, conditionalities, designs, implementation challenges, monitoring mechanisms, and outcomes.(Fiszbein & Schady, 2009; Barros, 2010; Bichir, 2010; Sugiyama, 2011; Campello, 2013; Lavinas, 2013; Rego & Pinzani, 2013; Jones, 2016; Papadoulos & Leyer, 2016; Oliveira & Bichir, 2021; Barros & Machado, 2022; Burgos, Deak & Leyton, 2024).
In Brazil, the initial Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program was PETI (Child Labor Eradication Program), launched in 1997 to eliminate child labor in specific areas of the country. In 2001, the federal government introduced the Bolsa Escola Program (School Allowance Program), which mandated that children must attend school in addition to prohibiting child labor. Both initiatives were established during the Fernando Henrique Cardoso government. Subsequently, in 2004, the Lula government created the Bolsa Família Program (PBF), integrating Bolsa Escola and other federal social programs into a comprehensive social policy. Widely regarded as the largest CCT in the world, the PBF differs from other CCTs by aiming to eradicate intergenerational poverty. Consequently, all requirements – education, health, and social assistance – are centered on children, with the expectation that future generations will not rely on CCTs for survival.
According to official data from April 2024, the Programa Bolsa Família (PBF) provides assistance to 55.1 million people, which accounts for 25% of the total Brazilian population. Among the beneficiaries, over 24 million are children and adolescents. The annual transfers total U$32 billion, with an average monthly value of U$130.80 per family, equivalent to 48.2% of the national minimum wage. The program is primarily aimed at women, with 83.5% of beneficiary families being headed by women.
The objective of this article is to analyze the trajectory of the Brazilian case, specifically focusing on the Bolsa Família Program over its 20 years of existence. The program has undergone incremental (Lindblom, 1959) improvements over time, both in terms of policy design and operational norms and rules. The article will also present the results related to conditionalities, such as increased education, changes in vaccination behavior and child malnutrition, an increase in the number of prenatal consultations, and substantial reductions in extreme poverty and poverty in both urban and rural areas. Additionally, it will analyze the main challenges related to design issues – budget, political conditions, prejudices – and implementation. These implementation challenges are crucial, as despite being a federal program, implementation occurs at the municipal level, and with Brazil having 5,570 autonomous municipalities with vastly different socioeconomic, territorial, and contextual realities, these challenges are quite significant.