Resource information
The first central message of this report
is that Brazil has over the last years achieved great
progress in its social policies and indicators. The second
central message is that poverty remains unacceptably high
for a country with Brazil's average income levels. The
worst remaining income poverty is mostly concentrated in the
Northeast region, and in the smaller urban and rural areas.
The third central message is that, with decisive action,
Brazil can achieve ambitious targets for further
improvements in social indicators, including the objective
of reducing the rate of extreme income poverty by 50 percent
by the year 2015. Poverty is a complex and multi-dimensional
phenomenon. Recognizing the rich literature on poverty in
Brazil, this report attempts a few specific contributions.
First, it presents a new 1996 poverty profile with a
breakdown by city size, incorporation of the imputed value
of owned housing, and regional price deflators. Second, it
provides analysis of the incidence of selected public social
spending based on the 1996/7 "Pesquisa sobre Padroes da
Vida (PPV)." Third, it selectively synthesizes other
work on poverty in Brazil in order to present an overview of
cross-sectoral comparisons of the effectiveness of policy
interventions. Fourth, it provides suggestions and selective
inputs for devloping a national poverty reduction strategy.
The report updates a previous World Bank assessment (report
no. 14323) and builds on earlier work on urban poverty strategy.
