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Lifting Families Out of Poverty in Brazil - Bolsa Familia Program December 13, 2005
Second Bolsa Familia Program 

Brazil's conditional cash transfer (CCT) program Bolsa Família helped millions out of the poverty and is among the most effective social
protection programs in the world, having helped raise approximately 20 million people out of poverty between 2003 and 2009 and well as
significantly reducing income inequality.

In September 2010, at least 12.7 million families (or nearly 50 million people) were benefited by the program, according to Brazil's Ministry
of Social Development and Hunger Alleviation. Bolsa Familia is a CCT program which provides direct cash transfers to poor families who
keep their children in school and under regular medical supervision. By this, it seeks to reduce both immediate and future poverty.

The Bolsa Família Program was launched in October 2003, during Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's first term, as the
Government's flagship social program in support of his “Zero Hunger” initiative. In fact, Brazilian efforts to address the structural causes of
poverty started in 1995, with municipal CCT programs, which led to the creation of several national CCT programs in the early 2000s. In
2003, four existing federal CCT programs were merged into Bolsa Familia .

Since the program’s inception in 2003, the World Bank played an important role in the consolidation of first phase of Bolsa Família, when
the program was supported by a US$572 million loan approved in 2004, to help develop, strengthen and expand Brazil’s flagship social
protection program.

In September 2010, the World Bank approved a US$200 million loan for the second phase of support to Brazil’s Bolsa Família, which
aims to further strengthen Bolsa Família’s ability to achieve its objectives of reducing poverty and inequality and promoting the use of
education and health services of the poor population. Between 2003 and 2009, poverty (PPP $2 per day) has fallen from 22 percent of the
population to 7 percent.


The Second Bolsa Familia Program will help to

       strengthen program management, accountability and control functions in three main areas: the registry of beneficiaries,
       management of benefits, and monitoring of conditionalities;
       consolidate the program’s monitoring and evaluation system; and
       integrate other social protection programs with Bolsa Família, to promote innovations and strategies for beneficiaries’ exit from
       poverty through investments in areas such as education incentives, and links with the labor market and productivity programs.

The second phase will support reforms and adjustments to improve Bolsa Família’s effectiveness in reaching outcomes such as:

       at least 75 percent of families in the 20 percent poorest group receiving Bolsa transfers;
       at least 90 percent of primary-age school children in extremely poor beneficiary families attending school;
       and at least 75 percent of children aged 0- 6 year old and pregnant women complying with health conditionalities.


                                                                Financing Second Bolsa
                                                                Familia Program

                                                                Total cost : US$ 15,200 million
                                                                BIRD loan amount: US$200
                                                                million

                                                                More details

                                                                   Second Bolsa Familia
                                                                Program: Full project
                                                                information & documents

                                                                   First Bolsa Familia
                                                                Program:  Full project
                                                                information & documents 

                                                                 Read article about Bolsa Familia
                                                                Program

                                                                  Brazil's Ministry of Social
                                                                Development and Hunger Alleviation
                                                                (in Portuguese)