Brazil: Conditional transfers as response to the crisis the bolsa família programme

The Brazilian conditional income-transfer programme, Bolsa Família,2 provides fi nancial assistance to 11.1 million Brazilian families -one-fourth of the country's population- in the amount of R$ 20 to R$ 182 per month, on condition that they meet certain requirements related to the health and education of their children. To face the crisis, the Government decided to raise the programme eligibility ceiling (from R$ 120 per capita to R$ 137), which means that 1.3 million additional families will benefi t. The measure will cost R$ 550 million (equivalent to 0.02% of GDP) and total programme cost will now amount to R$ 12.3 billion or 0.4% of GDP. The Bolsa Família Programme benefi ts can double household income for very poor families. In times of world economic crisis these transfers, besides protecting the income of the poorest families, play a dual role: on the one hand, by encouraging consumption they play a reactivating role in the economy; on the other, by making transfers contingent upon the children attending school, a rising school dropout rate resulting from economic diffi culties is prevented.