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Brazil

Brazil is an upper middle income country with a population of 160 million and GDP of over $700 billion. Despite its income status it has a highly inequitable income distribution and large numbers of poor people - nearly a quarter of the population (36 million) live on one dollar a day. Poverty is concentrated in the North East where around 60% of Brazil’s poor people live.

Extreme inequalities within Brazil remain a major challenge for its Government. The Brazilian Government has announced its commitment to achieving the international development target (IDT) of reducing absolute poverty by one half by the year 2015. However, it is likely to fall short of this target without substantial policy changes to make income distribution more equitable, in addition to improving social services

Our objectives are to promote pro-poor economic growth, social inclusion (particularly of ethnic groups) and improve governance. Given Brazil’s middle income status, our role is to provide access to international best practice, promote lesson learning and empower poor and disadvantaged groups.

We aim to maximise the strategic impact of our activities in Brazil, through informing policy dialogue/formulation and strengthening our links with multilateral partners involved in poverty related programmes. As a relatively small donor in financial terms, we aim to engage where we can effectively "add value" to the international community’s effort by co-operating with multilateral institutions such as the World Bank, in order to achieve our policy objectives. For example, using our position as a major contributor to the multi-donor-funded G7 Pilot Programme, we are pressing for the adoption of environmental policies (at both the Federal and State level) which take account of the needs of, and impact on, the poorest groups. Our efforts are having some effect, with both the Government and other donors now being more ready to discuss poverty as an integral part of the Programme.

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