Case Study 1

Progress in the Struggle for More Meaningful Development: Brazil

I. Summary of the case/background/relevant information:

Although the growth performance of Brazil from the 1960s through the early1980s was the best in
Latin America, with at least some parallels with East Asian export policy and performance, Brazil has
been cited as an example of a country that has experienced “growth without development.”

 Income and growth:

Growth is generally necessary, though not sufficient, for achieving development. In 2005, Brazil’s
per capita income was $3,460 in peso is ₱ 32, 800.75. Using purchasing power parity, its average income
was still only $82,302 in peso is ₱ 779, 320.76, about one-fifth of that of the United States but almost five
times that of Haiti (World Bank Data).

 Social Indicators:

• Child Labor

• Life Expectancy

• Child Mortality

• Malnutrition

 Poverty:

Despite of some growth and increase. According to a Brazilian government research

institute cited by the UNDP, 15% of Brazilians have incomes of less than $1 or in peso is ₱ 9.47 a
day. Poverty is now falling and the recent Bolsa Familia government program has received high
marks for addressing poverty through its conditional cash transfers.

 Inequality:

 For decades Brazil's inequality in income has ranked among the worst in the world. High
inequality not only procedures social strains but can also ultimately retard growth.

Fraction of population Share received (%)

Lowest 10% 0.8
Lowest 20% 2.9
Second 20% 7.1
Third 20% 12.4
 Fourth 20% 19.0
Highest 20% 58.6
Highest 10% 42.9

(2009 survey data, from the 2013 World Development Indicators)

 Land reform

Land is very unequally distributed in Brazil, and there is both an efficiency and a social equity cad
for land reform. Land reform has been repeatedly blocked in Brazil by the political power of large
plantation owners.

 Sustainability of development:

Deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon rain forest.

 Problems of social inclusion:

Racial discrimination

II. Problems/Issues of the case:

 Extreme poverty (high taxes,high commodity prices, and inflation)

(poor education system, malnutrition, high crimes, and child labor)

 Inequality

 Uneven distribution of land

 Deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon rain forest

 Racial discrimination

 Deficient infrastructure

III. Proposed solutions to the problems/issues:

 Taming inflation, meal/feeding programs, improve education, employment, and direct cash transfers
from the state to families and individuals.

 Reducing inequality by ensuring the fair collection of taxes, reducing subsidies for the wealthy, and
 rolling-out more equal opportunity policies.

 Initiate a land reform program.

 Enforce government regulations to stop illegal deforestation; establish funds which collect donations
from other countries used to slowdown the deforestation in Amazon rainforest.

 Strict implementation of racial discrimination law or policies.

 Improved infrastructure for fast and easy transport of commodities.

IV. Analysis of each proposed solution:

 Taming inflation meal/feeding programs, improve education, employment, and direct cash transfers
from the state to families and individuals.

Brazil achieved significant progress in reducing poverty as a result of taming inflation through the
introduction of Plano Real 1994. The poverty headcount dropped from 41.6% in 1993 to 33.8% in 1995,
and extreme poverty was reduced from 19.5% to 14.5%. Average per-capita income grew by almost
25%, and roughly 10 million people were pulled out of poverty and six million overcame extreme
poverty. Hunger/ food insecurity, unemployment, and lack of education are the most serious forms of
extreme poverty thus the country needs an adequate solutions to these factors affecting poverty rate.
Education provides a foundation for development, the groundwork on which much of our economic and
social well being is built. It is the key to increasing economic efficiency and social consistency. By
increasing the value and efficiency of their labor, it helps to raise the poor from poverty.

 Reducing inequality by ensuring the fair collection of taxes, reducing subsidies for the wealthy, and
rolling-out more equal opportunity policies.

People should pay taxes in proportion with their wealth and it should be based on strict equity just
like anything else, everybody pays the same. This is one way to prevent inequality between the rich and
low income earners.

 Initiate a land reform program

Agrarian system which includes land reform measures is highly encouraged because land
ownership is s a fundamental right especially to indigenous people who have secure land rights in Brazil.
The right to acquisition of land through long occupation (usucapt) has existed in rural Brazil since 1916.
Adverse possession in the current law allows legal transfer of land to the occupant gained after
uninterrupted and undisputed occupation for a specified number of years (GOB Constitution 1988, Art.
191; GOB Civil Code 1916, Art. 1240).

 Enforce government regulations to stop illegal deforestation, establish funds which collect donations
from other countries used to slowdown the deforestation in Amazon rainforest.

Deforestation-control agreements and legislation are essential tools for conservation of Brazil's
socio biodiversity, although they are not the only factors in preventing forest loss and degradation. In
order to combat the subversion of these agreements, the legal structures, public policies and verification
systems that underpin them must be constantly upgraded to keep pace with the new ways that soy
planters, cattle ranchers and timber merchants will find to circumvent commodity agreements and
government regulations.

 Strict implementation of racial discrimination law or policies.

No one shall be discriminated against or harmed by reason of birth, age, ethnicity, race, color,
sex, genetic characteristics, marital status, rural or urban work, religion, political or philosophical beliefs,
sexual orientation, physical, immunological, sensory or mental disability, in accordance with the Federal
Constitution. The Brazilian Constitution prohibits all forms of discrimination (age, race, color, national
origin, disability, religion, sex, marital status, political affiliation, pregnancy, and citizenship) by federal and
state governments and the country's population.

 Improved infrastructure for fast and easy transport of commodities.

Infrastructural investment derives in large part from a belief that it is pivotal in boosting growth
performance- Transport infrastructure plays a critical role to the well-functioning of economic activities it
ensures everyday mobility of people and is crucial to the production and distribution of goods. Adequate
infrastructure is a fundamental precondition for transport systems.

V . Recommendations:

To tame inflation, agriculture must improve. The government must support the needs of the
farmers, respectively, in their farming, such as improving the technology that farmers use in a way that it
can be more productive and do some agricultural reform. In those circumstances, they can lessen
poverty, especially those people who cannot even buy goods. Agriculture is concerned with cultivating
plants and raising animals in order to feed the population. If they have goods in their country, there’s no
such thing as that they will import goods from other countries, but rather they will be the one who will
supply goods to other countries. Also, to transform commodities, building better infrastructure is needed.

VI. Conclusions:

 There are a lot of areas that need to improved, such as poverty reduction and racism.

 Bosala Family Program was a successful initiative that encouraged education and improved
standard of living of people.

 Health care and availability of medicines have improved that can be seen from the increase in life
expectancy and child mortality ratios.

 Malnutrition has also decreased in Brazil.

 To sum up, Brazil has experienced some economic growth without as much social development, in
other words, “growth without development.” In order to increase social development, they must
implement reforms, implement government policies, and make more programs that can reduce
poverty rates.