Wednesday, November 2, 2011

World Bank lending Brazil US$8 billion to fight poverty

Brazil will get US$8 billion in financing from the World Bank to push its campaign to uproot extreme hardship deeper into some of the country's poorest areas, the bank said today.

As part of the World Bank's "Country Partnership Strategy" for Brazil, the funding will go toward improving services such as health, education and environmental protection, as well as promoting economic development in the northeast – Brazil's poorest region.

The eradication of extreme poverty, defined as income below 70 reais (US$40) a month, has become a hallmark of President Dilma Rousseff's domestic agenda.

Brazil's federal, state and municipal governments will receive up to US$5.8 billion in new financing from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development in the form of subsidized loans.

An additional US$2 billion in loans will go to the private sector in 2012-13 via the International Finance Corporation.

During the eight years in office of Rousseff's predecessor, former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazil surpassed all of its emerging market peers in improving the lives of the poor, lifting 40 million people into the middle class.

In June, Rousseff took these efforts up a notch with her "Brazil Without Misery" program that plans to lift more than 16 million people from conditions of "misery" through expanded financial aid, improved education, better access to water and energy, and job training.