Spending on Health and Sanitation is Most Effective in Reducing Poverty
May 17th
For the original in Portuguese by Alicia Nascimento Aguiar on Agência USP de Notícias click here.
Spending on health and sanitation, both at the federal and municipal level, have been the most effective in reducing poverty in Brazil in recent years, reveals research by the Luiz de Queiroz College for Agriculture (Esalq) of the University of São Paulo, in Piracicaba. This is followed by state level spending on both education and culture, and federal social security and welfare assistance. The study was conducted by the economist Martha Hanae Hiromoto, as part of her master’s dissertation in Applied Economics, supported by Professor Ana More >
Voices of Vila Autódromo: Barrão, the Fisherman
May 16th
Paolo Roberto Ferreira Mezes, known by all as Barrão, moved to Vila Autódromo sixteen years ago. After learning to fish and dedicating himself to the craft, he brought his wife and two young children to the peaceful, lakeside favela in Rio’s West Zone to turn the craft into a living. He decided to swap his home in Vila Valqueire for his brother’s abandoned waterfront property in Vila Autódromo. That way, Barrão was able to fish from his own backyard. In the years following the move, Barrão and his wife welcomed two more children, and they began fostering a loyal client base More >
Life in the Favela: Public Security Debated in Maré
May 14th
“What is this ‘pacification’ that is coming?” challenged favela residents last Saturday May 11th at a debate on public security in Maré. For weeks, the group of communities has been undergoing daily raids by the BOPE (Special Operations Police Battalion) in a government effort to prepare the area for the installation of the Police Pacifying Units (UPPs). The process includes illegal searches of homes without individual warrants and operations involving helicopters and armored tanks.
“The discourse from the state and from the commercial media [surrounding pacification] is a big lie,” explained Gizele Martins, coordinator and journalist at Maré’s 13-year-old community newspaper O Cidadão. More >
Study Shows Bolsa Família Assistance Doesn’t Extinguish Ambition
May 13th
For the original article in Portuguese on Portal Geledés via Diário do Nordeste click here.
The financial assistance given to families living in extreme poverty through the program Bolsa Família (“Family Stipend”) does not deter them from searching for work, or from becoming entrepreneurs themselves. The conclusion comes from the national Research Institute for Applied Economics (Ipea), after an analysis of Brazilian micro-entrepreneurship. “The Bolsa Família does not produce an effect of laziness or apathy in its recipients. The majority of beneficiaries being entrepreneurs with formalized businesses is proof of that,” says Rafael Moreira.
Moreira is one of the researchers focusing on the individual microentrepreneur–a More >
Evictions, Gentrification & Displacement: Three Short Docs on the Forces Shaping Rio Today [VIDEOS]
May 9th
Right now in Rio, favela residents across the city are being forced out of their homes and communities. Tens of thousands of families are having to leave their self-built homes, often of decades, due to direct state intervention where residents are told they are being removed for mega-event developments or because they are in “risk areas,” or due to the more subtle forces of real estate speculation and gentrification whereby residents can no longer afford to live in their own communities. Both types of eviction mean residents must move out to peripheral, underserved areas of the city, where land is cheaper, new favelas More >
