Brazil launches scheme to lift millions out of poverty

Dilma Rousseff, Brazil's current president, has made it her priority to eradicate extreme poverty in Brazil by 2014, becoming the first developing country to do so.  Over the last decade, 20 million Brazilians were taken out of poverty; however, there are still 16.2 million people, roughly 8.5% of the population, living on less than 70 reais ($44) each month.  Because Brazil's economy has grown so much in the last decades and such a large middle class has emerged, the gap between the haves and have-nots is growing.  Therefore, the Brazilian government is planning to increase its efforts to combat poverty.  In the next few years, they hope to expand education and health programs, as well as Bolsa Familia, Brazil's social welfare program.  In addition, they will focus more on Brazil's poorest regions, with an understanding that the state must reach out to the impoverished, rather than expect the impoverished to come to the state for help.

Mark Zajac