Fwd: FW: Brazil's Zero Hunger Falling Short of Goals

March 11, 2006

> Brazil's Zero Hunger Falling Short of Goals

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> face= " Times New Roman " >Editor's Note: More than two

> years ago, Brazil's

> President da Silva launched the Zero Hunger program

> with the goal of fighting

> the structural causes of poverty. This article from

> the New York Times indicates

> the program is running into some difficulties,

> where, in particular, corruption

> at the local level is impeding successful

> implementation.

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> face= " Times New Roman " >For more extensive news items

> on the subject,

> see:

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>

href= " http://www.brazzilmag.com/index.php?option=com_content & task=view & id=3529 & I\

temid=49 " >http://www.brazzilmag.com/index.php?option=com_content & task=view & id=35\

29 & Itemid=49</A>

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> face= " Times New Roman " >

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> face= " Times New Roman " >Effort to Reduce Poverty and

> Hunger in Brazil Falls Short

> of Its Goals<SPAN lang=EN-CA

> style= " FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-size:

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> face= " Times New Roman " ><SPAN style= " COLOR:

> #000066 " >By LARRY ROHTER - posted at

> The New York Times on May 29th,

>

2005 http://www.nytimes.com

> <SPAN

> lang=EN-CA

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> face= " Times New Roman " >ACAUÃ, Brazil - This is one

> of the poorest places in

> Brazil, which is why President Luiz Inácio Lula da

> Silva had it included in the

> pilot version of his Zero Hunger program. But more

> than two years after that

> effort began, with a visit by the president and his

> cabinet to these arid

> backlands, the program here has fallen far short of

> expectations.<SPAN

> lang=EN-CA

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> <P class=MsoNormal style= " MARGIN: 0in 0in

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> face= " Times New Roman " >Some of the promised projects

> to reduce hunger and

> poverty have simply not gotten off the ground, while

> others are mired in

> bureaucracy or have become entangled in partisan

> politics. Even the simple

> payment of $20 a month to poor families has

> generated problems, leaving out some

> who were supposed to get it and enrolling others who

> should not.

> <FONT

> face= " Times New Roman " > " The

> program leaves a lot to desire, not because nothing

> has improved, but because

> the steps have been so very slow and hesitant, " said

> the Rev. Gregório Leal

> Lustosa, the lone Roman Catholic priest in this and

> four neighboring

> municipalities. " Often the money promised is not

> there, and when it is, there is

> difficulty in implementing the programs. So the mood

> is one of

> frustration. "

> <SPAN

> lang=EN-CA

> style= " FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-size:

> 12.0pt " > <FONT

> face= " Times New Roman " >Zero Hunger was supposed to

> be the centerpiece of the

> ambitious social transformation promised by Mr. da

> Silva, a former labor leader

> who was born into a peasant family not far from here

> and went hungry himself as

> a child. At the United Nations and other

> international forums, he has repeatedly

> praised the program as an unqualified success and a

> model for other third world

> countries, and chided rich countries for not helping

>

> more.

> <SPAN

> lang=EN-CA

> style= " FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-size:

> 12.0pt " > <FONT

> face= " Times New Roman " >But here, where the average

> daily wage is about $3 and

> full-time work is hard to find, there is a more

> nuanced view of Zero Hunger.

> While grateful for the monthly stipend, the

> recipients, like independent

> experts, are also acutely aware of the program's

> inefficiency, disorganization

> and vulnerability to political

> squabbling.

> <SPAN

> lang=EN-CA

> style= " FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-size:

> 12.0pt " > <FONT

> face= " Times New Roman " >Some of the problems clearly

> stem from the very top, in

> Brasília, the capital. After a slow start, Mr. da

> Silva dismissed the minister

> originally in charge of the program, which was

> subsequently stripped of its

> status as a separate ministry and quietly folded

> into the Ministry of Social

> Development.

> <SPAN

> lang=EN-CA

> style= " FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-size:

> 12.0pt " > <FONT

> face= " Times New Roman " >But many of the problems are

> local. At first, the program

> here, as elsewhere, was run by an administrative

> committee whose members were

> drawn from the community, led by a union leader in

> the governing Workers' Party

> as well as a member of the opposition. That was

> intended to insulate the

> program from political manipulation, but quarrels

> among committee members soon

> ensued, as did accusations of

> favoritism.

> <SPAN

> lang=EN-CA

> style= " FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-size:

> 12.0pt " > <FONT

> face= " Times New Roman " >Among the chief complaints is

> that benefits are

> incorrectly awarded and incorrectly denied. In the

> state capital, Teresina, more

> than 1,100 city employees were found to have been

> fraudulently enrolled, while

> here, some teachers' families ended up receiving

> stipends intended to eliminate

> child labor, rather than the agricultural day

> laborers who are meant to

> benefit.

> <SPAN

> lang=EN-CA

> style= " FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-size:

> 12.0pt " > <FONT

> face= " Times New Roman " > " We found a lot of

> irregularities, " said João Florêncio

> Rodrigues Batista, a critic of the initial

> administrative committee who became

> mayor here in January. " It was supposed to be for

> poor families, but it ended up

> being for political families, for the sons and

> daughters of the members of the

> town council and other privileged

> types. "

> <SPAN

> lang=EN-CA

> style= " FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-size:

> 12.0pt " > <FONT

> face= " Times New Roman " >New managers of Zero Hunger

> here and elsewhere have had

> to start over. Beneficiaries have been required to

> re-register and produce their

> income statements, and will have to do so annually.

> That, of course, has

> generated new complaints, of " another layer of

> bureaucracy staffed with

> ill-informed civil servants, " as Father Lustosa put

> it.

> <SPAN

> lang=EN-CA

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> 12.0pt " > <FONT

> face= " Times New Roman " >Perhaps most frustrating to

> residents of this parched

> backland is that many of the water cisterns promised

> as part of the Zero Thirst

> component of the program have failed to appear. And

> the Light for All project,

> which was supposed to bring electricity to the

> backcountry here to spur

> agricultural production and income, is also bogged

> down: technical teams have

> visited twice, but no power lines have gone

> up.

> <SPAN

> lang=EN-CA

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> 12.0pt " > <FONT

> face= " Times New Roman " >Similar problems have

> appeared all over the country,

> Brazilian and foreign experts say. Still, some

> signs of improvement are

> visible here. A few new stores, a cybercafe among

> them, have opened on the main

> street, and some existing shops and grocery stores

> have expanded because their

> patrons have a bit more money to

> spend.

> <SPAN

> lang=EN-CA

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> 12.0pt " > <FONT

> face= " Times New Roman " >There is still no hospital

> here, but the one clinic has

> received some new equipment and supplies, giving

> many women here access to birth

> control for the first

> time.

> <SPAN

> lang=EN-CA

> style= " FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-size:

> 12.0pt " > <FONT

> face= " Times New Roman " > " A lot of women here are

> always pregnant, and have a baby

> every year, " said Arlete de Assis Ferreira de Sousa,

> a 28-year-old peasant woman

> who is the president of a local farmers'

> cooperative. " They don't have the money

> to feed or clothe them, and they want to change that

> situation with

> contraceptives. "

> <SPAN

> lang=EN-CA

> style= " FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-size:

> 12.0pt " > <FONT

> face= " Times New Roman " >The biggest change, however,

> may not be material. Zero

> Hunger's sponsors, perhaps to their own detriment,

> appear to have succeeded in

> mobilizing the poor, diminishing the traditional

> pattern of exchanging votes for

> social services.

> <SPAN

> lang=EN-CA

> style= " FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-size:

> 12.0pt " > <FONT

> face= " Times New Roman " > " Now you don't have to go to

> a politician any more, the

> committee comes to you instead, and for me, that is

> an important difference, "

> said Enilson Araújo Cruz, a 28-year-old farmworker

> and community leader.

> " Before, it felt like we were asking for a favor,

> but now it's not a gift, it's

> a social policy. We have more direct access and we

> decide our priorities

> ourselves, and not the politicians for us. "

>

> <SPAN

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> <SPAN

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> 12.0pt " ><FONT

> face= " Times New Roman " >WHO WE ARE: This

> e-mail service shares

> information to help more people discuss crucial

> policy issues affecting global

> food security. The service is managed by Amber

> McNair of the University of

> Toronto in partnership with the Centre for Urban

> Health Initiatives (CUHI) and

> Wayne Roberts of the Toronto Food Policy Council, in

> partnership with the

> Community Food Security Coalition, World Hunger

> Year, and International Partners

> for Sustainable Agriculture. Please help by

> sending information or

> names and e-mail addresses of co-workers who'd like

> to receive this service, to

> <A

>

href= " foodnews " >foodnews</A><B\

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Fwd: FW: Brazil's Zero Hunger Falling Short of Goals

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