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We are pleased to announce the publication of IPC’s first Evaluation Note, “Evaluating the Impact of Brazil’s Bolsa Família: Cash Transfer Programmes in Comparative Perspective”. Such Notes will be a continuing series that will seek to disseminate the findings of important evaluations of poverty-reduction programmes and policies, including those carried out by IPC.



The authors of Evaluation Note #1, Fabio Veras Soares, Rafael Perez Ribas and Rafael Guerreiro Osório, all of whom are staff members of IPC, review the targeting performance of Bolsa Família and its impact on inequality, poverty, consumption, education, health care and labour force participation. In doing so, they compare the impact of Bolsa Família to that of other cash transfer programmes in Latin America, such as in Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Mexico. They find, for example, that the Brazilian programme has helped reduce inequality and extreme poverty and improved education outcomes, without having a negative impact on labour force participation. Where the programme has failed to have its intended impact, supply-side constraints are often the principal problem.



This Evaluation Note is part of IPC’s ongoing research and training programme on “Cash Transfers and Social Protection”.



Available online at: http://www.undp-povertycentre.org/pub/IPCEvaluationNote1.pdf




Other IPC publications at: http://www.undp-povertycentre.org/ipcpublications.htm