From Bolsa Família to Brasil Sem Miséria: a Summary of Brazil’s Recent Journey towards Overcoming Extreme Poverty

(PBF) has brought about two important developments for the Brazilian social protection system: 1) it has merged similar programmes, which operated separately, thus eliminating gaps, overlaps and inefficiencies; and 2) it gave that system a new dimension by expanding transfers to households mostly headed by adults of working age, ultimately reaching out to groups that had enjoyed residual coverage of the system — especially children. Before the PBF, the social protection system in Brazil was mostly based on contributory and non-contributory benefits granted preferentially to individuals who had lost their productive capacity. With regards to its institutional arrangements, the PBF’s emphasis on conditionalities as a way to ensure families ’ access to basic education, health and social assistance services required strong intersectoral coordination. Institutional efforts to implement the PBF have also demanded intense coordination between the different layers of government (federal, state and municipality levels). The decentralised structure of social assistance service