The Social Safety Nets Team of the Social Protection Unit, Human Development Network sponsored this presentation by

Kathy Lindert (ECSHD)

In the past few decades, conditional cash transfers have been adopted by numerous developing countries around the globe.  While much has been written on the operational aspects and impacts of Bolsa Familia and other CCTs, relatively little research has looked at the political economy of conditional cash transfers.  

Kathy Lindert (now in ECSHD) presented the results of on-going research with Vanina Vincensini on the media's treatment of CCTs in Brazil.  Social policy in Brazil (an early pioneer in CCTs at the municipal level in the mid-1990s) has undergone a "quiet revolution" with the introduction of CCTs at the federal level in 2001 and the consolidation and expansion of CCTs under the "Bolsa Familia Program" since 2003.   Today, the Bolsa Familia program covers 11.1 million families, or 46 million people.  Impacts on poverty and inequality have been impressive, with the program accounting for 18% of Brazil's historic reduction in inequality since 2001 and 25% of the reduction in extreme poverty (findings from IPEA). 

In Brazil's context of independent (free) press, how has the media treated this "quiet revolution" in social policy?  Our on-going research seeks to analyze the coverage, content and flavor of the debate in the press about the concept and implementation of conditional cash transfers in Brazil through the cataloguing of more than 6,000 articles from six major newspapers over a six year period.  The findings suggest that coverage of this flagship social program has been particularly high in the press, and the overall tone of articles has been largely favorable to the concept of CCTs, though there is more criticism of the challenges faced in implementing the program.  As with all flagship social programs, the authors find that elections tend to bring increased scrutiny and criticism of CCTs regardless of political party or program.  The authors also find that the media played an important role in reporting on both the challenges and improvements of CCTs in Brazil, and that the specific topics debated evolved with the program (e.g., with second-generation issues such as welfared dependency/graduation increasing in visibility as the program matured).  Importantly, the authors also find asymetric coverage of targeting outcomes (errors of exclusion and inclusion) in the press debates, and evidence of a potential "political role" for conditionalities in helping "legitimize" cash transfers in public debates.

Presentation & Background Materials

"Bolsa Família in the Headlines: An Analysis of the Media’s Treatment of CCTs in Brazil - Preliminary Results" (750kb pdf)

Bolsa Família in the Headlines: An Analysis of the Media’s Treatment of CCTs in Brazil - Summary of Preliminary Results (49kb pdf)

Bolsa Família in the Headlines: An Analysis of the Media’s Treatment of CCTs in Brazil - Some Questions and Answers (13kb pdf)