 The Brazil Country Assistance Strategy (CAS) is the detailed report on the World Bank's priority areas to assist countries with their own development programs. It describes all of the World Bank's planned operations in Brazil: lending, studies and other technical assistance. See below for the main points and documents of the current World Bank Country Assistance Strategy for Brazil, 2004-2007.(PDF) The full documents are available on the lower right corner of the page. The Bank's Board of Directors approved in June 2006 the Progress Report (PDF) for the 2004-2007 CAS. The Report refocuses Bank Group support to areas where less progress has been made. This will increase Bank support to: Investing in growth, including enhanced emphasis on improving competitiveness and investing in infrastructure; Improving environmental sustainability in the “green” and “brown” environmental arenas; Making fiscal adjustment sustainable, enhancing the quality of public spending to deliver the most effective services most efficiently, thus freeing up resources for investment, as well as improving public sector management; Building human capital for improved equity and growth; and Regional development in both urban and rural environments, with a special focus on the northeast and selected urban areas.
More information on the Country Assistance Strategies The report evaluates the World Bank assistance program to Brazil from 1990 to 2002, covering the administrations of Presidents Fernando Collor de Mello / Itamar Franco (1990-94) and Fernando Henrique Cardoso (1995-02). The CAE examines three main and inter-related questions. First, whether the objectives of Bank assistance were relevant, given Brazil’s development needs and challenges in this period. Second, whether the Bank’s assistance program was effectively designed and consistent with its objectives. Third, whether the Bank’s program achieved its objectives and had a substantive impact on the country’s development during this period. Examining these three main questions also allows the CAE to assess whether the Bank can still play a relevant role in a large middle-income country such as Brazil, and to draw lessons and recommendations for future Bank assistance to the country.
Brazil Country Assistance Evaluation (822K PDF)
Brazil Country Assistance Strategy 2004-2007
 WASHINGTON, December 9, 2003 - The World Bank Group today launched its new Country Assistance Strategy (CAS) for Brazil, which will guide the Bank Group's program in the country for the next four years. At today's discussion, the Board of Directors expressed strong support for the innovative approaches presented in the strategy to leverage and scale up the impact of the World Bank's program in Brazil.
The CAS was prepared during this first year of the new Brazilian administration under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. It benefited from consultations with the federal and state governments, representatives from social and environmental movements, trade unions, the private sector, other international agencies and donors, academia, as well as youth and religious groups. It will also gain from a consultative process for mid-course corrections and adjustments during its implementation.
"Brazil today enjoys an unprecedented opportunity to lift the well-being of its people, especially the poor, in a sustainable way", said Vinod Thomas, World Bank Brazil Country Director. "In helping to deliver on this promise, it is the intense consultations with the Brazilian society and the government that brought new ideas to the table -- ideas that could help to get the most impact from our involvement".
The 2004-2007 CAS outlines a program which projects up to US$7.5 billion of new IBRD financing for Brazil over the next four years. The International Finance Corporation's (IFC) strong support to the Brazilian private sector will accompany Bank assistance in enhancing the prospects for competitiveness and growth and improving social equity. The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) will support the strategy by facilitating foreign investment.
This CAS initiates a results-based approach anchored on the country's goals and priorities set out by the government's Multiyear Plan (PPA), and linked to the Millennium Development Goals. It establishes benchmarks for 2007 and 2015 relating to human welfare gains, social and environmental sustainability, competitiveness, and macroeconomic performance, including growth. It also identifies specific Bank-supported activities that can contribute to achieving these targets, and a monitoring framework.
Brazil today has enormous potential and faces huge challenges. The new government has committed itself to tight fiscal policy, inflation targeting, and the honoring of debt contracts. It has also committed itself to far-reaching improvements in people's welfare—evidenced by several high priority social initiatives, including efforts to eradicate hunger, create youth employment, and unify social transfer programs for greater effectiveness in reducing poverty.
The World Bank Group's efforts in Brazil build on the country's vision for a more equitable, sustainable, and competitive Brazil, based on macroeconomic foundations. "The government sees our contribution in this process as not only financial, but perhaps more importantly as support for vital policy and institutional reforms relating to these three dimensions of the country vision", said Vinod Thomas.
A More Equitable Brazil: Investing in people.
The Bank's strategy in support of a more equitable Brazil closely mirrors the priorities of the Brazilian government, which has made social progress with economic stability the cornerstone of its program. The Bank's support in the social sectors will focus on reaching the poorest and achieving higher levels of quality and efficiency in social services. Education will continue to be a key priority for the Bank, with increasing involvement in secondary education and early childhood development. Support to social protection will be expanded through technical and financial support to programs such as the integrated cash transfer (Bolsa Família) and the youth employment program (Primeiro Emprego).
A More Sustainable Brazil: Providing local services and managing natural assets for better quality of life.
The Bank's support for a sustainable Brazil is directed at improving the quality of life through better local services in urban and rural areas and for careful management of Brazil's rich natural assets. A primary element of the planned program is support for increased access to basic services, such as water and sanitation, in rural and urban areas.
A More Competitive Brazil: Spurring sustainable growth.
The new CAS increases the emphasis on IBRD support for sustainable, broad-based growth, accompanied by IFC's strong support to the private sector. The World Bank's strategies to support higher productivity and investment focus on more efficient infrastructure and competition regulation, a stronger financial sector, a modern innovation policy, and a more favorable environment for entrepreneurs, especially small and medium-size enterprises.
Key Lending and Non-lending Instruments for Brazil
To support important reforms and help match Brazil's need for balance of payments financing, the Bank expects to continue policy-based programmatic adjustment lending. Experience has shown that programmatic adjustment lending, which shifts the emphasis to lending in response to reforms already enacted rather than conditioning loan disbursements on predefined government actions, increases countries' commitment to reforms. Areas of current and future programmatic lending for Brazil include human development, growth and competitiveness, sustainable development, and social security and fiscal reforms.
To increase the systemic benefits of Bank support, sector wide approaches (SWAps) are expected to become a key investment lending instrument, in particular at the national level. These will allow the Bank to finance priority existing government programs rather than individual projects or transactions. They aim to increase program commitment, impact and flexibility.
The Bank will continue to place priority on a program of analytical and advisory services, including studies on key economic and sector issues. I will also deepen its ongoing relationship with states and municipalities with an integrated approach of subnational investment lending, in support of multisectoral, rural and urban strategies. This applies to the just-approved investment loan for Tocantins that links infrastructure and the environment. (Full text of CAS documents in PDF format at the top right side of this page)
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