Policy Research Brief IPC-IG

URI Permanente para esta coleçãohttps://repositorio.ipea.gov.br/handle/11058/17473

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Youth and adult literacy and education: a good practice analysis
(2016) Moretti, Gianna Alessandra Sanchez
"The social, economic, scientific, technological and climate changes of recent decades challenge human development and education. Since education should equip individuals with the necessary tools to deal with these challenges, it is necessary that the content of what is being taught reflects the local context and the interest of the individual. Yet around 774 million young people and adults—two thirds of whom are women—cannot read or write (UNESCO-UIL 2014, 16)". (…)
What do we know about the effectiveness of fiscal incentives for research and development in Brazil’s ‘Law of Good’?
(2021) Negri, Fernanda De
Fiscal incentives are widely adopted in many countries to promote corporate investments in research and development (R&D). In Brazil, fiscal incentives for R&D were instituted by Law No. 11.196, enacted in 2005—also known as the ‘Law of Good’ (Lei do Bem). This Policy Research Brief presents a review of studies carried out in Brazil regarding the effectiveness of these incentives—are they working?
Vulnerability to Climate Change: a Regional Perspective of Demographic and Socioeconomic Impacts
(2012) Barbieri, Alisson Flávio; Queiroz, Bernardo
The objective of this paper is to present the state of the art in the discussion about the relationships among demographic dynamics, economic dynamics and climate change, as well as the impacts, on vulnerability profiles, of the adaptive capacity of the population, in the case of Brazil. The article seeks to answer the following questions: what is known about the effects of climate change in Brazil? What do we still need to know? How can public policies reduce vulnerability and enhance the population’s capacity to adapt to these changes? A central issue in this discussion is the effort to pursue the development of integrated and interdisciplinary methodologies in building scenarios useful for informing public policy and regional planning. Based on this discussion, issues will be raised for a future research agenda on the subject, within Brazilian demographics. (…)
Utility Provision: Contract Design in the Interest of the Poor
(2008) Hailu, Degol; Hunt, Portia
Access to basic utility services such as water, electricity and sanitation are essential for meeting internationally agreed development goals. For many of the world’s poorest people, however, these services remain unaffordable or unavailable. The losses in productivity and human potential are beyond measure. Inequitable access to basic services is not only a humanitarian crisis, but also a serious obstacle to development. (...)
Understanding the Socio-Environmental Policy Space
(2012) Perch, Leisa
The social pillar—and thus social equity and social development—is critical to understanding what green growth (or making the economic patterns of development more sustainable) needs to do (that has not been done before), who it needs to serve (who has been left out) and why we have failed to do this before (structural realities). The emerging focus on the socio-environmental policy space in the context of Rio +20 is timely considering the staggering evidence available about the interconnectedness of environmental vulnerabilities and resource inequality in hampering and undermining social development. Resource inequity abounds in numerous areas: sanitation, access to water, and energy, to name a few. Leading voices, particularly President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil, lend necessary visibility and validity to the importance of debate and discussion on this theme. While Rio 1992 signalled significant advances within global policy frameworks, the promise has been largely unfulfilled. (…)
Towards the Arab Renaissance
(2012) Reddy, Sanjay G.
As recent events in the Arab region have amply demonstrated, the problems of poverty, unemployment and social and political exclusion cannot be forever ignored without there arising demands for change in the basic arrangements of society. Today, the dramatic revolts in diverse Arab societies have highlighted the failures of the pre-existing development model, as well as the necessity and opportunity for transformation, raising the hope that an Arab awakening can initiate an Arab renaissance. The second Arab Development Challenges Report makes an outstanding contribution in this regard, surveying the challenges presented by the current economic and social situation and proposing approaches to them. (…)
The Vast Majority Income (VMI): A New Measure of Global Inequality
(2008) Shaikh, Anwar; Ragab, Amr
GDP per capita is by far the most popular measure of international levels of development. It is fairly well understood and widely available across countries and time. But it is also recognized that GDP per capita is an imperfect proxy for important factors such as health, education and well-being. An alternative approach has been to work directly with the variables of concern, as in the UNDP Human Development Index (HDI). The HDI combines GDP per capita with life expectancy and schooling into a single composite index. But, the HDI is difficult to compile. Moreover, because it is an index, it cannot tell us about the absolute standard of living of the underlying population: it can only provide rankings of nations at any moment in time and changes in these rankings over time. It turns out that the rankings produced by the GDP per capita and the HDI are quite highly correlated. Given that GDP per capita also provides an absolute measure of income; it is understandable that it remains so popular. Both the GDP per capita and the HDI measures suffer from that fact that “they are averages that conceal wide disparities in the overall population” (Kelley, 1991). As a result, it becomes necessary to either supplement these measures with information on distributional inequality as in the Gini coefficient, or to directly adjust GDP per capita and other variables for distributional variations. Sen (1976) derives (1-Gini) as the appropriate adjustment factor for real income. Since a higher inequality implies a lower (1-Gini), this penalizes regions or countries with higher inequalities. The 1993 HDI used this procedure to adjust GDP per capita in various countries. Subsequently, it was extended to encompass the variables in the HDI using discount factors based on the degrees of inequality in their specific distributions. Later, the index incorporated gender-based adjustments by discounting a country’s overall HDI according to the degree of gender-inequality (Hicks, 2004). The above measures of welfare will be re-examined in light of our own finding that inequality-discounted GDP per capita can be interpreted as a measure of the relative per capita income of the first eighty per cent of a nation’s population. This Policy Research Brief introduces a new measure of worldwide income and inequality, which we call the Vast Majority Income (VMI).
The Unresolved Land Reform Debate: Beyond State-Led or Market-Led Models
(2006) Borras, Saturnino M.; McKinley, Terry
Sharp inequalities in the distribution of land have remained a major cause of extreme poverty in many developing countries. Much of the rural workforce in these countries is landless or near-landless while many small farmers cultivate meagre, marginal plots. How can this persistent problem be addressed? The historical record shows that neither state-led nor market-led land reform models have been successful in removing these inequities. In response to this problem, this Policy Research Brief draws primarily on a UNDP-ISS supported set of country studies and analytical papers in order to point toward an alternative model of land reform that could both satisfy legitimate and urgent demands for social justice and develop an agrarian system that is economically viable. (...)
The Programa Subsidio de Alimentos in Mozambique: Baseline Evaluation
(2010) Soares, Fabio Veras; Hirata, Guilherme Issamu; Ribas, Rafael Perez
The Food Subsidy Programme (Programa Subsidio de Alimentos, PSA) is the main basic social protection programme of the government of Mozambique in terms of coverage. It was established in 1990 to help the destitute elderly (women above 55 and men above 60), people living with a disability, the chronically sick and their dependants by providing a monthly cash transfer. The programme falls under the mandate of the Ministry for Women and Social Action (MMAS), while implementation is the responsibility of the National Institute for Social Action (INAS), the Ministry’s executing agency. By the end of 2008, the PSA covered 143,455 households with a total of 287,454 beneficiaries. The main direct beneficiaries were the elderly (93 per cent), followed by people living with disabilities (6 per cent) and the chronically ill (1 per cent). The general eligibility criteria are: age, residency for more than six months in the selected area, per capita earnings less than the minimum benefit on the PSA scale, and/or recognised by medical declaration to be chronically ill or living with a disability. Potential beneficiaries are selected by a local intermediary (known as a Permanente) chosen by the community and appointed by INAS, after which the application undergoes an approval process within the INAS delegation. Although the PSA is a national programme, it does not reach the entire eligible population and its coverage is unequally distributed across districts. This is the result of the absence of an expansion strategy based on poverty incidence and population density. Expansion of the PSA was initially restricted to urban areas in order to mitigate the effects of the post-war structural adjustment programme on the urban population (Low et al., 1999). Currently, expansion to remote rural areas is a programme priority. The programme’s administrative cost is considered high relative to the amount transferred to the beneficiaries (Ellis, 2007). Though the programme is the largest in terms of the number of beneficiaries, its coverage is low relative to the potential universe of beneficiaries. Expansion of the programme tends to diminish the administrative costs in relative terms. In 2008, the PSA underwent two important reforms. First, the subsidy scale increased. The subsidy amount for the first (direct) beneficiaries rose from 70 to 100 meticais (US$2.5 to US$3.6), and the additional benefit for dependants increased from 10 to 50 meticais (US$0.36 to US$1.80) per dependant up to four. The second reform was the greater focus on the inclusion of eligible dependants as indirect beneficiaries in the payment scheme, and the monitoring and evaluation system. Though it is a relatively old programme, it has never been evaluated before. An opportunity to conduct an evaluation has arisen in the context of the reforms. This Policy Research Brief seeks to improve knowledge of the PSA by presenting the first part of the PSA impact evaluation—that is, the summary of the baseline report.
The nexus of ODA and the SDGs: a scoping review of performance and statistical methodology
(2021) Alsayyad, Amina Said; Nawar, Abdel-Hameed Hamdy
In 2015, The third International Conference on financing for development in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, established a groundbreaking agreement which provided a global framework for financing the sustainable development outcomes ahead of the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This created an organic relationship between them. This policy brief investigates the gap between pledged and delivered official development assistance (ODA) and the lack of confidence in the quality of ODA statistics. In the context of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, ODA has not received either the proper action or the necessary priority.
The Macro-Micro Nexus in Scaling-Up Aid: The Case of HIV and AIDS Control in Kenya, Malawi and Zambia
(2009) Hailu, Degol; Singh, Sonal
About 33 million people currently live with HIV. The disease has reduced life expectancy by about 20 years. Nearly 12 million children are orphaned. It is now well established that the epidemic demands an immediate increase in resources. The main questions that arise are where the resources will come from, and whether they can be fully spent and absorbed. One major source of financing for HIV and AIDS control is external aid. A recent report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) computed the macroeconomic implications of scaling-up aid as promised by the G-8 at Gleneagles. The assessments for Benin, Niger and Togo indicate that scaling-up aid will put moderate to sizable pressure on inflation and exchange rates (IMF, 2008).
The Macroeconomic Implications of MDG-Based Strategies in Sub-Saharan Africa
(2007) Weeks, John; McKinley, Terry
At the Gleneagles summit in 2005, the G-8 committed to doubling Official Development Assistance (ODA) to Africa by 2010 in order to help finance national efforts to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Will such a substantial scaling-up of ODA lead to more expansionary macroeconomic policies? This Policy Research Brief assesses the implications for fiscal, monetary and exchange-rate policies. (...)
The Macroeconomic Debate on Scaling up HIV/AIDS Financing
(2006) McKinley, Terry; Hailu, Degol
The HIV/AIDS epidemic is a rapidly unfolding human development tragedy that demands an urgent, scaled-up global response. Yet ill-founded qualms about upsetting macroeconomic stability stand in the way of dramatically increasing Official Development Assistance (ODA) to tackle the epidemic. (...)
The Expansion of Non-Contributory Transfers in Uruguay in Recent Years
(2012) Amarante, Verónica; Vigorito, Andrea
During the first half of the 20th century, Uruguay was able to establish an institutional system of universal social policies in the areas of education, labour and health which involved the coverage of most of the population (Filgueira, 1994). In the context of social protection, a system of contributory cash-based transfers was created which aimed to protect workers in the formal sector—and through them their families—and to provide them with an adequate retirement to replace their income. With regard to non-contributory transfers, in 1919 a social pension scheme for elderly and disabled people was created, targeting those people over 70 years of age considered socially vulnerable. In 1942 the system of contributory Family Allowances (Asignaciones Familiares) came into force, consisting of monthly cash benefits to workers in the formal sector with children. (...)
The Expansion of Cash Transfers in Chile and its Challenges: Ethical Family Income
(2012) Cecchini, Simone; Robles, Claudia; Vargas, Luis Hernán
In the last decade Chile has attracted renewed interest for its innovative social protection policies and programmes, such as the Chile Solidario system to overcome extreme poverty (launched in 2002), the special plan for Universal Access with Explicit Guarantees (Plan de Acceso Universal con Garantías Explícitas, AUGE) to ensure access to healthcare (2004), the Basic Solidarity Pension (Pensión Básica Solidaria, PBS)—the cornerstone of the 2008 pension reform—and the system of Chile Grows With You (Chile Crece Contigo, 2006) (Robles, 2011). These programmes were driven by the centre-left government Coalition of Parties for Democracy (Concertación de Partidos por la Democracia), which governed the country from its return to democracy in 1990 until 2010. (...)
The Evolution of the Middle Class in Latin America
(2014) Tornarolli, Leopoldo
Latin American countries have always been characterised by relatively high levels of income inequality, even taking into accounttheir degree of economic development. If such ‘excess inequality’ is combined with the fact that these are mostly middle-incomeand low-income countries, it can be understood that, in general, the middle class has not historically represented a significantproportion of the population in many countries in the region.
The Evolution of Income Distribution in Latin America 2001–2011
(2014) Tornarolli, Leopoldo
Latin America has historically been considered one of the regions with the highest levels of socio-economic inequalities in the world. All countries in the region are characterised by high levels of inequality as regards the distribution of income, consumption, land, access to education and basic services, as well as other socio-economic variables. This situation has been well documented in several studies, most of them covering just a single Latin American country. However, the lack of reliable and comparable microdata has always been an obstacle to produce analysis at the regional level. Nevertheless, there are some studies which assess the evolution of income distribution in Latin America as a whole by aggregating comparable data from single countries. These studies all reached similar conclusions on the relatively high level of inequality in the region. (…)
The Employment-to-Population Ratio as an Indicator of Participation and Inclusiveness
(2013) Ramos, Raquel Almeida; Rühl, Daniela
The concept of inclusive growth has been broadly used in the last decade to indicate a growth strategy or result that involves both sharing the benefits of and participation in the economic process (see Ranieri and Ramos, 2013). Despite the broad reference to this concept in policy analysis and policymaking, attempts to measure how inclusive a growth pattern is have been limited, largely owing to a lack of consensus on its concept, to problems in finding appropriate measures and the unavailability of data. Ramos, Ranieri and Lammens (2013) suggest a methodology for measuring the inclusiveness of economies and of the growth process seen over a time period using an index, the IG Index. This would be based on two dimensions: the sharing of benefits, as indicated by poverty and income inequality; and participation, with the employment-to-population ratio (EPR) as a proxy. (…)
The Desayunos Escolares programme as a public food policy in Mexico
(2022) Figueiredo, Nicole
School feeding programmes are multifaceted schemes that make it possible to break the cycle of hunger and poverty, contributing to better learning and boosting social, economic and cultural development, especially when linked with other social rights programmes. This Policy Research Brief examines the framework and operation of Mexico’s ‘School Breakfasts’ (Desayunos Escolares) programme.
The Brazilian Adult Literacy Programme: a brief overview and possible areas of research
(2016) Tufani, Claudia
"In 2015 the International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth (IPC-IG), in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Brazilian Ministry of Education (Ministério da Educação—MEC) and Maceió's Bureau of Education (Secretaria Municipal de Educação—SEMED/Maceió), launched a project aimed at reducing illiteracy rates among adults in the city of Maceió. The municipality was chosen because it is the capital of the state of Alagoas, which has the highest adult illiteracy rates in the country (24 per cent). Maceió has a population of almost 1 million people, and its illiteracy rate among adults in 2015 was 8.3 per cent, which is around 0.5 points higher than the national average (Osório et al., forthcoming)". (…)

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