[Brazil] Deal with extreme poverty, Da Silva tells South Africa

from The Independent On Line

World leaders should give priority to eradicating hunger and extreme poverty, newly re-elected Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said in a message delivered in South Africa on Thursday.

His message was read out at the Basic Income Earth Network congress at the University of Cape Town by Brazilian senator Eduardo Suplicy, who said he intended to send a copy to President Thabo Mbeki.

"It is unacceptable that the scourge of hunger still persists, given all available resources and the world food output," said Lula, who was re-elected at the weekend with 58 million votes, representing 61 percent of the electorate.

Just over 11 million poor families in Brazil, representing a quarter of the country's population, benefit from the "bolsa familia", a basic income grant which, Lula said in his message, allowed them to "eat properly".

"Throughout my political life, I have always been concerned with the idea of the right of everyone to eat at least three meals a day," he said.

"Debates such as the ones that will take place in this meeting are commendable. They will certainly inspire political leaders to implement measures according to the resolutions to be adopted."

In South Africa, campaigners have been pushing for a universal basic income grant for several years, a proposal which has been rejected by Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, who says it will cost an annual R83-billion and bankrupt the country.

Lula said in the four years since the introduction of the programme, there had been a measurable reduction in levels of extreme poverty, thousands of families had "ascended to middle class", and that as a spinoff, the viability of many municipalities had been strengthened.

Suplicy, one of the architects of Brazil's grant programme and author of books on the subject, told Sapa the programme had resulted in measurable reduction of Gini coefficient inequality in income distribution.

He said he would forward Lula's letter, along with a letter he himself had written, to Mbeki through the Brazilian ambassador in Pretoria.

"I am sure that Brazil and South Africa have much to learn from each other. That's the main purpose that I am here," he said.

"South Africa has quite similar problems (to) Brazil. Both countries are considered to be industrialised countries... but both countries have very deep inequalities and huge social problems."

Dr Michael Samson, research director of the independent Cape Town-based Economic Policy Research Institute, told the conference that a basic income grant was the logical extension of existing grants such as the old age pension and child support grant, and studies had clearly shown the country could afford it.

Millions of poor people in South Africa did not have access to grants because they did not have vulnerable individuals such as children or the elderly in their households.

"South Africa's safety net has a very loose weave," he said. "Millions of people are falling out because they don't qualify."

He said the notion that a basic income grant created dependency reflected prejudice and not evidence.

People often did not have the resources they needed to look for work, a move which was a risky investment in a country with 40 percent unemployment.

Grants also bolstered the economic power of the working poor by enabling them to better negotiate decent work.

Surveys in South Africa had shown that unemployed people in households getting a child support grant or social pension were more likely to look for work than those in households without grants.

Samson also warned against making grants conditional on schooling, immunisation or clinic attendance, as has been done in some countries, saying this reflected an ideology that held the poor were poor because of their behaviour.

In Africa, with its structural poverty, people were poor because of circumstances they could not change. - Sapa