Bolsa Familia Program: funding families for development

Abstract

This case is about the implementation of Bolsa Familia Program, a cash income transfer program that conditions poor families' enrolment to specific requirements by the recipients (commonly known as conditional cash transfers). After a description of program antecedents, including local policies that inspired the national program, the author analyzes the various stages of program implementation, identifying difficulties, criticisms and solutions found by the federal government. Afterwards, the author looks at program results in what concerns poverty alleviation and income redistribution, and it analyzes the expansion of public space that followed the Bolsa Familia program. The case exemplifies a policy experience that fosters the students' reflection and analysis with respect to the design and development of complex social policy programs, and it may unfold in new research on Bolsa Familia, its critical factors and determinants of success.