Productive Inclusion

Most of the families living in poverty and social vulnerability in Brazil consist of self-employed, poorly qualified workers with only a few years of schooling and no connection with the formal jobs market. This means that family incomes are generally not only low but also subject to substantial fluctuations. An institutional poverty reduction strategy is needed to address this issue.

In Brazil, assisting vulnerable families to access the formal jobs market and generate higher incomes are regarded as a productive inclusion action that falls within the scope of the basic social assistance and protection services provided under Law No. 8,742 / 1993, known as the Organic Law on Social Assistance.

Productive inclusion actions focus on families living in either urban or rural areas. The design and implementation of public policies are therefore tailored to address these two different environments.

In urban areas, measures for inserting workers in the world of work involve boosting entrepreneurship and encouraging people to seek formal employment and/or occupations based on self-managing cooperatives or groups. Official incentives include offering vocational training courses and opportunities for worker/market mediation.

Meanwhile, initiatives directed towards Brazil´s rural areas mainly concentrate on family farming activities, including supplying technical support to improve agricultural production and ensure the ready availability of inputs.

These poverty reduction strategies at the three levels of government – federal, state and municipal – are particularly important in a country where, according to the PNAD / IBGE 2015, only half the population has completed elementary education.

The WWP Case Studies series contains papers that focus exclusively on the productive inclusion topic, providing information on the kinds of initiatives that can help Brazilian families in different parts of the country to fend better for themselves and, in the process, overcome their vulnerabilities and enhance their quality of life.

The series also highlights the challenges faced by public managers to implement these policies, as well as the limitations of each program and intervention carried out. All the documents are accompanied by a dynamic, explanatory video.

Urban Productive Inclusion

 

Rural Productive Inclusion

Fomento Program

The Rural Productive Activities Oriented Cash Transfer – Fomento Program – incentivizes small rural farmers to improve their animal husbandry and agricultural production practices by offering non-refundable resource transfers and technical assistance and rural extension (ATER) services.