Notes on Inequality and Poverty in Brazil: Current Situation and Challenges
Nathalie Beghin

Brazil is one of the most unequal countries in the world. The paper analyses the causes of this inequality in terms of Brazil’s development process, which has traditionally ‘managed poverty’ without making efforts to promote change in the socio-economic order: what the author terms ‘conservative modernisation’. Accordingly, universal education and social security were not prioritised, and urban segregation, rural exclusion, and regressive taxation were reinforced. Since 2001, levels of inequality and extreme poverty in Brazil have fallen, the result of various socioeconomic factors. The paper particularly notes the positive impact of policies supporting wealth redistribution, such as increases in the minimum wage, expansion in social security coverage, and support for small-scale agriculture. Yet, a stubborn concentration of income, wealth, and assets amongst a minority remains. The author concludes that further progress will require radical urban, land, and fiscal reforms, along with greater political efforts to combat gender and racial discrimination.

This background paper was written as a contribution to the development of From Poverty to Power: How Active Citizens and Effective States Can Change the World, Oxfam International 2008. It is published in order to share widely the results of commissioned research and programme experience. The views it expresses are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Oxfam International or its affiliate organisations.

Brazil as a ‘Belindia’: a large, poor India coexisting with a small, rich Belgium 1
Brazil is one of the most unequal nations in the world, although it is one of the wealthiest. According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), income inequalities as measured by the GINI index 2 are higher only than those of some very poor African countries such as Sierra Leone, Swaziland, Lesotho