Brazil

This document is part of a series of reports by the World Bank on Brazil's potential to foment more robust economic growth and reduce poverty and inequality. The main... Show More + focus of this report is on the interrelated fiscal circumstances facing Brazil, with an emphasis on public sector spending. The report is divided into two volumes. This first volume distills the essential stylized facts (that are described in detail in volume two) and focuses on key recommendations (discussed in detail in Chapter 5 of the second volume). These recommendations highlight not only areas where improvements could be achieved, but also suggest options on how to go about implementing such modifications, based in part on international experience. The second volume of the report contains: more detail on these stylized facts; a first attempt to compile data for the entire non-financial public sector; quantitative analysis of the fiscal impacts on growth using a dynamic general equilibrium model and a simulation based on that model; specific examples of key budget rigidities; and, as an example, a review of road transport spending with a view to strengthening the impacts of this infrastructure spending. Other related World Bank reports concentrate on social security, health, financial markets, infrastructure, poverty, and the issues surrounding the monitoring and evaluation of public sector services in general. Volume one of this report also reflects some of the preliminary findings in these other reports. Show Less -

The ratings for the Second National Environmental Project of Brazil were as follows: outcomes were satisfactory, risk to development outcome was substantial, Bank performance... Show More + was satisfactory, and Borrower performance was also satisfactory. Lessons learned from this project included: (a) the reaffirmation of the viability of a decentralized approach to environmental management. By transferring decisions and implementation down to the State level, the Federal Government was able to accomplish several important goals: (1) leverage policy and regulatory change at the State level; (2) generate enthusiasm, energy and counterpart funding for state selected priorities; (3) build capacity for environmental management at the State level; (b) even in a nominally decentralized system, there may be some resistance by central government (i.e. Ministry of Finance) to allow decentralized decision making. Often this resistance comes indirectly in the form of fiscal controls; (c) the importance of building an effective communications component into the project in that success of a project may often depend on its capacity to identify key stakeholders and to communicate with them effectively, in both directions; (d) the lack of a comprehensive baseline to measure actual improvements in environmental quality through the implementation of subprojects at the state level is an important lesson from Second National Environmental Project; (e) the delays encountered in the signing of contracts owing to slow administrative procedures by UNDP: Ministry of Finance has relied on UNDP as a service provider for letting contracts, which often experienced delays affecting project implementation; and (f) the flexible methodology provided by Ministry of Finance for determining the State's environmental priorities which was often not closely monitored and which opened the door to arbitrary decisions. Show Less -

Amid a shifting policymaking environment from private to public, volume one of this report discusses how public policies could attract more and better private investments.... Show More + In attracting back private capital, this report argues that Brazil must do three things. First, it must eliminate remaining regulatory bottlenecks and policy uncertainties in selected sectors. Secondly, design infrastructure concessions to avoid "excessive" renegotiations while simultaneously guaranteeing an adequate rate of return for investors and protecting consumers' welfare. And finally, strengthen the quality of the regulators for technically sound and coherent decision-making processes. Volume two is the background report and looks at infrastructure statistics in Brazil and international benchmarks, regulatory policy issues, contract negotiations, and gives conclusions and policy implications on these topics. Show Less -

This report on Brazil's health sector is the result of collaboration between the World Bank's Latin American and Caribbean PREM Public Sector Group and the LAC Human... Show More + Development Network. This report examines how particular managerial innovations have been applied in two sub-national jurisdictions in Brazil to deliver improved public services from available resources. The health sector in Brazil absorbs approximately four percent of GDP, and its spending level is likely to rise further given the country's demographic and epidemiological profiles. Thus, improving the efficiency of public health spending can have effects beyond the quality of health services, as uncontrolled spending growth could affect the overall health of the country's public finance and macroeconomic stability in the long run. The two cases of public management innovations examined in this report demonstrate two divergent approaches to performance improvement in Brazil's public sector. Sao Paulo has introduced organizational innovation through contracting out hospital management to qualified NGOs in the form of "Social Organizations." Curitiba, in contrast, managed to strengthen performance of its primary care system within the existing human resource regime. In both cases, a central challenge is to motivate staff and align their incentives with the government's broader policy objectives. The case studies explore two types of management tools: i) those that aim to align the expectations of principal and agent and reduce information asymmetry, and ii) those that provide direct incentives to tie an employee's or manager's behavior to performance outputs. The two types are not intrinsically incompatible, but knowing how to combine these instruments is more an art than a science. This study describes the instruments that have proved important to improve service delivery in Sao Paulo and Curitiba. It attempts to explain why these instruments are important, and how they work in combination with others. Show Less -

This Country Assistance Strategy Progress Report for Brazil assesses progress at mid-term, and steers the Brazil-Bank Group partnership toward ensuring the sustainability... Show More + of recent gains. In particular, this CAS Progress Report (PR) refocuses Bank Group efforts on the most challenging core of issues confronting Brazil today: (i) making recently renewed growth sustainable - economically, environmentally and socially; and (ii) safeguarding the sustainability of fiscal adjustment through greater public sector efficiency and a prudent mix of other macroeconomic policies. Hallmarks of the strategy going forward will be tackling more ambitious development challenges - while simultaneously recognizing the inherently modest role the Bank Group plays in a country the size of Brazil. This will of necessity lead to greater selectivity and concentration of Bank Group support. IBRD and IFC have developed closer partnerships over time in support of the private sector on key issues such as agribusiness, infrastructure, access to finance, and improving the business enabling environment (BEE) to maximize the impact of the WBG assistance. Show Less -