Brazil

Brazil has put significant resources into developing its higher education system over the past three decades. As a result, a system has evolved in which some institutions... Show More + have achieved recognizable excellence in teaching and research, while, more generally, the majority of institutions have struggled to provide relevant, quality education at reasonable cost. As a whole, the system has a number of large challenges to overcome. Brazil has a low enrolment rate in higher education. Rigidities in funding and regulation create strong disincentives for cost-efficiency or quality. The quality of instruction and the relevance of the curriculum are below desirable standards. The Government of Brazil has a three-pronged strategy for improving higher education: a) to change the legal framework for the sector; b) to change to a performance-based funding system that supports (Ministerio da Educacao e do Esporto's (MEC) policy goals of improved access, quality, and efficiency; and c) to improve capacity for evaluating quality of instruction and performance of institutions. The challenge is to focus attention on those changes that will promote the greatest progress in equitable access, quality, relevance, and efficiency. In the last section, the report recommends ways to improve access, quality, and efficiency. Show Less -

This report is about agriculture in Brazil, the natural resources of Brazil, and the people who live in rural Brazil. It surveys and analyses the policies that the... Show More + government has adopted towards this interactive complex. And it suggests modifications in those policies that would better achieve the goals that the Government wishes to achieve. These goals are: (a) virgorous growth in agriculture; (b) reduction in rural poverty; and (c) sustainable use of natural resources. Brazil has undertaken major institutional and economic reforms over the last few years, many in agriculture and natural resource management. But the process is incomplete and the hard-won gains are in danger of reversal if reforms are not completed. Further, a number of policies put in place in the past have outlived their usefulness or are having unintended side effects that are costly to agricultural growth and rural development. In other cases the type of intervention seems appropriate. This report documents a large number of interventions used by the government to manage agriculture, rural development and natural resource use. It comments on the appropriateness of each and, where appropriate, suggests alternatives. The broad view taken by the report allows it to identify outcomes that cut across the different goals of policy so that interaction between policies and concerns that are systemic can be identified. Show Less -

Agriculture's share in output, employment, and trade has declined sharply. This report identifies and analyzes a number of principal causes that lie behind this performance,... Show More + including : demographic factors; the abundance of land; technological innovation; low educational attainment levels of the agricultural population; changes in international trade; and government policy interventions, including investments. Through various policies, the agricultural sector has been implicitly taxed, with export crops registering higher rates of implicit taxation than food crops (with the exception of wheat which has been heavily subsidized by the Government). Partially offsetting this discrimination against agriculture, are various subsidies : subsidized credit, wheat subsidy; tax shelters and fiscal incentives, and the minimum price program. However, these programs have mainly benefitted large producers, thereby widening individual and regional income differentials. To address these problems, a number of policy recommendations are made : i) accelerate the contraction of official credit in the areas of rural credit and taxes; ii) liberalize rural savings deposit rates; iii) abolish fiscal incentives; and iv) revise the income tax code to ensure that agricultural income does not escape taxation. Show Less -

The purpose of this report is to review the current federal programs for rural development and water resource use which are being used or could be used to help small... Show More + farmers in Northeast Brazil. This assessment, interim in nature, is part of the continuing dialogue between the Government of Brazil and the World Bank on poverty alleviation and rural development strategies for the region, and on the nature and extent of the Bank's participation in rural development efforts in the next few years. These programs build on over 90 years of direct federal involvement in the region. The federal government has invested considerable resources and has tried many different strategies to stimulate development of the rural Northeast. Such diverse actions as massive dam-building and large irrigation projects, crop-specific support, promotion of agro-industry, and resettlement projects have been initiated. Initial efforts were based on the belief that the problem could be solved through engineering approaches. Gradually, however, the socio-economic origins of poverty became more widely acknowledged, and the problems of development accepted as more complicated. Show Less -

This special report on Brazil focuses on population dynamics and on the development of human resources or, from a somewhat different point of view, the provision of... Show More + basic services in the broader context of development. Its aim is to facilitate the search for effective policies and efficient programs. The specific objectives are: (i) to assess the historical evolution of various socioeconomic indicators; (ii) to relate the evolution of these indicators to a broader historical framework of population and development; (iii) to analyze available data and estimate the quantitative relations between variables pertaining to population dynamics; human resource development; and labor markets, income distribution, and basic macroeconomic variables; and (iv) to articulate these quantitative relations in simple simulation models and to analyze costs and outcomes of selected policy interventions. The report concludes that the benefits of rapid economic growth have not been distributed evenly and that meeting the basic needs of the entire population is a political rather than economic issue. Show Less -

Despite an impressive growth rate over the past three years, Brazil remains a poor country with a very unequal income distribution and extensive absolute poverty. The... Show More + government is convinced that the poverty and dualism that afflict the country can be ameliorated only if high rates of growth are sustained, although external factors may necessitate transition to a slower growth rate. Urbanization and industrialization have placed a particularly heavy strain on social and economic infrastructure in Sao Paulo. Investment strategy 1973-75 aims to decentralize economic activity, and programs have been designed to broaden distribution of the benefits of economic growth, particularly in education, housing, and sanitary services. Regional development programs are heavily oriented toward transport infrastructure and provision of credit to commercial agriculture and agroindustry. Rapid regional growth should continue, but unless high levels of investment are sustained, population pressure will outstrip gains. Volume III discusses Sao Paulo in detail. Show Less -

Brazilian farmers appear to be increasing output at a slower rate than in earlier years, but the farmer growth rate can be restored and exceeded if appropriate steps... Show More + are taken. A strengthening of current policies with some reorientation is suggested rather than any major policy changes. In order to alleviate the problem of high costs of inputs relative to prices, Government should provide farmers with minimum price alternatives until market and transport facilities can be improved. The agricultural credit system should be strengthened and expanded. Taxation should encourage efficient production and discourage wasteful use of resources. Transport and storage facilities need to be improved considerably. Preinvestment work needs further strengthening and coordination to assure more effective use of public funds, and heavy investment in education is of prime importance. Show Less -

Brazilian farmers appear to be increasing output at a slower rate than in earlier years, but the farmer growth rate can be restored and exceeded if appropriate steps... Show More + are taken. A strengthening of current policies with some reorientation is suggested rather than any major policy changes. In order to alleviate the problem of high costs of inputs relative to prices, Government should provide farmers with minimum price alternatives until market and transport facilities can be improved. The agricultural credit system should be strengthened and expanded. Taxation should encourage efficient production and discourage wasteful use of resources. Transport and storage facilities need to be improved considerably. Preinvestment work needs further strengthening and coordination to assure more effective use of public funds, and heavy investment in education is of prime importance. Show Less -

The Brazilian economy in the post-war period has undergone more profound transformations in structure as well as policies than most other developing countries. Most... Show More + of the 'fifties were characterized by stagnating exports, rapid import substitution and in the second half of the decade the large special stimulus provided by the building of Brasilia. The combination of these factors resulted in a relatively rapid expansion of domestic production together with an annual inflation which until 1959 varied between 14 and 26 percent. Thereafter it accelerated steadily, reaching more than 100 percent in the early months of 1964. During the next few years it should be possible for Brazil to resume economic growth while at the same time achieving substantial further reductions in the rate of price inflation. After having achieved an average annual growth rate of 6 percent between 1950 and 1962, gross domestic product (GDP) on average expanded by 3.3 percent annually in the next 4 years. It seems reasonable to expect an average growth of about 5.5 percent between 1966 and 1971; industrial production which in the period of rapid expansion had grown at more than 9 percent annually, should resume its leading role and increase by at least 7 percent per year while agriculture may well grow by some 5 percent annually, i.e., fractionally more than in the past. Output growth of this general order is likely to require a continuation of the past trend in investment: gross domestic capital formation grew at annual average rates of 9 percent between 19.50 and 1962 and of 10 percent between 1962 and 1966; in the latter year it seems to have been about 15.6 percent of GDP. Show Less -

The mission's value and quantity projections for exports, along with the data relating to the recent past. With respect to coffee, sugar, cocoa, meat, rice, corn, iron... Show More + ore and manganese ore, which account for about 85 percent of the total value of exports, the mission has made explicit assumptions regarding export prices and quantities. Between 1950-514 and `462-63, the Santos 4 price on the New York market declined from an average of nearly 60 cents to about 314 cents. Although the price rose sharply in 1964 because of frost and fire damage in Brazil, world imports showed no change from the level of the previous year because it is believed that roasters bought heavily, expecting the price to continue upward. The projection of cotton exports is based on the following assumption: a price of 25 cents per lb., i.e., $590/ton f.o.b. throughout, roughly equivalent to the current price level and that over the projection period the rate of growth in world consumption and trade would tend to decelerate to the rate of world population growth (approximately 1.7 percent per year). The limit to the future expansion of cot-ton exports would not be the domestic production potential but international demand, and Brazil should be able to maintain its recent share of that demand, which has been about 7-8 percent in recent years. For Bahia cocoa beans the mission has assumed a price of 20 cents per pound or $440 per metric ton on the assumption that there is no international cocoa agreement by 1970. If the Producers' Alliance Agreement, which is currently effective, remains in force by 1970 and is able to maintain a price of approximately 21.4 cents per pound or $472 per metric ton, the mission's estimate will be on the low side. A corresponding price for cocoa butter may be, approximately $1,000 per ton when beans are around $440 a ton. Show Less -