BRIEFApril 27, 2023

Social Protection for Brazil of the Future

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Brazil has made significant advancements in the provision of social protection, including having the largest conditional cash transfer program in the world. However, the social protection system's breadth and reach are uneven, and it has only not fully address inequality and poverty. Brazil's social protection and labor systems can be reformed effectively to face the challenges the country will encounter over the next two decades stemming from the megatrends, while promoting social inclusion and shared prosperity.

The World Bank has been producing several policy notes and reports during the last 5 years to discuss reforms in the areas of social assistance, employment, and social insurance. However, larger benefits can be reaped by tackling multisectoral coordinated reforms. The note Social Protection for Brazil of the Future synthetizes previous work and explores the gains coming from such coordinated action. It offers 10 policy reforms proposals that can enable the country to take advantage of changes in the world of work, technology, and delivery systems, building back better than in the past.

Social Protection for Brazil of the Future: Preparing for Change With Inclusion and Resilience

Paving the way: 10 policy reforms proposals according to its targeting area

Social Assistance
- Consolidating fragmented transfer programs for working families
- Extending economic inclusion to cover rural areas
- Developing an adaptive and responsive strategy to deal with climate change
- Allocating new functions to the CRAS
- Extending coverage of early childhood development services by adopting new ways to deliver them
Labor
- Reducing the differentials in the tax and contribution rates for workers in different legal forms of working
- Reforming unemployment protection programs for formal workers in the current and future labor markets
- Introducing complementary income volatility management programs for informal workers
- Expanding, revamping, and retargeting active labor market programs
Social Insurance
- Reforming the minimum old age benefit and eliminating retirement age differences

Social Protection for Brazil of the future
This policy note explore the gains to be reaped from coordinated multisectoral policy reform to diminish poverty and increased shared prosperity in a fiscally sustainable manner and taking into account the new challenges posed by megatrends. It offers 10 policy reforms proposals that can enable the country to take advantage of changes in the world of work, technology, and delivery systems, building back better than in the past.

Brief Series - Social Assistance
Mitigating Poverty, Improving Resilience, Restoring Opportunity
Recent trends threaten to reverse years of poverty reduction. Social and labor protection policies have been central to Brazil's social progress, but their sustainability and impact are at risk. Political reforms can increase the inclusion and resilience of poor and vulnerable Brazilians without increasing fiscal costs.
The payment system used by Auxílio Emergencial: Introduction of the Digital Social Account, and the Banking of More than 100 million People in 9 months – Technical Note No. 2 (English)
This technical note aims at discussing the payment system used by the AE, that opened bank accounts to more than 100 million previously ‘unbanked’ people in 9 months and introduced Digital Social Savings Account to these population.
Challenges and Potentialities for Implementing Social Protection Responses to Emergency Through Decentralized Administration : Lessons from Brazil’s Auxilio Emergencial - Technical Note No. 3 (English)
This technical note aims at discussing the advantages and challenges in the implementation of emergency social policies in a decentralized arrangement: considerations about the AE in Brazil.
Coverage Profile of Brazil’s Auxílio Emergencial and Special Design Features for Protecting Women and Other Vulnerable Groups: Lessons from Brazil’s Auxílio Emergencial – Technical Note No. 4 (English)
This technical note aims at discussing the design features adopted by AE to women and other vulnerable groups, with a strong focus on traditional and specific population groups (GPTEs). The so-called GPTEs are a category composed of 15 groups that include indigenous populations, smallholding farmers, homeless persons, and livelihood setups that pose severe challenges for one’s access to social programs and services.
Auxílio Emergencial - Lessons from the Brazilian experience responding to COVID-19: Summary Note
The success of the program can be attributed both to its robustness and to its complex architecture, marked by innovations which should be analyzed by their integration potential in relation to regular social protection policies and measures to increase adaptation to the social protection system, both in Brazil and in other countries.
Sharing Lessons Learned from Brazil's Social Protection Response to COVID-19: Auxílio Emergencial Digital Accounts and Innovations in Payment Systems (Inglês)
This brief discusses the Auxílio Emergencial (AE) program in Brazil, which was designed as a temporary program to provide financial assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Brief Series - Labor
Balancing Stability and Transition: A First Assessment of Regra de Permanência in Bolsa Familia (English)
This technical note is a first assessment of the design of Regra de Permanência (RP) rule in Bolsa Familia (BF), which is the main regulation that governs the treatment of new income sources accrued by poor families in BF, and, in turn, affects their eligibility to remain in the program.
Enhancing Resilience of Low Income Workers in Brazil: Financial Instruments and Innovations
This note seeks to inform the design of a financial product and complementary actions that the government of Brazil could adopt to strengthen resilience of families in BF and Cadastro Único, particularly those working in the informal economy.
Enhancing Coverage and Cost-effectiveness of Brazil’s Unemployment Protection System: Insights from International Experience
The objective of the policy note is to inform reforms of the unemployment protection system of Brazil, through a comparison of its salient features with international benchmarks, and by taking stock of employment dynamics since the 2014 crisis.
Employment in Crisis: The Path to Better Jobs in a Post-Covid-19 Latin America
Brazil has experienced severe economic and social setbacks as a result of crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic. Its negative impact has been felt in professional careers, wage growth, and productivity. "EMPLOYMENT IN CRISIS" provides new evidence on the effects of crises on workers and businesses in different Latin American countries and suggests several responsive policies capable of promoting inclusive and long-term economic growth.
Skills and Jobs in Brazil: An Agenda for Youth
Skills and Jobs in Brazil: An Agenda for Youth is a new report focusing on the challenge of economic engagement among the Brazilian youth. In the context of a fast aging population, Brazil’s greatest economic opportunity is to increase its labor productivity, especially that of youth. This report documents important new facts about the extent of the youth economic disengagement, while at school and at work.
Brief Series - Social Insurance
Subnational Civil Servant Pension Schemes in Brazil: Context, History, and Lessons of Reform
This paper attempts to present an integrated view of RPPS pension schemes, their influence on subnational budgets, and their interaction with human resource policies.
Related
Opportunities for all – Brazil Policy Notes 2023
On this page, you will find Public Policy Notes, based on seven recent reports from this institution, aimed at policymakers and Brazilian society. This document presents the World Bank Group's overview of the main challenges that the country faces in this context and possible paths to follow to address them.
A fair adjustment: efficiency and equity of public spending in Brazil: Volume I: síntese - Overview
The purpose of this report is to provide an in-depth analysis of government spending, identify alternatives to reduce the fiscal deficit to a sustainable level, and at the same time consolidate the social gains achieved in previous decades. The main finding of our analysis is that some government programs benefit the rich more than the poor, in addition to not achieving their goals effectively. As a result, it would be possible to save part of the budget without hampering access to and quality of public services, benefiting the poorest sections of the population. The analysis is based on the best international practices and the review of the efficiency of spending by different government entities and programs.
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Bolsa Família: Changing the Lives of Millions
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