Brazil is a country that has a stronger inequality; while a small proportion of Brazilians have a huge amount of financial resources, another large portion of the population faces severe budget restrictions. Furthermore, according to an OECD study published in 2018, the descendants of low-income Brazilian families can take up to nine generations to reach the country’s average income. Putting these two aspects together, we can see that there are severe obstacles for individuals of new generations. The ones who are born in low-income families will face stronger difficulties to achieve higher levels of education and income than their parents faced.
Considering those issues, the great Brazilian challenge is to interrupt this repetition and association of results- economic, educational, or occupational- between parents and children in families that suffer shortages of financial and social resources. However, the important question is how to provide conditions for children to have a different reality from their parents, with more opportunities. In some families, the care providers do not even know how to change their children’s reality or are deprived of financial and health resources.
Nevertheless, children and young people cannot be punished for something they are not responsible for. For this reason, to have a more egalitarian society, the state must provide to all children and young people more opportunities through public policies. For instance, the Bolsa Família Program aims to generate more equality, as it transfers income and has conditionalities concerning health and education. Nonetheless, in some families, it is not enough, as inequality goes far beyond income.
According to IMDS a policy focused on social mobility needs to identify the community’s need and whether the solution is cement or a nursery school. In some cases, the need can be a health center or alternatives for young people on the verge of being captured by trafficking. Thus, public policies are needed to provide more equality in terms of health, social relationships, development of socioemotional skills, cognitive-behavioral therapy to assist in decision making, better housing conditions, violence prevention and technological inclusion.
Also, to have an effective public policy, whether in promoting equal opportunities and social mobility or other issues, it is essential that they are supported by science and evaluated continuously. Initially, a diagnosis of the shortcomings experienced in a context must be made, and before that, design the intervention and put it into practice as a pilot project. From its implementation, indicators must be created and monitored to enable the results to be accompanied. Impact assessment research should be developed, identifying whether the intervention is effective and comparing its costs and benefits.
Despite being complex and with visible results in the long run, this process is possible. If we look at other countries and even some Brazilian states, we find examples of successful public policies such as the Programa de Apoio ao Desenvolvimento Infantil in Ceará or the Becoming a Man in Chicago. Such policies can generate greater equality of opportunity for new generations and, consequently, more Brazil’s economic development.
References:
OECD. A Broken Social Elevator? How to Promote Social Mobility. Paris: OECD Publishing, 2018. Avaliable in: https://www.oecd.org/social/soc/Social-mobility-2018-Overview-MainFindings.pdf. Access in 12 Feb. 2020.
IMDS. Sem computador e internet, jovens mais pobres têm menos oportunidades, 2020. Avaliable in: https://imdsbrasil.org/conteudos/materias/05/sem-computador-e-internet-jovens-mais-pobres-tem-menos-oportunidades. Access in 10 Feb. 2020.
IMDS. Projetos sociais buscam reduzir abismos no acesso à tecnologia, 2020. Avaliable in: https://imdsbrasil.org/conteudos/materias/06/projetos-sociais-buscam-reduzir-abismos-no-acesso-a-tecnologia. Access in 11 Feb. 2020.
IMDS. As trilhas da mobilidade social, 2020. Avaliable in: https://imdsbrasil.org/conteudos/materias/01/as-trilhas-da-mobilidade-social. Access in 05 Feb. 2020.
IMDS. Uma construção realista do futuro, 2020. Avaliable in: https://imdsbrasil.org/conteudos/materias/02/uma-construcao-realista-do-futuro. Access in 05 Feb. 2020.
IMDS. Mobilidade social à luz das políticas públicas e da ciência, 2020. Avaliable in: https://imdsbrasil.org/conteudos/materias/03/mobilidade-social-a-luz-das-politicas-publicas-e-da-ciencia. Access in 05 Feb. 2020.