Bolsa Família Marks 22 Years with Renewed Focus on Childhood and Poverty Relief

Launched on October 20, 2003, Bolsa Família emerged from Brazil's Fome Zero initiative to combat hunger and poverty and has since become the world's largest conditional cash transfer program. Initially aimed at addressing the social crisis that left around 50 million Brazilians in poverty, Bolsa Família integrated programs like Bolsa Escola and Auxílio Gás, focusing on conditionalities linked to health and education. By 2014, its success helped Brazil exit the United Nations Hunger Map and inspired over 60 countries to adopt similar policies. However, in October 2021, the program was discontinued and replaced by Auxílio Brasil, which briefly increased beneficiaries due to electoral incentives but lacked structural measures to reduce poverty sustainably. This led Brazil to return to the UN Hunger Map in 2022, with 33.1 million people facing severe food insecurity. With Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's return to the presidency in 2023, Bolsa Família was relaunched with a renewed emphasis on family needs and child development, including a monthly benefit of R$150 for children under six, and additional support for families with pregnant women or young adolescents. The program now supports over 19 million families and has helped more than 1.3 million families exit poverty due to improved economic conditions. It combines cash transfers with access to quality public services, aiming to break the cycle of poverty comprehensively and sustainably.