Brazil

A New Mechanism for South-South Knowledge

In my previous blog entry, I mentioned the expected growing engagement between Brazil and Sub-Saharan African countries in 2012, to exchange knowledge and further economic and social development.

Doubling down on early childhood development in Latin America and the Caribbean

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Centro Aeiotú, Bogotá. / Foto: Yanina Budkin

Two years after the World Bank joined forces with Shakira and ALAS to create the Early Childhood Initiative, a happy second birthday for the program will mean millions of happier birthdays for children throughout the region.

About 5 million children and their mothers are already enjoying the benefits of this initiative which has seen investments of $400 million—more than double what we expected by this stage, and $100 million more than the total forecast for the program overall.

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Africa: In search of the Brazilian economic miracle

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África: en busca del milagro económico brasileño

During the second half of 2011, relations between Africa and Brazil continued to flourish as part of the historic trade, cultural and economic rapprochement of the two economic juggernauts. Specifically, African governments asked for more financing from the South American country to implement development projects, according to Brazil’s National Bank of Economic and Social Development (BNDES).

Key reasons for intensifying this relationship include the fact that Brazil is now the world’s sixth-largest economy (after China, the United States, France, Germany and Japan) and that it has become a major player in South-South cooperation.

Unemployment rates are falling—but what about youth and women?

Persistently high unemployment rates continue to trouble policymakers in developed and developing countries alike—but the recent Job Trends report brings some good news. After successive years of disappointing labor market performance, several countries in Eastern Europe may finally be turning the corner. These countries suffered most during the financial crisis, so the recovery in job creation is much needed to boost family incomes. In the rest of the developing world, the headlines are positive even while we see some moderation in employment and wage growth in Latin America and East Asia.

I have two concerns at this stage. I suspect most observers of the world economy share my first concern that the incipient recovery is fragile, given the continuing economic turmoil in Europe. But I am also concerned with what’s happening with specific groups, such as youth and women. I have a hunch that the recovery is and will be uneven with youth, women and the less skilled having a harder time finding jobs—even if aggregate numbers show steady gains. The crisis hit young workers hard, particularly young men, and countries are dealing with long-term consequences. Unfortunately, few countries know what’s happening with groups of workers because the data are not collected routinely or if they are, the results are available only with a relatively long lag time.

Where recent data are available, the story is mixed. Although youth unemployment remains alarmingly high at 20-30 percent,

Poor Region Rich in Musical Talent of Youth

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There’s a small treasure in Brazil’s state of Rio Grande do Norte. It’s “The Sao Tome Philharmonic”- an orchestra rich in youthful talent located in the country’s impoverished North East.

Rise of Non-Tariff Protectionism amid Global Uncertainty

A troubling phenomenon is occurring in large, emerging economies: the gates are closing. Governments, skittish about global economic trends, are introducing new policies to limit imports and exports. The aim is to protect domestic industry in tough times, but the tools they are using threaten to make their economic problems worse.

A December World Bank analysis documents a trend of creeping protectionism in countries such as Argentina, Brazil and Indonesia – all countries with burgeoning industry. Instead of tariffs, other, more indirect policies are being used to hinder free commerce between countries. The Bank analysis, based on World Trade Organization (WTO) monitoring reports and data from the Global Trade Alert, a network of think tanks around the globe, found that the number of non-tariff measures (NTMs) –including quotas, import licensing requirements and discriminatory government procurement rules –showed an increasing trend in the first two years post-2008, and rose sharply in 2011. India, China, Indonesia, Argentina, Russia and Brazil together accounted for almost half of all the new NTMs imposed by countries world-wide.

Brazil and Africa: Bridging the Atlantic

Linked in the distant past through colonial-era trade enterprises, Brazil and Africa are becoming close partners again. More than two centuries after establishing a slave trade route across the Atlantic, both regions are again re-engaging, this time to exchange knowledge and further economic and social development.

Sub-Saharan African countries are looking to replicate Brazil’s successes in boosting agricultural production and exports, and private investments, which have made Brazil a key economic player in the international arena. This is no coincidence. The world is going though rapid changes, resulting in a new financial architecture, with emerging economies and countries in the South increasingly participating and influencing global decisions.

Can Africa become the next Brazil?

Brazil and Africa, new partners

Linked in the distant past through colonial-era trade enterprises, Brazil and Africa are becoming close partners again. More than two centuries after establishing a slave trade route across the Atlantic, both regions are again re-engaging, this time around to exchange knowledge and potentiate economic and social development.

Sub-Saharan African countries are looking to replicate Brazil’s successes in boosting agriculture production and exports, and private investments, which have made Brazil a key economic player in the international arena.

Paying Teachers to Perform: The Impact of Bonus Pay in Pernambuco, Brazil

I recently spoke with Barbara Bruns, lead education economist to the LAC region, about an impact evaluation she is managing on teacher performance pay in Pernambuco, Brazil.

Across the world, teacher’s salaries are almost universally determined by educational background, training, or years of experience, rather than performance. Yet a growing body of research shows that these measures are poor proxies for a teacher’s actual effectiveness in the classroom. They show surprisingly little correlation with teachers’ ability to raise their students’ learning.

Are Services the Trade of the Future?

Earth hits 7 billion mark, Brazil’s clinics provide hope to the poor

As the world’s population hits today the 7 billion mark, unleashing mixed emotions across the globe, Latin America can consider itself lucky that overcrowding is not that big of a deal in our neck of the woods.

Or is it? Experts point out that while the region’s share of the world’s population is a mere 8% -or 560 million- a great concern is that the vast majority of those people –up to 75%- live in cities, leading to overstressed basic services, such as healthcare. My colleague James Martone of the Broadcast Unit, went to Northern Brazil to film a project about a community that has found innovative ways to provide healthcare for the poor.

Surveying ICT use in education in Brazil

Brazilian students queuing for their daily bread -- will their daily Internet be far behind? An on-going series in the New York Times ('Grading the digital school') is exploring the impact of educational technology programs in U.S. schools. One recent article in this series noted that "Hope and enthusiasm are soaring here. But not test scores." This phenomenon is not limited to schools in rich countries like the United States, of course:

"Although the government has invested resources in ensuring the broad use of ICT in education, the results of this use in meeting the goals and targets of educational programs are, however, virtually unknown."

This statement, which could apply to scores of countries around the world, can be found near the very start of TIC Educação 2010 ("ICT Education 2010"), a fascinating new survey on the use of ICTs in Brazilian schools.

Poor Region Rich in Musical Talent of Youth

There’s a small treasure in Brazil’s state of Rio Grande do Norte. It’s “The Sao Tome Philharmonic”- an orchestra rich in youthful talent located in the country’s impoverished North East.

The orchestra operates out of a small cultural center in Sao Tome, where it offers free music classes and instruments to the many low-income youth in the city and surrounding areas. Many of the newly- trained musicians are young women.

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Brazil: fighting poverty with music

Brazil's celebrated love for music is playing a key role in the future of many underprivileged kids, especially women. But it isn't samba, forro, funk or any Hollywood-inspired dance moving thousands of Brazilian kids towards success. It is, instead, classical music.

Thanks to a community project supported by the World Bank more than 200 community associations receive funding to finance lessons and instruments for aspiring young musicians –many of whom have found jobs in philharmonic orchestras as a result of this training. Cameraman Romel Simon and I visited the city of Sao Tome in North Eastern Brazil to document the progress of this initiative, as part of a series of videos for our gender campaign.

Prospects Weekly: Ongoing debt-limit debate and disappointing growth reports weighed on the U.S. dollar

European heads of state agreed on a €109 bn second financial package for Greece today. About one-third of the financing will be covered by debt swaps or rollovers by private bondholders. Aside from improving the terms of existing multilateral loans, the leaders also agreed to expand the European Financial Stability Facility’s mandate, including authority to buy bonds on the secondary market.

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