Brazil takes a historic HDI leap with focused planning and public spending

Key points

• Amid a heated debate about Brazil’s flagship cash-transfer scheme last week, a United Nations report revealed that the country had made a giant leap on the Human Development Index (HDI) scale.
• The controversy erupted after a television presenter, Luciano Huck, said that Bolsa Família programme “discourages the poor from working”.
• As Mr. Huck was being fact-checked on social media, the UN Development Programme report revealed that the scheme had played a key role in Brazil raising its HDI score from 0.744 in 2012 to 0.805 in 2024. On the UN scale, which ranges from 0 to 1, the score of 0.805 places Brazil in the category of “very high human development.” Among the Afro-Brazilians, the HDI grew by 10.3% over 12 years, almost twice the rate for the Whites.
• “Achieving this positive result is not by chance;
• it is the result of strong public policies and an inclusive national project...