Spatial inclusion in

Africa: Learning

from the Brazilian

Experience

Dr Edmund Amann,

IRIBA, University of

Manchester

www.brazil4africa.org

Establish well-targeted cash transfer programmes:

Well targeted cash transfers reduce the divide. How?

• Increase rural incomes and encourage school participation rates

• Adult labour force participation rates rise with programme

coverage

• Evidence of stronger effects in poorer districts

Invest in agricultural technology:

Effective absorption of foreign agricultural technologies and creation of indigenous

ones can boost agricultural productivity and revive the fortunes of rural areas.

Invest in vocational training:

Brazil has a well developed vocational training system (SENAI). This helps to:

• Increase rural productivity and earnings

• Provide scope for occupational mobility and migration to areas where skills are in demand

• Provide the basis for structural diversification in the rural economy

The distributional importance of positive change in the rural labour markets

Improvements in agricultural productivity, training and other structural factors underpin improvements in rural wages. This has wider effects:

• The Gini coefficient for the Brazil’s distribution of household per capita income fell by 12%, from 0.59 in 1995 to 0.52 in 2012.

• Around 50% of this decline can be attributed to changes in the distribution of labour earnings.

• New findings from the IRIBA project highlight the importance of demographic, spatial and institutional factors in explaining the decrease in earnings inequality in Brazil.

• The changes in pay structure can be understood as declines in various different wage premia:

• This was characterized by reductions in the gender wage gap, the racial wage gap and the urban-rural wage gap (with wages rising faster in rural areas).

Invest in infrastructure:

This is a critical area. Appropriate investment can:

• Provide better market access for rural enterprises

• Reduce input costs

• Address legacy of underinvestment and misconfiguration of

infrastructure for rural needs

Brazil has launched an ambitious infrastructure programme: PACII

• While majority of projects have been completed, investment in certain critical subsectors including urban transportation and sanitation, have met with significant delay

• We found that if Brazilian states increase their spending by 1%, the regional GDP growth rate would increase by 0. 11% per year.

• Investment in transport infrastructure is likely to yield better results than investments in communications or energy

Source: Brazilian Government

Read more at:

www.Brazil4Africa.org