Brazil

Background

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Despite a firm commitment to ending poverty and hunger, the Brazilian government has kept a tight rein on social spending in order to meet its debt payments. Although there are some 62 million Brazilians under the age of 18, only a fraction of the national budget is allocated to programmes benefiting children. The gap between rich and poor is steep, and disparities between provinces are very large.

Issues facing children in Brazil

• Some 12 million children live in the semi-arid region comprising Brazil’s most vulnerable and impoverished states. Literacy, infant mortality and water coverage here are well below the national average.
• There are approximately 620,000 Brazilians living with HIV/AIDS. Bold government action has successfully slowed the epidemic, although prevalence is rising among young women. All patients are eligible for free antiretroviral treatment.
• Brazil is on its way to achieving universal primary education, but many schools do not successfully teach basic skills. 
• More than 500,000 babies go without birth registration each year, threatening their ability to realize many basic rights.
• Crime and violence are serious problems in parts of the country.

Activities and results for children

• UNICEF has awarded 146 municipalities in Brazil’s semi-arid region with the Seal of Approved Municipality, recognizing their achievements in improving the lives of children and adolescents. A total of 1,179 municipalities participated in the project, affecting more than 10 million children.
• UNICEF and its partners developed a Kit for Strengthening Brazilian Families that contains easy-to-understand information about nutrition, hygiene, protection and early childhood development. Some 2.4 million families in Brazil’s most impoverished regions have received these childcare kits, and almost 23,000 health-care workers have been trained in the principles on which they are based. 
• After 15 young children died of diarrhoea, UNICEF led an emergency intervention among the Guarani-Kaiowás people of Mato Grosso do Sul. Clean water and mega-doses of vitamin A dramatically improved child survival rates.
• A UNICEF-supported joint initiative by Brazil and Jamaica is seeking to expand access to HIV counselling and testing services among adolescents and provide protection, treatment and care for those living with HIV/AIDS.
• As part of the high-profile ‘Unite for Children  Unite Against AIDS’ campaign, the Brazilian government and UNICEF are working together to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS by the end of 2007.
• UNICEF has sponsored a major public awareness campaign on the right to birth registration, and offered training for municipal officials and health-care workers.
• UNICEF-supported initiatives have brought 109,000 former child workers back to school.
• New child-friendly courts handling crimes against children and teens have been established in Belém and São Luis. 
• Educational quality standards developed by UNICEF have been widely adopted throughout Brazil to train teachers and administrators.
• A UNICEF-supported TV documentary on the violent deaths of teens in the shanty towns of Rio de Janeiro sparked a national debate about the effects of poverty and crime on young people.