AGRARIAN REFORM
Brazil's Commitment

VII- PREPARATION AND INTEGRATION OF PROGRAMS

7.1 The Social Policy Council
7.2 The Community Solidarity Program
7.3 The National Professional Training Plan (PLANFOR)
7.4 Other Measures

As has been shown, the many opportunities that are unfolding to combat poverty in the countryside and to generate employment and income are not limited to the conventional policies of agricultural development and traditional agrarian reform based on the simple distribution of "land for planting." In addition to ecological tourism, which relies on Brazil's unsurpassed natural features, a series of new activities -- rural, but not necessarily agricultural -- are emerging as even more profitable employment alternatives in the countryside: the raising of frogs, canaries, tropical fish, exotic birds, rabbits and escargot, and the cultivation of flowers, vegetables, and fruits, among others.

These are highly intensive and small-scale activities that can offer a new opportunity for a better life in the countryside for small producers and landowners who are no longer able to engage in agriculture or cattle ranching.

There is also a growing number of recreation sites and of urban professionals who continue working in the large cities but opt to reside in nearby rural areas. The flight of these professionals from the city in search of a better quality of life is, at the same time, increasing opportunities in the rural areas for domestic workers, who are better paid than farm workers. In addition to their salaries, they receive lodging and, at times, the right to maintain a vegetable garden and to breed pigs and fowl. Moreover, their water and electric energy are free. In the state of São Paulo alone, these domestic workers (caseiros) already represent almost 8% of the rural area's economically active population.

This great number of possible policies has led the government to prioritize the preparation and the integration of measures of various ministries, states, municipalities, the Legislative and Judiciary branches, and the Public Ministry. As part of this integrated development strategy, the government selected a group of programs and measures that deserve special attention due to their importance and immediate impact on the life of the rural population. These initiatives are on two levels: those specific to policy and agrarian reform, and those regarding work, employment, income and professional training.

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7.1 The Social Policy Council

Linked directly to the Presidency of the Republic, through the President's Civil Household, is the supervisory level of the government's social policy coordination. In addition to building consensus for public policies, it assures that the necessary steps are taken for implementing programs. It also directs, evaluates and, whenever needed, revises the proposed measures. It is comprised of a secretary, an executive committee, and twelve ministers.

An executive secretary, subordinated directly to the President, is responsible for monitoring the progress of the Council's activities. Currently, among the Council's programs, one has special relevance for the problems relating to agrarian reform: the Emancipation Project (described in section 4.3.3).

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7.2 The Community Solidarity Program

Created in January 1995, the Community Solidarity Program (Programa Comunidade Solidária) coordinates the government's actions aimed at assisting the people who do not have the means to provide for their basic necessities and, especially, to fight hunger and poverty. Aside from having a council comprised of representatives from the government and from society, Community Solidarity has an executive secretary who acts in coordination with the ministries, the state and municipal governments, and the non-governmental organizations.

In 1996, the Community Solidarity Council adopted, as priorities for discussion between the government and society, the themes of food and nutrition security, the minimum family income, and agrarian reform. To monitor the implementation of the proposals born of these discussions, the Community Solidarity Council created two sectoral committees, coordinated by representatives of society and by the executive secretary.

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Among the measures for which the executive secretary is responsible, the Program for Food Distribution (Programa de Distribuição de Alimentos - PRODEA) stands out. In 1996, this program provided 232,950 basic food baskets from the Ministry of Agriculture's stock, for a total of 5.7 million kilos of food, to 232 landless rural worker encampments in 21 states. The majority of these encamped workers belong to the MST. In other words, the government guaranteed food for practically all of the nearly 25,000 encamped landless families throughout the entire country, distributing monthly a basic food basket to each one of them.

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7.3 The National Professional Training Plan (PLANFOR)

Among the obstacles to family farming, the most important are the dearth of technical and technological know-how, the lack of access to information, isolation, and the low level of education among the rural population, which has the highest levels of illiteracy in Brazil. Thus, basic education and professional training stand out as strategic factors for overcoming backwardness and poverty.

With this in mind, the National Professional Training Plan (Plano Nacional de Educação Profissional - PLANFOR), created by the Ministry of Labor, takes on special relevance. This program, implemented locally, is financed by resources from the Worker Support Fund. State employment commissions, with representatives of the government, the private sector and the workers, approve the State Qualification Plans (Planos Estaduais de Qualificação).

PLANFOR is aimed at resettlements and at rural communities, seeking to stimulate economic growth that results in greater productivity, a better quality of life, and a reduction in unemployment. Namely, it seeks to change the factors that force families to try their luck in the cities.

The government's goals for the 1996-98 period are: to offer professional training scholarships to 500,000 workers living in resettlement and rural communities; to give technical and financial support to rural professional training institutions in each state that has resettlements; and, progressively, to assist the resettlements in their phases of establishment, consolidation and emancipation.

In 1996, the program's initial goal to assist 60,000 people, at a cost of R$14 million, was doubled. Working in 768 municipalities, the program assisted nearly 120,000 people at a cost of R$18.4 million. It benefited rural workers, resettled families, squatters, renters and small producers, all over the age of 14. Acting in partnership with the government for this task were entities of the landowning class and the workers; churches; social movements organized in defense of land access; non-governmental organizations; production associations and cooperatives; public and private foundations and universities; and the federal, state and municipal technical training networks.

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In addition to its innovative ability to obtain broad public support, the Professional Education Program for Resettlements and Rural Communities (Programa de Educação Profissional para Assentamentos e Comunidades Rurais) was, without a doubt, one of the most effective plans developed last year. In 1997, the program should grow by 20%, whether measured in terms of the number of people assisted, in terms of its investments, or in terms of its support from additional organizations.

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7.4 Other Measures

 

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CONTENTS

VIII- BRINGING DOWN LEGAL BARRIERS