According to Ana Rosa Monteiro Soares, a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) official responsible for monitoring the implementation of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Brazil, the country has already achieved the first of the eight goals it is committed to reaching by 2015 – that of halving the number of people suffering from hunger and the number of people living on less than one US dollar a day.

Soares attributes this success to the implementation of income-transfer programmes such as the Bolsa Família (Family Allowance)*.

On the basis of a UN report on the implementation of the MDGs in Latin America, released yesterday, Soares thinks Brazil will be successful in reaching the other seven goals by 2015.

The UN report emphasises the determination of the Brazilian government to achieve the MDG of ensuring environmental sustainability through the integration of principles of sustainable development into national policies and the implementation of measures to reverse the loss of environmental resources. Soares feels Brazil has made significant progress towards this particular goal through its investments in sustainable technology such as biodiesel.

Soares anticipates that in the very near future Brazil will also achieve the MDG of providing universal primary education, although she sees this as a partial victory given the fact that in many cases the education on offer is not of high quality.

She also notes that Brazil faces problems with regard to sanitation, an area crucial to the achievement of the three MDGs connected to public health.

*The Bolsa Família provides a monthly allowance to poor households containing children with a good school-attendance record. It is a central part of the Fome Zero (Zero Hunger) welfare programme.

Source: Agência Brasil and Embassy of Brazil in London