Brazil Fome Zero

Fome Zero, meaning Zero Hunger, a Brazilian federal program launched in 2003 under President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and coordinated by the country's Ministry of Social Development and Hunger Combat, building on the earlier Bolsa Escola conditional cash transfer that had operated since 1995. Fome Zero pursued the eradication of hunger and extreme poverty through a broad set of coordinated strategies rather than a single mechanism: direct cash assistance delivered through Bolsa Familia payment cards, construction of water cisterns in the country's semi-arid regions, low-cost public restaurants, nutrition education and vitamin distribution, and support for family farming and microcredit access. Survey data found 82.4 percent of Bolsa Familia recipient families reporting they ate better as a result of the program, and Brazil's malnutrition-related death rate fell substantially over the years the program and its successors operated, from 7.6 per 100,000 in 2002 to 4.3 per 100,000 in 2014-15 and to 2.4 per 100,000 by 2021, with researchers crediting the program family with a meaningful share of Brazil's broader reduction in inequality since 2001.