The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Millennium Development Goals, Dr Precious Kalamba Gbeneol has said that the office  is considering the adoption of the Brazilian model on poverty reduction and social protection as part of efforts to attain the Millennium Development goals.

A statement issued in Abuja by the office Thursday noted that  the move is informed by desire and commitment of attainment poverty and hunger reduction, health and education ahead the 2015 deadline.


The statement signed by  the Deputy Director, Information, Kene N. Offie, noted that it was in relation to this that some key officials in government including the House Committee Chairman on MDGs, Hon Ado Doguwa recently visited Brazil to understudy the Brazilian social protection system and Bolsa Familia.

According to the statement, Brazil is reputed to have recorded huge success in the area of poverty reduction through the use of the world’s acclaimed ‘BolsaFamilia Conditional Cash Transfer, CCT and other complimentary social protection programmes.

Brazil was also able to meet the MDGs goal one of halving the number of poor people and eliminating hunger within five years of the millennium Goals Declaration.

The statement quoted Gbeneol as saying that the lessons learnt from the study tour would help the MDGs office in strengthening the social safety interventions to the pro-poor in the country as the office move to fast-track implementation efforts ahead of 2015.

According to Gbeneol, Nigeria operates a CCT scheme similar to that of Brazil in that it is modelled to help attain achievement of Health and Education. But with the new experience, the office is poised to work with key stakeholders in proffering better solutions to current implementation challenges faced by the Nigerian CCT while also strengthening it to help in poverty reduction.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/09/mdgs-nigeria-to-adopt-brazilian-model-for-poverty-reduction/