ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the challenges that Brazil has faced over the long term to ensure that social outcomes match economic progress. Following an era in which tackling poverty and inequality assumed a low priority, the early to mid-1990s saw the start of a two-decade period in which an expansion in the scope of social policy accompanied much improved macroeconomic and labour market conditions. Combined, these factors brought about progressive reductions in poverty and inequality. The evidence strongly suggests that improved employment conditions, above all, were responsible for the progress made, not least in regard to the regional, gender and ethnic dimensions of social development. After 2014, however, economic crisis combined with declining emphasis on social policy to halt the march towards reduced poverty and inequality. Future progress will in part depend on how quickly the labour market can recover from the twin shocks of the 2014–17 economic crisis and the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. However, it will also depend on a range of other issues that will require policy input. These centre, among others, on human capital development, future macroeconomic trends and addressing income-concentrating patterns of public expenditure.
