This information comes from the head of the presidential office staff, minister Luiz Dulci. According to Dulci, ministers and technical staff representatives of the Brazilian government will discuss programs in various areas, such as environment, agrarian reform, culture, the struggle against racism, women’s rights, and youth policy.

"The Brazilian government has a series of practical projects that are of great interest to other countries on the continent and, most of all, to social movements," Dulci noted.

Dulci said that one of the themes that will be debated is the policy to combat deforestation in the Amazon.

"They are very eager to discover how Brazil managed to reverse the perverse tendency that had prevailed for many years. Deforestation did nothing but increase with each passing year, and now, for the first time, deforestation has begun to decline," the Minister underscored.

Another item on the Forum’s agenda is the policy in support of family farming. "The rural workers’ and peasants’ movements and indigenous movements in various countries, such as Bolivia and Peru, have a deep interest in this," he remarked.

The Minister affirmed that Brazilian technical personnel will also present the model of autonomous indigenous schools.

"They are bilingual schools, in which Indian youth learn in their own tongue but also, in our case, study Portuguese. In their case, they would study Spanish," Dulci explained.

The issue of combating racism will also be discussed. "We made a lot of progress in 2005 in bringing benefits to Brazilian "quilombola" communities (formed by descendants of runaway slaves). Many of them received potable water, electricity – through the Light for All program -, and schools," he pointed out.

The World Social Forum is the chief event organized by civil society to discuss the struggle on behalf of democratizing politics and economics.

Four of the first five editions took place in Brazil, in Porto Alegre. In 2004 the meeting was held in Mumbai, India. This year’s format will be different, and the Forum will be split among three continents: Africa, America, and Asia.

Agência Brasil

By the end of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s mandate, no family that lives in conditions of extreme poverty will fail to receive an income transfer in order to have at least something to eat.

This affirmation was made by the head of the Presidential Executive Office, Minister Luiz Dulci, in a press conference broadcast by the Radiobrás radio stations. According to the Minister, it will be possible to do away with hunger in the country by the end of 2006, through the Family Grant program.

The elimination of extreme poverty and hunger is one of the eight Development Goals of the Millennium set by the member countries of the United Nations (UN) to improve the situation of the world’s population by 2015, in terms of income, education, health, environment, and gender.

“Nobody in Brazil will fail to have at least the modest means to buy his or her daily bread. Therefore, we will have fulfilled the UN’s goal by the end of next year, making sure that nobody in Brazil will lack at least a minimal daily food supply,” Dulci reiterated.

He recalled that the Family Grant, the most important income transfer program in the Zero Hunger project, currently benefits 7.5 million families, around 30 million people.

“President Lula has already declared that, by the end of his mandate, everybody who lives below the poverty line in Brazil, under conditions of what is called extreme poverty, will be incorporated into the Family Grant program,” he added.

For Dulci, Brazil has also made significant progress in the areas of education and maternal health.

Agência Brazil

The Brazilian government should create a special secretariat to deal with issues of concern to adolescents and young people and to develop government policies for them, affirms Brazil’s head of the Presidential Executive Office, Minister Luiz Dulci.

“There has been a growth in the number of youth organizations created by youths themselves to defend their interests. To the degree the youth movement grows, Brazilian democracy incorporates these issues, and government policies arise,” the Minister explains.

There are 48 million young people between the ages of 15 and 29 in Brazil today.

According to a study by the United Nations Education, Science, and Culture Organization (UNESCO), which interviewed 10 thousand Brazilian youths in July of this year, it is possible to perceive that, with the passage of time, they remove themselves from the educational process.

83% of adolescents between 15 and 17 study. Between the ages of 24 and 26, only 18% continue studying. At the age of 27, 87% are no longer part of the educational process.

For the researcher Miriam Abramovay, one of the coordinators of the study, what is needed is the formulation of government policies directed not only at education or health, but to encompass all aspects of young people’s lives, such as investments in culture and leisure.

“The resources for childhood are always greater than for youth. It is only when youngsters begin to cause trouble in the matter of violence that they begin to been seen in a different light,” the researcher contends.

The lack of cultural opportunites is one of the most serious problems, according to the study.

Only 3% of the adolescents between 15 and 17 attend the theater, and only 2% visit museums.

17% go to libraries and movie theaters. And 18% attend soccer matches. According to the study, 21% of young people access computers, daily.

Young people’s satisfaction with life was also researched: 69% of those who were interviewed said they were satisfeed, while 22% were unsatisfied.

The results of the study were announced November 5 at the launching of the UNESCO book Government Policies by/for/with Youth Populations, which presents successful experiences and policies developed in Latin American countries.

The experiences regarded as models include scholarships granted to young people by the Argentinean government, full-time schools in Chile, and the Brazilian AIDS program.

“The disarmament campaign shows how Brazil can have successful policies. Argentina has just approved the campaign, which will also be conducted there,” reports the UNESCO representative in Brazil, Jorge Werthein.

Agência Brasil
Translator: David Silberstein