The Impacts of Brazil and India's Development Dialog on Poverty Alleviation Policies: Knowledge Sharing and South-South Cooperation

Since the beginning of the 1990ies a South American approach to Conditional Cash Transfers policies for poverty alleviation has been in development. Although widespread throughout the continent two main experiences can be singled out as most significant for their characteristics, range and influence: the Mexican Opportunidades and the Brazilian Bolsa Família. Poverty rates have declined in Latin America during the last decade and in the Brazilian case the most intense fall is concurrent with implementation of the national CCT program.

Due to the results of these policies the model has spread beyond the continent and is currently encouraged and financed by the World Bank to alleviate poverty and brake it’s generational cycle. the spread of this model of poverty is currently in discussion in many south-south forums around the world like BRICS and IBSA. As part of this current discussion in 2012 the city of New Delhi started a pilot program focused on poverty reduction as a result of the on-going National Debate about Cash Transfer Policies. The Latin American experiences were important base for the Indian discussion and the results exposes challenges to the southern debate and its proposed horizontal dialog.

This article presents the results of a research done in Brazil and India asking what can be perceived by analysing this south-south development dialog. It exposes the challenges and oportunities as well as the different approaches that each society gives to the same set of policies as well as the discouses about poverty and development.