Bill Clinton praises Brazil's social welfare programme

Former US President Bill Clinton on Monday praised Brazil's social welfare program Bolsa Familia (Family Allowance), saying that the initiative helped mitigate social inequality in the country. "Brazil was successful in reducing inequality. Programs like Bolsa Familia are very important," he said. "Among the large emerging economies, only Brazil and Mexico registered a decrease in inequality over the past decade." The Family Allowance program, providing financial aid to poor Brazilian families who have their children enrolled in public schools and vaccinated, is currently the largest conditional cash transfer program in the world. In Mexico, the government also rolled out a social welfare scheme called Oportunidades ( Opportunities), the first nation-wide program of this kind. Noting that the greatest challenge of the 21st century was to achieve growth while promoting social inclusion, Clinton said both Brazil and Mexico managed to achieve this result. Meanwhile, the former president also praised the Brazilian government's approach to quelling massive protests shaking the South American country in June as it has sought to establish dialogue with protesters. "Cooperation works better to solve problems," he said. Clinton is in Rio for the annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Latin America, which runs from Sunday to Tuesday. Established in 2005 by Clinton, the CGI is an initiative to convene global leaders to create and implement innovative solutions to the world's most pressing challenges.