Brazil is one of the world’s biggest economies, but one of its most unequal countries. There is no need for poverty here, but people’s hands are tied by unfair systems and structures.
Power: the poorest have little say in the corridors of power. Until this changes, Brazil’s laws and policies will continue to favour the elite.
Land: Brazil has the most unequal pattern of land ownership in the world. Just three percent of the population own two thirds of all arable land.
Money: Brazil’s tax system is the wrong way round. The poorest pay more than half their income in tax, while the richest pay less than a third.
Our work
Our work focuses on changing the systems and structures that keep more than 40 million Brazilians trapped in poverty in this land of plenty. We have two main priorities:
• ensuring a fairer distribution of Brazil’s vast resources – including land
• helping the poorest to understand and claim their rights, as laid out in Brazil’s laws and constitution
Our partners
• Christian Aid has funded MST – the Landless People’s Movement – ever since its foundation in 1984. In that time, MST has helped more than a million poor Brazilians to get land of their own
• In 2009, MST protests helped persuade the Brazilian government to commit to building more than 280 extra new schools on MST settlements
• Our partner CPI is helping Quilombola people in the northern Amazon to make claims for land. Soon, an area of forest three times the size of the Lake District will be under Quilombola ownership and protection.
• INESC's youth participation project was named best adolescent project in the country in 2009.
Further content
• Schoolgirl raises a million dollars: how a teenager from the slums successfully took Brasilia city council to task about the capital’s rundown schools
• Land for forest people: how we’re helping thousands of Quilombola people, deep in the Amazon, to protect their territory
• The road to Paradise: how Rui finally got land of his own, after camping out on the roadside for eight years
• Hundreds reach thousands: how faith leaders are spreading the word about HIV
What you can do
