Public policies for rural development and combating poverty in rural areas

Brazil has become a good example of public policies aimed at combating poverty and fostering rural development, or, in other words, promoting family farming. The country has even 'exported' some of its policies, notably the Programa Bolsa Família and the Programa de Aquisição de Alimentos (PAA—Food Acquisition Programme). This paper aims to present an evaluation of this set of policies, starting with their recent performance in terms of resources and beneficiaries, going through an identification of coverage indicators, and, finally, recovering studies and analyses that assess these policies. Specifically, for the monitoring and evaluation of rural development policies, the main source of information for this work were the chapters on the subject in the Institute of Applied Economic Research (Ipea) Social Policy Bulletin. [...]