By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO, Jun 18 1996 (IPS)

There are three vastly different Brazils, according to the United Nations Development Programme’s Human Development Index (HDI).

Brazil ranks 63rd in the world with an overall HDI of 0.797, just under the 0.8 set as the bottom line of the category of high human development. Canada, with 0.95, is the country that comes closest to the highest possible HDI of one.

But Brazil, a champion of inequality, has regions that rank similar to the richest nations, like the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, with an HDI of 0.871, and others like the northeastern state of Paraiba, with 0.466, similar to the poorest countries in Africa.

Between the two extremes lie areas with a medium level of development in terms of life expectancy, education and health, according to the study that was carried out exclusively for Brazil by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in conjunction with the Brazilian Planning Ministry’s Institute on Applied Economic Research.

The report, released this week in Brasilia, was based on official data from the 1991 census. Several indicators have improved in the last few years, the study points out, especially since Brazil’s economic stabilisation plan – the Plan Real – went into effect in 1994, reining in the runaway inflation that gnawed away at the income of the country’s poorest sectors.

The census indicates, for example, that 42 million Brazilians were living below the poverty line five years ago – a total that has been reduced in the last two years, according to the report.

Brazil’s most glaring problem is the gap between rich and poor. The wealthiest 20 percent of the population took in 65 percent of the country’s total income in 1991, leaving only 12 percent for the poorest half. That gap has grown over the last few decades. In 1960, the richest took in 54 percent of revenues and the poorest 18 percent.

If Brazil is compared to other countries, the inequity is even more obvious. The wealthiest 10 percent of the population earns 30 times more than the average income of the most impoverished 40 percent – a proportion that is 10 to one in Argentina and only five to one in large European countries.

And although it is no secret that the country’s educational system is in dreadful shape, 3.8 percent of the population holds a university degree, a higher proportion than in many countries with high HDIs.

The report says that living standards have improved in Brazil, and with the reduced demographic pressure, the country has a good opportunity to resolve many of its social problems. The population growth rate was only 1.9 percent in 1991, similar to that of rich nations, meaning the proportion of children – a non-productive sector that demands a high level of investment – is dropping.

Priority should be given to basic education, the UNDP study recommends, as well as to training of the labour force, the generation of jobs, the improvement of public administration and the fight against poverty, with the greatest attention focused on the poorest sectors.

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