terms of purchasing power, reproductive health indicators, and access to education, health care, and water and sanitation services. Despite this success in implementation and South–South learning, it is important to mention that in the case of Brazil, pov- erty has fallen; however, based on the literature, it is impossible to know the impacts of the various inter- ventions on well-being among smallholders. Impact evaluations among agricultural interventions have been nearly nonexistent; this is true even for Pro- grama de Aquisição de Alimentos, Brazil’s food pur- chase program, which has now been exported to five African countries. Te major program that does not have this caveat is Bolsa Família, which solely distrib- utes cash to families that fall below the poverty line and meet the program conditions. Te first policy recommendation is to improve


the way government interventions are targeted and prioritized within the countries. Tis includes (1) creating a typology of microregions that allows us to capture the heterogeneity of small farmers to beter target interventions; (2) strengthening the institu- tional and infrastructural base necessary to respond to heterogeneity among smallholders; (3) helping rural smallholders become more competitive in the production and marketing of their products; and (4) improving knowledge about the impact those complementary investments in rural institutions and infrastructure, both capital-intensive infrastruc- ture (roads, electricity, potable water and drainage, water for irrigation, and telecommunications) and


post-harvest technologies (storage services, process- ing infrastructure, and the like) may have on market development and poverty reduction.18 Second, governments should focus on five pillars:


agricultural technology, agricultural health and food safety, rural infrastructure, rural labor, and facili- tating the provision of risk-coping mechanisms for poor populations and providing access to two key financial services—financial markets and insur- ance mechanisms. As a third recommendation, Central America


needs to improve its food and nutrition security by, as in the case of Brazil, significantly reducing the gaps between poor and wealthy families. Tis should be done not only by reducing the difference in terms of purchasing power but also by increasing the poor’s access to education, health care, water and sanitation services, and reproductive health facilities. Clear examples of such programming already underway in the region are in Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic, as well as Guatemala’s Hunger Zero Pact. In summary, it is important to increase South–


South learning within the LAC region—success stories need to be spread across the region. It is also essential that Central America invest significantly in a common policy among countries to strengthen their resilience to the effects of diseases like coffee rust and of shocks like drought. Finally, if properly executed to the scale and public budgets of other countries, good comprehensive programs like those in Brazil can be implemented cost-effectively. ■


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REGIONAL DEVELOPMENTS


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