World Bank Document

Report No. 32310-BR Brazil Youth at Risk in Brazil (InPublic Disclosure AuthorizedPublic Disclosure Authorized Two Volumes) Volume I: Policy Brieﬁ ng May 10, 2007 Brazil Country Management Unit Human Development Management Unit Latin America and the Caribbean Region Public Disclosure AuthorizedPublic Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure AuthorizedPublic Disclosure Authorized Document of the World Bank Public Disclosure AuthorizedPublic Disclosure Authorized Youth at Risk in Brazil Volume I: Policy Briefing TABLEOF CONTENTS I. Introduction.................................................................................................................. 1 II . Main findings ............................................................................................................... 3 Youth at Risk are a Substantial Population in Brazil ...................................................... 3 Brazilian Young People are a Heterogeneous Group that Requires Heterogeneous Policies ............................................................................................................................. 7 Finding Ways to Reduce Risky Behavior is a Core Component of Youth Development ....................................................................................................................................... 11 Brazil’s Current Investment Strategy does not Focus on At-risk Youth ....................... 13 The Cost of Not Investing Early is Billions of Reais Per Youth Cohort ....................... 14 III . Conclusions and Policy Considerations................................................................. 17 Base the Youth Lnvestment Strategy on Empirical Evidence ........................................ 17 Get the Environment Right to Reduce Risky Behavior ................................................. 19 Provide Remedial Programs .......................................................................................... 21 Assign and Coordinate Institutional Responsibilities according to Comparative Advantages .................................................................................................................... 24 References.......................................................................................................................... 29 Annex I:The Youth Welfare Index ................................................................................... 32 Tables Table 1: Youth at Risk in Brazil and in Comparable Countries. age 15-24 unless otherwise noted .................................................................................................................... 4 Table 2: Young People versus Adults and Heterogeneity among the Young ..................... 7 Table 3: How Demographic and Socioeconomic Factors Affect the Propensity of Young People from Marginalized Neighborhoods to Engage in Risky Behavior .......................... 8 Table 4: Defining “Youth” in Terms of Transitions from Childhood to Adulthood......... 11 Table 5: Key Factors Correlated with Risky Behavior among Brazilian Youth ............... 13 Table 6: Costs of Risky Behavior by Brazilian Young People, 2002 (millions of reais) .. 15 Table 7: Proposed Role of Each Actor in the Youth Development Strategy based on their Comparative Advantages ................................................................................................... 27 Figures Figure 1: Brazilian Youth Welfare Index. by State ........................................................... 10 Figure 2: Current and Optimal Social Investment Strategy over the Lifecycle ................14 Boxes Box 1: Adolescent Brain Development ............................................................................. 11 Box 2: The Unquantifiable Costs of Early School Leaving .............................................. 15 Box 3: Sources of Information for Evaluated Programs ................................................... 18 Box 4: The Perry Preschool Program ................................................................................ 21 Box 5: The Latin America Jdvenes Models ...................................................................... 24 iii Box 6: Youth Policy by and for Young People ................................................................. 25 Box 7: Coordination between City and State Government in Rio de Janeiro ...................26 Box 8: Putting Young People at the Center of Policy ....................................................... 28 iv PREFACE This report was produced by the World Bank as a contribution to increasing knowledge of youth at risk in Brazil today. This group was selected as the subject of the study since the general topic of youth in Brazil was already being analyzed in several excellent studies that were ongoing when this report was being prepared. This focus on at-risk youth also fits in with the goal of the World Bank to work with the Government of Brazil to define strategies to invest in the poorest and most vulnerable Brazilians to improve their lives. The report uses more rigorous statistical analysis than is usually used in studies on young people in order to add a new dimension to the youth development debate. The main contributions made by the report are: It summarizes in one report the incidence of the various kinds of risky behavior that young people try relative to young people elsewhere and relative to adults. 0 It develops a methodology for estimating in reais the cost that youth at-risk impose on themselves and on Brazil. 0 It collects and analyzes data to identify environmental factors - at the level of the individual, home, community, country, and general society - that predispose young people to engage in risky behavior. It uses panel data to map out the path from childhood to adulthood. 0 It draws lessons from the Bank’s work in other countries and highlights programs that have been shown empirically to be effective at preventing or mitigating risky behavior and that may be applicable to and useful in Brazil. This report is the first volume of a two volume series. The second volume is a technical report that presents the statistical results in detail. This first volume summarizes the 100- page second volume. It gives a brief review of the report’s empirical findings and of the implications that the analytical results have for youth development policy and programming in Brazil, drawing on experiences from other countries to underpin the discussion. The report does not cover several themes. It does not include a comprehensive review of the governmental and non-governmental organizations working with youth or of the issue of young people’s citizenship and participation in society. These issues are fully covered in other reports, and we redirect the reader to those studies. This report does not lay out a specific program for the Government of Brazil, preferring instead to contribute to the more general discussion of youth issues. V ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The report team included Wendy Cunningham (Team Leader), Andrea Guedes, Peter Holland, Lorena Cohen, Sandra Rosenhouse, Lerick Kebeck, Ceres Prates, and Lucas Medeiros. Background papers were prepared by Silvia Koller, J’aims Ribeiro, Elder Cerqueira-Santos, Normanda Araujo de Morais, Maycoln Leoni Teodoro, Juliano AssunGiio, Leandro Carvalho, Ceres Prates, Maria Beatriz B. Nogueira, Erik Alda, Debora Dalbosco Dell’ Aglio, Vicente Cassepp Borges, Joana Severo Leon, Bernard0 Kipnis, JosC Ferreira BelisArio, Claudia Werneck, Patricia Moreira, and Claudia Maia . Peer review was provided by Dr. Robert Blum (Johns Hopkins University), Gary Barker (Instituto Promundo, Rio de Janeiro), Andrew Morrison, Maria-Valeria Pena (World Bank), AndrC Noblat, Nara Kohlsdorf, Reinald Chaves Gomes, Josbertini Virginio Clementino (Universidade da Juventude/Conselheiro Nacional de Juventude), and Maize Soares. Additional inputs were provided by Alberto Rodriguez, Kathy Lindert, Bernice von Bronkhurst, Zeze Weiss, Juliana Barbosa, Yasuhiko Matsuda, Lucas Siga, Maria Caridad Araujo, Pablo Lavada, Leonard0 Lucchetti, Fernando Landa, Mariano Bosch, and Ariel Fiszbein. Special thanks to all the partners, friends, and teachers in Brazil who generously shared with the team their deep knowledge of youth in Brazil, in particular, Miriam Abromavy (UNESCO), Paulo Vanunuchi, Pedro Paulo Martoni Branco, Helena Abramo (Instituto Cidadania), Ana Maria Drummond (WCF), Ana Lucia Dezoult (IDB), Rosemary Madden (UNFPA), Denise Paiva , Cristina Albuquerque (Special Secretariat for Human Rights), Rubem Fonseca Filho (Ministry of Education), Nena Lentini (USAID), Luiz Alberto Gonplves (Special Secretariate for the Promotion of Racial Equality), Mario Volpi (UNICEF), Ruth Cardoso and Thereza Lobo (Comunitas), Luciana Tannus and Ricardo Cifuentes (Ministry of Labor and Employment), Andre Noblate, Alessandro de Leon, and the wonderful young people who represent the Vozes Jovens of Brazil, who generously shared their stories, work sessions, viewpoints, and proposal with the report team. Most particularly, the team is grateful to Rodrigo Abel (General Secretariat, Presidency), whose patience, insights, and friendship were invaluable to the report team. vi I. INTRODUCTION Most Brazilian young people are well on their way to becoming productive and contributing members of society.’ Three-quarters of young Brazilians claim that they are happy with themselves and with their lives.* And they have the numbers to make substantial contributions to the present and future of their society - 19 percent

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