New York, December 10, 2002 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - President Fernando Henrique Cardoso reiterated yesterday (9), during a speech at the ceremony where he received the Mahbub ul Haq prize, in recognition of his achievements in human development, that he brought about the greatest sustained reduction of poverty in the history of Brazil. The president detailed a series of positive results that the country obtained in recent years, which, in his evaluation, contributed directly to his being chosen as winner of the prize conferred by the United Nations.

Among the results, Cardoso highlighted the increase in school attendance among the poorest children, the reduction in child labor, the growth in life expectancy, the settlement of thousands of families in the countryside, the fall in infant mortality, and the implantation of a social protection net throughout the country. "One of the challenges in social policy is to make good use of scarce resources. The focus should be on the poorest, the neediest. And this is not as easy as it might appear. There are conflicts of interest, political pressures, and lack of information," he pointed out. (DAS)