The Brumadinho, Minas Gerais Income Transfer Program, run by Fundação Getulio Vargas through FGV Projetos, has now been active for three years.

Aimed at people affected by the dam failure and ensuing environmental disaster in Brumadinho, Minas Gerais, this is the largest income transfer program operated by a private sector entity in Latin America. Here are some of its results so far: 

• 139,450 people receiving handouts; 
• R$2.9 billion of benefits paid out; 
• 42,662 people added to the program; 
• Five fixed service centers set up, including a main office in Brumadinho;
• 24 municipalities and 114 communities reached by fieldwork;
• More than 115,000 in-person services performed; 
• Over 420,000 miles traveled as part of technical georeferencing visits.

In order to present the program’s results and impacts at the three-year mark, as well as to discuss the remaining challenges with the responsible justice institutions, FGV held a meeting with the Minas Gerais attorney general, Dr. Jarbas Soares; regional federal prosecutor Dr. Carlos Bruno da Silva; the judge responsible for the Brumadinho settlement, Dr. Murilo Abreu; and Minas Gerais public defender Dr. Felipe Augusto Soledade. FGV was represented by its president, Professor Carlos Ivan Simonsen Leal; the executive director of FGV Projetos, Luiz Carlos Duque; the deputy director of FGV Projetos, Irineu Frare; and the executive manager of FGV Projetos, André Andrade.

Irineu Frare revealed that the participants also discussed the need to make further progress in producing knowledge about FGV’s experience with this program, which is assisting the people affected in the Paraopeba River Basin, to serve as a reference for other locations, including the Doce River Basin, where the Mariana mining dam failure disaster took place. 

Social impact

To talk about this program and share the region’s social and economic transformations, FGV invited André Andrade to feature in an episode of the FGV Social Impact podcast.

About the Brumadinho Income Transfer Program 

The Income Transfer Program is one of the positive outcomes of the Comprehensive Reparation Agreement signed by the Federal Public Prosecutors’ Office, Minas Gerais State Public Prosecutors’ Office and Minas Gerais State Public Defender’s Office in February 2021. Since then, the program has helped restore the income of residents of the Paraopeba River Basin affected by the collapse of the Córrego do Feijão Dam in Brumadinho.

The program was designed to provide monthly financial support to guarantee a minimum income and was originally scheduled to last until October 2025. The respective justice bodies, including the Second Public Finance Court of Belo Horizonte, selected Fundação Getulio Vargas to manage the program. FGV registers applicants, makes the payments and administers the resources. The program is currently benefiting 132,094 people throughout the Paraopeba River Basin and it has transferred R$2.18 billion to recipients since FGV started making payments in November 2021.