Author: Brazil Talk

Brazil Talk is a non-partisan, not-for-profit online platform offering new perspectives about Brazilian issues through opinion articles, interviews, videos, graphics, and events. Our contributors come from the academia, business, media, public sector, and third sector. Brazil Talk provides readers with original, current and engaging content in economics, national politics, culture, foreign affairs, and society. Our mission is to create a powerful global platform devoted to in-depth commentaries about Brazil in English. Founded in 2015 by graduate students – Eloy Oliveira and Marcelo Bonatto – and supported by faculty members at the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) at Columbia University in the City of New York, Brazil Talk is an open collaborative space where contributors with demonstrated expertise in Brazilian affairs share their incisive perspectives and analyses.

Will bill 3,235/2019 ensure a sustainable water and sanitation universalization in Brazil? A historical perspective of the water and sanitation governance in Brazil

by Brazil Talk, posted in Blog

By Jennifer Jacobowitz Rae

INTRODUCTION

The access to water and sanitation is a human right that has been discussed  internationally since the 1970s. However, it has always been linked to the right to life,  health, adequate housing, adequate food, and working conditions; a list that can certainly be extended as water takes part in most components of human life. It was only in 2010, however, through Resolution A/RES/64/292, that the UN formally recognized the human right to water and sanitation and further recognized its essentiality for the realization of all other human rights. The resolution calls upon governments and international organizations to provide financial resources, contribute to capacity building and transfer technologies to help countries to ensure safe, clean and accessible drinking water at reasonable costs and sanitation for all. 

Numerous investments in water and sanitation infrastructure and services are needed to ensure access to universalization. Countries, states, and municipalities are not always able to do this on their own, requiring financial inputs from other investors, i.e. the private  sector. Thus, the establishment of an appropriate governance model and effective regulation of the sector is essential to ensure its attractiveness to investors, who can help – in many ways – make universal access, social equity and the efficiency of water and sanitation services viable.

Continue reading “Will bill 3,235/2019 ensure a sustainable water and sanitation universalization in Brazil? A historical perspective of the water and sanitation governance in Brazil” →

Dry mining in Brazil: A cost-benefit analysis after the tragedies of Mariana and Brumadinho

by Brazil Talk, posted in Blog, Uncategorized

By Pedro Gagliardi

[24 min read]

SUMMARY

This paper examines the costs and benefits of dry processing and/or dry stacking as alternative production methods for the current mining operations in Brazil. Both methods prevent the formation of tailings dams, which are created as a result of the extraction of iron ore. This paper carries out a cost-benefit analysis which tries – firstly – to quantify the benefits for society of avoiding tailings dam collapses like Marina in 2015 and Brumadinho, in 2019, and – secondly – estimate the cost related to investing in dry processing methods for mining; the changes in production costs; and the cost of decommissioning current tailing dams.

Continue reading “Dry mining in Brazil: A cost-benefit analysis after the tragedies of Mariana and Brumadinho” →

Interview with André Lara Resende

by Brazil Talk, posted in Videos

Columbia University, New York – March 2019.

In an exclusive interview with Brazil Talk, the Brazilian economist André Lara Resende shares his vision on:

– Fiscal Policy

– Beyond GDP

Ph.D. in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, André Lara Resende was the Director of the Central Bank of Brazil, one of the members of the economic team that prepared the Plano Real, and former President of the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES).

Brazil’s Complicated Relationship with Money

by Brazil Talk, posted in Blog

By Nathaniel Archer Lawrence

[5 min read]

When I tell Brazilians I teach financial education, nearly without fail their first response is, “Oh, I need that.”

Brazil finds itself almost a decade into an existential economic crisis[1]. The “social-democratic” darling of BRIC countries in 2010, Brazil has spent the better part of this decade suffering. From the deepest recession in a century to unending political corruption scandals, Brazilians were unprepared for such a financial challenge. This is exactly what financial education strives to correct – at least, on paper – and what Brazil needs. Continue reading “Brazil’s Complicated Relationship with Money” →