Oxfam is an international confederation of 15 organisations working in 98 countries worldwide to find lasting solutions to poverty and injustice. Oxfam works directly with communities and seeks to influence the powerful to ensure that poor people can improve their lives and livelihoods and have a say in decisions that affect them.

The Oxfam International Secretariat leads, facilitates, and supports collaboration between the Oxfam affiliates to increase Oxfam's impact on poverty and injustice through advocacy campaigns, development programmes and emergency response.

Oxfam was originally founded in Oxford in 1942 as the ''Oxford Committee for Famine Relief'' by a group of Quakers, social activists, and Oxford academics; this is now Oxfam Great Britain, still based in Oxford, UK. It was one of several local committees formed in support of the National Famine Relief Committee. Their mission was to persuade the British government to allow food relief through the Allied blockade for the starving citizens of Axis-occupied Greece. The first overseas Oxfam was founded in Canada in 1963. The organisation changed its name to its telegraph address, ''OXFAM'', in 1965.

History and beginnings

The original Oxford Committee for Famine Relief was a group of concerned citizens such as Canon Theodore Richard Milford (1896–1987), Professor Gilbert Murray and his wife Lady Mary, Cecil Jackson-Cole and Sir Alan Pim. The Committee met in the Old Library of University Church of St Mary the Virgin, Oxford, for the first time in 1942, and its aim was to relieve famine in Greece caused by Allied naval blockades. By 1960, it was a major international non-governmental aid organisation.

Oxfam GB (Great Britain)

The founding affiliate of the Oxfam confederation is Oxfam GB, with 5,955 employees worldwide in 2008, and with a total income of £299.7 million. Oxfam GB's head office is located in Cowley, Oxford and has offices and programmes in over 70 countries in 8 regions.

From 2007 to 2009, Oxfam GB has been recognised as one of Britain's Top Employers by CRF.

Oxfam Canada

Oxfam Canada traces its history to 1963, when the British-based Oxford Committee for Famine Relief sought to establish a Canadian branch. Oxfam Canada was independently incorporated in 1966; the first Board of Directors included 21 distinguished Canadians. In 1967, Oxfam Canada became a key organiser of the successful Miles for Millions fundraising walks across the country. In that year, Lester Pearson (then Canadian Prime Minister) led Oxfam's first Miles for Millions March. With its revenues, Oxfam began to provide educational materials to schools and undertake advocacy work in public policy development.

The early 1970s was a critical period of growth as Oxfam began its own programming overseas in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and established a network of staff and volunteers across Canada to support its work. During this same period, Oxfam Canada began to analyse its role in the development process, moving from a traditional model of charity (one-time grants) towards long-term development programming (working with communities to effect lasting positive change.) Deeply involved in the international movement against apartheid in South Africa and Central American solidarity through the 1970s and '80s, Oxfam Canada sought to address the fundamental, underlying causes of poverty. This in turn led to Oxfam's role as a major advocacy organisation in the 1990s, to mobilise public support for changing the policies that perpetuate poverty.

Oxfam Canada is a founding member of Oxfam, the federation of Oxfams worldwide. Today, Oxfam Canada works with over 100 partner organisations in developing countries, tackling the root causes of poverty and inequity and helping people to create self-reliant and sustainable communities. In Canada, Oxfam is active in education, policy advocacy and building a constituency of support for its work.

Oxfam America

In 1970, Oxfam America became an independent non-profit organisation and an Oxfam affiliate in response to the humanitarian crisis created by the fight for independence in Bangladesh. Oxfam America's headquarters are located in Boston, Massachusetts with a policy & campaigns office in Washington, D.C. and seven regional offices around the world. A registered 501(c)3 organisation, Oxfam America campaigns for climate change adaptation, food security, aid reform, access to medicines, and fair trade.

Oxfam-Québec

In 1973, Oxfam-Québec became an independent member of the international Oxfam movement. Carried by the popularity of Yvon Deschamps, Oxfam-Québec has become a cherished organisation among the Québécois. Its mission is to get the francophone population involved in the situation of developing countries.

Oxfam's work

Though Oxfam's initial concern was the provision of food to relieve famine, over the years the organisation has developed strategies to combat the causes of famine. In addition to food and medicine, Oxfam also provides tools to enable people to become self-supporting and opens markets of international trade where crafts and produce from poorer regions of the world can be sold at a fair price to benefit the producer.

Oxfam's programme has three main points of focus: development work, which tries to lift communities out of poverty with long-term, sustainable solutions based on their needs; humanitarian work, assisting those immediately affected by conflict and natural disasters (which often leads in to longer-term development work), especially in the field of water and sanitation; and lobbyist, advocacy and popular campaigning, trying to affect policy decisions on the causes of conflict at local, national, and international levels.

Oxfam works on trade justice, fair trade, education, debt and aid, livelihoods, health, HIV/AIDS, gender equality, conflict (campaigning for an international arms trade treaty) and natural disasters, democracy and human rights, and climate change.

Oxfam is providing humanitarian aid to those affected by the 2011 Horn of Africa famine, in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia.

Shops

Oxfam has numerous shops all over the world, which sell many fair-trade and donated items. They opened their first charity shop in 1948. The proceeds from these usually get paid to different charities or are used to further Oxfam's relief efforts around the globe. Much of their stock still comes from public donations but they currently also sell fair trade products from developing countries in Africa, Asia and South America, including handcrafts, books, music CDs and instruments, clothing, toys, food and ethnic creations. These objects are brought to the public through fair trade to help boost the quality of life of their producers and surrounding communities.

In 2008, Oxfam GB worked with over 20,000 volunteers in shops across the UK, raising £17.1 million for Oxfam's programme work.

Of the 750 Oxfam charity shops around the UK, around 100 are specialist bookshops or book and music shops. Oxfam is the largest retailer of second-hand books in Europe, selling around 12 million per year.

Oxfam has near to 15,000 shops worldwide.

Fundraising

Oxfam has a number of successful fundraising channels in addition to its shops. Over half a million people in the UK make a regular financial contribution towards its work, and vital funds are received from gifts left to the organisation in people's wills. Many London Marathon competitors run to raise money for Oxfam, and Oxfam also receives funds in return for providing and organising volunteer stewards at festivals such as Glastonbury. In conjunction with the Gurkha Welfare Trust, Oxfam also runs several Trailwalker events in Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Japan.

Christopher McCandless, the subject of the book and film ''Into the Wild'', donated his life savings to Oxfam before leaving society for the Alaskan wilderness.

In August 2009, it was announced that Arctic Monkeys would release a 7-inch vinyl version of their new single "Crying Lightning" exclusively through Oxfam shops, with proceeds going to the charity. Recently Oxfam India is emerging as a successful fundraising unit, it is mainly with the help of always motivated team and the Resource Mobilization Heads.

Criticism

Conflict with Starbucks on Ethiopian coffee

On 26 October 2006, Oxfam accused Starbucks of asking the National Coffee Association (NCA) to block a U.S. trademark application from Ethiopia for three of the country's coffee beans, Sidamo, Harar and Yirgacheffe. They claimed this could result in denying Ethiopian coffee farmers potential annual earnings of up to £47m.

Robert Nelson, the head of the NCA, added that his organisation initiated the opposition for economic reasons, "For the U.S. industry to exist, we must have an economically stable coffee industry in the producing world... This particular scheme is going to hurt the Ethiopian coffee farmers economically". The NCA claims the Ethiopian government was being badly advised and this move could price them out of the market.

Facing more than 90,000 letters of concern, Starbucks placed pamphlets in its stores accusing Oxfam of "misleading behavior" and insisting that its "campaign need[s] to stop". On 7 November, ''The Economist'' derided Oxfam's "simplistic" stance and Ethiopia's "economically illiterate" government, arguing that Starbucks' (and Illy's) standards-based approach would ultimately benefit farmers more.

Nonetheless, on 20 June 2007, representatives of the Government of Ethiopia and senior leaders from Starbucks Coffee Company announced that they had concluded an agreement regarding distribution, marketing and licensing that recognises the importance and integrity of Ethiopia's speciality coffee designations.

Political neutrality

Oxfam Great Britain has been strongly criticised by other NGOs for becoming too close to Tony Blair's New Labour government in the UK.

Internal structures and political role

Omaar and de Waal in Food and Power in Sudan comment that "the 1990s have seen growing pressure for humanitarian institutions to become more accountable. There has been a succession of reviews of major operations, growing in independence and criticism." They quote an OECD report, The Joint Evaluation of Emergency Operations in Rwanda, which stated that its team "came across examples of Agencies telling, if not falsehoods, then certainly half-truths" and noted "a remarkable lack of attempts by agencies to seek the views of beneficiaries on the assistance being provided". . In this climate, Oxfam has faced a number of criticisms, some specific to the organisation itself, others relating to problems said to be endemic to NGO aid agencies.

In 2005, the magazine ''New Internationalist'' described Oxfam as a "Big International Non-Government Organisation (BINGO)", having a corporate-style, undemocratic internal structure, and addressing the symptoms rather than the causes of international poverty – especially by acquiescing to neoliberal economics and even taking over roles conventionally filled by national governments.

Similar criticisms have been voiced by Red Pepper magazine and Katherine Quarmby in the New Statesman .

Bookshops

Oxfam has been criticized for aggressively expanding its specialist bookshops, using tactics more often associated with multi-national corporations. The charity has been criticized as some claim this expansion has come at the expense of independent secondhand book sellers and other charity shops in many areas of the UK.

Fair trade coffee

On 28 April 2007, two academics in Melbourne, Australia, representing a think tank lodged a complaint with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission accusing Oxfam of misleading or deceptive conduct under the Trade Practices Act in its promotion of Fairtrade coffee. The academics claimed that high certification costs and low wages for workers undermine claims that Fairtrade helps to lift producers out of poverty. These claims were subsequently dismissed by the Commission.

Israeli–Palestinian conflict

In 2003, Oxfam Belgium produced a poster with a picture of an orange drenched in blood. The poster read, "Israel's fruits have a bitter taste...reject the occupation of Palestine, don't buy Israeli fruits and vegetables". Oxfam was widely criticised because of the poster's allegedly anti-Israel political message. Following publicity and pressure from the pro-Israel organisation NGO Monitor, Oxfam removed the poster from their web site and Ian Anderson, the chairman of Oxfam International, issued a letter of apology; however, Oxfam has maintained its support of a boycott of Israeli settlement products. Oxfam was criticised for its policy of what has been termed "selective morality" by NGO Monitor.

In October 2009, Oxfam was accused by Israeli NGO Regavim of aiding Palestinians in illegal activities in Kiryat Arba, including water theft. Oxfam has denied its participation.

Confrontation with the Population Matters

In December 2009 Duncan Green, head of research at Oxfam, attempted to discredit the PopOffsets initiative of Population Matters, (formerly known as the Optimum Population Trust), under which individuals can offset their carbon emissions by funding family planning services in the developing world. Green wrote in an op-ed in the ''New Statesman'' that assumptions such as those in the OPT report equating population growth and environmental degradation are a "gross oversimplification".

In response, OPT described the response of parts of the development lobby to the initiative as "frankly disgraceful", adding: "The world badly needs a grown-up, rational discussion of the population issue…without blame, abuse and hysteria."

Book and film references

In Jon Krakauer's 1996 non-fiction book ''Into the Wild'' and 2007 subsequent film, Christopher McCandless donates his college fund (money given to him for college) of $24,000 to Oxfam in May 1990 before beginning a cross-country journey that culminated in Alaska.

Oxfam is mentioned briefly on a number of occasions, favourably and unfavourably in the Angelina Jolie and Clive Owen 2003 film ''Beyond Borders''.

In the 2005 film ''The Constant Gardener'', Oxfam is cited briefly in regards to the observation of and campaigning against experimental drug-testing by pharmaceutical companies in developing countries, such as Kenya, the film's setting.

See also

Disasters Emergency Committee

Make Trade Fair

Oxfam International Youth Partnership

Oxfam Australia

Oxfam France (French)

Oxfam Hong Kong

Oxfam Italia (Italian)

Oxfam Novib

Seoul Peace Prize

Ox-Tales

References

Further reading

Maggie Black, ''A Cause for Our Times: Oxfam the First 50 Years'' (Oxford: Oxfam, 1992). ISBN 0-85598-173-3

Susan Blackburn, ''Practical Visionaries: A Study of Community Aid Abroad'' (Melbourne University Press, 1993). ISBN 0-522-84562-2

External links

Oxfam International

Category:Development charities based in the United Kingdom Category:International charities Category:Fair trade organizations Category:Glastonbury Festival Category:Shops in Oxford Category:Retail companies of the United Kingdom Category:Organisations based in Oxford Category:Anti-poverty advocates Category:Organizations established in 1942

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Coordinates	6°7′55″N1°13′22″N
Name	Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Alt	Portrait of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Office	35th President of Brazil
Vicepresident	José Alencar
Term start	1 January 2003
Term end	31 December 2010
Predecessor	Fernando Henrique Cardoso
Successor	Dilma Rousseff
Office2	Leader of the Workers' Party
Term start2	10 February 1980
Term end2	15 November 1994
Predecessor2	Position established
Successor2	Rui Falcão
Birth date	October 27, 1945
Birth place	Caetés, Brazil
Nationality	Brazilian
Party	Workers' Party
Spouse	Maria de Lurdes (Deceased)Marisa Letícia Rocco Casa
Children	Fábio LuísLurian CordeiroLuís CláudioMarcos Cláudio (Adopted)Sandro Luís
Residence	São Bernardo do Campo
Profession	Automotive workerUnion organizer
Religion	Roman Catholicism
Signature	Signature of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.svg
Signature alt	Lula (Signature of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva) }}

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva ( ; born 27 October 1945), known popularly as Lula, served as the 35th President of Brazil from 2003 to 2010.

A founding member of the Workers' Party (PT – ''Partido dos Trabalhadores''), he ran for President three times unsuccessfully, first in the 1989 election. Lula achieved victory in the 2002 election, and was inaugurated as President on 1 January 2003. In the 2006 election he was re-elected for a second term as President, which ended on 31 December 2010. He was succeeded by his former Chief of Staff, Dilma Rousseff.

He is often regarded as the most popular politician in the history of Brazil and, at the time of his mandate, one of the most popular in the world. Social programs like Bolsa Família and Fome Zero are hallmarks of his time in office. Lula played a prominent role in recent international relations developments, including the Nuclear program of Iran and global warming, and was described as "a man with audacious ambitions to alter the balance of power among nations." He was featured in ''Time''s ''The 100 Most Influential People in the World'' for 2010, and has been called "the most successful politician of his time."

Early life

Luiz Inácio da Silva was born on 27 October 1945 (but registered with a date of birth of 6 October 1945) in Caetés (then a district of Garanhuns), located 155 miles (250 km) from Recife, capital of Pernambuco, a Brazilian state. He was the seventh of eight children of Aristides Inácio da Silva and Eurídice Ferreira de Melo. Two weeks after Lula's birth, his father moved to Santos with Valdomira Ferreira de Góis, a cousin of Eurídice. Lula is of Portuguese ancestry.

In December 1952, when Lula was only 7 years old, his mother decided to move to São Paulo with her children to rejoin her husband. After a journey of thirteen days in a ''pau-de-arara'' (the open cargo area of a truck), they arrived in Guarujá and discovered that Aristides had formed a second family with Valdomira. Aristides' two families lived in the same house for some time, but they didn't get along very well, and four years later, Eurídice moved with her children to a small room in the back area of a bar in the city of São Paulo. After that, Lula rarely saw his father, who became an alcoholic and died in 1978.

Lula was married twice. In 1969, he married Maria de Lourdes, who died of hepatitis in 1971, when she was pregnant with their first son, who also died. Lula and Miriam Cordeiro had a daughter, Lurian, out of wedlock in 1974. In 1974, Lula married Marisa, his current wife and at the time a widow, with whom he had three sons (he has also adopted Marisa's son from her first marriage).

Education and work

Lula had little formal education. He did not learn to read until he was ten years old, and quit school after the fourth grade in order to work to help his family. His working life began at age 12 as a shoeshiner and street vendor. By age 14 he got his first formal job in a copper processing factory as a lathe operator.

At age 19, he lost the little finger on his left hand in an accident while working as a press operator in an automobile parts factory. After losing his finger he had to run to several hospitals before he received medical attention. This experience increased his interest in participating within the Workers' Union. Around that time, he became involved in union activities and held several important union posts. Due to perceived incompatibility with the Brazilian military government and trade union activities, Lula's views moved further to the political left.

Union career

Inspired by his brother Frei Chico, Lula joined the labour movement when he worked at Indústrias Villares. He rose steadily in the ranks, and was elected in 1975, and reelected in 1978, president of the Steel Workers' Union of São Bernardo do Campo and Diadema. Both cities are located in the ABCD Region, home to most of Brazil's automobile manufacturing facilities (such as Ford, Volkswagen, Toyota, Mercedes-Benz and others) and are among the most industrialized in the country. In the late 1970s, when Brazil was under military rule, Lula helped organize union activities, including major strikes. Labour courts found the strikes to be illegal, and Lula was jailed for a month. Due to this, and like other people imprisoned for political activities under the military government, Lula was awarded a lifetime pension after the regime fell.

Political career

On 10 February 1980, a group of academics, intellectuals, and union leaders, including Lula, founded the ''Partido dos Trabalhadores'' (PT) or Workers' Party, a left-wing party with progressive ideas created in the midst of Brazil's military government.

In 1982 he added the nickname ''Lula'' to his legal name. In 1983 he helped found the Central Única dos Trabalhadores (CUT) union association. In 1984 PT and Lula joined the popular ''Diretas Já!'' (''Direct [Elections] Now!'') campaign, demanding a direct popular vote for the next Brazilian presidential election. According to the 1967 constitution, Presidents were at that time elected by both Houses of Congress in joint session, with representatives of all State Legislatures; this was widely recognised as a mere sham as, since the March 1964 coup d'état, each "elected" President had been a retired general chosen in a closed military caucus. Lula and the PT supported the public demand for a change in the electoral system. But the campaign was defeated by a vote in Congress which rejected an amendment calling direct elections for next year, and in 1985 a civilian president, Tancredo Neves, was elected by the same indirect procedure, with Lula's support. Only four years later, as a direct result of ''Diretas Já!'' and after years of popular struggle, the 1989 elections were the first to elect a President by direct popular vote in 29 years.

Elections

Lula first ran for office in 1982, for the state government of São Paulo and lost. In the 1986 elections Lula won a seat in Congress with the most votes nationwide. The Workers' Party helped write the country's post-military government Constitution, ensuring strong constitutional guarantees for workers' rights, but failed to achieve a proposed push for agrarian reform in the Constitutional text. Under Lula's leadership, the PT took a stance against the Constitution in the 1988 Constituent Assembly, grudgingly agreeing to sign the convened draft at a later stage.

In 1989, still as a Congressman, Lula ran as the PT candidate in the first democratic elections for President since 1960. Lula and Leonel Brizola, two popular left-wing candidates, were expected to vie for first place. Lula was viewed as the most left-leaning of the two, advocating immediate land reform and a default on the external debt. However, a minor candidate, Fernando Collor de Mello, former governor of Alagoas, quickly amassed support among the nation's élite with a more business-friendly agenda. Collor became popular taking emphatic anti-corruption positions; he eventually beat Lula in the second round of the 1989 elections. In 1992, Collor resigned, under threat of impeachment for his alleged embezzlement of public money.

Lula refused to run for re-election as a Congressman in 1990, busying himself with expanding the Workers' Party organizations around the country. As the political scene in the 1990s came under the sway of the Brazilian real monetary stabilization plan, which ended decades of rampant inflation, former Minister of Finance Fernando Henrique Cardoso (Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB)) defeated Lula in 1994 and again, by an even wider margin, in 1998.

Before winning the presidency in 2002, Lula had been a strident union organizer known for his bushy beard and Che Guevara t-shirts. In the 2002 campaign, Lula foreswore both his informal clothing style and his platform plank of linking the payment of Brazil's foreign debt to a prior thorough audit. This last point had worried economists, businessmen and banks, who feared that even a partial Brazilian default along with the existing Argentine default would have a massive ripple effect through the world economy. Embracing political consultant Duda Mendonça's advice to pursue a more media-friendly image, Lula became President after winning the second round of the 2002 election, held on 27 October, defeating the PSDB candidate José Serra.

Presidency

Lula served 2 terms as president and left office on January 1, 2011. During his farewell speech he said he felt an additional burden to prove that he could handle the presidency despite his humble beginnings. "If I failed, it would be the workers' class which would be failing; it would be this country's poor who would be proving they did not have what it takes to rule."

Political orientation

Since the beginning of his political career to the present, Lula has changed some of his original ideas and moderated his positions. Instead of the drastic social changes he proposed in the past, his government chose a reformist line, passing new retirement, tax, labour and judicial legislation, and discussing university reform.

Very few actual reforms have been implemented so far. Some wings of the Worker's Party have disagreed with this moderation in focus and have left the party to form dissident wings such as the Workers' Cause Party, the United Socialist Workers' Party and the Socialism and Freedom Party. Alliances with conservative, right wing politicians, like former Presidents José Sarney and Fernando Collor, have been a cause of disappointment for some. On 1 October 2006, Lula narrowly missed winning another term in the first round of elections. He faced a run-off on 29 October which he won by a substantial margin.

In an interview published 26 August 2007, he said that he had no intention to seek a constitutional change so that he could run for a third consecutive term; he also said that he wanted "to reach the end of [his] term in a strong position in order to influence the succession."

Social projects

Lula put social programs at the top of his agenda during the campaign and since being elected. Lula's leading program since very early on has been a campaign to eradicate hunger, following the lead of projects already put into practice by the Fernando Henrique Cardoso administration, but expanded within the new ''Fome Zero'' ("Zero Hunger"). This program brings together a series of programs with the goal to end hunger in Brazil: the creation of water cisterns in Brazil's semi-arid region of Sertão, plus actions to counter teenage pregnancy, to strengthen family agriculture, to distribute a minimum amount of cash to the poor, and many other measures.

Brazil's largest assistance program, however, is ''Bolsa Família'' ("Family Allowance"), which is an expansion based upon the previous ''Bolsa Escola'' ("School Allowance"), which was conditional on school attendance, first introduced in the city of Campinas by then-mayor José Roberto Magalhães Teixeira. Not long thereafter, other municipalities and states adopted similar programs. President Fernando Henrique Cardoso later federalized the program in 2001. In 2003, Lula formed ''Bolsa Família'' by combining ''Bolsa Escola'' with additional allowances for food and kitchen gas. This was preceded by the creation of a new ministry – the Ministry of Social Development and Eradication of Hunger. This merger reduced administrative costs and bureaucratic complexity for both the families involved and the administration of the program.

''Fome Zero'' has a government budget and accepts donations from the private sector and international organizations The ''Bolsa Família'' program has been praised internationally for its achievements, despite internal criticism accusing it of having turned into an electoral weapon.

Along with projects such as ''Fome Zero'' and ''Bolsa Família'', the Lula administration flagship program is the Growth Acceleration Program (PAC). The PAC has a total budget of $646 billion reais (US $353 billion) by 2010, and was the Lula administration's main investment program. It is intended to strengthen Brazil's infrastructure, and consequently to stimulate the private sector and create more jobs. The social and urban infrastructure sector was scheduled to receive $84.2 billion reais (US $46 billion). Together with increases in real wage levels (as characterised by a 54% real increase in the minimum wage), these projects had a major impact on poverty alleviation, with around 25 million Brazilians lifted out of poverty between 2002 and 2010.

Economy

As Lula gained strength in the run-up to the 2002 elections, the fear of drastic measures (and comparisons with Hugo Chávez of Venezuela) increased internal market speculation. This led to some market hysteria, contributing to a currency maxi-devaluation on the real, and a rise in Brazil's risk factor by more than 2000 base points.

In the beginning of his first term, Lula's chosen Minister of Finance was Antonio Palocci, a physician and former Trotskyist activist who had recanted his far left views while serving as the mayor of the sugarcane processing industry center of Ribeirão Preto, in the state of São Paulo. Lula also chose Henrique Meirelles of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party, a prominent market-oriented economist, as head of the Brazilian Central Bank. As a former CEO of the BankBoston he was well-known to the market. Meirelles was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 2002 as a member of the opposing PSDB, but resigned as deputy to become Governor of the Central Bank.

Silva and his cabinet followed in part the lead of the previous government, by renewing all agreements with the International Monetary Fund, which were signed by the time Argentina defaulted on its own deals in 2001. His government achieved a satisfactory primary budget surplus in the first two years, as required by the IMF agreement, exceeding the target for the third year. In late 2005, the government paid off its debt to the IMF in full, two years ahead of schedule. Three years after the election, Lula had slowly but firmly gained the market's confidence, and sovereign risk indexes fell to around 250 points. The government's choice of inflation targeting kept the economy stable, and was complimented during the 2005 World Economic Forum in Davos.

The Brazilian economy was generally not affected by the mensalão scandal. In early 2006, however, Palocci had to resign as finance minister due to his involvement in an abuse of power scandal. Lula then appointed Guido Mantega, a member of the PT and an economist by profession, as finance minister. Mantega, a former Marxist who had written a Ph.D. thesis (in Sociology) on the history of economic ideas in Brazil from a left-wing viewpoint, is presently known for his criticism of high interest rates, something he claims satisfy banking interests. So far, however, Brazil's interest rates remain among the highest in the world. Mantega has been supportive of a higher employment by the state.

Not long after the start of his second term, Lula, alongside his cabinet, announced the new Growth Acceleration Program (the ''Programa de Aceleração de Crescimento'', or PAC, in Portuguese), an investment program to solve many of the problems that prevent the Brazilian economy from expanding more rapidly. The measures include investment in the creation and repair of roads and railways, simplification and reduction of taxation, and modernization on the country's energy production to avoid further shortages. The money promised to be spent in this Program is considered to be around R$ 500 billion (more than 250 billion dollars) over four years. Part of the measures still depend on approval by Congress. Prior to taking office, Lula had been a critic of privatization policies. In his government, however, his administration has created public-private partnership concessions for seven federal roadways.

After decades as the largest foreign debtor among emerging economies, Brazil became a net creditor for the first time in January 2008. By mid-2008, both Fitch ratings and S&P; had elevated the classification of Brazilian debt from speculative to investment grade. Banks have had record profit in Lula's government. The Lula Administration's economic policies also helped to significantly raise living standards, with the percentage of Brazilians belonging to the consumerist middle class rising from 37% to 50% of the population.

Foreign policy

According to ''The Economist'' of 2 March 2006, Lula has a pragmatic foreign policy, seeing himself as a negotiator, not an ideologue. As a result, he has befriended both Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and former U.S. President George W. Bush. Leading a large and competitive agricultural state, Lula generally opposes and criticizes farm subsidies, and this position has been seen as one of the reasons for the walkout of developing nations and subsequent collapse of the Cancún World Trade Organization talks in 2003 over G8 agricultural subsidies. Brazil is becoming influential in dialogue between South America and developed countries, especially the United States. It played an important role in negotiations in internal conflicts of Venezuela and Colombia, and concentrated efforts on strengthening Mercosur.

During the Lula administration, Brazilian foreign trade has increased dramatically, changing from deficits to several surpluses since 2003. In 2004 the surplus reached $29 billion due to a substantial increase in global demand for commodities. Brazil has also provided UN peace-keeping troops and leads a peace-keeping mission in Haiti.

Lula also gained increasing stature in the Southern hemisphere buoyed by economic growth in his country. In 2008, he was said to have become a "point man for healing regional crises," as in the escalation of tensions between Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador. Former Finance Minister, and current advisor, Delfim Netto, said: "Lula is the ultimate pragmatist."

He travelled to more than 80 countries during his presidency. A goal of Lula's foreign policy has been for the country to gain a seat as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. In this he has so far been unsuccessful. And Lula was considered to have pulled off a major coup with Turkey in regards to getting Iran to send its uranium abroad in contravention of western calls.

The condemnation of Iranian Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani for the crime of adultery, and who was originally to be executed by stoning led to calls for Lula da Silva's intervention on her behalf. On the issue, Lula commented that "I need to respect the laws of a [foreign] country. If my friendship with the president of Iran and the respect that I have for him is worth something, if this woman has become a nuisance, we will receive her in Brazil." The Iranian government, however, declined the offer. Lula da Silva's actions and comments sparked controversy. Mina Ahadi, an Iranian Communist politician, welcomed Lula da Silva's offer of asylum for Ashtiani, but also reiterated a call for an end to stoning altogether and requesting a cessation of recognition and support for the Iranian government. Jackson Diehl, the right-leaning Deputy Editorial Page Editor of The Washington Post, called Lula da Silva the "best friend of tyrants in the democratic world" and criticised his actions. Shirin Ebadi, Iranian human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner, viewed Lula da Silva's intervention in a more positive light, calling it a "powerful message to the Islamic Republic."

Corruption scandals and controversy

Lula's administration was plagued by corruption scandals, most notably the mensalão and sanguessugas scandals, in his first term. Although the independent office of the Brazilian Attorney-General presented charges against 40 politicians and officials involved in the Mensalão affair, no charges have ever been presented against Lula himself, and top officials involved, such as Roberto Jefferson, José Dirceu, Luiz Gushiken and Humberto Costa denied he was aware of any wrongdoing. Having lost numerous government aides in the face of political turmoil, Lula has come largely unscathed in the eyes of the public, with overwhelming approval rates.

His administration has been heavily criticized for relying on local political barons, like José Sarney, Jader Barbalho, Renan Calheiros and Fernando Collor, to ensure a majority in Congress. He lost some important votes there, though, for example when the Senate barred the financial tax from being reinstated. Another frequent reproach relates to his ambiguous treatment of the left wing in the Workers' Party. Analysts fear that he occasionally gives in to their wishes for tighter government control of the media and increased state intervention: in 2004, he pushed for the creation of a "Federal Council of Journalists" (CFJ) and a "National Cinema Agency" (Ancinav), the latter of which would overhaul funding for electronic communications. Both proposals ultimately failed amid concerns that they would lead to excessive state intervention over free speech. Fernando Cardoso, Lula's predecessor as the president of Brazil, has accused Lula of denying any positive achievements allegedly made by the Cardoso administration.

In March 2009, before an appearance at the G-20 summit meeting in London, Lula caused an uproar when he declared that the economic crisis was caused by "the irrational behavior of white people with blue eyes, who before seemed to know everything, and now have shown they don't know anything." Despite a decision upheld by the Brazilian Supreme Court, Lula decided to deny extradition of the Italian far-left terrorist Cesare Battisti.

Awards and recognition

Since Lula began his term as President, he has attained numerous medals, such as the Brazilian Order of Merit, the Brazilian Orders of Military, Naval and Aeronautical Merit, the Brazilian Order of Scientific Merit, the Order of the Southern Cross, the Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle and the Norwegian Order of Royal Merit; the First Class of the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise (Ukraine, 2003), the Order of Liberty (Ukraine, 2009). He also received the Prince of Asturias Award for International Cooperation in 2003 and was the chief guest at India's Republic Day celebration in 2004. He was also given the Jawaharlal Nehru Award in 2006. He was rated the most popular Brazilian president of all time with an 80.5% approval rate in his last months as the president.

US President Barack Obama greeted him at the G20 summit in London (April, 2009) saying: "That's my man right there...love this guy...The most popular politician on earth."

Lula was chosen as the 2009 Man of the Year by prominent European newspapers ''El País'' and ''Le Monde''. The ''Financial Times'' ranks Lula among the 50 faces that shaped the 2000s.

On 20 December 2008, he was named the 18th most important person in the world by ''Newsweek'' magazine, and was the only Latin American person featured in a list of 50 most influential World leaders.

On July 7, 2009, he received UNESCO's Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France. On 5 November 2009, President Lula was awarded the Chatham House Prize, awarded to the statesperson who is deemed by Chatham House members to have made the most significant contribution to the improvement of international relations in the previous year.

On 29 January 2010, President Lula was awarded as a Global Statesman by the World Economic Forum, held in Davos, Switzerland, but could not attend the ceremony due to problems of high blood pressure.

In 2010, Time Magazine named Lula one of the most influential leaders of the world.

See also

''Lula, o filho do Brasil'', a Brazilian film about Lula's life up to 35 years of age.

References

Further reading

Silva, Luis Inácio da; Castro, Cassiana Rosa de; Machado, Sueli de Fátima; Santos, Alveci Oliveira de Orato; Ferreira, Luiz Tarcísio Teixeira; Teixeira, Paulo; Suplicy, Marta; Dutra, Olívio (2003). "The programme for land tenure legalization on public land in São Paulo, Brazil." ''Environment and Urbanization'' 15 (2): 191–200.

Bourne, R (2008). ''Lula of Brazil : The story so far''. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-24663-8

Goertzel, Ted (2011). ''Brazil's Lula: The Most Popular Politician on Earth''. Boca Raton, Florida: Brown Walker Press. ISBN 978-1612335056.

External links

Profile: Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, ''BBC News'', 28 January 2010

The 2010 TIME 100: Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Michael Moore, ''Time'', 20 April 2010

;Speeches

Transcript of statements by Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, President of Brazil, to the high-level meeting for foreign investors, UNCTAD, 29 January 2004, (meeting press release)

General Debate of the 64th Session, United Nations, 2009

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