Since 2003, 36 million Brazilians have been lifted out of extreme poverty. A significant part of this achievement is credited to the Bolsa Familia program, a conditional cash transfer scheme that provides a monthly cash benefit to poor families who meet required health and education conditionalities. The aim of the Bolsa Familia program is to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty in Brazil. The program currently covers 13.8 million households, or about 48 million people, roughly one-quarter of the Brazilian population.

The Bolsa Familia program is a great example of how to effectively deliver social benefits to the very poor. But consider what this entails: to deliver Bolsa Familia, the central government must register poor families into the program; get the Bolsa Familia card to them so that they can withdraw the cash benefit; regularly update their profiles and household information to make sure they remain eligible for the program; and monitor beneficiary families to ensure they are meeting the health and education conditionalities. In other words, delivering a social program such as Bolsa Familia requires government officials to know how to identify people and to know where they can be found; they need to know where the poorest of the poor live.