With over 444,000 Covid-19 deaths, the pandemic has left an indelible social, humanitarian, and financial strain on Brazil. Unemployment is at an all-time high and falling incomes have left roughly 19 million Brazilians hungry — a further 116 million (over half the entire population) faced some degree of food insecurity during the pandemic. Amid the hardship, the small city of Maricá — just 60 kilometers up the coast from Rio de Janeiro — has become something of a socioeconomic island. To mitigate the negative effects of the Covid-19 crisis, the local government has employed a series of measures, largely directed at assisting Maricá’s most vulnerable groups.
And much of the success of these aid programs is down to the “Mumbuca.”
Created in 2013 and named after the river which cuts through Maricá, the Mumbuca is a social currency that has drastically altered consumption dynamics in the city. Pegged to the Brazilian Real, roughly one-third of Maricá’s 164,000 residents receive 130 Mumbucas (USD 24) a month as part of a basic income scheme — a payment increased to 300 Mumbucas during the pandemic.
The program works as follows: the municipal government transfers the funds and a list of beneficiaries to Banco Mumbuca, a community bank. Then, the money is converted into Mumbucas and distributed to all citizens who have lived in Maricá for at least three years and earn less than three times the minimum wage.
“We already had the wealth-distribution structure in place, and during the pandemic we calibrated the value,” explains Igor Sardinha, secretary of economic development, commerce, industry, oil,...
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