Starting with a few communities in three municipalities in the north east of Brazil, by 2002 the programme covered 16 municipalities and included approximately 5000 families. Although this increase in the programme?s geographic and social coverage was striking, it raised questions for AS-PTA about whether it was adequately reaching the most impoverished families. To address this concern, a study was conducted in three communities of Solânea, a municipality with a large number of families living in extreme poverty.
This article explores to what extent do rural development programmes allow for diversity in the social situations where they work? In particular, how can they take this diversity into account when seeking to involve and empower the poorest families? How can an agroecological focus and a gender approach help these families overcome poverty? These questions formed a central part of a study undertaken in Brazil?s semi-arid region to improve the local development programme run by the non-governmental organisation AS-PTA.
