‘Criança Feliz’ (‘Happy Child’) Programme

Brazil launched Criança Feliz (Happy Child) Programme (CFP) in October 2016. It is one of the largest home visiting programmes in the world. The intent is to reach all of the country’s most vulnerable pregnant women and young children. The Criança Feliz builds on Brazil’s Primeira Infância Melhor (Better Infancy) Program (PIM); the two pillars are (i) home visits to strengthen families and (ii) intersectoral coordination to strengthen local, state, and national services.

The beneficiaries are families with children who participate in Bolsa Familia: families with pregnant women and children under age 3 and children with disabilities under age 6.

In 2019, the programme was awarded the WISE award recognizing its efforts for being the largest and fastest scale up of a home visiting programme of its kind in the world.

While the programme has successfully reached millions of children across Brazil, implementation has not been consistent and the results on children’s development have not been as expected. An article by Santos et al., in 2022 captures process and lessons learned.

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