Eastern Europe and Central Asia (23 countries). The largest programmes are India's school-feeding programme and the Programa Nacional de AHmentaqao Escolar in Brazil, which cover 105 and 47 million children, respectively. For example, following the 2008 global financial crisis, the Government of Brazil was able to react quickly at low cost by scaling up programmes. This had a significant impact, reaching over 1.6 million of the most vulnerable people and, in turn, contributed to domestic demand growth: despite a decrease in GDP in 2009 of 0.6 percent, private consumption remained stable and resumed growing in the second half of 2009 (Berg and Tobin, 2011). The programme resulted in a 13 percentage point reduction in poverty levels (living on less than $1 a day) in beneficiary households between 2007 and 2009 (Ward eta/., 2010). It entails a cash transfer to the primary caregiver of a child who is under the age of 18 and living in a household earning below a defined income threshold.