Abstract:In the last decade, Brazil gained widespread recognition around the world for its successful initiatives in fi ghting hunger and extreme poverty. The country’s experience is serving as inspiration for other countries to develop their own policies and programmes. Although some studies have been conducted to systematise the experiences and to determine the foundation of Brazil’s success, there is still a lack of research on the concrete results the Brazilian programmes have achieved and their impacts on people’s lives. One aspect of Brazil´s success can be attributed to linking the supply by smallholder farmers to the demand of institutional procurement for food-based safety net programmes. This has been coined by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as ‘Structured Demand’. The theory of change is that structured demand connects large, predictable sources of demand for agricultural products to small farmers, which reduces risk and encourages improved quality, leading to improved systems, increased income and reduced poverty. (...)