text: Five months after Lula took office, however, the budget for Fome Zero was cut down a third from its original amount, and one year later, about $800 million was budgeted toward the program, but only $130 million of that was actually disbursed. Lula’s program was accused of having become more bark than bite, inasmuch as of May 2005, two years after the effort began, the program had fallen far short of expectations.
  During Lula's first term, child malnutrition decreased by 46%. In May 2010, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) awarded Lula the title of "World Champion in the Fight against Hunger". A number of other social projects were introduced during Lula's first presidency.
  Lula launched a housing aid program that was larger in scope to the policies developed until then. More than 15 billion euros were invested in water purification and the urbanization of favelas, and more than 40 billion in housing. The government proposed to relocate the poor populations that occupied the "risk zones", prone to floods or landslides; at the end of the day, however, at least 212 people died and at least 15,000 people were made homeless by the April 2010 Rio de Janeiro floods and mudslides alone. It proposed to then extend the electricity network, to relocate the streets and to improve the precarious housing. The government undertook to democratize access to real estate credit.
  Economy
  Lula's first two terms coincided with a strong boom in commodities prices. This fueled an economic boom in Brazil, which in turn allowed Lula to spend heavily on social programs and pay off a $15 billion IMF loan a year early.