The Brazilian cash transfer program (Bolsa Família): A tool for reducing inequalities and achieving social rights in Brazil.

Conditional cash transfer programs are strategies used by countries over the past two decades, and they play a key role in reducing income inequalities and expanding access to basic services such as health and education. The Brazilian Cash Transfer Program (Bolsa Família), the largest conditional cash transfer program in the world, aims to bring immediate poverty alleviation and eradicate hunger. The objective of this study was to analyse the contributions of the Brazilian Cash Transfer Program for reducing social inequalities and ensuring the right to health, food, education and social assistance in Brazil. A review of the scientific literature published between 2003 and 2020 was conducted, associated with documentary research on government websites. There was a relationship between the Brazilian Cash Transfer Program, reduction of child mortality and increase in access to Primary Health Care services; increased access to food, including in natura; higher school attendance and reduced dropout. However, no improvement in the nutritional status of the families entitled to the program was observed, nor the interruption of the intergenerational cycle of poverty was ensured. The Brazilian Cash Transfer Program continues as a potent intersectoral policy for reducing inequities, which reinforces the need to strengthen and combine complementary policies to expand its effects.

Reflections on the extinction of the National Council for Food and Nutrition Security and the confrontation of Covid-19 in Brazil / Reflexões sobre a extinção do Conselho Nacional de Segurança Alimentar e Nutricional e o enfrentamento da Covid-19 no Brasil

ABSTRACT The Provisional Measure 870/2019, which amended the Organic Law on Food and Nutrition Security and extinguished the Conselho Nacional de Segurança Alimentar e Nutricional (National Council for Food and Nutrition Security), has brought serious consequences to the Brazilian population, especially for the most vulnerable. This scientific note brings reflections on the trajectory of the Conselho Nacional de Segurança Alimentar e Nutricional, the repercussions of its extinction in the last year, and the project to dismantle social protection policies in Brazil, with serious consequences at a time when the country is going through a crisis in public health due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The absence of the Conselho Nacional de Segurança Alimentar e Nutricional and the weakening of the set of policies for Food and Nutritional Security has mobilized the civil society to defend the human rights to food, food sovereignty, and to democracy itself. The resistance of the different social movements in order to maintain the spaces of civil participation related to Food and Nutrition Security public policies are still going to be long and arduous, demanding the continued vocalization and strengthening of partnership networks within the different movements of the organized civil society. Finally, we highlight the urgent need for restoration of the National System of Food and Nutritional Security (Sistema Nacional de Segurança Alimentar e Nutricional) with all its instances, and of other social policies, so that the negative consequences of the pandemic are avoided or mitigated and the State complies with its obligations to guarantee the rights of the Brazilian population.

RESUMO A Medida Provisória nº 870/2019, que alterou a Lei Orgânica de Segurança Alimentar e Nutricional e extinguiu o Conselho Nacional de Segurança Alimentar e Nutricional, tem trazido graves consequências à população brasileira, em especial, àqueles em situação de maior vulnerabilidade. Esta nota científica traz reflexões sobre a trajetória do Conselho Nacional de Segurança Alimentar e Nutricional, as repercussões de sua extinção no último ano e o projeto de desmonte das políticas de proteção social no Brasil, com graves desdobramentos no momento em que o país atravessa uma crise de saúde pública em decorrência da pandemia da Covid-19. A ausência do Conselho Nacional de Segurança Alimentar e Nutricional e a fragilização do conjunto de políticas de Segurança Alimentar e Nutricional tem mobilizado a sociedade civil para a defesa do direito humano à alimentação, da soberania alimentar e da própria democracia. A resistência dos diferentes movimentos sociais para manutenção dos espaços de participação da sociedade civil nas políticas públicas de Segurança Alimentar e Nutricional ainda será longa e árdua, demandando a continuidade da vocalização e fortalecimento de redes de parceria nos diferentes movimentos da sociedade civil organizada. Por fim, destaca-se que a recomposição do Sistema Nacional de Segurança Alimentar e Nutricional, com todas as suas instâncias, e das demais políticas sociais, constitui uma necessidade premente para que as consequências negativas da pandemia sejam evitadas ou atenuadas e o Estado cumpra com as suas obrigações para a garantia dos direitos da população brasileira.