Governmental programmes associated with food insecurity among communities of descendants of enslaved blacks in Brazil

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Camilla Christine de Souza Cherol ◽  
Aline Alves Ferreira ◽  
Rosana Salles-Costa

Abstract Objective: To assess the access to government programmes and their association with food insecurity (FI) in families from quilombolas communities in Brazil. Design: An analysis of secondary data from the 2011 Quilombolas Census was performed in Brazilian territories. The Brazilian Household Food Insecurity Measurement Scale (Escala Brasileira de Insegurança Alimentar, EBIA) was used to assess the household FI status. The relationships of governmental programmes with the levels of FI were estimated using logistic regression models. Setting: Greater national survey census of food and nutritional security of the recognised Quilombolas Brazilian territories. Participants: Totally, 8743 quilombolas families. Results: The prevalence of household FI was 86·1 % (moderate/severe FI: 55·9 %, 95 % CI 54·8, 56·9). After adjustment for socio-demographic variables, access to rural development programmes (Food Acquisition Program: OR: 0·6, 95 % CI 0·4, 0·8, P-value < 0·01) and health programmes (Center for Family Health Support: OR: 0·5, 95 % CI 0·5, 0·7, P-value < 0·001) is inversely and significantly associated with moderate/severe FI. The Brazilian conditional cash transfer programme (Bolsa Família) was associated with quilombolas families with moderate/severe levels of FI (OR: 3·3, 95 % CI 2·8, 4·0, P-value < 0·001). Conclusions: The prevalence of FI was high among quilombolas families. Despite reduced participation in governmental programmes, rural development, agriculture and conditional cash transfer programmes are fundamental to the autonomy of quilombolas communities. In spite of the low participation, when families are able to access these programmes, the study revealed the importance of these initiatives in reducing the likelihood of severe levels of FI.

2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 35
Author(s):  
Anderson Gonçalves Freitas ◽  
Diego Gonçalves de Lima ◽  
Miguel Junior Sordi Bortolini ◽  
Dionatas Ulises De Oliveira Meneguetti ◽  
Edigê Felipe De Sousa Santos ◽  
...  

Introduction: In recent years, there has been a reduction in cases of malnutrition in Brazil but this has been accompanied with an increase in the overweight and obesity rates. These changes, together with others, such as changes in eating patterns and lifestyle, characterise the process of nutritional transition. Objective: We aimed to compare the prevalence of nutritional status of beneficiary children of the Bolsa Família Program (PBF) in the states of Acre and Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, and to analyse the changes in the anthropometric profile of these children during 5 years. Methods: This is an ecological study using secondary data from the Food and Nutrition Surveillance System (SISVAN) and Bolsa Família Department of SUS (DATASUS), which assessed the nutritional status of children over 5 years and under 10 years benefiting from the PBF in the years 2011 to 2015 in the states of Acre and Rio Grande do Sul. The sample consisted of 94,865 children from Acre and 342,462 children from Rio Grande do Sul. The Body Mass Index was used to classify the nutritional status. Results: The mean prevalence of eutrophic children aged 5 to 10 years in Acre was 70.42% and was 61.28% in Rio Grande do Sul. Overweight was 13.06% in Acre and 19.48% in Rio Grande do Sul. Obesity was 5.08% in Acre and 9.36% in Rio Grande do Sul. Severe obesity was 4.02% in Acre and 6.92% in Rio Grande do Sul. Conclusion: Overweight and obesity in children benefiting from the PBF has been growing in the last 5 years, notably in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. This is possibly due to the fact that the nutritional transition is at a more advanced stage here than in Acre State.


2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anderson Gonçalves Freitas ◽  
Diego Gonçalves de Lima ◽  
Miguel Junior Sordi Bortolini ◽  
Dionatas Ulises De Oliveira Meneguetti ◽  
Edigê Felipe De Sousa Santos ◽  
...  

Introduction: In recent years, there has been a reduction in cases of malnutrition in Brazil but this has been accompanied with an increase in the overweight and obesity rates. These changes, together with others, such as changes in eating patterns and lifestyle, characterise the process of nutritional transition. Objective: We aimed to compare the prevalence of nutritional status of beneficiary children of the Bolsa Família Program (PBF) in the states of Acre and Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, and to analyse the changes in the anthropometric profile of these children during 5 years. Methods: This is an ecological study using secondary data from the Food and Nutrition Surveillance System (SISVAN) and Bolsa Família Department of SUS (DATASUS), which assessed the nutritional status of children over 5 years and under 10 years benefiting from the PBF in the years 2011 to 2015 in the states of Acre and Rio Grande do Sul. The sample consisted of 94,865 children from Acre and 342,462 children from Rio Grande do Sul. The Body Mass Index was used to classify the nutritional status. Results: The mean prevalence of eutrophic children aged 5 to 10 years in Acre was 70.42% and was 61.28% in Rio Grande do Sul. Overweight was 13.06% in Acre and 19.48% in Rio Grande do Sul. Obesity was 5.08% in Acre and 9.36% in Rio Grande do Sul. Severe obesity was 4.02% in Acre and 6.92% in Rio Grande do Sul. Conclusion: Overweight and obesity in children benefiting from the PBF has been growing in the last 5 years, notably in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. This is possibly due to the fact that the nutritional transition is at a more advanced stage here than in Acre State.  


2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (51) ◽  
pp. 111-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simone Bohn ◽  
Luciana Fernandes Veiga ◽  
Salete Da Dalt ◽  
André Augusto Pereira Brandão ◽  
Victor Hugo de Carvalho Gouvêa

This article examines whether the state, through conditional cash transfer programs (CCT), can reduce the poverty and extremely poverty in societies marred by high levels of income concentration. We focus on one of the most unequal countries in the globe, Brazil, and analyze the extent to which this country's CCT program - Bolsa Família (BF, Family Grant) program - is able to improve the life chances of extremely poor beneficiaries, through the three major goals of PBF: First, to immediately end hunger; second, to create basic social rights related to healthcare and education; finally, considering also complementary policies, to integrate adults into the job market. The analysis relies on a quantitative survey with 4,000 beneficiaries and a qualitative survey comprised of in-depth interviews with 38 program's participants from all the regions of the country in 2008, it means that this study is about the five first years of the PBF. In order to answer the research questions, we ran four probit analyses related: a) the determinants of the realization of prenatal care; b) the determinants of food security among BF beneficiaries, c) the determinants that adult BF recipients will return to school, d) the determinants that a BF beneficiary will obtain a job. Important results from the study are: First, those who before their participation on PBF were at the margins have now been able to access healthcare services on a more regular basis. Thus, the women at the margins who were systematically excluded - black women, poorly educated and from the North - now, after their participation in the CCT program, have more access to prenatal care and can now count with more availability of public healthcare network. Second, before entering the Bolsa Família program, 50.3% of the participants faced severe food insecurity. This number went down to 36.8% in very five years. Men are more likely than women; non-blacks more likely than blacks; and South and Centre-West residents more likely than Brazilians from other regions; to become food secure while participating in BF. Third, instead, that moment in 2008, a small proportion of the adult participants indeed were able to return to school and to increase their educational qualifications. The lack of technical skills and the huge predominance of informal employment are central social problems in Brazil and that the PBF has failed to address such issues. This study confirms what other previous studies have reported on: BF has had a positive impact in reducing poverty in the country. Hence the main contribution of the present study is in identifying the main determinants of unequal results among individuals participating in the BF program: why some, but not others, are more easily able to access the healthcare or to overcome food insecurity while in the program?


Author(s):  
Armando Barrientos

This chapter examines the role that public policy initiatives—specifically anti-poverty transfers—have played in the reduction of poverty and inequality in Brazil. A number of anti-poverty initiatives are considered in turn, and not just the widely known Bolsa Familia conditional cash transfer program. The analysis establishes that such transfers—including conditional cash transfers—have proved surprisingly effective, even helping to tackle long-standing income inequality. It is recognized that explicit anti-poverty initiatives were not the only drivers of the reduced incidence of poverty and inequality: factors such as growth and improved access to labor markets also played a role. However, progress is now threatened by the recent economic and political crisis.


2021 ◽  
Vol 46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Camila Ferreira Soares ◽  
Everton Emanuel Campos de Lima

Brazil’s Bolsa Família Programme (BFP) aims to combat poverty and social inequalities through monetary transfers to families. A much-discussed indirect effect of the programme was its correlation to the fertility of the beneficiary families. In this paper, we use a cohort fertility approach with parity progression ratios that differs from existing literature, which mainly used period fertility measures, to better understand the relationship between fertility and the BFP. This study analyses the relationship between the BFP and the reproduction of Brazilian women. We use data from the 2010 Brazilian micro-censuses, the only census after the start of the BFP in 2004, to reconstruct the childbirth history of women with incomplete reproductive cycles (women aged 25 to 29), and estimate parity progression ratios (PPRs) and cohort fertility rates (CFR). In addition, we estimate propensity score matching (PSM) models comparing fertility outcomes of beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries of the programme. Our results show distinct differences in CFRs and PPRs. On average, BFP beneficiaries had more children than women not covered by the programme. This finding remained consistent even after controlling for educational gradients and other covariates. Our empirical findings show that women opt for a “rational” strategy, where they tend to have children in more rapid succession up until three children. These findings contradict the recent literature that has not found any correlation between BFP and fertility. The results also suggest that cohort analyses may fill certain gaps left by previous studies of period fertility. This paper is one of a few that have analysed the relationship between a conditional income transfer programme and cohort measures in Brazil.


2020 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 53-74
Author(s):  
Natasha Borges Sugiyama ◽  
Wendy Hunter

ABSTRACTConditional cash transfer programs (CCTs) have emerged as an important social welfare innovation across the Global South in the last two decades. That poor mothers are typically the primary recipients of the grants renders easy, but not necessarily correct, the notion that CCTs empower women. This article assesses the relationship between the world’s largest CCT, Brazil’s Bolsa Família, and women’s empowerment. To systematize and interpret existing research, including our own, it puts forth a three-part framework that examines the program’s effects on economic independence, physical health, and psychosocial well-being. Findings suggest that women experience some improved status along all three dimensions, but that improvements are far from universal. A core conclusion is that the broader institutional context in which the Bolsa Família is embedded—that is, ancillary services in health and social assistance—is crucial for conditioning the degree of empowerment obtained.


2006 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 689-709 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANTHONY HALL

Under the administrations of Fernando Henrique Cardoso (1995–2002) and especially President Lula (2003–), conditional cash transfer (CCT) programmes have become adopted as mainstream social policy in Brazil. This follows a marked trend since the 1990s in Latin America towards the setting up of targeted safety nets to alleviate poverty. Lula consolidated and expanded CCTs, firstly under Fome Zero and later Bolsa Família, now the largest such scheme in the world. Its four sub-programmes (educational stipends to boost school attendance, maternal nutrition, food supplements and a domestic gas subsidy) benefit some 30 million of Brazil's poorest people, with a target of 44 million by 2006. Since 2003, spending on Bolsa Família has risen significantly to consume over one-third of the social assistance budget for the poorest sectors and it remained a flagship policy in the run-up to the presidential elections of October 2006. Although coverage of Bolsa Família is impressive, however, systematic evaluation of its social and economic impacts is still lacking. Evidence from other CCT programmes in Latin America suggests that positive results may be achieved in terms of meeting some immediate needs of the poor. However, there have been many implementation problems. These include poor beneficiary targeting, lack of inter-ministerial coordination, inadequate monitoring, clientelism, weak accountability and alleged political bias. Given the heightened profile of cash transfers in Brazil's social policy agenda, key questions need to be asked. These concern, firstly, the extent to which Bolsa Família does indeed contribute to poverty alleviation; and secondly, whether it creates greater dependence of the poor on government hand-outs and political patronage at the expense of long-term social investment for development.


2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Diogo R. Coutinho

The 1988 Brazilian Constitution contains a wide variety of social and economic rights and expressly embraces development as a fundamental goal. For the results to be effective, however, constitutional provisions of this type require permanent implementation and articulation of public policies that, in turn, are intensely mediated by the law. Assuming that the legal dimension of social policies ultimately matters for development, the article seeks to identify and discuss the distributive effects caused by some Brazilian welfare institutions and their legal arrangements. After describing the regressive outcomes produced by the tax and pensions systems and arguing that such effects reinforce Brazilian's historically rooted deep inequality, the article discusses Programa Bolsa Família, a conditional cash transfer in Brazil, and presents the preliminary findings of an ongoing research project on law and development (the LANDS project).


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