December 31, 2022

15:12

Ívina Garcia – from Amazon Agency

MANAUS – Hunger and poverty are among the most urgent challenges in Brazil. The country reached the end of 2022 with a scenario of alarming numbers, with 62.5 million people below the poverty line, according to data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), released in early December, and more than 33 million people without having what to eat daily, according to the National Survey on Food Insecurity in the Context of the Covid-19 Pandemic in Brazil, conducted by the Brazilian Research Network on Food Sovereignty and Security and Nutrition (Rede Penssan). According to specialists, the federal government’s investments in public policies should be the key for the next management to try to reverse the worrying picture.

AMAZON AGENCY looked back at the challenges faced by Brazil on this social issue and tried to point out what needs to be done to improve the indices that translate into the harsh reality of the majority of the Brazilian population. Among the points mentioned by economists and social scientists, efforts must be made, especially, in social programmes for housing and job creation, added to the already existing income distribution programmes that, alone, cannot solve the social problems rooted in Brazilian society.

In 2014, the country had left the United Nations (UN) Hunger Map, due to economic and social strategies since the governments of Presidents Itamar Franco and Fernando Henrique Cardoso. Brazil faced the problem again in 2015, with an aggravation in 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, despite the emergency aid of R$ 600 for the most vulnerable families, sanctioned by President Jair Bolsonaro (PL), defeated at the polls by President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT).

The President-elect, in his first speech to the Nation, on 30 October, after the counting of the votes, reaffirmed the pact to reduce poverty and end hunger. “Our most urgent commitment is to end hunger again. We cannot accept that millions of people in this country do not have enough to eat. This will be, once again, the number one commitment of my government”, said Lula.

According to sociologist and Federal University of Amazonas (Ufam) professor Luiz Antonio Nascimento, fighting poverty is not only about money. “It [poverty] is materialised most forcefully by hunger. Hence the need to combat poverty, starting with the most urgent door, which is hunger”, he says.

Hunger data

IBGE data from 2020 shows that the country had 13.5 million people in extreme poverty. Adding those who are on the poverty line, the number represents 25% of the Brazilian population. Furthermore, according to the 2nd National Survey on Food Insecurity in the Context of the Covid-19 Pandemic in Brazil (Vigisan), of June 2022, there are 14 million more Brazilians in a situation of hunger since the conclusion of the previous study, in 2021.

Part of Brazil’s return to the Hunger Map is due to low investment in social programmes. The Bolsonaro Government practically zeroed investments in Alimenta Brasil. There were R$ 89 million invested until May 2022 and R$ 58.9 million in the whole of 2021. To get an idea, the amount is ten times less than the R$ 586 million invested in 2012 to combat hunger.

The survey also points out that more than half (58.7%) of the Brazilian population lives with food insecurity, that is, when there is lack of regular and permanent access to the absence of food in sufficient quantity and quality for survival, to some degree: mild, moderate or severe.

Sociologist Luiz Antônio recalls that between 2015 and 2016, the country had 1 million tons of rice stockpiled by the federal government. “From there to here, these numbers have fallen to the point where you arrive, in 2023, and you don’t have a single kilo of rice stockpiled”, he says.

These foods were part of the Alimenta Brasil program, which are now in the power of private companies. “The Bolsonaro government has not stimulated the stock and has dismantled the structure of storage silos. Today, who holds the stock is private enterprise, which is selling abroad, and the most bizarre and hilarious thing about this is that they are selling to Cuba, Venezuela and China [countries criticized by the current government]”, Mr. Nascimento points out.

Human development

The Human Development Index (HDI), which measures the quality of life of people around the world, fell globally between the years 2020 and 2021, due to the impacts of the pandemic and socioeconomic changes across the planet, according to the Human Development 2021/2022 report.

Losing one position in the ranking of 191 countries, Brazil closed 2021 with an HDI of 0.754, occupying the 87th position in the ranking. In 2020, the country was in 86th position, with an index of 0.758. In first place is Switzerland, with HDI of 0.962 in 2021.

In addition to hunger, the index scores access to basic goods. According to Luiz Antônio, poverty is materialized in hunger, but this is not the only problem. “It is also important to generate quality jobs, with a valued minimum wage. When a person enters the labour market with this guarantee, people start to generate economy, whether by building something or opening a small shop, and investing in their family, generating economy and development”, he points out.

For him, economic policies of income distribution are the foundation for poverty to decrease again. “There is research from various universities in the country proving the importance of economic compensation policies. In these researches, it has already been proven that for every R$ 1 that the government destines for families, the economy generates up to R$ 1.38”, concludes the sociologist, pointing out a way for Brazil to leave the Map of Hunger.

“These actions are mitigating, because the dynamics of current capitalism is one of spectacular concentration of wealth in the hand of a few, and there is no doubt that Karl Marx’s Theory of Value showed this back there”, recalls the sociologist. “When you have accumulation of wealth on one side, on the other side there is accumulation of poverty“, Luiz Antônio concludes.

Poverty

Another aspect of poverty in Brazil is that inequality between the main metropolises exposes the problem of the country’s continental dimensions. The large urban centres, located further south in Rio and São Paulo, contribute to a higher quality of life and investments for the surrounding states. The 9th Bulletin on Inequality in the Metropolises brings data that show the poverty experienced mainly in cities of the North and Northeast, and shows that the indices of lower inequality are more to the south.

Manaus, the capital of Amazonas state, is in first place among the most unequal metropolises, with 41.8% of the population living in poverty. Moreover, Grande São Luís (40.1%), Recife (39.7%), João Pessoa (39.2%) and Macapá (38.3%) are among the worst. One detail: all of them are located in the North and Northeast regions of the country.

In contrast to these numbers, the metropolitan areas with the least inequality are located in the Centre-west, Southeast and South of Brazil: São Paulo (17.8%), Distrito Federal (15.1%), Curitiba (13.1%), Porto Alegre (11.4%) and Florianópolis (9.9%), closer to the urban centres, where the largest investments are made.

Current programs

Several social programs to fight poverty currently exist at the federal, state and municipal levels. In the Amazon, the Industrial Pole was created as a way of reducing the differences between the regions and bringing investments to the more northern States, as well as generating jobs and reducing the exodus to the southern regions.

“It is paradoxical. Considering the Manaus Free Trade Zone and the jobs it generates. With this, there should be a dynamization of the city and a better income distribution, or a better result of the average income”, evaluates economist Mr. Inaldo Seixas.

According to the expert, the revenue of the metropolises, sometimes, does not match the investment reversed in them. “Manaus, for example, is among the ten largest contributors to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country, and yet, has bad rates of poverty and income. This is a warning to think about the public management of the State”, says Seixas.

Mrs. Mirella Cristina Xavier Lauschner, a Master degree in Social Service and Sustainability in the Amazon, believes that inequality in the North and Northeast regions is linked to a historical problem that cannot be fought only with income distribution programs. “Today, there are various programmes and projects aimed at combating poverty. However, we are facing a historical problem, which makes it difficult to find a relevant and really efficient response to this process”, she says.

For the specialist, “these programs are not able to remove the population from this situation of misery and extreme poverty in which they find themselves, so there is the need for public policies aimed at strengthening the economy and the generation of employment and income”.