| Hello, *|NOME|* One of IMDS's lines of action has been to measure social mobility. Recently, we launched a series of studies investigating the topic in the first generations of children in the Bolsa Família Program. Although we identified a movement of social ascension of these children in relation to their parents, we also saw that in many municipalities the vast majority of them remain dependent on social assistance. In the Northeast, for example, only 5% of the municipalities had emancipation rates above the Brazilian average. Our research also indicated that the great difference between the social mobility rates of the municipalities is largely explained by the vulnerability in the place of residence of the child's family, measured in dimensions of health, education, income and demography during childhood and adolescence. The chances of emancipation of these young adults in relation to the transfer of income and insertion in the formal labor market are affected by the conditions of local economic development and by the availability and effectiveness of the performance of local public agents. On this topic, there is a relevant question to be answered: how does the Brazilian basic social protection network act to increase the chances of emancipation of a poor child or young adult? Brazilian social assistance, whose regulatory framework is defined by the Organic Law of Social Assistance (Law No. 8,742/1993), offers a wide range of services, benefits, and programs. In an attempt to answer this question, the next natural step was to develop a project (which we have already talked about here) to investigate the typical activities of the Unified Social Assistance System (SUAS) and, for this, we set up a logical diagram based on the detailed study of its entire normative framework (112 documents, including laws, decrees, ordinances, resolutions and basic guidelines). This object has been validated through dialogues with academic experts and public managers. Notably the SUAS has been under construction since the 1988 Constitution in order to ensure the provision of a basic social protection network, in the form of services, programs and benefits, whose objective is to guarantee the minimum conditions of well-being to those families and individuals who are most vulnerable. But how are these services, programs, and benefits offered? What does each activity consist of and how is the time of SUAS workers distributed among them? What is the economic cost implicit in the execution of each one, broken down by human resources, physical capital and inputs used in each offer? How does the unit cost of production of the health care network vary with the scale of the operation or with the size of the CRAS post (basic care unit of basic social protection)? To answer these questions, it is first necessary to have kept a system of records that identifies the routines of workers performing such tasks and a transparent structure of public accounts that allows for the disaggregation of costs by purpose. But does this entire care network serve its best ends? What is the degree of focus on the provision of these services, that is, how is the service network able to identify and serve those who need it most? Can everyone who seeks or needs them be able to access them? In order to infer about the average profile of the clientele, by service, we need an administrative registration system that includes a rich description of each individual served. To estimate the potential demand for services, this same system must be able to have a key that allows us to cross-reference the records in the individual’s history and files with the CadÚnico registration base. We identified in the Municipality of Vitória (ES) and in the team of technicians of the Secretariat of Social Assistance (SEMAS) the preconditions that allow us to answer, with a reasonable degree of precision, the above questions. The capital of Espírito Santo has an individualized history and records system (SIGMA) that maps the allocation of time dedicated to each activity by each basic social protection worker; it details the profile of users by program and services, allowing a good characterization of the clientele by service; and it has common keys with CadÚnico. In addition, SEMAS keeps good budget records of its activities, and has a team of basic social protection coordinators with long experience in evidence-based public management. On this threshold, on April 18, IMDS formalized a Technical Cooperation Agreement (ACT) with city hall to jointly study all the above-mentioned issues. If successful, the result will be the construction of a method that can be expanded to any and all municipalities in Brazil that have the preconditions of Vitória and for those that do not, the paths to reach this level.
Only by understanding the current system in detail can we discover how to incorporate social mobility objectives in complementarity with the exercise of their essential function of providing a network of social security services and minimum guarantees for the most vulnerable families. We will update you, at the appropriate time, on the progress of this work. See you at the next “Letter from IMDS”! Paulo Tafner CEO |
