| Hello, *|NOME|* Shocks do not affect the homes and families of a society equally. They vary in frequency and/or intensity. Therefore, in order to fulfill their functions, the instruments used by social assistance systems need to be focused. The first measures of the federal government in relation to the Bolsa Família Program (PBF), which reincorporated the variable benefit per child, seem to go in the right direction: with the increase in child poverty in 2021 (last available data on this panel – select historical series and poverty line), the increase in the individual value of the program for families with more children resets the focus lost in 2022 (Law 14,342, May 2022). A social policy aimed at increasing social mobility, especially at the base of the pyramid, should go beyond one-off adjustments in the PBF. On one hand, by complementing the transfer of income to the public already served by the program with actions that support the accumulation of human capital of children and young people and promote the productive inclusion of their guardians. On the other hand, the target audience for support programs should not be limited to those classified as poor by the PBF: the Single Registry for Social Programs of the Federal Government (CadÚnico, established by Decree 3,877 dated July 2001) should be better used as a tool for those who, not being poor, are still vulnerable and require varied support. Brazil has an appropriate institutional framework for the implementation of an integrated logic of social care to the family, established by Law 8,742 dated 1993. The basic social protection provided for by the Unified Social Assistance System (SUAS) makes use of the Reference Centers in Social Assistance (CRAS) as a more capillary care unit, managed by the municipalities. The malfunction of CRAS, when it occurs, makes any social program ineffective, however well designed it may be. One example is the Criança Feliz (Happy Child) Program (PCF of Decree 8,869 dated October 2016), a federal public policy of home visits aimed at cognitive and socio-emotional stimulation in early childhood, inspired by Jamaica's Reach Up and Learn of the 1970s, a program that had a positive and lasting impact on children attended (twenty years later, young people benefited as children earned 25% more than the control group). That is, the PCF is a program whose logical matrix follows the best of social policy. In the Brazilian case, an experimental impact assessment of the PCF, conducted between 2019 and 2021, revealed that the program did not present, in the 30 municipalities in which it was evaluated, positive effects on child development (see here). Some clues to the absence of results come from the description of the operationalization of the program under the CRAS. The evaluation shows that there was an insufficient number of visits for impact generation (less than one visit per month), deficiencies in management (in particular, high turnover of the body of municipal coordinators and the visitors themselves, who often had temporary contracts) and low adherence of visits to the program protocol. Finally, poor operationalization probably reduced or even annulled the effectiveness of the program meant to stimulate a productive interaction between caregivers and babies. Another possible attribution of the centers is to act as facilitators of priority access of families in poverty to public policies and social programs of the third sector. Indeed, there is a wide range of services provided by non-governmental organizations. Reference Centers functioned, in this case, as information providers for families and as matchmakers. However, when implemented in Colombia in the late 2000s, an intersectoral social assistance program called Juntos had no impact on the expected dimensions. Also there the families contemplated received few visits and there was a high turnover of the managers responsible (see here). Cases such as these suggest the importance of actions by the federal government to train CRAS managers, establish protocols of action and frequently measure the performance of primary care units. And publish such assessments so as to disseminate best practices. See you in the next IMDS Letter! Paulo Tafner CEO |
