Social Assistance in Brazil: Organization of SUAS

Author: Bruna Goussain e Giovanna Lima

Edition: 1st

Published in: April 2026

This report inaugurates a series of three studies on Social Assistance in Brazil, organized by IMDS with the objective of offering a structured view of this public policy and answering, in a systematic way, the central question: “What is Social Assistance in Brazil and how does it work?”. The elaboration of this series stemmed from the realization that, although there is a broad normative framework that regulates social assistance, there was still a lack of material that systematized, in an accessible way, its main elements of organization, management and financing. The reports, therefore, intend to fill this gap, offering public managers, technical teams and researchers a qualified synthesis that serves as a reference for understanding the policy.

The reports dialogue with a synthetic diagram, available on a dedicated page on the IMDS portal, which organizes Social Assistance into its three axes and translates, in a visual way, its main flows and instruments. While the diagram offers an integrated and immediate view of the policy, the reports deepen the analysis, detailing the normative and institutional framework that underpins each of these components. Together, these materials support a comprehensive understanding of the SUAS, combining visual clarity and analytical depth.

This first report is dedicated to the organization of the social assistance provisions and begins with a preliminary section that answers the question “What is Social Assistance”, situating it as a public policy of the State, recognized by the 1988 Constitution and organized by the Unified Social Assistance System (SUAS). In this section, its central objectives are highlighted — social protection, social assistance monitoring, and defense of rights — as well as organizational principles such as decentralized management and tripartite financing. Next, the report deepens the analysis of the organization of the provisions, exploring how the services, programs, benefits and units of the SUAS are structured in the territory and how they are operationalized by the reference teams. Although social protection is divided into Basic Social Protection and Special Social Protection, for the sake of clarity and didactics, it was decided to emphasize, at this time, Basic Social Protection.

Happy reading! And also check out the second and third reports of the series of studies on Social Assistance in Brazil.