The recreation of the National Council for Food and Nutritional Security (Consea, in Portuguese) is among the first acts of the new Lula government (Workers’ Party), who was sworn in as Brazil’s president for the third time this Sunday (1). The agency is composed of members of the government and civil society and will support the presidency in tackling hunger, an issue Lula stated is his “number one priority.”
The above-mentioned advisory agency contributed to policies aimed at encouraging family farming and the provision of healthy food in governmental bodies. Among them, there is the Food Acquisition Program (PAA, in Portuguese) and the National School Feeding Program (PNAE, in Portuguese), both put aside in the last four years.
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In PAA, the federal government purchases food and other products produced by family farmers to be donated to a network of public bodies such as, for instance, Social Assistance Reference Centers and people’s restaurants. In PNAE, the federal government transfers to states, cities, towns, and federal schools’ money aimed at purchasing family farming to feed students.
The recreation of Consea is in the Provisional Measure 1154/2023, published in Brazil’s Federal Register on Sunday (1). Symbolically, the agency that returned on the first day of Lula’s third term ended in 2019, on the first day of Bolsonaro (Liberal Party) as Brazil’s president.
Brazil is on the Hunger Map again
During the Bolsonaro government, Brazil returned to the United Nations’ Hunger Map. A country is in this category when over 2.5% of its population faces a chronic lack of food.
Besides, those who do not need to worry about what they will eat the next day are a minority now. Only four out of ten Brazilian families have constant access to food, according to the 2nd National Inquiry about Food Insecurity, research by the Penssan Network.
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To historian Denise de Sordi, a researcher at Fiocruz and USP, the news “not only is in accordance with the elected government’s program but also with the fight against hunger that needs to be a State policy.”
"Resuming Consea is a victory for society, which has not been listened to in a number of ways in the last four years," says Paola Carvalho, director of the Brazilian Network for Basic Income.
Changes in the Ministry of Health
This Tuesday morning (03), scientist and researcher Nísia Trindade took office as the Minister of Health of the Lula government. That is the first time in Brazil a woman holds the position. Until then, Trindade was president of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz, in Portuguese), where she worked since 1987.
In the auditorium of the Ministry of Health, where the ceremony was held (Brasília), Trindade stated that, in the next days, she will revoke “ordinances and technical notes that offend science, human rights, sexual and reproductive rights and make many of the Ministry of Health decisions part of a conservative and denialist agenda.”
Nísia Trindade / Marcelo Camargo/Agência Brasil
"We will revoke all mental health decisions [they took] that violate the precepts we defend, such as humanization and the fight against asylums. The issue of women's health, where setbacks are expected in relation to what the law itself defines and issues related to funding as well. However, it will have to be carefully reassessed, so that states and municipalities that received fund transfers do not suffer any damage. Technical notes that are against scientific guidelines, such as suggesting the use of chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine, among others,” she said.
Dialogue with scientists
In the words of the Minister of Health, the current mandate will be guided by “science and dialogue with the scientific community”, in contrast to the “obscurantism period” seen during the Bolsonaro government.
Nísia Trindade also stated that her mandate as Minister of Health will be marked by dialogue with other ministries and federal agencies. “Health has to be [considered] in every policy. My understanding about the importance of social and environmental factors and about the group of social policies and social development reinforces the need for joint actions and collaborative work involving all the authorities nominated by Lula.”
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“This mandate [at the Ministry of Health] cannot be separated from others. Health needs to be in all policies. I restated the need for joint efforts and collaborative work involving all those nominated by President Lula,” she said.
Among the measures announced, there is the strengthening of the national production of vaccines and medicines, the fight against structural racism in the National Health Service (SUS, in Portuguese), resuming of the mental health agenda, the creation of a system to support people suffering from so-called “long covid-19”, actions to change the current situation of low vaccination rate and strengthening Farmácia Popular (drugstores that provide medicines for a lower price).
On social media platforms, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom congratulated Nísia Trindade. “Congratulations, my friend Dr Nísia Trindade for her nomination as Brazil’s Minister of health, the first woman to do so. I wish you the best, and I look forward to working with you in the coming years to advance,” he wrote.
Edited by: Flávia Chacon e Glauco Faria
