Integrated actions of the Zero Hunger Program

The Zero Hunger Scheme is made up of dozens of integrated actions to eradicate hunger, the aim being to establish a standing policy that will afford food and nutritional security to the millions of Brazilians who lack sufficient income to obtain adequate nourishment. The scheme operates at three levels: in accordance with a series of public policies; through the constructive participation of a National Policy for Food and Nutritional Security and through the Program for Community Action Against Hunger.

In the first three months, the Extraordinary Ministry for Food Security and for Combating Hunger (MESA) initiated the following:

01 - Official definition of the poverty line

On the 14th of April 2003, MESA established a commission consisting of representatives of the Ministry itself, the IPEA (Institute for Applied Economic Research) and the IBGE (Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics) charged with setting an official poverty line to be used as a benchmark by all federal government departments.

The object is to establish criteria as to who will be entitled to the benefits offered under the official schemes of the Fund to Fight and Eradicate Poverty. The commission will consult various experts who will be invited to take part in an open seminar on the subject. The poverty measurements at present employed by the Zero Hunger Scheme were based on the IBGE National Survey of Data from Households that found there were 46 million people living below the poverty line in 2001.

The Commission was one of the first measures to emanate from the technical co-operation agreement concluded last March between MESA and the IBGE. MESA’s object is to define a standard concept of poverty to serve as the official guideline for future actions under the Zero Hunger Scheme.

The remit of the IBGE will be to provide data on income, costs, housing, employment and the nutritional levels of urban and rural populations suffering from food insecurity. This information will be used to establish the indicators to be employed in identifying the municipal areas of Brazil in which the activities of the Zero Hunger Scheme are next required.

02 - CONSEA

The National Council for Food and Nutritional Security (CONSEA) was created on the 1st of January 2003. Its purpose is to channel proposals for policies and actions in the fields of food and nutrition put forward by civil society to the government. It consists of 62 counselors: 13 ministers of state, 11 observers and 38 representatives of organized society.

The Council is chaired by Luiz Marinho, a trade union official. The members are all professionals and come from various regions of Brazil. One is from the northern region, 3 from the south, 6 from the northeast, 8 from the center-west and 33 from the southeast.

The representatives of organized society work in various fields related to food and nutritional security. There are six clergymen or heads of religious communities, five trade unionists, four university professors, three doctors, three civil engineers, two sociologists, two agronomists, two economists, two lawyers, one agricultural worker, one rural worker, one actor, one athlete, one mayor and one nutritionist.

The first ordinary meeting of the Council was held on the 25th of February, during which the standing rules of CONSEA were drawn up and matters such as the formulation of a harvest plan for family farms were discussed. At the extraordinary meeting held on the 25th of March, the group in charge of examining the 2003/04 harvest plan put forward a proposal to modify the conventional nature of the plan by prioritizing the adoption of measures to expand family farming and increase the number of people being resettled under the agrarian reform program. The measures, which were proposed and adopted by consensus, have been laid before the President of the Republic.

03 - Fund to Combat and Eradicate Poverty

The Consultative Council on the Fund to Combat and Eradicate Poverty, which fund is now administered by MESA, held its first meeting on the 18th of March 2003. The members of the Consultative Council, chaired by MESA, are: the Ministries for Planning, Budget and Management, Education, Culture, Health, Agrarian Development, National Integration and Social Assistance and Promotion; the Special Secretariat for Human Rights of the Presidency of the Republic and one representative of each of the following: National Council for Social Assistance, National Health Council, National Education Council, National Council for the Defense of Human Rights, National Council for the Rights of Children and Adolescents and the National Council for Food and Nutritional Security.

04 - Treasury will supervise Zero Hunger Scheme

In order to ensure transparency in all aspects of its work, MESA have asked the Treasury to supervise and control the Food Voucher Scheme and all other plans for combating hunger implemented by the ministry. The Treasury have agreed and will undertake to examine the measures to be adopted, the rationale behind a given plan, the areas in which the Zero Hunger Scheme is to be implemented, the targets being set and whether these are being reached. It will also identify the areas or activities to be monitored, evaluated or audited in the next six months and establish supervisory measures to be adopted once the final configuration of the scheme has been agreed.

05 - Food Voucher Scheme (PCA)

By Presidential Decree of the 17th of April 2003, the value of the food vouchers was set at R$50,00. The vouchers will be allocated to families with a per capita income of less than half the minimum wage and will be distributed for an initial period of up to six months, which period may be renewed twice thereafter. It is hoped that during this time the structural changes being put in place will have improved the families’ circumstances and reduced the risk of food insecurity. The vouchers will be preferentially allocated to the woman in charge of the family.

The scheme has already been implanted in four states: Piauí, Rio Grande do Norte, Ceará and Pernambuco. In April, the vouchers were allocated to 15,841 families, 7,050 in Rio Grande do Norte and 8,791 in Piauí.

On the 24th of May, the vouchers were distributed to thirty thousand families in the states of Ceará, Pernambuco, Alagoas and Sergipe. Families are selected by Local Managing Committees consisting of up to 9 representatives of civil society (two thirds of the committee) and up to one-third of state and municipal authorities. The committees are also responsible for supervising and monitoring the performance of the Scheme.

When setting up the committees, 2 representatives of each municipal district are selected to attend capacity building courses in which they are given guidance on implanting and following the performance of the Food Voucher Scheme and taught the rudiments of food and nutritional security. They are also encouraged to frame plans for local development, to foster private and public initiatives and to convey the experience acquired during the course of their activities to the other members of their Local Managing Committee.

By the end of April, 386 persons in the states where the Food Voucher Scheme was implanted had been trained and another 400 were expected to have taken part in the courses by the end of May. By the end of June the scheme will have been implanted in 10 of the states located in the semi-arid region – totaling 193 municipal districts. It is expected that some 1000 municipal districts will have received assistance by the end of the year.

The municipal districts chosen for this initial phase of the scheme had to meet the following criteria: an officially recognized state of emergency must have been declared in the area in January or February 2003; the area must be in the semi-arid region and have fewer than 50 thousand inhabitants in addition to some sort of organized civil society body, such as a Forum for Local Development (DLIS)

06 - Literacy courses

Along with the PCA, policy measures to generate employment and income and provide incentives to local development are also being instituted. A pilot project has been set up in the towns of Guaribas and Acauã, in Piauí state, where more than 600 young people and adults are being taught to read. Resources totaling R$350 thousand were made available by MESA in partnership with UNESCO. Ninety teachers from the state education system attended a course, based on the GEEMPA method, specifically aimed at eradicating illiteracy. The Study Group on Education, Research Methodology and Action (GEEMPA) is an NGO that has been working in the field of literacy for more than 30 years. Along with MESA and UNESCO, the following are also partners in the project: the Education Ministry, GEEMPA, the State Coordinating Committee for the Zero Hunger Scheme and the Piauí State Education Secretariat.

07 - Cisterns

The Protocol of Intent signed by MESA and the Liaison Committee for the Semi-arid Region (ASA) on the 26th of April will provide for the building of 21 thousand cisterns in the regions where the PCA operates. The total investment should amount to R$32,5 million.

ASA is an NGO composed of some 700 bodies and institutions working in the semi-arid region. The organization is responsible for administering the One Million Cisterns Program (PIMC), the aim of which is to build that number of cisterns by the end of 2006. In addition to the building work, training will be provided so as to empower the local community to treat the water being retained for its use.

08 - Family Farming

Family farming is being fostered by MESA in partnership with the Brazilian Agency for Research into Agriculture and Livestock Farming (EMBRAPA). Projects for starting market gardens and implanting the technology required for breeding sheep, goats and pigs are already in place. The aim is to generate employment for the inhabitants of the semi-arid region, help the local economies to develop, increase and diversify the supply of food in the markets, improve the diet of the local people and raise local producers’ income. EMBRAPA has additionally undertaken to provide food security training to its research and general staff. Another initiative is to help local farmers to set up markets in which to sell their own produce.

09 - Food purchasing project

In accordance with a joint ministerial Order, MESA, the Ministry for Agrarian Development (MDA), the Ministry for Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (MAPA) and the Finance Ministry will make R$400 million available for the purchase of food produced by family farms in 2003. It is hoped that this will encourage the establishment of small co-operatives and producer associations and provide price guarantees for family farmers that more nearly reflect the reality of local markets.

As this year’s harvest in the northeast was good, buying will begin in that region, with purchases of maize and beans. By the end of 2003, other regions will be included in the purchasing plan and the range of products will be widened to include rice, manioc and wheat.

10 - Conviver

The Program for Integrated Action in the Semi-arid Region – Conviver – consists of a series of measures to improve the living standards of small farmers in the semi-arid region of Brazil. It is administered by the Ministry for Agrarian Development together with other federal government agencies, and will assist 550 thousand families in 1.200 municipal areas of the states of Pernambuco, Paraíba, Piauí, Sergipe and Alagoas plus the northern region of Minas Gerais (Vale do Jequitinhonha and Vale do Mucuri) and Espirito Santo states.

Crop Insurance, one of the main Conviver measures, is expected to provide cover to some 1,3 million families over the next few years. The insurance covers small farmers who have suffered crop losses owing to disaster, emergency or drought, and ensures they receive a guaranteed minimum income of up to R$475.00, paid in six installments, when they lose more than 50% of their maize, rice, beans, manioc or cotton crop as a consequence of drought. The sum of R$52,3 million has been disbursed by the federal government to pay for the initial phase, and the remaining R$26,1 million cost will be shared by the states, municipal districts and the families which have joined the scheme by contributing a premium of R$6.00 to their local Council authority or to the Rural Development Council.

Another measure, the Project for Land Credit and Action against Rural Poverty, enables rural workers who are members of officially constituted associations to buy land at mortgages ranging from R$12 to R$18 thousand, (depending on the sub-region) repayable over 20 years at a fixed rate of 6%, with 3 years’ grace before repayments become due. The mortgage borrowers may also take out loans to pay for basic building work on the land they have bought.

The Project will accord the communities of the semi-arid region an additional R$2,000 to install and manage water supplies, build cisterns and surface and underground reservoirs, cultivate plants for forage (palm and mesquite) and manage scrubland.

In addition to affording a stable income, Conviver provides a series of measures to help farmers remain self-sufficient, chief among these being technical assistance and rural development schemes. Partnerships with national research bodies will be fostered, the aim being to develop new methodologies and technology for making life in the semi-arid region easier. The Ministry for Agrarian Development (MDA) will invest R$4 million in capacity-building schemes for farmers through Pronaf Capacitação.

11 - School meals

The National School Meals Program (PNAE) provides meals for 4,699.741 children aged 4 to 6 throughout Brazil, 13% of the total number of children covered by the program. With the help of the Education Ministry, MESA has undertaken to finance the cost of raising the allowance for meals in pre-school establishments, an increase of R$65,8 million, from R$56,4 million per year to R$122,2 million.

The next step being considered is to change school menus by introducing locally produced foods, thus helping the local economy.

12 - Families formerly entitled to the Income Allowance are included in the Food Allowance scheme (BAL)

The number of families entitled to the Food Allowance has been increased since April as a result of the transfer of R$36 million by MESA to the Health Ministry. To begin with, 206 thousand families formerly entitled to the Income Allowance will begin to receive the Food Allowance.

The remaining families will gradually be included in the scheme as the registers are updated. By the end of the year, 3.5 million beneficiaries will have been included. There are currently 1.7 million beneficiaries.

13 - Food banks

A manual for setting up and administering the public food banks instituted by MESA’s Secretariat for Food Security Programs is available on the Zero Hunger Scheme’s website at . The manual, entitled ‘Como Implantar e Gerir Bancos de Alimentos’ (‘How to set up and administer food banks‘), was based on suggestions made by representatives of existing food banks.

It provides basic information ranging from the purpose of food banks, guidance on procedures, identifying and contacting donors to food distribution. The manual shows how food banks are spreading throughout Brazil and describes some of the most successful initiatives.

Donations are exempt from taxes on goods and services (ICMS) and on industrial products (IPI).

Under a federal decree issued on the 10th of April, food donations to welfare agencies and municipal districts included in the Zero Hunger Scheme have been exempted from the taxes levied on industrial products (IPI). Under an agreement published at the same time, and which will remain in force until 31/12/2007, food donations will also be exempt from taxes on the circulation of goods and services (ICMS). This exemption will cover the cost of distributing the food donations incurred by the establishments authorized to do so.

These tax exemptions are of the utmost importance in helping to set up the Food Banks in the country. MESA is also consulting the Federal Senate and Chamber of Deputies as to the possibility of obtaining approval for the Good Samaritan Statute in order to also exempt donations made in good faith.

14 - Meals for workers scheme (PAT)

A seminar was held on the 28th of April to discuss increasing the number of workers entitled to the PAT from 7 to 15 million, by including domestic servants and people who work in the informal economy in the scheme. The resolutions adopted during the seminar - in which representatives of MESA, CONSEA, the Ministry for Labor and Employment, the Inter-union Department for Statistics and Socio-economic Studies (DIEESE), trades unions and federations, and firms which provide meals and meal-vouchers – will be put to MESA by the middle of June.

15 - Community Action against Hunger - Special Assistance Unit

To assist donors, MESA has created the Special Assistance Unit (NAE), which examines the proposals put forward by firms, professional associations and NGOs interested in working with Community Action Against Hunger. The Unit has so far received some 200 proposals, which are in the process of being examined.

Volkswagen, Nestlé, the Pão de Açúcar Group, Carrefour Brasília, the Brazilian Publicity Association (Abap), the Brazilian Association of Zebú Cattle Breeders (ABCZ), and the Brazilian Association of Food Industries (ABIA) are among the firms that have already joined.