Access to Medicines Thematic Budget (OTMED 2021)

The OTMED analyzes pharmaceutical assistance expenses incurred by the federal government. In 2021, this expenditure grew 33% when compared to the previous year. This increase is probably the purchase of Covid-19
vaccines. Despite the worsening of the pandemic, when we analyze the total health budget, whether considering the health function or the budget of the Ministry of Health, we see that the volume of resources invested in 2021 was similar to that of 2020.

The state of the art of monetary policy in Brazil

The purpose of this report is to present and discuss the state of the art in the debate on monetary policy in Brazil. However, from a practical and methodological point of view, monetary policy is inserted in a broader context: since 1999, an economic policy regime called the “macroeconomic tripod” has been in force in Brazil, which consists of the simultaneous adoption of three policies: the primary surplus target regime (fiscal policy); the floating exchange rate regime (exchange policy); and the inflation targeting regime (monetary policy). Thus, the discussion of monetary policy should not be seen separately from other economic policies, as the full understanding of the role and limits of monetary policy requires the contribution of the entire macroeconomic regime in which it is inserted.

The report highlights the need to adopt a new monetary policy in Brazil. Monetary policy should not have as its sole objective the fight against inflation, just as the fight against inflation should not depend only on monetary policy. Controlling the inflationary process must never be neglected, especially when it directly affects the income of the working class and groups in economic and social vulnerability. An inflationary policy, however, must not rely solely on monetary policy as the only instrument. Finally, monetary policy should be oriented towards creating jobs, generating and distributing income, and guaranteeing rights.

The report is divided into four sections in addition to the introduction and final considerations. Section 2 discusses what the “macroeconomic tripod” is, focusing on theoretical aspects and the Brazilian macroeconomic model. Section 3 discusses alternative macroeconomic views and criticisms of the “macroeconomic tripod”, focusing on three views: new developmentalism, social developmentalism, and functional finance. Section 4 discusses the history of monetary policy from 1999 to the present day. Finally, section 5 analyzes some current debates on Brazilian monetary policy.

How much does it cost to make a PGTA happen?

Indigenous Management Plans are a tool derived from the social mobilization of Brazilian indigenous communities, organizations and their partners. Elaborated in collective and unique processes by each of the peoples, the PGTA have also become the main instrument for implementing the National Policy for Territorial and Environmental Management of Indigenous Lands (PNGATI), established in 2012 by the Decree no. 7,747/2012.

Despite the recognized power of this instrument – whose positive impacts far exceed the limits of indigenous communities, being key in the fight against climate change – the PGTA and PNGATI have suffered from severe and successive lack of public funding. The combination of austerity policies, such as Constitutional Amendment EC955, with the anti-indigenous and anti-environmentalist shift taken by the executive branch, have ended the meager public funding for carrying out the PNGATI, excluding any mention of PGTA at the current multi-year government plan.

To face this situation and reinforce territorially-based solutions to tackle climate change, Inesc launches the “PGTA cost estimation methodology”, which aims to facilitate the fundraising by indigenous communities for the PGTA, as well as encourage the struggle for public resources to guarantee the fulfillment of the Brazilian State’s constitutional duties towards indigenous peoples. We also launch the document “ Funding possibilities for Territorial and Environmental Management Plans for Indigenous Lands (PGTA)”, with the aim of raising awareness of the importance of global and national commitment to the territorial management of indigenous lands.

Access to Medicines Thematic Budget 2020

Since 2015, the Institute for Socioeconomic Studies (Inesc) has prepared the  Access to Medicines Thematic Budget (OTMED), whose objective is to analyze the allocation of federal resources in promoting access to medicines in Brazil.

This edition shows a small reduction in federal government spending on drug purchases in a scenario of a coronavirus pandemic. According to the study, in 2019, spending on pharmaceutical assistance amounted to 14.6% of the total. In 2020, this percentage dropped to 11.5%.  Access the infographic, which also shows the failures committed by the federal government in confronting Covid-19.

Training Course in Innovation and Access to Medicines for Health Counselors

We have systematized the experience of the Training Course in Innovation and Access to Medicines for Health Counselors in this report with the objective of collaborating in the construction of possibilities for carrying out training processes in virtual environments. Thus, we share here not only an activity report but the entire process, from planning to completion.

Held by the Institute for Socioeconomic Studies (Inesc), the course was partnered with the National Health Council (CNS) and the Popular Education and Assistance Center (CEAP). The course lasted three months and was held from December 2020 to February 2021, in a totally virtual format. But planning and completion activities extended beyond that, starting in June 2020 and ending in March 2021.

Access to Medicines – Thematic Budget 2019

Since 2015, the Institute for Socioeconomic Studies (Inesc) has prepared the Thematic Budget for Access to Medicines (OTMED), whose objective is to analyze the allocation of federal resources to promote access to medicines in Brazil. This latest edition of the series of publications shows that, in 2019, federal spending on medicines was R$ 19.8 billion. The growth of almost 10% compared to 2018 follows an increasing trend compared to previous years and more than doubled when compared to 2008, the year the series started.

Thematic budget for science, technology and innovation in medicines (OTMED – ST&I)

This technical note brings the first version of the Thematic Budget for Science, Technology and Innovation in Medicines (OTMED ST&I), which aims to investigate federal government spending in this area. This is a new methodology, which is yet to mature, but which aims to contribute data on this strategic public spending – especially in the context of Covid-19 – and essential to guarantee the right to health and access to medicines.

Investments of International Financial Institutions (IFIs) in Brazil were not focused on combating COVID-19 in 2020, report says

Since the beginning of this pandemic, several International Financial Institutions (IFIs) have committed to contribute to the global fight against COVID-19. According to statements from the IFIs themselves, investments in the year 2020 were supposed to direct aid and other support to those most vulnerable and impacted by the pandemic.

However, the study “Investments of International Financial Institutions in Brazil in 2020: Was there support to combat the COVID-19 pandemic?” shows that the projects of these institutions, for the most part, did not include direct transfer of income to people that are facing hunger, the buying of medicines, or the support for hospitals and ICUs.

“Not even 20% of the projects financed by these institutions mention COVID. And it is not because they mention it that they are really directed towards the theme”, points out Alexandre Andrade Sampaio, Program and Projects Coordinator of the International Accountability Project for Latin American and the Caribbean and co-author of the study. This is the case of the project called RSE COVID Jalles, of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), which allocated US$ 20 million to a company in the sugar and ethanol agribusiness as a response to COVID-19, without detailing the relationship of this resource with the emergency fight against the virus.

Furthermore, the research reveals that the investment projects did not meet the minimum necessary to ensure that their implementation does not worsen the social and environmental situation in the country. “We are showing that many of the investments that have come to Brazil have no safeguards, no policy to reduce impacts,” explains Livi Gerbase, political advisor of the Institute for Socioeconomic Studies (Inesc) and co-author of the study.

The research, which was conducted by Inesc in partnership with the Maíra Institute and the International Accountability Project, uses an innovative methodology. It uses the Early Warning System, which monitors and systematizes projects of development finance institutions, with the objective of previously informing communities that may be impacted by these projects. The three organizations analyzed an amount of U$13.5 billion allocated to 123 IFI projects between March and November 2020.

The IFIs’ investments in 2020 – of the 123 projects analyzed, only 24 (19.5%) focused on combating COVID-19. Of these, only two projects (US$2 billion), were of direct transfer to people most affected by the pandemic.

The three sectors most favored by the IFIs were regulation and governance, finance, and infrastructure, to the detriment of priority areas in the fight against the pandemic, such as water and sanitation, education, and health. This means that these institutions were concerned, as in previous years, with preparing the ground for the private sector to have the necessary return on their investments.

“Especially at this time of pandemic, public banks must have as a priority the fight against the pandemic and allocate their resources to areas of emergency need: health, education, aid for people most in need. They said they were going to do this, but when we look at the main investments that came to Brazil in 2020, we see that this strategy of investing in infrastructure, reforms and modernization of the state to attract the private sector was maintained,” comments Livi Gerbase.

The green reconstruction

The discourse of green recovery has been guided by the banks themselves in their proposals to fight the pandemic, through the discourse of “Building Back Better”, which means to rebuild in a better way than before. In this context, the energy and climate agendas should be central to the choice of investments, in order to help the population in the current health crisis.

Contradictorily, despite the greater number of projects classified as clean by the IFIs, when compared only to those that produce energy, non-renewable energies had more space than renewable ones, points out the research published by Inesc. Only 3 of the 12 projects are related to renewable energy production. Besides, “in these projects it is not possible to see which clean energies are actually being invested in”, laments Livi Gerbase.

The self-definition “clean energy” is also problematic, warns the study’s authors. Of the 12 projects undertaken in 2020 and related to the energy sector, 10 are classified by their respective banks as clean energy. However, of these clean projects, 7 are related to electricity distribution, reduction of electricity consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions. Projects of this type are not directly related to energy production or to confronting the pandemic, although they may have positive environmental impacts.

Lack of information about the socio-environmental impacts of the projects 

Although it is not possible to evaluate the execution of the 123 projects analyzed in the study, since most of them were still in the final negotiation phase at the time of the analysis, it is notable that less than half (49.6%) contain the socio-environmental impact risk classification. The classification of the project according to its possible impacts can be understood as an indication of the banks’ commitment to comply with the safeguards, that is, with mitigation and control measures for the projects’ socio-environmental impacts.

Some institutions, such as Corporación Andina de Fomento and the European Investment Bank, have no projects with impact risk assessment. “It is laughable the percentage that we have today of access to information about something that basic. I’m not talking about project details, I’m talking about risk categorization to know if the project can have an impact in terms of human and environmental rights,” denounces Alexandre Andrade Sampaio.

The study also analyzes two cases in which populations affected by international investments – in projects carried out prior to 2020 – did not have the safeguards respected: the Quilombola Community of Araripe, affected by the construction of a wind farm in northeastern Brazil, and the Association of Favelas of São José dos Campos.

“Without the presentation of risk analyses, it becomes unfeasible to present safeguards and, consequently, we would have no way to protect community rights and the communities would be more vulnerable. These errors, already denounced by communities in the past, and already taken to the banks’ boards of directors, are still happening today. In other words, very little has been done with the complaints made by the communities and their voices continue to be silenced”, explains Daniel Lopes Faggiano, Director of the Maíra e Institute and co-author of the research.

What can still be done?

The study published by Inesc recommends that the IFIs review their strategy for Brazil and, in fact, prioritize the needs of the Brazilian population, especially the sectors most affected by the economic, health, social, and environmental crises – which tend to worsen in 2021.

“The pandemic is not over; the banks will continue to make investments and there is still time to do better. We want the banks to have a more transparent policy that shows that in fact they are helping what we need most, fighting hunger and death in Brazil and guaranteeing human rights. We want to be sure that they are not bringing more problems to the people. That is why we emphasize the need to listen to the communities affected by the projects”, Livi Gerbase affirms.

Investments of International Financial Institutions in Brazil in 2020

Since the beginning of this pandemic, several International Financial Institutions (IFIs) have committed to contribute to the global fight against COVID-19. According to statements from the IFIs themselves, investments in the year 2020 were supposed to direct aid and other support to those most vulnerable and impacted by the pandemic.

However, the study “Investments of International Financial Institutions in Brazil in 2020: Was there support to combat the COVID-19 pandemic?” shows that the projects of these institutions, for the most part, did not include direct transfer of income to people that are facing hunger, the buying of medicines, or the support for hospitals and ICUs.

Three articles to understand the Brazilian socio-environmental and climate policy

Three articles published by the Institute for Socioeconomic Studies (Inesc) bring analysis on relevant aspects of socio-environmental and climate policy in Brazil. The monitoring took place between 2019 and 2020 and gave rise to the series: “Monitoring the Brazilian NDC* under the Bolsonaro government”.  

Access each of the articles below.

*Nationally determined contributions made under the Paris Climate Agreement (2015)

Pilot Program for REDD+ Payment for Results: benefiting those who preserve the forest?

By Alessandra Cardoso

Redd+ Results-based Payments Pilot Program: benefiting those who preserve the forest?

The first article analyzes the Pilot Program for REDD+ Payment for Results, a pioneer experience in raising funds from international cooperation in the scope of compensation programs for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, the so-called REDD+. 

This policy brief warns about the reformulation of the pilot program sent to the Green Climate Fund under the Bolsonaro government. In this reformulation, the purposes, scope and beneficiaries of the program were altered, promoting a change in the nature of the program from public policy to market incentive. The result is the redirection of internationally uncertified carbon credits for domestic markets.

Logistics infrastructure, agribusiness and climate

By Tatiana Oliveira

The second article analyzes the resumption of a project for the occupation and development of the Brazilian Amazon, with agribusiness and logistics infrastructure as two of its pillars. This policy brief relates the installation of a multimodal logistics complex in the district of Miritituba, in the state of Pará, to the recent processes of deforestation, fires and land grabbing, in one of the least anthropized regions of the Brazilian Amazon. 

Environmental degradation and attack of the ways of life of native peoples, traditional and peasant communities are consequences of this model of economic exploitation. This scenario contributes to the consolidation of Pará as the subnational unit with the highest level of greenhouse gas emissions derived from changes in land use and the allocation of areas for cattle ranching and agriculture in the country. 

Electricity and energy expansion: advances, risks and limitations of the proposed trajectories

By Pedro Bara Neto

The third publication brings an analysis between energy adaptation plans and the fulfillment of climate targets voluntarily adopted by Brazil under the Paris Agreement (2015). Taking the Ten Year Expansion Plan for Energy (PDE 2030) and the National Energy Plan (PNE 2050) as a basis, the advances, risks and limitations of the proposed trajectories for electric and energy expansion are addressed. 

The text highlights the government’s lack of articulation to implement long-term plans for the improvement of the national matrix, as well as the efforts in the legislative scope to attack the environmental licensing rules in force, which is fundamental to guarantee the protection of territorial rights in areas of exploration of renewable, non-fossil sources. 

This policy brief also refers the compensation of the shrinking use of oil in the energy matrix by natural gas, and of sugar cane by wind and solar energy, soybeans biodiesel, and lye. A very sensitive point identified is the introduction of soy as a raw material for the manufacture of biofuels, which lights up a warning from the socio-environmental and climatic point of view.

Electricity and energy expansion: advances, risks and limitations of the proposed trajectories

Taking the Ten Year Expansion Plan for Energy (PDE 2030) and the National Energy Plan (PNE 2050) as a basis, the advances, risks and limitations of the proposed trajectories for electric and energy expansion are addressed.

The text highlights the government’s lack of articulation to implement long-term plans for the improvement of the national matrix, as well as the efforts in the legislative scope to attack the environmental licensing rules in force, which is fundamental to guarantee the protection of territorial rights in areas of exploration of renewable, non-fossil sources. 

This policy brief also refers the compensation of the shrinking use of oil in the energy matrix by natural gas, and of sugar cane by wind and solar energy, soybeans biodiesel, and lye. A very sensitive point identified is the introduction of soy as a raw material for the manufacture of biofuels, which lights up a warning from the socio-environmental and climatic point of view.

Logistics infrastructure, agribusiness and climate

Environmental degradation and attack of the ways of life of native peoples, traditional and peasant communities are consequences of this model of economic exploitation. This scenario contributes to the consolidation of Pará as the subnational unit with the highest level of greenhouse gas emissions derived from changes in land use and the allocation of areas for cattle ranching and agriculture in the country.

Pilot Program for REDD+ Payment for Results: benefiting those who preserve the forest?

This policy brief warns about the reformulation of the pilot program sent to the Green Climate Fund under the Bolsonaro government. In this reformulation, the purposes, scope and beneficiaries of the program were altered, promoting a change in the nature of the program from public policy to market incentive. The result is the redirection of internationally uncertified carbon credits for domestic markets.

Analysis of the environmental clause in the free trade agreements between Mercosur and the EU and Mercosur and EFTA

The position paper analyzes the impact of the Bi-regional Association Agreements between Mercosur and the European Union and Mercosur and the European Free Trade Association, which aim to promote trade liberalization between the blocks in different economic sectors. The document suggests the interruption of the ratification of the Agreements since, besides the potential negative socio-environmental and climate impacts they present, they have been discussed behind closed doors, without the participation of civil society and other international observers. Besides the democratic issue, the text highlights the neocolonial character of the agreements based on the stimulus to deepen the international division of trade, as well as its consequences for economic development and human rights.

A series of socio-environmental violations have taken place at Hidrovias do Brasil’s operations in Pará, dossier reveals

The report As soy moves forward: impacts of Hidrovias do Brasil in Itaituba, Pará, published today by the Institute of Socioeconomic Studies (INESC), reveals that the logistics company Hidrovias do Brasil has systematically failed to comply with a series of measures that should be adopted to mitigate the negative impacts of its operations in the Itaituba region (Pará, Brazil) which, in recent years, has become an important transportation hub for the global commodities supply chain by connecting the BR-163 highway to the Tapajós River.

During the high season of soybean harvesting, about 1500 trucks travel through Miritituba daily. The district of Itaituba is home to 15,000 people. This territory plays a fundamental role in the reestablishment of the Brazilian Amazon as a channel for grain exports from Mato Grosso to the Atlantic, and then to China, the European Union and other countries. To this day, at least 41 new ports are planned or under construction alongside the main rivers in the region.

Several projects have already been built in this area, such as hydroelectric plants, waterways, and mines. Since 2013, at least 10 industrial ports – most of them linked to agribusiness – have been built around the city of Itaituba. In Miritituba there are five Cargo Transshipment Stations (ETC, from the Portuguese Estação de Transbordo de Carga), which are private port facilities that turn the Tapajós river into a corridor for the transportation of grains through the Tapajós and Amazonas rivers to the Pará and Amapá ports. The Dossier aims to assess the effects of ports in the region, focusing on the logistics company Hidrovias do Brasil (HDB).

The logistic company has the International Finance Corporation (IFC) – the World Bank’s investment arm for the private sector – among its shareholders. IFC demanded that Hidrovias do Brasil complies with the Performance Standards on Social and Environmental Sustainability (PSs) in order to receive the investment. PSs are a set of measures necessary to prevent, reduce or mitigate socio-environmental negative effects of its operations in the region. 

However, Inesc’s report shows that IFC’s apparently strict socio-environmental policy is not being complied with by Hidrovias do Brasil. The report was based on complaints filed by residents of Itaituba and Miritituba, representatives of social movements, indigenous leaders, among others, and analyzes in detail each sustainability goal that should be being carried out by Hidrovias do Brasil, and points out flaws in the survey made by the institutional investor. 

“Hidrovias do Brasil was financed by a bank that has a robust socio-environmental policy, which in principle involves monitoring the company to make sure that, if negative impacts are expected, they should be mitigated or compensated. We can appeal to the bank to monitor the company and actually enforce these policies for several reasons. In light of the above, this dossier is a first step for IFC to resume monitoring Hidrovias do Brasil and enforce the institution’s own socio-environmental policy,” says Livi Gerbase, policy advisor at INESC and author of the study.

One example is the construction of alternative routes for trucks to go around Miritituba instead of through the city, which was promised by Hidrovias do Brasil to the IFC and was not executed. In addition to the increase in traffic and road accidents, the 1500 trucks generate air pollution and leave soy remains (waste) scattered throughout the town, causing serious damage to the health of the population, and interfering with local fauna and flora. A resident of Miritituba sums up the feeling of living among the heavy traffic: “Here, our people compete with the trucks for space, and the weaker of the two have to run”. 

Violence rates have increased, as well as illegal drug trade and prostitution, which are closely related to the crowd of truck drivers who arrive daily. These are just some impacts on the local population. Most of the impacts have yet to be mapped by the appropriate agencies or public authorities. 

Residents of Miritituba also reveal other violations by Hidrovias do Brasil and other port companies in the region, such as the prohibition of fishing in places traditionally used by fishermen, through the use of cordons as security measures for five ports installed side by side. In addition, fishermen also denounce that the soy transported on barges is dropped in the rivers and ends up in the belly of fish. 

Indigenous people of the Munduruku also suffer from Hidrovias operations in the region. In its report to IFC, the company claimed that indigenous and traditional communities were not affected by the construction of its Cargo Transshipment Stations. 

Reality is something quite different. There are two Munduruku urban settlements on the banks of the Tapajós that deal with the ports and their effects daily: Praia do Índio and Praia do Mangue. According to the Munduruku people, however, the entire indigenous population of the Middle Tapajós feels the project’s effects, as the impacts spread through the network formed by these communities, affecting other indigenous territories in the region, which has 868 indigenous inhabitants, according to 2019 data. Despite this, there was no establishment of free, prior, and informed consent with indigenous peoples by Hidrovias do Brasil or any other ports installed in the region – a clear violation of Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization, an agreement to which Brazil is a signatory. 

Finally, another serious complaint from residents is about their participation in dialogues with the company. They report that meetings take place on a purely formal basis with those impacted, but they are not actually heard. 

Listening to the population only happens on scheduled public hearings. In fact, all they want from the population is the signature on the minutes, while the whole project is already being completed and implemented [regardless of consultation]”, explains Josenaldo Luna de Castro, member of the Management Council for the Supervision of Projects and Investments in the District of Miritituba (CONGEFIMI)

The council was created in 2018, aiming to be a tool for monitoring the performance of companies such as Hidrovias do Brasil in the region. While violating the rights of local people and traditional communities, Hidrovias do Brasil, with the success of its investments in the Amazon, completed an initial public offering (IPO) raising 608 million dollars in 2020. According to an article published by Mongabay and Diálogo Chino in November last year, in a prospectus provided in its IPO, Hidrovias do Brasil described its port of Itaituba as a key asset of the company, with no consultation with the Munduruku population. The company also warned investors that environmental regulations could severely restrict their ability to operate their business and logistical operations could “result in damage to the environment and to indigenous and quilombola [traditional] communities, the extent and repair costs of which are not possible to estimate”.

Dossier: the complete dossier and de Executive Summary are available here.

Video: Caatinga, Hierarchies and Pandemics

Dacia Ibiapina, film-maker

“We, in order to live in an integrated way, in order to have welfare, we need to respect all lives, without hierarchizing and without classifying.” (Nêgo Bispo, December, 2019).

The mark of the Antonio Bispo dos Santos’ thinking, Nêgo Bispo, is originality. Provoked to talk about Covid-19, he chosed to address the socio-environmental aspect. “In Brazil, there is over-discrimination in relation to the semi-arid biome.” And he amended: “Underestimate a biome is underestimate the lives that exist there. It is to practice the pandemic. All lives matter. All biomes matter”.

This video was made respecting social distance. Production and direction are by Dacia Ibiapina, with support from Inesc and Conaq. The testimony was recorded by Sérgio Gomes with his cell phone, in December, 2020. The other images were recorded by Ivan Costa, in Saco Curtume, a quilombola community where Nêgo Bispo lives, in São João do Paiuí (PI). It was during the celebrations of Nêgo Bispo 60th anniversary, in December, 2019, before Covid-19. Directed by Dácia Ibiapina, edited by Isabelle Araújo, sound edited by Guile Martins and music by Luiz de Chubel.

Quilombolas in the pandemic Covid-19 context

Carmela Zigoni, political advisor of Inesc

The Covid-19 pandemic killed  more than 179 quilombolas  in Brazil, and infected more than 5,000. The data are from the National Coordination of Black Rural Quilombola Communities (Conaq), which has recorded cases and deaths, as health agencies do not have ethnic-racial markers that make possible to identify this population.

Quilombola communities are present throughout the national territory and are one of the groups most affected by big projects with negative socioenvironmental impacts, such as mining and agribusiness. Only 7% of quilombola territories are officialised in Brazil, despite the right provided for in the 1988 Constitution and Decree 4887/2004. Since 2017, no budgetary resources have been allocated for land regularization for these territories.

In contrast, quilombolas’ territories remain resisting, and seek to practice other models of non-predatory production, such as agroecology and family farming.

Quilombolas have been fighting since the beginning of the pandemic against invisibility and for specific public policies that respect their culture and the vulnerability of their communities. However, they have been systematically victimized by institutional racism. Throughout 2020, they focused on the pursuit of their rights, which materialized by ADPF 742 sent to the Supreme Federal Court.

The year 2021 started with the news that quilombolas are being excluded from priority groups for access to the new coronavirus vaccine.

Antônio Bispo dos Santos’ contribution to the reflection on the pandemic, made through a video directed by filmmaker Dacia Ibiapina, fits in this context. For Bispo, the pandemic is the result of broader hierarchical and discrimination processes, in which not only humans are affected, but all beings of what humans call nature. This false opposition between humanity and nature intensifies destructive socio-environmental processes that led to the Covid-19 pandemic.

His reflections on enduring and contemporary coloniality in Brazilian society, as well as his concepts of confluence and transfluence as forms of counter-coloniality, are developed in the book Colonization – Quilombos! Ways and Meanings (2019), as well as in the article We belong to the land (2018). In these works, Bispo points to the infeasibility of the colonial model – barely disguised by so-called democratic institutions – for the reproduction of quilombolas’ ways of life, and of life itself on the planet.

When Antonio Bispo dos Santos elaborated a local concept of pandemic in the video “Caatinga, Hierarchies and Pandemics”, he takes a stand in relation to this coloniality, bringing to the center the quilombola world view and ways of life and its particular relationship with the territory, seen as a space for sharing between people and the environment.

Does the National Council of the Amazon help the fight against deforestation?

The Amazon Council is not capable of delivering what was promised; nor militarization helps to solve the problem. To the extent that this branch has served the dismantle Brazilian environmental policy,(i) eliminating internationally recognized programs,(ii) removing and chasing public servants and (iii) draining important resources from the Environment to Defense, it contributes to the devastation of Brazilian biomes. Learn more:

Incentives and Subsidies to Fossil Fuels in Brazil in 2019: Identify, Evaluate, Reform

The study “Incentives and Subsidies to Fossil Fuels in Brazil in 2019: Identify, Evaluate, Reform”, published by Inesc (Institute of Socioeconomic Studies), calculates the amounts of incentives and subsidies to production and consumption of fossil fuels in Brazil through a methodology developed by Inesc.

In Brazil, in 2019, such incentives and subsidies reached the amount of US$ 25,08 billion (R$ 99.39 billion). This represented 1.36% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2019. In the same year, for example, this amount was equivalent to three years of the Bolsa Família Program (US$ 7,6 billions – R$ 33.1 billion in the 2019
budget) and to almost 29 times the total budget of the Ministry of Environment (US$ 861,1 million – R$ 3.44 billion in the 2019 budget).

This is the third edition of this study, and an increase in the amount of incentives provided to the sector compared to the previous year has been observed for the second time.

Spending cap left Brazil without immunity in social area, says a study

A pioneering study released today by the Institute for Socioeconomic Studies (Inesc) shows how the federal government’s fiscal austerity measures and the passage of Constitutional Amendment 95 undermined the social policies needed to protect the most vulnerable population from the current pandemic.

Entitled O Brasil com baixa imunidade – Balanço do Orçamento Geral da União 2019, [freely, Brazil with low immunity – Review of the 2019 Federal General Budget]  the report shows that, from 2014 up to last year, the federal government’s ongoing fiscal effort resulted in a 28.9% cut in the country’s discretionary expenditure on social programs. Over 2018-2019 alone, social spending dropped by 8.6%.

The 2019 budget for the health care sector, which has historically suffered from underfunding of the national health public system (SUS), did not increase year-over-year, remaining at a level similar to that of 2014. On the other hand, the Brazilian population grew by seven million people over the same period, thus revealing a sharp reduction in per capita health expenditure.

“Brazil is visibly weaker to tackle the challenges posed by the pandemic”, states Inesc policy advisor Livi Gerbase.

In addition to the health care budget, Inesc’s publication assessed execution of the Federal government Budget in 2019 for seven other public policy areas: education, right to the city, socio-environmental, child and adolescent, racial equality, women, and indigenous peoples.

For the specialist in Tax Justice, even though the Covid-19 crisis primarily affects  the health care system, its effects spill over to every public policy. The reason for that is because quarantining the population paralyzed productive activity, which will trigger a deep recession, an increase in joblessness, and a worsening of social inequalities.

“In a country where the poor, blacks, women, and indigenous peoples are always the most penalized, the Covid-19 pandemic will make things even more difficult for this large swath of the population”, asserts Livi.

Inesc’s study concludes that cutting expenditure for the sake of meeting a fiscal target comes at a very high price, especially for the most vulnerable groups who disproportionately foot the bill. Conversely, the federal government commemorated a reduction of the primary deficit between 2018 and 2019, which went down from 1.8% of GDP to 1%, or R$ 95.1 billion. This result was largely achieved on account of the suspension by the federal government of authorized executions last year, a measure only revoked close to the end of the year, thus preventing expenditure execution.

“Over and beyond a analysis of these figures, we sought to find out if the public policies and their respective budgets were at the service of the people, particularly those most in need, and not just to protect the public debt, often enriching economic sectors already quite privileged”, stresses the Inesc advisor.

Still according to Livi Gerbase, this is the first report of a series of annual reports to be published by Inesc for the purpose of tracking federal expenditure on promotion of human rights. The Budget and Rights Methodology, Metodologia Orçamento & Direitos, used in the document, submits federal budget analysis to a “human rights test” hinged on five requirements or pillars: funding with tax justice, maximum mobilization of available resources, progressive realization of rights, nondiscrimination, and social participation.

Among the measures  proposed by Inesc to tackle the upcoming recession are:

– revoking Constitutional Amendment 95;

– implementing policies safeguarding jobs and wages, including casual labor;

– rebuilding the national health system (SUS) budget;

– strengthening environmental oversight bodies for sustainable growth;

– reforming the tax system, including taxation of profit and dividends, and fairer tax rates to stop the super-rich, i.e., those earning 320 minimum wages-plus, from continuing to pay less than a 2% effective income tax rate;

– approving, on an urgent basis, the Fund for the Maintenance and Development of Basic Education and Valorization of Education Professionals (Fundeb) and;

– providing transparency to anti-Covid-19 activities, with detailed accounting of area’s budget execution.

Below are some examples of social programs that had their budgets cut.

Education

In Education, public investments fell, in real terms, from R$ 109 billion in 2018 to R$ 106 billion in 2019, a drop that could have been avoided had the total budget appropriated, amounting to R$ 123 billion, been fully executed.

The Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (Capes) and the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) lost half of their government research grant funding in the last five years. From 2015 onwards, Capes’s budget, for example, was R$ 4.5 billion, down from R$ 9 billion.

Racial and Gender Equality

This area was one of the most negatively affected by the federal government in 2019. The racial equality budget varied negatively by 45.77% in comparison with the previous year. When considering the period from 2014 to 2019, funds for racial equality policies decreased, in real terms, by 81%. The same happened with women’s policies, whose budget fell by 75%.

Environment

Starting in 2017, budget execution of the Ministry of Environment (MMA) falls steeply only to reach 2019 with the ministry’s lowest budget execution since budget analyses began in 2012. R$ 2.68 billion were executed – an 8.6% decrease over 2018 and 20% in relation to 2012.

Right to the City

To budgetary item “Urbanism” was added a significant part of the actions and programs carried out by the abolished Ministry of Cities, such as urban services and collective urban transportation. In 2019 funds appropriated were 50% lower than in 2012.

Indigenous Health

In 2019, budget execution  regarding indigenous health was R$ 1.48 billion against R$ 1.76 billion in 2018, roughly R$ 280 million less, thus compromising health care services to this group, which exhibits the worst indicators in comparison with the rest of the population as regards the cases of suicide, malnutrition, child mortality, and tuberculosis.

National Education Program (PNE)

For 2019 and 2020, PNE forecast appropriations amounting to 7% and 10% of GDP, respectively. With the budget cut, this percentage should not exceed the 5% reached in 2018. Last year, the Ministry of Education simply excluded the Student Cost-Quality criterion (or CAQ, which established funding as a function of the quality of basic education), from the ministry’s expenditure.

Youth and Adult Education Program (EJA)

The responsibility of the federal government, the Youth and Adult Education Program (EJA) had its resources reduced from R$ 76 million to R$ 2.4 million last year. According to the 2019 School Census, EJA enrolment decreased by 7.7% over the period, but, since there are no surveys to identify the reasons for this drop, the hypothesis that emerges is a shortage of program places for applicants. With that, the country risks failing to accomplish the goals of reducing functional illiteracy and increasing adult schooling.

Protection to Children and Adolescents

Expenditure on child and adolescent basic health care policies, considering the financial execution of both Budget Plans, plunged from R$ 17.5 million in 2018 to R$ 6.81 million last year.

The Ten-Year Plan approved by the National Council for the Rights of the Child and the Adolescent (CONANDA) comprised, at the time it was launched, in 2012, 13 actions. But only four were implemented in 2019. And just 27.4% of the R$ 159.45 million authorized for 2019 was executed.

In 2019, budget appropriation for a specific program designed to fight against children and teenage sexual violence nearly disappeared. Tackling this crime was merged into a more general program that includes several forms of violence against children and teenagers, thus reducing the transparency of specific actions. Even so, in 2019 no funds were executed regarding this program.

Child Labor

More than 1.8 million children and adolescents aged 5 to 17 years were engaged in child labor in 2016 (continuous national household survey PNAD). Despite  the goal of putting an end to this malaise by 2025, expenditure for the eradication of child labor in 2018 and 2019 had no budgeted federal funds.

About INESC – The Institute for Socioeconomic Studies (Inesc) is a nongovernmental, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization based in Brasília. Since its creation in 1979, Inesc has advocated for democracy and human rights, in addition to fighting against all forms of discrimination and inequality. Inesc was one of the five civil society organizations that launched the campaign A Renda Básica que Queremos [freely, the basic income we want], an initiative that culminated in emergency aid amounting to R$ 600 per individual to be distributed to millions of vulnerable Brazilians affected by the pandemic.

Access to Medicines Thematic Budget (2008-2018)

Access to Medicines Thematic Budget (OTMED): 10-year review of federal resources for pharmaceutical assistance. Study presents evaluation of financial executions of the Ministry of Health with medicines from 2008 to 2018.

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