Banca de DEFESA: ANA BEATRIZ MACÊDO VENÂNCIO DOS SANTOS

FOOD INSECURITY AND GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS TO PROTECT THE HUMAN RIGHT TO ADEQUATE FOOD: A COHORT STUDY IN THE SEMI-ARID NORTHEASTERN REGION (2011-2022)

Human Right to Adequate Food. Food Security. Government Programs. Cohort Studies.

Food Insecurity (FI), the lack of daily access to quality food in sufficient quantity for all, is a consequence of the violation of the Human Right to Adequate Food (HRAF) and affects Brazil in different ways, given the impact of the country's historical social inequalities. Protecting HRAF requires implementing coordinated intersectoral public policies that act in an emergency and structural manner. This study aims to analyze access to the network of government programs to protect HRAF and its effect on FI among families in a municipality in the semiarid region of northeastern Brazil, between 2011 and 2022. A population-based cohort study was carried out in the municipality of Cuité, Paraíba. FI was estimated using the Brazilian Food Insecurity Scale, with 251 households in four time periods (2011, 2014, 2019, and 2022). The variable time living with FI was created, with longitudinal categories (Persistent Food Security, FI in one period, FI in two periods, and Persistent FI). The same was done for the sociodemographic characteristics of the first and second articles, whose objectives were to analyze the association of sociodemographic conditions and access to government programs with the time living with FI, respectively. The third article proposes to analyze the effect of synergistic access to the Bolsa Família Program (PBF) and other intersectoral programs through mixed-effects analysis with panel data. Descriptive and bivariate analyses were performed with Pearson's chi-square test, Cochran's Q test, and multinomial logistic regression. The first article observed that 67% of families lived with FI between 2011 and 2019 and that having a rural residence, low monthly per capita income, and low education level of the head of household increases the chances of living with FI for longer, especially if these conditions overlap. The second article pointed out the coexistence of chronic FI, the persistence of the population's vulnerability, and a diverse but little-accessed network of protection for the HRAF. The third observed the protective effect of synergistic access to the PBF and Garantia Safra, Farmácia Popular, Água Dessalinizada e Estratégia Saúde da Família, for moderate/severe FI. In view of this, it is argued that the debate on food security and HRAF in Brazil should consider the various inequalities of the territory and the indivisibility and interdependence of social rights, as well as that the planning of public policies that act to overcome this problem should be based on the understanding of the intersectorality and synergistic effect of the programs.