FOOD SECURITY, PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND CITIZENSHIP: the experience of the city of Belo Horizonte, Brazil 1993/2003 Adriana Veiga Aranha July / 2003

Hunger: Problems with access to food Poverty, Social and Economic Inequality State: Among the several actors – State, market, family, and society, the State plays an important role in the reproduction of the model that causes hunger as well as in finding ways to reduce it.

Food Security It refers to a state of nutritional well-being, assured by an integrated set of articulated actions and policies aiming at guaranteeing everybody’s permanent access, in quantity and quality, to sufficiently adequate food in order to meet each person’s nutritional needs, in different phases and situations of life. This should be produced in a sustainable way, not compromising the next generations’ future.

Necessary requirements: 1 – Sufficient food availability: it presupposes an integrated food system from production to consumption that offers essential food for human consumption, with accessible and stable prices, produced in a sustainable way; 2 – Accessibility to food: it presupposes access to income (enough to make the acquisition of food possible), to essential public services, to information about nutritional quality of food and to social rights. Therefore, to have Food Security, the country must have sufficiency, stability, autonomy, sustainability and equity.

To what extent has the public administration in Belo Horizonte taken over Food Security in a responsible and responsive way and to what extent has it contributed to “food citizenship” in the city? 1 – The commitment to Food Security presupposes, from the government part, a set of articulated decisions aiming at citizenship building. 2 – The increase of responsiveness in the Food Area presupposes a reformulation of the State towards an innovative public administration.

SOCIAL ADMINISTRATION AND FOOD CITIZENSHIP 1 - FACILITATED ACCESS 1.1 – Opening channels for direct trading of food supplies by rural producers 1.2 – Incentive to self-supply and to agro- ecological urban practices 1.3 – Regulation and Monitoring of food prices

2 - GUARANTEED ACCESS: 2.1 – Supply of Food for Institutions and/or household consumption 2.2 – Subsidized food sales 3 - INFORMED ACCESS: 3.1 – Orientation and Education for Food Consumption 3.2 – Basic Monthly Food Ration

Average Price of Mix: Private Grocery Stores (Sacolões) and SMAB Network, Belo Horizonte – 1995/1999 SOURCE: SMAB in: Aranha (2000)

Change in the Malnutrition Degree of Children Assistend at PPCD with a 6 month follow-up at Health Centers, Belo Horizonte SOURCE:SMAB - Health Municipal Secretariat IN: ARANHA (2000) Result Analysis in this Group of Children: Severe Malnutrition: 91% recovered weight, only 9% remained the same and there was no register of any child who got worse. Moderate Malnutrition: 72% got better, 26% remained the same and 2% got worse. Light Malnutrition: 41% got better, 53% remained the same and 6% got worse.

Evolution of Infant Mortality Rate in Children under 1 year old: Brazil, Belo Horizonte and District of Taquaril in BH SOURCE: SMSA (Health Municipal Secretariat);IBGE(Brazilian Institute of Geography & Statistics) In: ARANHA (2000) Belo Horizonte: decrease of 41% Brazil: decrease of 7,3% District of Taquaril in Belo Horizonte: decrease of 60,6%

Distribution of Late Infant Deaths (post-neonatal) according to Main Basic Causes, Belo Horizonte /1997 Source: SMSA( Health Municipal Secretariat IN: ARANHA (2000)

SUMMARY OF THE RESULTS ACHIEVED IN 2002 POPULATION ASSISTED : 790,703 beneficiaries (37% of the population living in the city of Belo Horizonte) Food Trading Projects: 73% (7.7% in producers’ direct sales and 65.3% in regulated projects). Social Projects: 27% (25.5% in projects that supply food, and 1.5% in projects that sell subsidized food)

Map 1 - Map of the Social Vulnerability Index and Points of Assistance of the SMAB Projects involving Regulation and Monitoring of Food Prices, Belo Horizonte

Map 2 - Map of the Social Vulnerability Index and Points of Assistance of the SMAB Projects involving Food Supply for Institutions and/or Residencial Consumption, Belo Horizonte

Map 3 - Map of the Social Vulnerability Index and Points of Assistance of the SMAB Projects involving Producers in Direct Trading of Food Supplies, Belo Horizonte

Map 4 - Map of the Social Vulnerability Index and Points of Assistance of the SMAB Projects involving Subsidized Food Sales, Belo Horizonte

Map 5 - Map of the Social Vulnerability Index and Points of Assistance of the SMAB Projects involving Incentive to Self-Supply and to Agroecological Urban Practices, Belo Horizonte

Annual Per Capita Food Consumption: Brazil & Metropolitan Region of Belo Horizonte (RMBH), 1987/ /1996 SOURCE: IBGE/POF -1987/88, IBGE/POF /96 and IBGEAnnual Statistics( Brazilian Institute of Geography & Statistics) IN: ARANHA (2000)

Partnerships 1 – Intragovernmental 2 – Intergovernmental 3 – Non-governmental Organizations 4 – Social Movements 5 – Private Sector

A new concept in citizenship and public administration in the area of food Rights and Citizenship: Equity and Inversion of public priorities Focusing and Universalizing Innovative Public Administration Integrated Administration Partnerships Popular Participation Publicizing: Deprivatizing administrative processes Administrative Transparency Rendering of accounts, Accountability Efficiency and Flexibility – Changing limits of public bureaucracy in creative and efficient processes Decentralization – Social and Economic Development/

Although the food issue involves a broad system, in which the majority of the chain productive processes take regional, national and even supranational spaces, local policies in the food security area can be an important instrument for the construction of citizenship.

Factors the have contributed positively in the process of political implementation: 1 – The government prioritized Food Policy 2- Food Security is one of the program priorities of the PT – Workers’ Party, which was ahead of the government 3 – The implementation period occurs in a time of broad social mobilization against hunger and misery 4 – The Mayor participated, actively, in the implementation of the Food Security Program as a leadership engaged to the theme. 5 – The policy was implemented by a technical team specialized in the area