Brazil: a country in mourning and struggle

Abstract

The present situation in Brazil offers particular challenges to social workers operating within an emancipatory framework. This article reflects on the Brazilian political situation, especially around the recent assassinations of left-wing leaders in the cases of Francisca das Chagas Silva in 2016 and Marielle Franco in 2018, the coup against the government of Dilma Roussef, the arrest of ex-President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva, and the accusations against current President Michel Temer.

Children: paying the price of Bolsonaro’s social policy reform in Brazil

“…Notes 1 Today, one in five workers in social assistance centres are social workers (Garcia et al, 2021). 2 The Constitutional Amendment 95/2016 provides for a 20-year fixed ceiling for expenditures starting in 2017 (Leal et al, 2018). 3 The pension reform proposed by the Temer government represented the link between conservative sectors and international financial agencies, which aim to privatise the social security system through the reduction of the public pension and the overvaluation of the complementary pension.…”

“…Increased precarity has implications far wider than health care, including for education, housing and labour, and will further increase inequality in the country. The 2016 Temer administration, along with the Brazilian National Congress, initially promoted a number of austerity measures, such as the Constitutional Amendment number 95/2016 on public expenditure, 2 labour reform and pension reform 3 (see Leal et al, 2018). The subsequent government has continued this trend.…”

“…Further constitutional reforms (EC 95/16), have imposed a social spending freeze for 20 years, with consequential effects on programmes such as the Benefício de PrestaçãoContinuada ('Continuous Cash Benefit' [BPC]), the BFP, the Sistema Único de Saúde ('Unified Health System' [SUS]) and the unified system for social assistance (SUAS) (Dias, 2016Leal et al, 2018. The reduction of 14.22 per cent in available resources for social assistance policies between 2018 and 2019 highlights the impact on the social protection system in Brazil.…”

“…In this regard, the policy of freezing social spending for 20 years (Constitutional Amendment EC 95/16) is unprecedented, and especially so when compared to the rest of the world. No other country that has implemented austerity has adopted such draconian rules limiting public spending for as long a period as 20 years (Leal et al, 2018). Consequently, this will have significant impacts on most social and health care programmes and will particularly impact on children's and women's health including efforts to reduce child mortality.…”

“…The health care focus for pregnant women increased the number of prenatal consultations -such that since 1996, almost 90 per cent of all pregnant mothers in Brazil had access to prenatal consultation (between four and seven consultations on average), which is a dramatic change from the past (Brazil, 2014). A new maternal and child health care network known as the Stork Network (RC) was established in 2011, providing care that ensures women have a right to family planning and care throughout pregnancy, childbirth and puerperium, and thereby ensuring that children have a right to a safe birth, growth and healthy development (Leal et al, 2018).…”