Questions/Answers

Throughout its 26 years of existence, the Belo Horizonte Municipal Food and Nutrition Security Policy had a single objective, namely, the access of Belo Horizonte citizens to healthy and sustainable food. From the perspective of food as a right, Belo Horizonte recognizes the public duty to provide food and nutrition security services to all the population, especially those of low-income, in a key to autonomy, breaking with a long tradition of addressing thematic from the perspective of charity. Access to food, however, is not just about overcoming hunger, which in turn is not just about food shortages. Food is also about human relations of production and consumption, cultural traditions and practices, relationships of sociability, gender, race, and our relationship to nature. Given this, the municipal policy of Food and Nutrition Security unfolds its objective in four main axes, articulated in order to build an agri-food system. They are: 1. Food assistance: subsidized access to meals in 5 popular restaurants, free food for children and adolescents in 557 educational units and for people in vulnerable situations in 87 social welfare organizations, donation of about 300 tons/year of food by the food bank. 2. Promoting the consumption of healthy foods: offering low-cost food to the population through 19 markets ABasteCer and 239 points of markets; 3. Promotion of urban and family agriculture based on agroecology: 237 community, school or institutional production units, destined of about R$ 8 million per year for the purchase of family farming products. 4. Training: Training of about 20,000 people/year in food and nutrition education, professional qualification in gastronomic knowledge and training in agroecology.

Equitable inclusion in food security policy is promoted through three types of action. Emergency action targets people at risk, generally temporary, such as distribution of enriched supplements to expectants in the 1990s and the donation of basic food baskets to families in extreme poverty. Assistance is aimed to address situations of structural exclusion, such as gratuity for homeless in popular restaurants, food provision to social assistance units and low-cost food supply outlets. Finally, promotion try to address marginal exclusion, such as the purchase of food reserved for family farming, food provision in public schools or production support to urban agriculture.

From the Agenda 2030 perspective, Belo Horizonte's experience demonstrates the fundamental engagement of local governments to achieve global commitments. Briefly, food access initiatives targeting groups in emergency, extreme poverty and vulnerable situations are consistent with the goals of SDGs 1, 2, 3 and 10. Access to low-cost healthy food through market regulation supports the goals of SDGs 3 and 12. Stimulating the production and marketing of agro-ecological short circuits transforms the city and its surroundings, making them less impervious, making food healthier, and reducing CO2 emissions from food transport, supporting SDGs 11, 12, 13 and 15. Focusing on the female audience supports SDG 5 and education actions SDG 4. Finally, the legal framework, participatory governance and multilevel partnerships support SDGs 16 and 17. It is also important to mention that the action has the potential to contribute to the global temperature reduction objectives established in the Paris Agreement and are in line with the idea of a city promulgated by the New Urban Agenda.

The social impacts indicated in the questions below, especially the results of wide access to food for the resident population of Belo Horizonte and its surroundings, together with the indicators of reduction of child mortality and malnutrition make the initiative sustainable from the point of view of which it is recognized by its users. Moreover, as will be seen, the economic cost per service delivered is small and therefore efficient. From an environmental point of view, the initiative leads to a proposal of a greener city, with permeable and climate resilient areas, as well as promoting sustainable and healthy food.

In recent years, Belo Horizonte’s food security policy has promoting the integration between urban and rural areas to encourage short circuits of a larger system, taking advantage of both the consumption potential of the metropolis and the production capabilities of its surroundings. However, in 2017 the initiative faced a governance obstacle. Brazilian municipalities are federative units together with the states and the national level. There is no political or administrative agency in the metropolitan region. Moreover, it is not allowed for a municipality to promote actions aimed at other cities’ citizens. Given this institutional gap, the City of Belo Horizonte articulated a “Protocol of Intent” for institutional cooperation and the strengthening of agroecology in the region, with a view to implementing the Participatory Guarantee System, signed by 4 state agencies, a federal agency and 1 international institution and, so far, had the adhesion of 13 municipalities. The protocol, besides establishing a common governance, also foresees the creation of local nuclei in order to generate connection and participation at the end. As a result, in October 2019 the Horizons Creatives Association was created, a self-managed farmer organization that will promote participatory certification of agro-ecological food production in the region.

Gender inequality is a cross-cutting dimension to food security policy in Belo Horizonte. Seen from the current composition of the sub-secretariat management responsible for the agenda, consisting of 9 women and 5 men in leadership positions to the third level, to the prioritization of women in some public notices, as was the recent case of the selection of cooperative network for the family farming supply center, which awarded points to cooperatives composed of a majority of female members. The area of ​​urban agriculture is highlighted, since the municipal agroecological systems are composed by a majority of women.

A food system has several target groups. First, there are people in emergency situations who do not access the minimum amount of daily food. This is the case of a 60% reduction in infant mortality since the 1990s, due to, among others, the distribution of enriched supplements to pregnant women and postpartum women. Regarding the vulnerable public, Popular Restaurants currently offer about 350,000 free meals annually to a population of 4,553 homeless people (2017 data). Already the social assistance units offer about 7 million meals a year in shelters. The municipal schools, in turn, have universal service for children from 0 to 15 years, those who are guaranteed all meals during the class period. Finally, for the marginally excluded public, there is the incentive to stimulate the production and commercialization, in key of emancipation, as is the case of the annual destination of about US $ 1,900,000.00 per year with the acquisition of products. family farming, as well as the productive units and fairs of the municipality. The latter also act to regulate the local market by offering healthy foods at low cost.

In 1993 there was a great mobilization of civil society in Brazil to fight hunger and misery. Led by “Citizenship Action Against Hunger, Misery and Life” campaign articulated by sociologist Herbert de Souza, who even presented to the then President of the Republic Itamar Franco, a proposal for the creation of a National Food Security Policy. The campaign was ignored by the federal government, but in Belo Horizonte it became the sociogenesis of a long process of institutionalization of food as a fundamental human right. Also, in 1993 after consultation with public and private experts and community leaders, the Municipal Supply Secretariat was established. Brazil's first universal access restaurant was inaugurated. Also, SMAAB began providing emergency enriched supplementation for expectant mothers, nursing mothers and young children at risk of malnutrition, as well as the provision of meals in schools and expanded the ABasteCer, Combio do Trabalhador, CestãoPopular, and markets, for commercialization of affordable food to the poor. In the 1990s, the allocation of unoccupied public spaces to community production units began. The national and state forums were created, and later, the Municipal Council of School Food (2000) and Nutritional Food Security (2003). In 2003, the articulation began for the national policy, influenced by the Belo Horizonte experience. The Family Farming Food Acquisition Program is created with the National Food Security System. The Food Bank was created in 2003 and the Municipal SAN System in 2008. In 2001 the policy of urban agriculture was instituted and Popular Restaurants began to serve homeless. The subsequent period is of stabilization, policy induction via the federal government and recession, with a strong shortage crisis in 2016. In 2017 a new cycle of innovation begins, focusing on the resumption of services created in the 1990s, also improving the nutritional quality of menus, agroecology and gastronomy.

A permanent challenge concerns financing. Although low cost, it was necessary to ensure institutionality to the regular availability of resources. This was partially resolved by the legal guarantee of co-financing of school feeding actions, although restricted to this area and the creation of a municipal fund. Another challenge is the risk of shortages arising from unanticipated fluctuations in food prices, especially from climate actions and global financial market actions, such as meat. The solution was to establish a periodic price correction mechanism in the contracts.

At the time of its establishment, the municipal food security policy in Belo Horizonte was innovative in recognizing and materializing the duty of the public power in realizing the right of everyone to access adequate food. Along its path, in addition to a number of incremental innovations, the policy has succeeded in creating multisectoral governance that has tackled the challenges of food security in a holistic manner, in which each line of action - access to food, consumption, production and training - complemented it. mutually so as to structure an urban agri-food system in dialogue with the city and surroundings.

The Belo Horizonte experience was inspired by the public policy proposal developed by the national campaign “Citizenship Action against Hunger, Misery and Life”, which in turn was based on a diagnosis of hunger in Brazil. Although innovative, the initiative was inspired by the successful experiences of supplying feirão, varejão, sacolão and comboios formulated in various locations in the 70s. In the case of Popular Restaurants, it was an adaptation of the initiative of the Food Service of Social Welfare, of corporatist make, created in the Government of Getúlio Vargas (1940) to offer subsidized food to workers.

Belo Horizonte's municipal food security policy is composed of a series of articulated programs that, in their set, make up the government-driven food system with social embeddedness. Thus, a double influence of the pioneering initiative of Belo Horizonte is recognized for the subsequent configuration of the National Zero Hunger Program, articulated in 2003. Firstly, from the point of view of the conceptual and multidimensional construction of what food security represents, food as a right and the role of government in implementing this policy. Secondly, some experiences developed in Belo Horizonte were incorporated into the Program, with emphasis on compensatory intervention activities such as Popular Restaurants and market regulation (See also: http://www.fao.org/3/a- i3023o.pdf). It is also important to highlight that, as it turned out, there is potential for adaptability of the initiatives together or separately according to the specific context of other regions.

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There were several resources used in the implementation over the 26 years of the food security policy trajectory. Currently, the annual budget of the actions is about U$17,687,636.34 per year, of which U$11,791,757.56 are funded by the municipal government and about U$5,895,878.78 comes from the federal government. The number of permanent employees is around 250. It is also important to note that policy implementation and maintenance requires a significant amount of political resources, such as laws, society participation, partnership building, etc. This number is intangible and therefore difficult to measure.

Financially the initiative is sustainable because of the low cost of each individual public service delivery. In other words, it is efficient. For 2019, we have: Meal served at Popular Restaurants: U$1.65 per meal. In schools and social assistance units: U$0.59. Implementation and maintenance of each urban agriculture production unit: U$1,297.09 each, including technical assistance. Food donated at the Food Bank: U$1.40 operation cost for each Kg. Student participating in training actions: U$2.94. All values are on average. Institutionally the action is sustainable due to the trajectory, legal framework, participation instances and career employees.

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1. For an assessment of the overall performance of the food safety system: Rocha and Lessa, 2010 Chappell, 2018 (supporting document). 2. For an analysis of Belo Horizonte's Popular Restaurant see Sobrinho et all. 2014 (https://www.scielosp.org/scielo.php?pid=S1413-81232014000501601&script=sci_arttext&tlng=en). 3. For evaluation of practices at the Food Bank of Belo Horizonte see Soares et all., 2014. 4. For the assessment of the impacts of ludic education on the nutritional indicators of caregivers, see Carmo et all, 2018 (http://pubs.sciepub.com/jfnr/6/5/4/). 5. For evaluation of urban agriculture initiatives FAO (http://www.fao.org/ag/agp/greenercities/en/ggclac/belo_horizonte.html), Olson, 2016 (https://stud.epsilon.slu.se/9755/1/olsson_s_161004.pdf) and Lovo et all., 2011 (https://www.ruaf.org/sites/default/files/UAM%2025-Creating%20the%20Urban%20Agriculture%2021-24 .pdf)

The most comprehensive analyzes of Rocha and Lessa; and Chappell, as well as analyzes of urban agriculture, use the field research and historical description of the Belo Horizonte initiative. The nutritional status studies on the performance of food assistance equipment use anthropometric indicators and, in some cases, random selection methodology and comparison with a control group.

From the point of view of more a comprehensive analysis, governance and institutional arrangements are capable of effectively building an agri-food system in Belo Horizonte, with a significant impact on macro indicators such as reducing child mortality, overcoming poverty and malnutrition. The analysis of nutritional status demonstrates the relevance of the performance of food assistance equipment in their specific audiences, highlighting the fundamental aspect that the actions are accompanied by initiatives of food and nutrition education, in order to generate healthy habits and practices. The analyzes related to urban agriculture, in turn, demonstrate the network construction of this activity, pointing out as strengths the support of Civil Society Organizations together with the City Hall, the focus on the development of social technologies and the social, economic and environmental impacts. produced by urban agricultural production units. However, there is also the need for greater integration between this area and other food security activities in the municipality.

The innovative institutional arrangement of Belo Horizonte's municipal policy for food and nutrition security was initially built through a process of consultation with public and private experts and community leaders, conducted by the Mayor himself at the time and by the leader of the then Municipal Supply Secretariat. focus on understanding the root causes of the food insecurity problem. This arrangement was able to establish a portfolio of programs that worked to solve specific problems, but as a whole built up what Professor Cecilia Rocha (Canada) called the government driven alternative food system. The systemic performance allowed an innovative institutional arrangement that operates until today from complementary logics of governance and with different repertoires of public action. Direct food supply acts in accordance with a traditional bureaucratic provision of services, focusing on monitoring and guaranteeing the universal quality standard. Market regulation operates in partnership with private actors, whether they are urban or family farmers, or small food businessmen. Finally, agro-ecological urban agriculture acts strongly in networks and the development of social technologies for horizontal strengthening of the base through the fostering of grassroots groups.

The beginning of the municipal food security policy in Belo Horizonte was marked by a national mobilization on the theme of hunger that allowed the action of policy entrepreneurs connecting existing experiences and incipient formulations in an innovative institutional design that proved resilient to the test of time. The book Beggining to End Hunger, M. Jahi Chappel, tells how multiple streams of problems and solutions helped build and develop the initiative, from the initial involvement of private actors, publics, experts and community leaders. This participatory collaboration is expressed today in multiple partnerships established by food security policy to formulate, implement and evaluate their initiatives. From the local point of view, in addition to the aforementioned Protocol of Intent signed with 4 state agencies, a federal agency and 1 international institution and which has membership of 13 municipalities, the policy has a technical cooperation agreement with CSOs that expand their repertoire. There is partnership with the Federal Government especially in the field of school feeding. Internationally, the initiative participates in networks such as ICLEI and the Milan Pact. Finally, there is a group of researchers from 9 different national and international universities that follow the initiative and produce various studies.

Taking as its principle that the duty to “Govern for Those in Need”, 2017 marked a resumption of food security policy in the city of Belo Horizonte, with the strengthening of historical actions and focus on the development of new actions, especially with regard to agro-ecological urban and family farming. In this recent trajectory, several lessons were learned, highlighting the challenge of multidimensional action, which refers to the necessary integration of the actions that make up - since its origin - the food system of Belo Horizonte. The current scenario of returning poverty and rising commodity prices poses challenges not only for food assistance but also for urban agriculture, the development of which can offer important solutions to the food sovereignty of the local population. Given this, the organization is currently preparing for the consolidation of recent innovations and the implementation of transversal governance mechanisms that promote collective decision-making, based on the conscious and comprehensive view of local food security. To this end, the CAISAN Intersectoral Chamber for Food Security is currently structured, a supra-organizational governance structure involving other areas of the municipality, as well as an update package of the legal framework that institutionalizes the policy.