Brazil slashed food insecurity in 2023

Severe food insecurity in Brazil dropped by 85 percent, from 8 percent of the population in 2022 to 1.2 percent in 2023, according to estimates disclosed by the federal government on Wednesday.

The success was achieved thanks to the Bolsa Família cash transfer program — created in the early 2000s and recognized internationally for lifting millions from extreme poverty.

The Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva administration took office on January 1, 2023. Last year, the administration gave Bolsa Família a record BRL 168 billion (USD 29.7 billion) budget; families enrolled received an average of BRL 670 (USD 118) per month. 

The program is a success story in Brazil’s effort to push for a Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty, one of the linchpins of the country’s agenda during its turn presiding over the G20.

The Social Development Ministry, responsible for rolling out Bolsa Família, falsely claimed that the aforementioned number is in the latest State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report, published by five United Nations agencies.

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) told The Brazilian Report that “the statement [on the reduction of food insecurity] is correct, and based on annual estimates that FAO does not publish, but has shared with the Government of Brazil.”

SOFI calculates the severe food insecurity indicator as a three-year moving average, rather than comparing data on a year-by-year basis. Per the report, the indicator actually rose in Brazil, from 0.7 percent in the 2014–2016 period to 6.6 percent in 2021–2023. For the same periods, the report shows the number of severely food insecure people growing from 1.5 million to 14.3 million.

Severe food insecurity is defined as the level “at which people have likely run out of food, experienced hunger and, at the most extreme, gone for days without eating.”

Conversely, the number and percentage of people unable to afford a healthy diet are provided in SOFI yearly. The data in the report goes up to 2022. It shows that in Brazil, the proportion of people unable to afford a healthy diet dropped from 30.2 percent in 2021 to 25.3 percent in 2022, the last year of the far-right Jair Bolsonaro administration. 

The reduction coincides with Mr. Bolsonaro’s electorally motivated push for social programs, such as a BRL 200 (USD 35 today) increase in monthly benefits of the Auxílio Brasil cash transfer program, financial vouchers for the purchase of kitchen gas, and handouts for truck drivers.

The Social Development Ministry did not reply to a request for comment.

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