Budget for early childhood actions rises 38.3% in 2023

After years of strangulation, the budget for actions for early childhood (children up to 6 years old) was expanded in 2023. According to a report sent exclusively to the Brazil Agency by the Federal Budget Secretariat (SOF) of the Ministry of Planning, the allocation rose from R$ 19.606 billion last year to R$ 27.109 billion this year, an increase of 38.3%.

“The report shows that there is a government effort to guarantee the materiality of public policies to face some of the biggest problems faced by this public in Brazil: poverty and the risks associated with it, such as infant mortality, chronic malnutrition and delays in physical and mental development. intellectual property”, stressed SOF in the document.

In the division by folders, the Ministry of Development and Social Assistance leads the Budget, with R$ 14.9 billion available (54.97% of the total). Then come the Ministries of Health, with R$ 9.612 billion (35.46%); and Education, with R$ 2.552 billion (9.41%). The remainder is distributed among the following portfolios: Ministry of Human Rights and Citizenship (0.07%), Ministry of Justice and Public Security (0.06%), Ministry of Women (0.03%) and Ministry of Indigenous Peoples ( 0.003%).

Three other ministries – Racial Equality, Culture and Sport – informed the Ministry of Planning that there was no budgetary program for early childhood in the current fiscal year. In the previous government, these departments were incorporated into ministries that implemented early childhood policies.

Regarding the agendas listed in the Pluriannual Plan (PPA) as priorities, actions linked to Bolsa Família (and the former Auxílio Brasil) top the budgets in 2023, with 52.87% of the approximately R$ 27 billion. Citizenship promotion actions concentrate R$ 8.544 billion (31.52%), and those aimed at social inclusion account for R$ 5.789 billion (21.35%). In third place, comes the specialized health care agenda, with R$ 5.495 billion (20.27%).

Evolution

Due to changes in the structure of ministries and the naming of programs, it is not possible to compare the evolution from 2022 to 2023. However, in two ministries that did not merge or break up in the change of government, it is possible to trace the evolution of the budget for early childhood in relation to the amount executed last year.

At the Ministry of Health, the budget for 2023 allocates BRL 9.612 billion to actions aimed at early childhood, an increase of 37.5% compared to the BRL 6.992 billion spent in 2022. The Ministry of Education has BRL 2.552 billion this year , 72.4% more than the R$ 1.48 billion executed in 2022. In the case of the Ministry of Culture, which has no resources planned for this year, there was no execution last year by the Ministry of Tourism, to which it was subordinate the former Secretary of Culture.

Execution

The Federal Budget Secretariat also analyzed the budget execution of actions for early childhood in 2022. Last year, the government paid BRL 18.719 billion of the BRL 19.606 billion provided for in the Budget, equivalent to 95.47% of the forecast.

Although high, some programs register low execution. At the Ministry of Citizenship, responsible for social policies in the previous government, the Food and Nutritional Security Program spent R$ 4.8 million, just over half (51.6%) of the total budget of R$ 9.3 million. The program aimed at early childhood education spent R$ 178.44 million, 35.5% of a total of R$ 502.28 million.

At the Ministry of Health, the Health Surveillance Program, which had a budget of R$ 677.5 million, spent R$ 314.5 million (46.4%). In the former Ministry of Women, Family and Human Rights, there was no allocation of funds for policies to support the implementation of women’s assistance centers, out of a total budget of R$ 590,000.

In actions to promote the National Justice Policy, by the Ministry of Justice, spending on early childhood totaled just R$80,000, 17% of a budget of R$470,000. Among the attributions of this program are the fight against human trafficking, the indicative programming classification, and the democratization of access to justice and citizenship.

Even with some restrictions, the report shows progress when evaluating the “physical execution” (delivery of results). The National School Feeding Program (Pnae) has served more than 7 million students in kindergartens and preschools. Among indigenous children, 40% of babies up to 1 year old had access to growth and development consultations and almost 90% of children up to 5 years old had their food and nutritional status monitored. The Continuous Provision Benefit (BPC) at school currently serves 82,500 children aged up to 6 years.

Challenges

The document mentions some challenges for the Ministry of Planning to identify, in the tangle of the Budget, the specific actions and axes related to early childhood. In order to reduce the distortions caused by budgetary actions with large volumes of resources, of which only a fraction of the expenses are destined to the area, the report calculated the total budget of the program weighted by the participation of children up to 6 years old in the Brazilian population.

The weight of this age group was calculated based on the Continuous National Household Sample Survey (PNAD) for the fourth quarter of 2022. This method was used to estimate total spending on early childhood in expenditures classified as non-exclusive (not restricted to the first childhood) and of a diffuse nature (without a specific nature). “This is in line with the conclusions of different studies that show how the guarantee of rights for the 0-6 age group is crucial for human development”, highlighted the folder.

Legal framework

Defined as public policies for the first six years of life, early childhood obeys a specific legal framework. Pursuant to the 2020–2023 PPA and the 2021, 2022 and 2023 Budget Guidelines Laws, these actions are classified as budgetary priorities.

In addition to the highlighted importance in the Budget, three legal devices guide the elaboration of a “transversal and multisectoral” agenda (which covers several ministries). The first is the Lei 13.257/2016which establishes guidelines and parameters for evaluating public policies for early childhood.

In 2021, or Decree 10,770 instituted the transversal agenda, specifying the participating ministries and their responsibility in providing information and policy results. Last year, a ordinance of the former Ministry of Economy regulated the presentation of information and the classification of expenses.