Description
PAEFI is part of the Specialized Social Protection (PSE) of the Unified Social Assistance System (SUAS)*, aimed at people facing situations of rights violations. Situations of violation covered by PSE include homeless or abandoned people, people living in institutions (or their dependents), or people subject to different forms of violence (domestic violence, slave labor, human trafficking), in addition to children in child labor.
PAEFI integrates PSE through the systematic monitoring of families experiencing rights violations, to build a social diagnosis and support families in overcoming their vulnerabilities.
Beneficiaries are selected in line with general guidelines on what constitutes a rights violation, and based on case-by-case assessments and analyses carried out by social assistance teams. In addition, PAEFI can be accessed through referencing by other initiatives and public policies, especially those that are coordinated as part of the Rights Guarantee System (SGD, acronym in Portuguese), such as: federal public agencies, the Public Prosecutor's Office, the Public Defenders' Office, the Federal Attorney General's Office and state attorney general's offices, police and specialized police stations, guardianship councils, ombudsmen and human rights defense entities responsible for providing legal and social protection, Centers for the Defense of the Rights of Children and Adolescents, among others.
The operation of PAEFI in the territory is the responsibility of the Specialized Reference Centers for Social Assistance (CREAS, acronym in Portuguese), which have a large degree of autonomy when developing and designing the activities that are to be implemented in support of each beneficiary family (which also vary depending on the heterogeneous capacities of each CREAS).
In addition to mobilizing policies on food security, income and access to citizenship, PAEFI has close coordination with protection, public security and justice agencies that act to distance victims from threats and risks. An example is the protective measures for women victims of violence by Law 11.340/2006 - Maria da Penha Law.
Similarly, the social assistance support component encompasses activities that, more than preventing the weakening of family bonds, have the challenge of rebuilding them in contexts in which they have been strongly weakened due to experiences of rights violation.
*SUAS is the abbreviation in Portuguese for Unified Social Assistance System. According to the MDS: “The Unified Social Assistance System is a public system that organizes social assistance services in Brazil. With a participatory management model it coordinates the efforts and resources of the three levels of government, i.e., municipalities, states and the Federal Government, for the execution and financing of the Brazilian Social Assistance Policy (PNAS), directly involving national, state, municipal and Federal District regulatory structures and frameworks. SUAS has 12 nationally typified services, as listed below.
- Basic Social Protection
- PAIF – Protection and Integral Support Service to the Family
- SCFV – Service of Community Living and Strengthening of Bonds
- DPDI – Basic Social Protection Homecare Service for People with Disabilities and the Elderly
- Specialized Social Protection
- PAEFI – Protection and Specialized Care Service for Families and Individuals
- PCDIF – Specialized Social Protection Service for People with Disabilities, the Elderly and their Families
- MSE – Social Protection Service for Adolescents under Probation (LA) and Community Services Measures (PSC)
- SEAS – Specialized Care for Vulnerable Populations
- SEPS – Specialized Homelessness Services
- SAI – Institutional Shelter Services
- SAR – Communal Housing Services
- SFA – Foster Family Service
- SCE – Protection services in a declared public calamity and emergencies
These services are subdivided into those of Basic Social Protection (PSB, acronym in Portuguese) and Specialized Social Protection (PSE). The PSB is intended to support people whose social vulnerability exposes them to the risk of having their rights violated, but who are not yet subject to such rights violations. Vulnerabilities that expose people to the risk of having these rights violated include insufficient income, difficulty accessing essential public services (such as health and education), and situations that undermine community and family life (such as in the case of families with dysfunctional relationships or people without ties to their communities). Violations of rights, as already mentioned, are the object of the Specialized Social Protection (PSE) of SUAS, and refer to situations such as abandonment, physical and/or psychological abuse, sexual abuse, use of psychoactive substances, compliance with socio-educational measures, homelessness, child labor, among others.
Secretariat for Social Assistance (SNAS) of the Ministry of Social Development and Assistance, Family and Fight against Hunger – MDS (which during 2019-2022 was designated Ministry of Citizenship – MC), by means of an inter-federative SUAS management structure. Funding is co-participatory across the three levels of government: municipal, state and federal.
States and, above all, Municipalities, through CREAS or Specific Unit Referenced to CREAS.
The Service was instituted and regulated in 2009, as per the Brazilian Typification of Social Assistance Services, published on November 11, 2009, and reissued in 20141,2.
Currently in operation.
Social assistance support through a service to Strengthen Community and Family Bonds.
N/A
Families and individuals who experience violations of rights due to situations such as:
Physical and psychological violence and neglect;
Sexual violence: sexual abuse and/or exploitation;
Removal from family life due to the application of a socio-educational measure or protection measure;
Human trafficking;
Homeless people and beggars;
Abandonment;
Experience of child labor;
Discrimination due to sexual orientation and/or race/ethnicity;
Other forms of rights violation resulting from discrimination/submission to situations that cause damage and aggravation to their living conditions and prevent them from enjoying autonomy and well-being;
Non-compliance with PBF and PETI conditionalities due to rights violation.
Although PAEFI is intended exclusively for victims of rights violation (including people in situations of abandonment), the investigation of the extent to which each person fits into this situation depends on the technical analysis of the social assistance teams. In many cases, this decision is simplified due to formal records of violence, especially when PAEFI is accessed through referral by a body or entity that integrates the SGDs, the justice system or other bodies.
Access to the initiative occurs through spontaneous demand and referencing by other initiatives, and through active search guided by the SUAS social surveillance service.
There is a systemic effort to register the potential target population and individuals benefited by PAEFI in the Single Registry, although this is not a requirement for gaining access to the service.
Rather than a measure to request and access PAEFI, the registration of the potential public in the Single Registry is done to enable these people to be referred to other policies they are eligible for.
The information declared to the Single Registry is fundamentally self-declaratory. The Single Registry makes annual cross-checks with other administrative records to validate its information. Cases of inconsistency pointed out by these checks, however, do not lead to interruptions in access to nationally typified SUAS services (although they may lead to such impediments for other programs that use the tool and whose eligibility is defined by more parametric income and family composition criteria, such as the Bolsa Familia Program - PBF and the Continuous Cash Benefit - BPC). The link with PAEFI provides an opportunity to update the registration of its beneficiaries, whose declared information may be questioned through cross-checks with other databases.
According to the CREAS Monthly Service Record System (RMA, acronym in Portuguese) from January to August 2022, the initiative benefited, on average, 250,875 cases (families or individuals) per month[i].
During this period, there was an influx of 160,736 new families, 30% of which were PBF beneficiaries, 10% of which were BPC beneficiaries, 3% of which were PETI beneficiaries, 3% of which had children or adolescents in foster care, 12% of which had situations of violence linked to the misuse of psychoactive substances, and 5% of which were families with adolescents in compliance with socio-educational measures in an open environment.
This total represents 181,862 people—victims of violence or rights violations—whose families are eligible for inclusion in PAEFI. Of this total:
19% refers to children or adolescents who are victims of child violence (physical or psychological);
18% refers to children or adolescents who are victims of neglect or abandonment;
14% refers to adult women (18 to 59 years) victims of intrafamily violence (physical, psychological or sexual);
13% refers to elderly people who are victims of neglect or abandonment;
12% refers to children or adolescents who are victims of sexual abuse;
8% refers to homeless people;
7% refers to elderly people who are victims of intrafamily violence (physical, psychological or sexual);
4% refers to people with disabilities who are victims of neglect or abandonment;
2% refers to children or adolescents in child labor (up to 15 years of age);
2% refers to people with disabilities who are victims of intrafamily violence (physical, psychological or sexual);
1% refers to children or adolescents who are victims of sexual exploitation;
1% refers to people who are victims of discrimination based on sexual orientation;
And less than 1% (399 cases) refers to people who are victims of human trafficking.
As a reference base, it is worth noting that the Bolsa Família Program, for example, has an average coverage of 14 million families (40 million people benefited), and that its substitute program (Brazil Aid) increased this coverage to about 20 million families (or 53 million people benefited)3,4,5.
The services may give rise to different types of social assistance support, among which the 24 listed below stand out (which are individually monitored by the SUAS Census/ RMA CREAS)3:
Individual/family monitoring;
Follow-up of referrals;
Record of individual/family monitoring in medical records;
Preparation of the Family and/or Individual Monitoring Plan;
Preparation of technical reports on cases being monitored;
Preparation of technical reports for the justice system;
Group/workshop with families or individuals;
Legal-social guidance;
Home visits;
Lectures;
Mobilization and awareness-raising actions to face situations of rights violation;
Support for obtaining personal documentation;
Guidance/follow-up for insertion in BPC;
Referral to CRAS;
Referral of the priority audience for insertion in SCFV;
Referral of families or individuals to the social assistance service network;
Referral to health network services;
Referral of families or individuals to other public policies (education, housing, work, etc.);
Referral to the Guardianship Council;
Referral to defense and accountability bodies (Public Defender's Office, Prosecutor's Office, Public Prosecutor's Office, etc.);
Referral to obtain Occasional Benefits;
Referral for insertion/updating of families in the Single Registry;
Follow-up of conditionalities of the Bolsa Família Program.
Mostly through activities provided in CREAS itself, but there are home visits in certain cases.
SUAS funding is shared by the three levels of government (Federal Government, states and municipalities). Resources are allocated in blocks and minimums, which have some flexibility to finance the various SUAS initiatives (see Policy Brief on SUAS financing). The table below illustrates the budget executions (co-financing) of the Federal Government for discretionary actions of the National Secretariat for Social Assistance/ Social Assistance Fund (SNAS/FNAS) between 2002 and 2022 (in real values corrected to December 31, 2022). These values encompass the entire universe of services, programs, costing of management activities and investment of SUAS, so they do not refer to PAEFI costs alone.
Federal budget executions with discretionary actions of SNAS/ FNAS between 2002 and 2022 (in real values adjusted for December 31, 2022)
Year | R$ Millions of BRL |
2002 | 3.885,20 |
2003 | 3.023,38 |
2004 | 2.308,34 |
2005 | 3.208,81 |
2006 | 2.615,90 |
2007 | 3.039,44 |
2008 | 2.902,20 |
2009 | 2.957,95 |
2010 | 3.252,75 |
2011 | 3.049,13 |
2012 | 4.040,07 |
2013 | 4.587,86 |
2014 | 4.320,93 |
2015 | 3.457,79 |
2016 | 3.485,66 |
2017 | 2.899,13 |
2018 | 2.995,74 |
2019 | 3.628,10 |
2020 | 5.010,93 |
2021 | 1.281,80 |
2022 | 2.295,75 |
Although we did not find consolidated values on the resources specifically directed to PAEFI financing, it is assumed that the PAEFI and PAEFI Regional-Network Medium Complexity Fixed Minimums (which are part of the Specialized Social Protection Block of Medium Complexity) are the most directed to PAEFI financing. In 2022, the Federal Government transferred a total of R$ 100,912,035.69 to these Minimums[i] (an amount corresponding to 7% of the total expenses of the Federal Government specifically directed to the 12 social assistance services nationally typified by SUAS this year).
[i] Minimum values extracted from (GoB, Min. Social Development 2023a) and associated with specific services according to the authors' interpretation from (GoB, Min. Social Development 2013; Public Prosecutor's Office of Bahia, n.d.)
A quasi-experimental academic study points out that the implementation of SUAS generated expansion and improvement in the provision of services, as well as improvement of administrative capacity at the municipal level, even controlling for more specific political factors6.
However, we did not identify robust studies on the impacts PAEFI in a more specific way.
PAEFI guidelines include both situations of rights violation that typically afflict children (such as child labor) and other forms of more transversal violations whose interventions are careful to include approaches specifically aimed at children and adolescents who are victims of these practices. As shown in the table below (which expresses the prevalence of the thematic actions offered by CREAS that operate PAEFI, with disaggregation according to the more specific life cycles to which these actions are directed), children and adolescents appear as priority targets in most themes. Even in themes where child-focused approaches are not the majority, they still occur at practically the same rate as actions aimed at other age groups (with the exception of patrimonial violence, which is more prevalent among adult women and the elderly).
Table 16 - Prevalence of PAEFI activities offered by CREAS, by age groups/specific age group[i]
| Children and adolescents | Adult women | Adult men | Elderly | Attends to this issue |
Physical violence | 30% | 91% | 33% | 78% | 1% |
Psychological violence | 93% | 92% | 37% | 86% | 1% |
Sexual abuse / sexual violence | 96% | 61% | 16% | 32% | 3% |
Sexual exploitation | 68% | 32% | 14% | 26% | 28% |
Neglect or abandonment | 89% | 0% | 0% | 87% | 3% |
Property violence | 0% | 50% | 0% | 75% | 18% |
Human trafficking | 10% | 11% | 8% | 10% | 85% |
Slave labor | 16% | 13% | 14% | 12% | 77% |
Child labor | 71% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 29% |
Homelessness | 37% | 56% | 68% | 47% | 21% |
Gender discrimination | 37% | 35% | 37% | 19% | 46% |
Racial and/or ethnic discrimination | 31% | 31% | 28% | 24% | 62% |
PwD under rights violations | 63% | 68% | 64% | 66% | 11% |
Migrants | 20% | 24% | 24% | 15% | 71% |
[i] Data based on the 2021 SUAS CREAS Census
PAEFI guidelines include situations of rights violation that mostly have gender biases, affecting more women and girls than men and boys. Just behind children and adolescents, adult women are the second main group to which actions aimed at curbing various types of violence covered by PAEFI are aimed (see table above).
Guidelines and references for other networks such as education, health and basic social protection, of medium and high complexity, in addition to interactions with SGD bodies and institutions (which even refer many families to PAEFI).
The specific adaptations of PAEFI varied greatly in each context, given the flexibility of state and municipal teams to adapt according to the specific needs of each context. However, there was a set of more structuring actions with an effect on SUAS in general, such as:
Several municipal teams developed voluntary joint efforts to support the application for Emergency Aid (AE, acronym in Portuguese) although SUAS was not directly involved in AE.
The Federal Government generated instructional material with service protocols considering the challenge of avoiding agglomeration.
Through Ordinance MC No. 369, of April 29, 2020, the Federal Government distributed R$ 2.4 billion to SUAS as extraordinary credit distributed as follows among the municipalities with the highest prevalence of elderly, PwD, migrants and homeless people:
R$ 9.1 million was transferred to the interiorization of Venezuelan migrants and refugees;
R$ 158.1 million were allocated to the purchase of PPE for SUAS professionals working on the front line, serving, for example, sheltered elderly, homeless people and victims of rights violation;
R$ 185.6 million were transferred to the purchase of food from the elderly and people with disabilities served in the SUAS network;
R$ 577.7 million for the co-financing of social assistance actions, according to the needs of each location due to the pandemic.
Through Ordinances MC No. 378, of May 7, 2020, and MC No. 468, of August 13, 2020, R$ 1.5 billion were also transferred to: (a) the reorganization of activities in SUAS units; (b) the purchase of other items necessary to deal with the emergency; or (c) the expansion of social assistance offers during the pandemic. Of these:
R$ 1 billion was specifically intended to reinforce basic social protection actions;
R$ 437.2 million were specifically intended to reinforce Specialized Social Protection actions.7,8,9
In addition to the transfer of funds, several technical guidance notes on work in the context of the pandemic were released by the MDS.
1. GoB, Min. Desenvolvimento Social. 2009. Tipificação Nacional de Serviços Socioassistenciais - Texto da RESOLUÇÃO No. 109, DE 11 DE NOVEMBRO DE 2009. https://www.prattein.com.br/home/images/stories/PDFs/Tipificacao_AS.pdf.
2. GoB, Min. Desenvolvimento Social. 2014.Tipificação Nacional de Serviços Socioassistenciais. https://central.to.gov.br/download/231761.
3. GoB, Min. Cidadania. 2022. Censo SUAS e RMA – Bases e Resultados > Censo SUAS 2021 - CREAS. https://aplicacoes.mds.gov.br/snas/vigilancia/index2.php
4. GoB, Min. Desenvolvimento Social. 2022. Programa Bolsa Família - quantidade de famílias e valores (até outubro/2021). https://aplicacoes.mds.gov.br/sagi/vis/data3/v.php?q[]=r5u5ZNnryaG4emVqrWZ9f2RdiJxlmm9kiqx9YWx5sZzfmL7Cm4y9wqClo5TJ7rJvsLqqn7R0wcCskpKcpt%2BqVr%2FhrKqog6ms7p6IwqmivJxu3q%2BowraIp7G1WLWaYbCvqpJ32JvPq1Od3bOTrbyZmd%2BauoxnTcvJmNhdpczwu5hkiJeg2K%2B5iHGbzM6Y3KaWjLuvmpu5qZ7Yn667Y1%2BAgZjWsJh96cKgqGiaqN1ibstyk7jNps94mb7nwJl3g5ub5ayyiXKgzM6vsJ6gICi5nZ27VXzep7K0oJDAJNTcppTQnqOVqLenWs2owa%2BjTanGo8uwpr7fvFeSqaGp61maEeCRwNBTzqymfb2yoqGu%2BOfcorzBs52S.
5. GoB, Min. Cidadania. 2022. Quantidade total de pessoas em famílias beneficiárias do Programa Bolsa Família/Programa Auxílio Brasil. https://aplicacoes.mds.gov.br/sagi/vis/data3/v.php?q[]=oNOclsLerpibuKep3bV%2BgW5i05Kv2rmg2a19ZXR1ZWumaX6JaV2Jk2CadGCNrMmim7iareyYsK%2BbjMfDmaWjlMnusm%2BiqaGt3nSItJiZysZupbCoyveeqZ22qaPdmrGzV6HG1ZTWXZfCm72Zr7ukm%2BxZsrtXk7jO9hepnL7ubZahtpqg4py2EdifwMKmiqGifcu%2Fo6O6lqfaWY%2B9o6C4gXnLqvYK57aVa5inqeCrrruYTZjWqy3qn8bqbXauqaij5bW9iQ%3D%3D.
6. Cavalcante, Pedro, e Beatriz Bernarde Ribeiro. 2012. O Sistema Único de Assistência Social: resultados da implementação da política nos municípios brasileiros. Rev. Adm. Pública 46 (dezembro). https://www.scielo.br/j/rap/a/bwPZgHkvMbPcWCcYcgKHtPb/?lang=pt#.
7. GoB, Min. Desenvolvimento Social. 2022. Programa Alimenta Brasil - Execução Geral (quantidade de agricultores e recursos pagos, ano a ano)”. 5 de outubro de 2022. https://aplicacoes.cidadania.gov.br/vis/data3/v.php?q[]=oNOtlcPavaarrLFvqrV%2ByqepxN1lmm5kiqx%2FYWx5cGypa397Z2WEkWTms2WNs4iorr2add%2BaucGcaJLHlNawmJi2wKmpa6tsqXKIwqmivJyZy6mmwraImp20qJ%2B0dMDDpKmYyKXToKjJ77ymobtVoNqmtrqgjsnGpoqjos%2FpspehrKSs3qxtsqZNp9Oi0a%2BUytxtdaixop%2Fnra5ueZ%2B41JzWYIXC3sKmr7eoWt%2Biu6%2BlkLzKpdmwU83ctKOvaJap7FmutamWutaf3qylwu5tmp21nqbimr%2Bzqk290KXYopbC37ymobtVnuhZncCmlMnCoMtddMnkupmqvJZau6uuwaCZ09Fu.
8. GoB, IPEA. 2022. Boletim de Políticas Sociais - acompanhamento e análise N. 29, 2022. https://portalantigo.ipea.gov.br/portal/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=39098&Itemid=9.
9. IPEA. 2021. “Boletim de Políticas Sociais: Acompanhamento e análise. Assistência Social”, Políticas Sociais: acompanhamento e análise, 27. http://dx.doi.org/10.38116/bps28/assistenciasocial.2021. Boletim de Políticas Sociais: Acompanhamento e análise. Assistência Social”, Políticas Sociais: acompanhamento e análise, 27. http://dx.doi.org/10.38116/bps28/assistenciasocial.