Cash Transfer Program and Food Security: a Comparative Study Between Quilombola Communities and the General Population of Alagoas, Brazil

Abstract

Abstract Background: The Cash Transfer Program (CTP) is one of the main strategies to combat Food and Nutritional Insecurity (FNI) in the world and is primarily aimed at population groups subject to greater social vulnerability. Alagoas is one of the Brazilian states that has the worst socioeconomic indicators in the country. However, within its population, there are groups of people who are even more vulnerable due to a historical process of discrimination and social exclusion, such as the remaining quilombo communities, which make them more susceptible to FNI and its consequences. Objective: Compare the Quilombola people with the non-Quilombola population regarding the association between the condition of users of the Cash Transfer Program and the occurrence of Food and Nutritional insecurity and its associated factors. Methods: Data from two cross-sectional studies were used; the first completed in 2015 with a probabilistic sample representative of families of the state of Alagoas, and the second completed in 2018 with families from Quilombola communities in that state. The Brazilian Scale of Nutritional Insecurity was used to define the FNI situation of the families. Both studies were approved by the research ethics committee. Ajusted prevalence ratios were estimated by Poisson regression with robust variance. Results: A total of 5,764 families were investigated (n = 3299 in 2015; n = 2465 in 2018). FNI was identified in 58.4% of non-Quilombola and 67.4% in Quilombola families. FNI was associated with participation in the CTP, lower economic classes, per capita family income ≤1 minimum wage, rooms in the household ≤4, families with children under 18 years of age, no home of their own, and households with four or more people. Conclusion: FNI frequency was higher among Quilombola families and, in general, among families using the CTP. Despite the correct targeting of the CTP, which assists a large contingent of the population in poverty, it is necessary to link structural actions to it to ensure socioeconomic increases that can reverse the scenario of low education and professional training, low income, and, consequently, less access to goods and services in a sustainable way.