The University of International Integration of Afro-Brazilian Lusofonia (Unilab) was represented by the professor at the Institute of Rural Development (IDR), Jaqueline Sgarbi Santos – coordinator of the Project for Strengthening Teaching, Research and Extension in Sovereignty and Food and Nutritional Security at Unilab in the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP), which was present at the relaunch ceremony of the National Council for Food and Nutritional Security (Consea), at the Planalto Palace, in Brasília/DF.
After four years of extinction of the body, the federal government, which carries the slogan “Union and reconstruction” recreated Consea, on February 28, 2023, to reaffirm its commitment to the fight against hunger. The information was confirmed after publication of the special edition of the Official Gazette (DOU), on January 1, 2023.
The body seeks to advise the President of the Republic in the formulation of policies and in the definition of guidelines for guaranteeing the human right to food, and to integrate government actions with a view to serving the portion of the population that does not have the means to provide for their basic needs, especially the fight against hunger. The rules for the operation of the collegiate will still be defined in an act of the Federal Executive Branch.
Considering the reality that Brazil finds itself, with about 33.1 million people living in a situation of food and nutritional insecurity, according to the Brazilian Network for Research in Sovereignty and Food and Nutritional Security (Rede Penssan).
According to Agência Senado, Brazil had left the United Nations (UN) Hunger Map in 2014, through food and nutrition security strategies applied since the mid-1990s. 2015, getting a special worsening during the Covid-19 pandemic that affected the whole world for two years from 2020.
In a new report published in 2022, the UN showed that Brazil returned to the Hunger Map of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), an important means of dissemination that helps to assess, monitor and predict the magnitude and severity of hunger. global hunger – the II National Survey of Food Insecurity in the Context of the Covid-19 Pandemic (II VIGISAN) in Brazil pointed out that 33.1 million people are not guaranteed what to eat — which represents 14 million new Brazilians in a situation of hunger. According to the study, more than half (58.7%) of the Brazilian population lives with food insecurity to some degree: mild, moderate or severe.
Unilab’s participation
For Jaqueline Sgarbi, deputy coordinator of the postgraduate course summer of sense (Specialization) in Food and Nutritional Security (ESAN/IDR/Unilab), it was an important moment to exchange dialogues and establish partnerships to promote and guarantee Food and Nutritional Security in the territories where Unilab operates.
“The recognized Brazilian experience in combating hunger has inspired many initiatives in the CPLP. Today we have the CPLP Food and Nutrition Security Council (Consan), of which Unilab is a member, which helps articulate food security policies in countries and has proven to be an important space for debate, articulation and strengthening of the SAN strategy of the block”, pointed out Jacqueline.
Jacqueline Sgarbi Santos – Master in Agroecosystems, PhD in Agronomy, with emphasis on Rural Development and post-doctorate by the Postgraduate Program in Family Agricultural Production Systems (FAEM/UFPel)(2016). Currently, she also works as coordinator of the Food Engineering Course (IDR-Unilab).
About the course
This course aims to offer specialized training to higher-level technicians in the area of Food and Nutritional Security (SAN) to work in intersectoral teams of public authorities and with civil society in the planning and execution of SAN policies and actions. Among its guiding principles are interdisciplinarity, intersectoriality and social participation, as a premise for the training and performance of professionals in all parts of the food system. The program for this class of the course was specially designed to meet the specificities of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP), involving professors from the proposing universities: Unilab and Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp) and from partner universities within the scope of the Mechanism of Universities in the Food and Nutrition Security Council of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (MU-CONSAN-CPLP) (University of Cape Verde, University of São Tomé and Príncipe and Unizambeze-Mozambique).
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