Programa Nacional de Alimentação Escolar

Abstract

This research is focused on the Brazilian 'National School Nutrition Program' (PNAE), at municipal levels, one of the long lasting social programs in the country.Created in 1954, it has been run through several different administrations and it was consolidated as a strong consolidated public policy.The PNAE is a universal policy that benefits about 45 million students daily, enrolled in basic education at public schools.This research is anchored in a neoinstitutionalist approach to public policies, and based on the public policy cycle logic.The participatory component in public policy, inaugurated with the 1988 Brazilian Constitution, and materialized through several public policy councils, was also analyzed.This research is therefore characterized by an exploratory study, with quantitative and qualitative methods that aim to identify a set of factors that impact at PNAE's implementation quality.The dependent variable that indicates the quality is the schools' menu rating system, set by an independent nongovernmental organization.This variable is related to the primary benefit of the program: a high-quality food and nutritionally adequate menus.A comprehensive sample of municipalities, 3,832 in total, is used with data from the period ranging from 2006 through 2010.Eleven variables were identified and organized in three groups: demographic, political-institutional, and social participation.The univariate linear regression analyses showed that there are some factors that have a greater capacity to explain the quality of implementation of this policy, such as the issue of municipal level tax collection, the volume of investment in the program by the local governments, the Municipal Human Development Index (IDHM/MHDI), and the average number of students per school.Some other factors have a lower explanatory power, such as variables related to social participation and demographic aspects.Nonetheless, the relevance of these latter factors could be analyzed in specific contexts where they can make a relevant difference.The database constructed for this research constitutes a contribution to the study of the PNAE policy, since it has not exhausted the analysis and future research could benefit of it.