Challenges in the formulation, implementation and evaluation of public policies for rural areas

Result of Service Provide analyzes on public policies for rural areas, governance challenges for effectiveness, synergies and the integration of social and productive policies. The result of the study aims to contribute to the improvement of social policies and increase institutional capacity to formulate proposals for the eradication of multidimensional poverty in the light of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals.

Work Location Brasília

Expected duration 240 Days

Duties and Responsibilities Over the last five decades, agribusiness has played a strategic role in the development of Brazil. In addition to supplying food and raw materials at decreasing prices, generating jobs and foreign exchange through exports, the sector has contributed to environmental preservation, poverty reduction and food security. However, deep asymmetries in income distribution and high levels of poverty prevail in the country. The picture becomes more aggravating when we consider the rural environment of the country, where a modern and productive agribusiness coexists simultaneously with a population contingent of family farmers in extreme poverty. In addition, climate change and extreme events are factors that have reduced the levels of growth in the agricultural sector and reduced the well-being of families living in rural areas. Given this context of profound asymmetries and growing climatic risks, the formulation and implementation of public policies for the rural environment are justified. The Land Statute (Law nº 4.504/1964) established the definition of agricultural policy as “the set of measures to support land ownership, which are intended to guide, in the interests of the rural economy, agricultural activities, whether in the sense of guaranteeing them full employment, or in harmonizing them with the country's industrialization process” (BRASIL, 2018). Over time, other roles were assigned to agricultural policy, such as environmental preservation, poverty reduction, mitigation of the effects of climate change, food security, among others. In the last six decades, a controversy has been consolidated in the literature about the capacity of the public power in the formulation, implementation, and evaluation of public policies. Smith (1968), when evaluating the Brazilian agricultural policy in the period from 1950 to 1967, concluded that there was a lack of preparation on the part of the technicians of the Ministry of Agriculture in the formulation and implementation of this policy. Carvalho (1989) identified the lack of consistency of Brazilian agricultural policy. Lopes (1986) introduced the term institutional risk, which was defined as the risk created from government interventions in agricultural markets, through price freezes and changes in their operating mechanisms. For Buainain et ali (2013), by incorrectly evaluating the transformations of the environment, the Brazilian State has implemented mistaken actions that express a “confusion of rationalities: on the one hand, reflecting the persistence of policies inherited from the modernization project in the 1960s, and on the other, introducing new visions and instruments of regulation through markets”. Santana et ali (2014) identified four different periods of Brazilian agricultural policies in the period 1960-2014, which were named as follows: a) Planned intervention, between the 60s and 80s, which culminated in the modernization of agriculture, based on structural changes in the technical, economic, and social basis. b) Conjunctural intervention, in the 1980s, of an immediate and chaotic nature, with actions that had the effect of destabilizing the markets and creating a new modality of risk in the sector, the institutional risk. c) Market-based intervention throughout the 1990s, with the price system promoting the allocation of resources and remuneration of producers, after the stabilization of the economy with the Plano Real d) Intervention focused on vulnerable groups and in situations of market failure, in recent years, as in the cases of family farming, mitigation and adaptation to climate change and the creation of an agricultural security, protection and defense system. In terms of prescriptions on which direction agricultural and agrarian policies should go, Chaddad et al (2006) suggest “the competitive and sustainable insertion of the producer in the productive chains that make up the agro-industrial system, in the country and abroad”. Specifically, these authors propose: expansion of the supply of public goods (infrastructure, health defense, R&D, rural extension and market information), expansion of risk management instruments (rural insurance, futures and derivatives contracts), strengthening of protection property rights, evaluation of direct subsidy programs, increased aggressiveness in international trade negotiations, development of technical and managerial training programs for producers and development of a national food quality and traceability certification system. OBJECTIVES: The general objective of the study is to carry out an evaluation of the cycle of public policies (agenda construction, policy formulation, decision-making, implementation, and evaluation) for the rural environment in Brazil, with a view to identify the main challenges and seeking answers to the following questions: a) Is the governance structure of public policies for the Brazilian rural environment adequate? b) Have public policies been effective in improving the main indicators of social well-being in the most vulnerable municipalities in Brazil? c) Are there integration and synergy between social policies and productive insertion aimed at the Brazilian rural environment, especially in the most vulnerable regions? The objective of this study is evaluate the public policy cycle (agenda setting, policy formulation, decision making, implementation and evaluation) for rural areas in Brazil. The purpose is to analyze the main challenges in the governance of public policies, to measure the effectiveness of policies in improving well-being in vulnerable rural areas, and to identify policy synergy and integration between social and productive policies.

Qualifications/special skills Doctorate in one of the following areas: Public Administration or Public Management or Economics and related topics. -Minimum of 10 years of experience in the evaluation of public policies and social projects, coordination of research projects, knowledge of econometric models and/or related topics. - Publications in the consulting area

Languages- Fluency in Portuguese and Intermediate English

Additional Information Outputs/ Works Assignment: Product 1 – Studies on the cycle of public policies for agricultural risk management in Brazil. (report and article). To be submitted 150 days after start date. Product 2 - Studies on the impact of public policies for agricultural risk management in Brazil (report and article). To be submitted 180 days after start Product 3 - Studies on the synergies between public policies for agricultural risk management in Brazil; Studies on the cycle of public policies for the reduction of greenhouse gases in rural Brazil. (2 reports and 2 articles). To be submitted 210 days after start Product 4 - Studies on the effectiveness of public policies to reduce greenhouse gases in rural Brazil (report and article). To be submitted 240 days after start.

No Fee THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CHARGE A FEE AT ANY STAGE OF THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS (APPLICATION, INTERVIEW MEETING, PROCESSING, OR TRAINING). THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CONCERN ITSELF WITH INFORMATION ON APPLICANTS’ BANK ACCOUNTS.