A pilot project carried out by researchers from Unicamp and Cardiff University, in the United Kingdom, applies for the first time in Brazil a method that proposes to define and measure poverty beyond income. The so-called Consensual Approach's main objective is to investigate the different dimensions of poverty from the population's point of view, in search of a consensus on what is necessary for a dignified life in our country today.
The study began in 2019 with focus groups in Campinas and had two stages carried out in the capital of São Paulo: the first in three large favelas and the second covering more than 2300 households. The idea is that the results obtained in São Paulo serve as a stimulus so that the approach – recommended since 2006 by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) – is incorporated into the production of socioeconomic indicators and can cover the entire country, serving as a basis for the formulation of public policies.
Unprecedented in Brazil, the method was developed by a pair of British journalists a few decades ago, and was the basis for the largest research on poverty and social exclusion ever carried out in the United Kingdom (2010-2015). Since 2019, the project has been carried out in cooperation with countries on all five continents. In Brazil, in addition to resources from the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF), it has support and financing from the Public Ministry of Labor (MPT).
In this edition of Repórter Unicamp, we spoke with professor Shailen Nandy, from Cardiff University, who coordinates studies around the world, and with the researchers who led the different stages in Brazil: Flávia Uchôa de Oliveira (Uninove) and Ana Elisa Spaolonzi Queiroz Assis (Unicamp Faculty of Education).
Credits:
Production and reporting: Juliana Franco
Text editing: Felipe Mateus
Video editing: Kleber Casabblanca
