Different studies show that Brazil underwent significant social changes between 2003-2015. Undernourishment was reduced by 82% and over 36 million people (mostly black) were taken out of extreme poverty and given access to water, sewage, education, and consumer goods.

Why, then, was it so necessary to interrupt this trajectory?

Tereza Campello is an economist, Doctor in Public Health, International consultant on social development and social protection, Visiting Fellow at University of Nottingham (UK) and professor and research associate at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (FIOCRUZ, Brazil). She acted as the Minister of Social Development of Brazil from 2011 to May 2016. In the period, she coordinated the design and implementation of the national policy to eradicate extreme poverty named “Brazil sem Miséria”(Brazil without Extreme Poverty), which contributed decisively for the elevation of 22 million people out of extreme poverty.

She also coordinated the National Social Assistance Policy, the National Food Security Policy, the Bolsa Família Program, the Cistern Program.During the administration of the former President Lula, Ms. Campello participated in the coordination of the work group that created the Bolsa Família Programme, (Brazil’s conditional cash transfer programme) and she was also the deputy advisor and coordinator of Articulation and Monitoring in the Executive Office of the President of Brazil, where she led top priority programmes in the area of development, such as the “Citizenship Territories”, Biodiesel and Ethanol Programs; the National Plan on Climate Change; and the Green Arch Effort (Mutirão Arco Verde), which made some public services, land regulation, and a sustainable development project available for the Amazon region.

Prior to joining the transition team of former President Lula's first administration, she was Assistant Secretary General of the State Secretariat of Rio Grande do Sul, coordinating strategic government policies, responsible for the design and implementation of monitoring and evaluation systems for public policies , and coordinated the Office of Planning and Participatory Budgeting of the capital of Porto Alegre.