A implementação do Programa Nacional de Alimentação Escolar durante a Pandemia da Covid-19 na percepção dos street-level bureaucracy: o caso da rede do Instituto Federal do Rio Grande do Norte

Abstract

The National School Feeding Program (PNAE) is an important strategy for making food and nutrition security viable. With the interruption of face-to-face classes due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the PNAE had a new configuration in the implementation of the policy. The dissertation was a case study of qualitative analysis, with an emphasis on Street Level Bureaucracy (SLB), which aimed to analyze the of implementation the PNAE in the network of the Federal Institute of Rio Grande do Norte (IFRN) during the Covid-19 Pandemic from the perspective from the expanded analysis of Street Level Bureaucrats (SLB). In view of the scarcity of studies on the implementation of public policies in disaster situations and on the implementation phase of the PNAE in Federal Institutes, the study aimed to contribute to the improvement of the policy and to encourage new studies on the subject. The analytical framework was proposed by Bonelli et al. (2019) who categorized the performance of implementing bureaucrats in three dimensions: Structural, Individual and Relational. Data collection was performed through document analysis and focus groups with PNAE implementers at IFRN and data analysis was performed through Content Analysis. As a result, it can be seen that the implementation process was characterized by a high exercise of discretion and partial compliance with the guidelines in the Structural dimension. The Individual dimension was characterized by the influence of personal values, high ethical commitment by the SLB and the absence of institutional incentives and monitoring by the National Education Development Fund (FNDE). The Relational Dimension was characterized by the need for interactions with other actors (family farmers, suppliers of parents and students, community, among others), to different degrees. It is concluded that the implementation of the policy stood out as a tool to combat food insecurity among students and an important instrument in generating income from family farming and, even with the supplementation of resources by the Institution to the PNAE, it was necessary to use vulnerability criteria to select the students who were awarded, evidencing the exercise of discretion, an aspect inherent to the SLB.