What Do Young Brazilians Think about Poverty?
Since 2019, researchers in Brazil have been developing investigations on multidimensional poverty using the Consensual Approach, with the aim of producing data that collaborates with the country's development and to achieve the SDG goals for 2030. Within the scope of two projects, one carried out in 2020, funded by the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF), entitled “Examining poverty in a polarised and unequal society: analysing the results of Consensual Approach to poverty research in Brazil” and another, in progress (2022-2025), funded by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) entitled “Examining Multidimensional Poverty in municipalities of the Metropolitan Region of Campinas using the Consensual Approach”, we held three focus groups (1- GCRF and 2- CNPq) with young people aged between 14 and 18 to validate the items referring to Socially Perceived Needs regarding the discussion of multidimensional poverty in the framework of the Consensual Approach methodology. Although international and national documents encourage the active participation of children and adolescents in the processes formulating and implementing public policies, this is still a fairly distant reality in Brazil, so creating focus groups so that they can express themselves and analyse their speeches is a way of ensuring that this participation takes place to some extenThe analysis consider 44 items presented to the groups (e.g. having a school uniform, a safe place to play, etc.) with the aim of listing them as need, desire or luxury, our analytical categories. As a result, we highlight a mature and conscious positioning of these young people who justify the degree of importance of each item with their own experiences and perceptions of the realities in which they live, without losing sight of the necessary critical stance considering the precarious realisation of their rights in the country.