‘I don’t look like a civil servant in the economic area’, says Planning analyst – 11/11/2023 – Market

Clara Marinho, 39, still has few mirrors in public administration. A woman, black and from the Northeast, she decided that she would become a civil servant while still in college and today she seeks to use her indignation with racial and gender discrimination as a driving force to work in the Ministry of Planning.

Entering the public service through the quota policy, the analyst dedicates herself, among other activities, to ensuring that Budget resources are allocated to programs to reduce inequalities.

She, who helped devise the “Elas no Orçamento” initiative, to democratize decision-making in economic policy, was included in 2001 on the list of the one hundred most influential people of African descent in the world under the age of 40, an initiative of the UN (Organization of United Nations), in the “activism and humanitarian” category.

“I’m from Salvador, I studied administration at UFBA [Universidade Federal da Bahia] and at 22 years old I went to Unicamp [Universidade Estadual de Campinas] take a master’s degree with an emphasis on economics associated with work.

Then I came to Brasília, I worked at the secretariat that gave rise to the Ministry of Racial Equality and for six years I have worked in the Planning and Budget department.

I entered the last competition of my career through the racial quota mechanism and I am doing my doctorate at FGV [Fundação Getulio Vargas], in São Paulo, I can perform my role, remotely and in person. Deputy Director of Transversal Themes, I deal with topics such as early childhood, racial equality, among others.

Since the beginning of her administration, Minister Simone Tebet has sought to ensure that the team is as equal as possible. The head of my area is also a woman.

My trajectory in public service begins with a policy of articulation, promoting racial equality and confronting racism, and this is a lens that I use in my work.

Brazil is a country with a black majority, originating from slavery, it is something that I like to do about and that enriches public policy.

I was a high school student at a public school and in the end, there is a lot of public policy associated with my trajectory. It has an individual component, but there is this collective base that accompanies me.

I always wanted to be a server. When I was an undergraduate, my colleagues were already talking about this and I started directing my career towards it.

Public policy is essentially collective work and I wanted to be in a group thinking about new possibilities, I feel called and I feel this purpose of social transformation in the servants of my generation.

Representation in public service matters. Looking at trajectories like mine, it is possible that other girls and women can see a career possibility, women are the largest demographic group. When a girl sees a State Minister, she can see that it is possible to be someone who contributes to the country.

At the same time, I don’t exactly look like a servant in the economic area, there are few women and they are generally the ‘hands’ of the State — they are in education, in social services, in the health center. We are used to having women in the care sector.

It is necessary to point out these differences, I do not look like someone who makes economic policy decisions. But the measures that have been taken recently could change this state of affairs, we have the prospect of sending to Congress the renewal of the law on public service quotas and a decree to democratize decision-making throughout the Esplanada.

If there is a specific contribution I can make, it is in the effort to consider racial and gender inequality as a fundamental aspect to be addressed in public intervention. My background allows me to make this kind of contribution, just as non-black people and non-women could do.

Racism and sexism are not inventions of either black people or women. I am committed to resolving these problems in a republican way, just as I hope any other public servant does the same.

The Budget is a technical and political piece, its language requires immersion, it is not easy for ordinary citizens to acquire this type of knowledge quickly. I consider myself a learner on the subject, I wanted to continue studying to reflect on the Budget and for this reflection to be public.

Our challenge is to increasingly translate the Budget into simple language, and the Ministry has been involved in this type of effort. Maybe the lens we look at to bring people closer to people is also technical, people know what happens on their doorstep, maybe what we still need to do is make an effort with language, a more complete translation, to help on approach. The population understands the Budget, but from a different perspective.

As much as the UN invitation was a recognition, I had difficulty appropriating this space, I think it has to do with this gender issue. Women are used to this role of providing conditions for things to happen, but they have difficulty with the role of protagonist in these processes. I have tried to work on this recognition key. In the end, I ended up feeling motivated to do more things out there.

Putting on my mother of two young children hat, when I think about how I would like to see my career in the future, the first thing that comes to mind is a greater number of women and women of color in public policy decision-making positions, allowing other groups populations participate, also including indigenous people.

I would like to see the result of policies in improving the Brazilian population, in general, and black and indigenous people in particular, and see my contribution in all of this. I also want to see more female ministers, we still rarely see ourselves in public service, I have few mirrors. I don’t want to finish my career up front and still feel isolated.”

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