- Overview
- Speakers
In 2025, Social Assistance in Brazil celebrated 20 years since the creation of the Unified Social Assistance System (SUAS in Portuguese), a milestone in the consolidation of a public, universal, and decentralized system aimed at guaranteeing the rights and dignity of millions of Brazilians.
Built over two decades and present throughout the national territory, SUAS connects the State to vulnerable populations through more than 11,000 service centers, offering various social services such as shelter, family support, and responses to situations of risk, rights violations, and emergencies.
With more than 40 million visits per year, SUAS professionals work daily on the front lines of social policy, serving families who are beneficiaries of the Bolsa Família Program, updating and monitoring the Single Registry, and ensuring that social assistance services reach those who need them most.
About the event
Participate in a special webinar on more than twenty years of Social Assistance in Brazil, focusing on the trajectory, institutional architecture, and lessons learned from SUAS. The event will feature Elias de Sousa, Director of the Department of Basic Social Protection, and Regis Spíndola, Director of the Department of Special Social Protection, both from the National Secretariat for Social Assistance (SNAS in Portuguese), who will reflect on the evolution of the system, its different levels of protection, the current challenges, and the lessons that SUAS offers for strengthening social assistance systems in Brazil and other countries.
This event is open to the public, particularly government officials, technical staff, and representatives from social development, social assistance, and planning ministries, and other relevant government organizations interested in learning more about social protection policies in Brazil.
The event will be in Portuguese with simultaneous interpretations to English, French, and Spanish.
If you have any questions, please contact us at: splac@worldbank.org
Elias de Sousa
Director of the Department of Basic Social Protection of the National Secretariat of Social Assistance
Elias de Sousa Oliveira is a social worker, graduated from Unioeste – Toledo Campus in 2002, and holds a specialization in Family Health from Unioeste – Cascavel Campus (Residency, 2004). He earned a master’s degree in social work from UFSC in 2011. From 2004 to 2014, he taught in the Social Work and Psychology programs at União das Américas College in Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil. Since 2011, he has served as a senior technical staff member at the Federal University for Latin American Integration (UNILA), also in Foz do Iguaçu. Between 2017 and 2023, he was assigned to the municipality, where he held the position of Municipal Secretary of Social Assistance. Elias chaired COEGEMAS/PR (2020–2021) and the National Board of Municipal Social Assistance Managers (CONGEMAS) from 2021 to 2023, during the administration “SUAS – Achievement of the Brazilian People.” In February 2024, he assumed the role of Director of the Department of Basic Social Protection at the National Secretariat of Social Assistance (SNAS/MDS).
Regis Spíndola
Director of the Department of Special Social Protection of the National Secretariat of Social Assistance
Regis Aparecido Andrade Spíndola is a lawyer, Master in Education and Teaching from the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Specialist in Social Assistance Policies and SUAS Management, Specialist in Socio-Educational Practices from PUC Minas. Current director of the Department of Special Social Protection of the Ministry of Development and Social Assistance, Family and Fight against Hunger (MDS/SNAS) and professor of the postgraduate course in Management of SUAS at PUC Minas. He is an Advisor to the National Counselor for Social Assistance (CNAS) and a member of the National Forum of the Judiciary for Social Assistance and Social Security (Fonassp) of the National Council of Justice (CNJ). He was Director of Special Social Protection of the SUAS of the Municipality of Belo Horizonte/MG (2019/2023). Superintendent of Special Social Protection of the State Secretariat of Labor and Social Development of Minas Gerais (2015/2018), in addition to acting in the state management of socio-educational measures and legal advisor of the Center for the Defense of the Rights of Children and Adolescents Zilah Sposito - CREAS Norte/PBH
William Wiseman
Practice Manager for Social Protection and Labor at the World Bank in Latin America
William Wiseman is the Practice Manager for Social Protection and Labor in the Latin America and Caribbean Region of the World Bank. Prior to this he worked in Turkey and then Mexico as the Bank’s Program Leader for Human Development covering Health, Education and Social Protection. Will started his career working in Africa and Latin America focusing on the development of social protectionprograms and systems. He holds an Msc. in Economics from the London School of Economics and a M.A. in Economics from the University of Edinburgh.
Tiago Falcão
Senior Social Protection Specialist and former Secretary of Bolsa Familia and Brasil Sem Miséria Programs, World Bank
Tiago Falcao joined the World Bank in 2020, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, working to support several national and subnational World Bank projects in Brazil and other countries in the region. For 25 years he worked for the Brazilian government in positions such as: Secretary of Management of the Ministry of Planning in 2010, and Social Advisor at the Civil Cabinet (from 2004 to 2008). He also worked at the Secretariat of Human Rights, and at the Ministries of Social Insurance, Pensions and Labor. In 2011 he was named head of the National Secretariat in charge of the Bolsa Familia Program. In 2012, he assumed the mission of coordinating the ambitious Brazil without Extreme Poverty Plan. In 2016 he became for the second time National Secretary of Citizenship Income. Under his leadership, the Bolsa Familia Program reached 14 million families and was recognized as one of the best targeted social assistance programs in the world. Tiago holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the Universidade de Brasília (UnB) and a master’s degree in Economic Development from the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp) and is a former Pacific Leadership Fellow at School of Global Policy and Strategy - UC San Diego.