Osmar Terra

Dr. Terra, a cardiologist, neuroscientist, is the Minister of Citizenship. He led the design and enactment (3/2016) of the Legal Framework for Early Childhood (Law 13.257/2016) while he was a Parliamentarian. As Minister of Social Development, he translated this policy to set up CFP (under presidential decree 8.869) in 2016. In over two decades of public service, he also served as mayor and State Health Secretary in Rio Grande do Sul (RGS), where he designed and implemented the intersectoral Primeira Infância Melhor (PIM) (Better Early Childhood Program). This home visiting program was piloted in RGS, became a state public policy in 2006, and was then iteratively replicated and expanded over the past decade as a model for other states and populations in Brazil. He is a driving force in CFP, which is the world’s biggest experiment to prove that support of parents living in extreme poverty to nurture their infants well can change trajectories of violence, inequality, and poverty.