Clara Marinho

 
A photo of 2024 Atlantic Fellow for Racial Equity Clara Marinho. It shows her, a medium brown Black woman, with salt and pepper curly hair in an afro, leaning against a wall of blue tiles with an upside down dove motif in white. She smiles warmly.

Planning & Budget Analyst,
Ministry of Planning and Budget, Brazil;
and Ph.D. Candidate,
Fundação Getúlio Vargas


I am a civil servant and analyst with over a decade of experience contributing to national policy to advance racial justice in Brazil. My work spans policy and public finance in the Brazilian federal public service.

In 2013, I began my career at the Special Secretariat for Policies to Promote Racial Equality (SEPPIR), the national agency dedicated to promoting racial equity. During my four-year tenure as an analyst, I supported the establishment of the National System of Racial Equality Promotion (SINAPIR).

Between 2017 and 2023, I worked at the Brazilian Ministry of Planning and Budget. There, I actively contributed to evaluating public policies, some of which focused on ethnic and racial equality – such as student assistance programs at federal public universities and support for the Indigenous health system. Additionally, I participated in scrutinizing public expenditure reports on gender equality in 2021 and 2022, which contributed to creating budget tags to identify federal expenditures dedicated to women, Indigenous people, and Black people in 2023.

In 2022, I collaborated with colleagues from the civil service to conceptualise and establish a network called 'Elas no Orçamento' (Women in Budget). This initiative aims to foster the democratisation of decision-making in public finance.

In addition to my work, I am currently pursuing a Ph.D. at Fundação Getúlio Vargas, São Paulo. My dissertation will delve into the intersections of gender and race within the Brazilian federal budget.

Beyond my professional roles, I have actively contributed to Brazilian newspapers, sharing my experiences as a civil servant dedicated to promoting equity in Brazil.