Brasília – The director general of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Jacques Diouf, praised the Brazilian federal government’s hunger eradication program Zero Hunger today (10th). According to him, the program should be exported to the African countries with the objective of ensuring food security and living conditions to the people. According to Diouf, the FAO guarantees the financing and technology required to carry out the projects.
“The intention of implementing versions of the Zero Hunger program is important to development, and to pass the experience and technology of this program on to food security projects,” saud Diouf, who is attending the Brazil-Africa Dialogue on Food Security, Fight Against Hunger and Rural Development, at the Brazilian Foreign Office (Itamaraty).
According to the director-general of the FAO, programs like the Zero Hunger are an example to the rest of the world. “This initiative has reduced poverty and encouraged a series of actions. Hunger decreased by 28% from 2004 to 2006,” he said.
On this Monday, a series of meetings are being held with ministers and specialists from Africa countries. The aim is to submit proposals for promoting agriculture, food security and rural development, so as to increase cooperation between Brazil and those countries.
Over the last few years, African countries have been receiving 60% of the funds allocated to international cooperation by the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC, in the Portuguese acronym). The ABC carries out 50 food security projects in 18 African countries. According to Diouf, approximately 20 million people benefit from Brazilian and foreign projects underway in Africa.
Early this morning, the Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was named Global Champion in the Battle Against Hunger by the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP).
To the FAO, Lula deserves to be awarded for his efforts to implement actions geared towards fighting hunger in Brazil and abroad. One of the highlights was the Brazilian cooperation with Haiti – which was devastated by an earthquake on January 12.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
