São Paulo – Brazil’s proposal to kick off a Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty was approved by acclamation on Wednesday (24) in a G20 meeting in Rio de Janeiro. Brazil presented the project spearheaded by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as one of its top priorities for its current presidency of the Group of 20 nations. Rio is hosting economic and social meetings between G20 ministers this week.
Speaking in Rio, Lula argued that fighting hunger is a political choice and that it cannot be accepted in the face of so much abundance across the world. Besides authoring the proposal to create the alliance, Lula spoke about the initiative supported by a United Nations report disclosed earlier this Wednesday attesting the reduction of the hunger in Brazil over the past 19 months.
“Never have so many had so little and so few concentrated so much wealth. Nothing is as absurd and unacceptable in the 21st century as the persistence of hunger and poverty, when we have so much abundance and so many scientific and technological resources at our disposal,” Lula told the audience. “Hunger is not only the result of external factors – it stems especially from political choices,” he added.
Alliance against Hunger’s proposals
Brazilian ministers also spoke at the G20 meeting this Wednesday including Fernando Haddad, of Finance, and Wellington Dias, of Social development, both of whom presented proposals on the world’s concentration of income and ways to tackle it by pooling global resources.
The meeting launched the task force of the Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty.
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Translated by Guilherme Miranda
