G20: Lula launches Global Action against Hunger and Poverty with 82 countries joining

At the opening of the G20 this Monday (18), in Rio de Janeiro, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva launched the Global Action against Hunger and Poverty with the adhesion of 82 countries, 26 international organizations, nine financial institutions and 31 philanthropic foundations and non-governmental organizations.

The Brazilian president has support from countries such as the United States, China, France, Germany, India, Australia, Norway and Bangladesh, in addition to the European Union and the African Union.

With a broken economy, Argentina, which had not signed the document, went back. The information was confirmed to CNN by that country’s G20 sherpa, Federico Pinedo.

In his speech, Lula said that Brazil knows the path and knows that it is possible to end hunger.

Read more: U20: Lula says urban planning will be crucial in the ecological transition

“We managed to leave the FAO Hunger Map in 2014, to which we returned in 2022, in a context of disarticulation of the welfare state. It was with sadness that, upon returning to government, I found a country with 33 million hungry people”, he said.

In his third government, he highlighted that, in one year and eleven months, he lifted more than 24.5 million people out of extreme poverty. To achieve this, it counted on the active participation of civil society.

“We have designed and implemented social inclusion programs, promoting family farming and food and nutritional security, such as our Bolsa Família and the National School Feeding Program”, he highlighted and announced that by 2026, once again, Brazil will leave the Mapa da Hunger.

Social evils

The president noted that hunger and poverty are not the result of scarcity or natural phenomena: “Hunger, as the Brazilian scientist and geographer Josué de Castro said: ‘hunger is the biological expression of social evils’”.

Therefore, he emphasized to the other leaders present that this is the product of political decisions, which perpetuate the exclusion of a large part of humanity.

“The G20 represents 85% of the 110 trillion dollars of global GDP. It also accounts for 75% of the 32 trillion dollars in trade in goods and services and two thirds of the 8 billion inhabitants of the planet”, he recalled.

And he made the challenge: “It is up to those around this table to have the urgent task of putting an end to this wound that shames humanity. Therefore, we have made the launch of a Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty the central objective of the Brazilian presidency at the G20”.

World got worse

For Lula, the global situation has worsened since the first meeting of G20 leaders, called in Washington in the context of the 2008 financial crisis.

“Sixteen years later, I note with sadness that the world is worse. We have the highest number of armed conflicts since the Second World War and the highest number of forced displacements ever recorded.”

Extreme weather phenomena, according to him, show their devastating effects in every corner of the planet.

“Social, racial and gender inequalities are deepening in the wake of a pandemic that has claimed more than 15 million lives. According to FAO, in 2024, we will live with a contingent of 733 million people who are still undernourished”, he lamented.

The president stated that it is as if the populations of Brazil, Mexico, Germany, the United Kingdom, South Africa and Canada, combined, were starving.

“They are women, men and children, whose right to life and education, development and food are violated on a daily basis. In a world that produces almost 6 billion tons of food per year, this is unacceptable. In a world where military spending reaches 2.4 trillion dollars, this is unacceptable”, he criticized.