Lula da Silva says hunger is the most humiliating of deprivations, urges G20 leaders to fight it

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Wednesday called on G20 leaders to work together to find sustainable solutions to eradicate hunger worldwide, which he called “the most humiliating of human deprivations.”

“Hunger is the most humiliating of human deprivations. It is an attack on life, an attack on freedom,” Lula da Silva said at the G20 meeting, where he presented the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty, a Brazilian proposal by a group of 19 of the world’s largest economies, as well as the African Union and the European Union.

At the beginning of his speech, Lula da Silva said that the Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty project was one of the highlights of his third term.

“Participation in this ministerial meeting, which lays the foundations of the Alliance against Hunger and Poverty, is one of the most important moments of the 18 months of my third term. A decisive step towards placing this issue once and for all at the center of the international agenda,” said the Brazilian President.

The initiative, open to all countries, aims to coordinate technical and financial actions and partnerships to support the implementation of national programmes in joining countries, as well as financing public policies to eradicate hunger and poverty in the world.

Lula da Silva called the data on global food insecurity released Wednesday by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) “horrific.”

The number of people living with hunger on the planet has increased by more than 152 million since 2019. This means that 9% of the world’s population (733 million people) are undernourished, the organization believes.

Lula da Silva criticized the super-rich and cited the crises that have affected the world, the Covid-19 pandemic, armed conflicts that interrupt food production and distribution, extreme weather events, protectionism and agricultural subsidies, as causes of hunger and poverty, but said that they are the result not only of external factors but also of “political choices, since the world produces more than enough food,” and therefore there is a lack of global efforts to “create the conditions for access to food.”

“The Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty is born from this political will and this spirit of solidarity. This will be one of the main results of Brazil’s presidency of the G20. Its goal is to give new impetus to existing initiatives, coordinating efforts at the domestic and international levels,” explained the Brazilian head of state.

The Alliance, created by Brazil, will be managed through a secretariat located at FAO headquarters in Rome and Brasilia, with a small structure made up of specialized staff, and will operate until 2030, when it will be deactivated, he said.

“Half of the costs will be covered by Brazil. I want to express my gratitude to the countries that are already ready to contribute to this effort. The Alliance will not create new funds either. We will channel global and regional resources that already exist, but are dispersed,” the Brazilian president noted.

Lula da Silva also said he welcomed the announcement by the Inter-American Development Bank and the African Development Bank to create a financial mechanism to use hybrid capital from special drawing rights in support of the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty.

“It is gratifying to know that food security will be a central theme of the World Bank’s strategic agenda in the coming years and that the International Development Association will add to its capital to help the poorest countries (…) The Global Alliance was born in the G20, but it is open to the world,” he concluded.

The idea is for each country to develop its own plan and set its own goals to combat hunger and poverty, and for the Alliance to help achieve them with financial contributions, as well as technology and knowledge.

The initiative was first discussed at last year’s G20 summit in New Delhi, when members of the group accepted Lula da Silva’s proposal to include hunger eradication on their agenda for the first time.