Foreign Minister Paulo Rangel assured this Wednesday that Portugal is committed to the creation of the Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty proposed by Brazil at the G20, and that it can support Portuguese-speaking African countries.
The goal is to “eradicate hunger and poverty,” Paulo Rangel stressed in a press statement on the sidelines of the opening of the exhibition “Language written about the sea – Camões 500 years” at the National Library of Rio de Janeiro.
The head of Portuguese diplomacy, who arrived in Rio de Janeiro today to attend a meeting of the G20 (composed of the world’s 19 largest economies, as well as the African Union and the European Union) to discuss a global alliance to fight hunger, said Portugal has “a very strong cooperation in Africa, not only with Portuguese-speaking countries, but especially with them.”
Thanks to this alliance, Portugal can “implement some projects in those regions that are most forgotten, most affected by conflicts, most affected by climate change, to prevent so many citizens of this planet from ending up in a situation of hunger,” the minister stressed.
Paulo Rangel detailed that Portugal, together with Mexico, is preparing an informal document dedicated to child and youth poverty, “to combat this phenomenon of poverty and hunger that is inherited.”
“We will contribute to the secretariat of this global alliance, which means that we will be actively involved in the work” of what will become the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty, which “will have a set of goals and policies defined at the global level and capable of being implemented at the level of each country,” he said.
The head of Portuguese diplomacy said he believed that in the G20 the issue of fighting hunger and poverty was “a consensus topic and, in fact, there would be a good response to this challenge from Brazil,” which currently holds the presidency of the group.
“It will be possible to put on the agenda of the global order the idea that we must accelerate all necessary measures to combat hunger and poverty,” he said, thanking Brazil for inviting Portugal and Angola to participate as observer members, projecting a “huge CPLP.”
More than 700 million people, one in 11 people in the world and one in five in Africa, will face hunger in 2023, according to a UN report released today at the opening of the G20 meeting.
“An estimated 713 million to 757 million people, corresponding to 8.9% and 9.4% of the world population respectively, will face hunger in 2023. Given the intermediate range (733 million), this would be about 152 million more people than in 2019,” according to The State of Food and Nutrition Security in the World (SOFI) 2024 report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
Brazilian President Lula da Silva launched today in Rio de Janeiro a Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty, bringing together representatives from the world’s 20 largest economies to eradicate this scourge once and for all.
The alliance was launched at a meeting attended by ministers from several countries, including Portuguese Foreign Minister Paulo Rangel, and will now be open to membership, with its final launch expected to be announced in November, during the G20 leaders’ summit, also in Rio de Janeiro.
This initiative, open to all countries, aims to coordinate technical and financial actions and partnerships to support the implementation of national programmes in countries that adhere to this proposal, as well as the financing of public policies to eradicate hunger and poverty in the world.
The foundations of the alliance were approved by consensus by more than 50 delegations, including members of the G20, the forum that brings together the world’s largest economies, as well as the European Union and the African Union, guest countries and international organizations.
The agreed documents include the “Technical Assignment and Management Structure of the Alliance”, criteria for the formation of public policy that will be supported by the Alliance, and a model of declarations of commitments that all participants in the initiative will have to sign.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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