Remarks by Minister Carlos França at the joint session of G20 Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Development - Strengthening food security and nutrition and moving towards a world without hunger in 2030 - Italy, June 29th, 2021

Thank you, Chair.

I congratulate the Italian presidency for convening this first ever G20 Joint Session of Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Development Ministers, with the proper focus on the crucial issue of food security.

We all know that food security may be endangered by a large number of factors. Conflicts and climate change may disrupt food production or its distribution in specific parts of the world, leading to famines. Crude oil prices may affect commodities prices, causing price fluctuations that may lead as well to food insecurity, as happened in the 2007-2008 food crisis. Subsidies and support measures that distort international food trade may also affect local productions in the least developed countries, leading to greater food insecurity.

The COVID-19 pandemic has also affected the food security of families and whole communities in developing countries. We should assess the real factors behind this effect. Despite possible rise in food prices, the pandemic has mainly affected food security by slashing jobs and incomes, thus depriving millions of families of the means to buy healthy and nutritious food.

We all know that, except for specific situations, food insecurity derives mostly from lack of income, not from lack of food.

During the pandemic, international food trade and value chains have remained mostly open, ensuring food availability and avoiding severe food crises around the globe.

Still, in many countries, measures taken to combat the pandemic have deepened already existing inequalities. Families relying on informal occupations, as well as women, the youth, the elderly, and people with disabilities have been particularly affected. Even in countries like Brazil, whose domestic food production sustainably feeds around one billion people worldwide, food insecurity has increased in view of the loss of income.

Support measures adopted by the Brazilian Government have helped to preserve more than 12 million jobs and to keep more than 400.000 medium and small companies open for business. Emergency financial support has directly benefited more than 65 million Brazilians. Even so, the increasing financial needs to respond to the pandemic and the declining fiscal space – the so-called scissors effect – make it difficult to maintain appropriate support measures. This same phenomenon is affecting, in different degrees, many nations in the developing world.

For that reason, it is imperative that we gear both our domestic efforts and our international cooperation into accelerating mass vaccination, which will allow our economies and those smaller ones of less developed countries to recover faster, create new jobs and expand income levels.

In the fight against COVID-19 pandemic, no job or any source of income will be safe until most people throughout the world are fully vaccinated. No one will be safe until everyone is safe.

Thank you all.