Discurso do Representante Permanente, Embaixador Sérgio França Danese, no evento paralelo do Fórum Político de Alto Nível de 2024 intitulado "Pobreza e Proteção Social: Caminhos para Cúpula Mundial para o Desenvolvimento Social" - 15 de julho de 2024 (texto em inglês)

Dear Ambassador Paula Narváez,

Dear panelists and guests,

Dear colleagues, ladies and gentlemen,

I thank Chile for organizing this side-event and inviting Brazil to be a part of it.

As recognized in the 2030 Agenda, poverty is still the greatest global challenge and its elimination an indispensable requirement for achieving sustainable development worldwide.

As we advance towards more sustainable economies that can deliver for people and planet in our path towards 2030, we must uphold the three pillars of sustainable development on an equal footing.

This means recognizing that a just transition implies addressing inequalities both among and within countries.

The principle of common but differentiated responsibilities is key. Its full implementation should assist developing countries in their efforts to mitigate emissions and adapt to climate change. Hence, it should help shield their societies from the adverse socioeconomic effects of climate change and seize the many opportunities brought by sustainability.

Poverty and hunger are twin scourges feeding off each other. The absence of effective policies, resources, capacity, and safety nets to address and alleviate poverty aggravates hunger by leaving the poor without the means to purchase or produce sufficient and nutritious food.

Hunger and malnutrition, in turn, reinforce and perpetuate poverty by affecting the mental and physical development of children and the health of adults, thus decreasing productivity and locking them in poverty.

The widespread effects of poverty, however, do not stop at hunger. Lack of access to adequate healthcare and education, to basic sanitation, and to productive assets in different forms are all key determinants of poverty, particularly in rural areas and informal urban human settlements.

At the same time, the interlinkage between poverty and other social constraints is also true in terms of solutions. When properly designed, implemented and funded, policies to fight hunger and food insecurity can also help reduce poverty and inequality and vice versa.

Collectively, these tools contribute to the achievement of other SDGs, such as health and well-being, gender equality, decent work, more equal societies, and peace and justice.

That is the sweet spot in which we must fit social protection systems. Fighting poverty requires acting on a broad range of instruments in key sectors that further contribute to the achievement of other SDGs.

Broadly speaking, the fight against poverty must involve a “whole-of-system” approach, covering issues related to active and passive employment policies, food security and nutrition, as well as support to family farmers and sustainable agriculture, trade and innovation.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Social protection has been a fundamental idea to shape Brazil’s national and foreign policies in the last 30 years. On the internal front, we progressed from sparse, diffuse and ill-connected social programs to a robust Single Registry system, through which low-income families can access many federal programs, such as cash-transfers, low-cost tariffs for energy, housing finance and, more recently, college savings.

On the external front, we prioritized South-South cooperation projects that could enhance access to basic services and needs, such as food, education and health.

Nevertheless, we recognize that the world needs more. It needs urgent, ambitious, out-of-ordinary, but also consistent and sustainable action to accelerate progress towards SDGs 1 and 2, while also contributing to other SDGs.

So allow me to highlight our specific proposal for that: the Global Alliance against Poverty and Hunger proposed by Brazil’s G20 Presidency under the leadership of President Lula.

The fundamental assumption behind the Alliance is that Brazil’s and many other countries experience show us that we already have tools to eradicate poverty and hunger that were proven cost-effective, adaptable and implementable. Therefore, its first component is a basket of such tools and policies based on successful cases.

We understand that implementing national policies and robust social protection systems is not an easy task. Developing countries around the world are facing fiscal constraints and debt distress, which prevent them from promoting large-scale investments in such systems.

Moreover, institutional capacity and technical means to implement them can also be absent in many cases. Therefore, these are the other two arms of the Alliance: technical and financial support.

With these three arms, we intend the Alliance to be open to any country that wants to commit to the integral or partial promotion of the policy basket, offering in return support to access the means necessary to its implementation.

If you wish to know more about the Global Alliance, we invite you to come to this same room, tomorrow, at 1:15 p.m., for a side-event dedicated to it and chaired by Brazil’s Minister of Social Development, Mr. Wellington Dias. 

Colleagues, dear friends,

Brazil is fully aware that the proposed Alliance is not a silver bullet for all our social problems. Besides poverty and hunger, social protection systems must also ensure access to other fundamental rights, including education, health and workers’ rights.

No country should be forced to choose between fighting climate change and protecting its population from social and economic grievances.

As we move towards the World Social Summit in 2025, we ask for your help in spreading this message broadly and consistently. No transition that is just, equitable and scientifically-sound can put at risk our combat against poverty and our efforts for strong social protection systems.

I thank you all for your participation and I hope that these discussions were convincing enough with regard to the need for targeted anti-poverty policies grounded on strong social protection systems.

I thank you.