President Lula’s statement at the meeting of the Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty’s Board of Champions
It is a tremendous honor to close the 2nd meeting of the Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty’s Board of Champions.
I would like to commend everyone for your work this year. The commitment of this Board brought us to this moment.
We live in a hyperconnected world, with artificial intelligence, scientific advancements, and even plans to inhabit the moon.
Yet, the persistence of hunger and poverty is the most painful proof that we have failed as a global community.
It was with this sense of urgency that Brazil, upon assuming the G20 Presidency, proposed the creation of this Global Alliance.
The formula is simple:
1) Bringing together successful policies
2) Connecting these policies with resources and knowledge
3) Committing to cooperation, with no conditionalities, and
4) Ensuring that the adaptation and implementation of programs is led by the receiving countries.
Our objective is to double the efforts to fulfill Goals 1 and 2 of the 2030 Agenda.
In just one year since the Alliance began, we have reached 200 members: 103 countries, 53 foundations and NGOs, 30 international organizations, and 14 financial institutions.
Spain has been a key partner in the leadership of this Forum.
Today, we take a decisive step: inaugurating the Alliance’s Support Mechanism, complete with a headquarters, secretariat, and management.
With contributions from Norway, Portugal, Spain, and Brazil, we have secured part of the resources needed to keep the Mechanism operational until 2030.
FAO will be our technical arm.
We already have nine pilot projects ready.
In Palestine, where malnutrition has been cruelly used as a weapon of war, we will support care programs focused on women and children.
Together with Haiti and Zambia, we will implement income transfer initiatives.
In Kenya, our focus will be on access to safe drinking water.
The choice of Ethiopia was guided by the urgent need to strengthen family farming.
In Benin, we will support the expansion of the school meals system.
In Rwanda, we will work toward social and economic inclusion.
Recognizing both the vulnerabilities and the transformative strength of women, Tanzania intends to dedicate special attention to them and to children.
We also have ongoing studies for projects in Mozambique, Indonesia, Cambodia, Bangladesh, and the Dominican Republic.
But let us be clear: without financial resources, there will be no transformation.
Last year, official development aid fell by 23% compared to pre-pandemic levels.
This drop severely impacts the poorest and most indebted countries, particularly in Africa, where food insecurity has grown at an alarming rate.
If we do not act with urgency, in 2030, we will still have almost 9% of the global population living in extreme poverty.
Therefore, I make two urgent appeals.
First, to multilateral banks and donor countries:
Priorities must be re-examined.
Fiscal adjustment programs are not an end in themselves that can justify the reduction of investment in human and social development.
There is no better stimulus for the global economy than the fight against hunger and poverty.
The available resources must be mobilized to face humanity’s real challenges.
When this happens, consumption increases, the market grows, and new cycles of development flourish.
My second appeal is to national governments.
It is time to put the poor into the budget.
Social inclusion cannot just be a promise — it must be reflected in fiscal architecture, in public investments, and in plans for productive transformation.
Brazil was once again removed from the FAO Hunger Map because of integrated policies covering income transfer, the strengthening of family farming, school meals, job creation, and minimum wage increases.
We have also instituted a National Care Plan that is expected to lift the burden of unpaid domestic work from women.
This month, the Chamber of Deputies approved an income tax exemption for individuals earning up to approximately USD 1,000 per month, as well as a 10% tax increase for those earning more than USD 100,000 per year.
This progressive taxation will increase the availability of resources to fund essential public policies.
My friends,
I would like to thank the government of Qatar, in the person of Emir Tamim ibn Hamad Al Thani, for hosting the first Meeting of Alliance Leaders on November 3, at the margins of the UN’s 2nd Social Development Summit.
Due to the proximity to the COP Leaders Summit, I will unfortunately not be able to attend.
However, Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and Minister Wellington Dias [Development, Social Assistance, Family, and Hunger Eradication] will represent Brazil.
We will demonstrate that the Alliance is a concrete and tangible response.
At COP30, in Belém, we want to adopt a Declaration on Hunger, Poverty, and Climate.
Food security must be central to climate action.
Nationally Determined Contributions must include social protection, small-scale producer resilience, and solutions that generate income and preserve biodiversity.
Only a new development model, one that is just and sustainable, can ensure a future for the next generations.
In this future,
» No woman or man will have to work without being fed.
» No child will go to school hungry.
» No farmer will suffer from a lack of credit or technical assistance.
» No one will live without access to water.
Let us proceed with seriousness and courage.
From the perspective of finding solutions to reduce hunger and poverty across the globe, I would like to make something very clear to you. The issue of hunger and hunger eradication will not be solved if we approach it as a welfare-oriented task. We must understand clearly that hunger eradication can only succeed by holding governments around the world accountable for making the poor a priority in the national budget.
By treating it as welfare or a provisional policy of addressing the issue when they can, governments are determining that the poor are invisible on Planet Earth. They must be seen, and for this to happen, they must be placed at the center of national budgets, of provincial or state budgets, of municipal budgets.
And the money allocated to them must be a priority, like any other funding. It cannot be that we are fighting for equality, to end prejudice, while watching the wealthy portion of the world spend USD 2.7 trillion on weapons while failing to provide the same amount to combat hunger and misery around the world. There is no excuse for this.
I believe that the greatest task we have ahead of us will be to create a sense of indignation within humankind. The key message is to try to inspire a sense of outrage against hunger. In a world that produces enough food, in a world that has no issues with food production, there is no explanation for the fact that 670 million people still do not have anything to eat. There is no explanation for this.
Meanwhile, the wealthy countries are spending money. The European Union has just approved almost USD 800 billion to strengthen its defenses for war. England did the same.
The United States, the same. When, in fact, what will put an end to war is not more weapons, but more food, more jobs, more harmony and peace. This is what will put an end to war.
I mean, now there is an agreement on the Gaza Strip. But the 70,000 women and children who have died will not be rebuilt. And how much did this cost? The money invested in this war could have eradicated hunger. So we must be clear about this.
Obviously, this is not a task for you, who are here at the board trying to help us. This is a task for the political class. Political leaders from around the world must make a choice. They must decide who they want to govern for. What is the State's priority truly? Because if addressing the poor only happens when there is money left from other priorities, there will never be any money available. Because the rich will take this money before it reaches the poor.
This is the concrete and objective fact we are dealing with. Therefore, I would like to conclude, my dear Director General at FAO, by saying that the task to inspire humanity's indignation against hunger is in our hands.
When I went to talk to Pope Francis, before COVID, and visited the World Council of Churches, our conversation centered on the fact that we must inspire humanity's outrage against hunger, poverty, and inequality. Regrettably, with COVID, we spent two years locked inside our homes, and we did not make any progress on this. But now we need to resume this campaign.
I am most grateful to the countries that participated in the G20, which proposed the Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty. Because up until then, hunger was treated as an issue to be discussed in books by scientists only. Or in times of elections. In times of elections, the poor are the priority for candidates. Yet, after the elections, the poor become secondary to them.
So we must be clear about the need for a global campaign to inspire people who can help end hunger. That it is not too expensive. It is not too expensive.
And I want to tell my dear Director-General that you can count on Brazil. When we took office in 2003, Brazil had 54 million people enduring food insecurity. In 2014, we had eradicated hunger in Brazil. I came back in 2023 to find 33 million people in a state of food insecurity. What does this mean? Is it a lack of money? No. Is there a deficit in food production? No. What is lacking is character and commitment from the people who rule the countries. This is the concrete and objective fact.
So our fight is to ensure that public administrators fulfill their role. That they realize that the poor are also human beings. That the poor deserve respect. And that the poor deserve to have lunch, breakfast, and dinner. And have access to what is being produced by their countries.
For this reason, my dear Director-General, you can count on me in this fight against hunger.