Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced the launch of the Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty on Monday at the start of the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, his country’s coastal metropolis.
“Hunger and poverty are not the result of scarcity or natural phenomena,” Lula said. Instead, they are the result of political decisions that lead to the exclusion of much of humanity, he said.
The initiative is one of the central themes of Brazil’s presidency of the G20, which unites the world’s largest economies, and has received the public support of 81 countries.
The group will exchange experiences and coordinate food security measures, Lula said: “This will be our greatest legacy.”
He called the fight against hunger and poverty a prerequisite for creating a peaceful world.
The Inter-American Development Bank has already pledged $25 billion.
The international non-profit organization Oxfam also demanded that the G20 countries themselves make substantial public investments in small-scale agriculture.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the European Union would also be involved in the initiative.
