Brazil's social technologies discussed at meeting on anti-hunger fight

Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff and José Graziano da Silva, director general, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), reviewed hunger and poverty-fighting strategies, including the social technologies pioneered by Brazil, at a meeting at the FAO headquarters.

Rousseff stated that it is fundamental to end hunger, and noted that three aspects of the Brazilian anti-hunger programme are essential.

“It is vital to accurately map hunger, so that planners know who the invisible poor and hungry are,” she said, adding, “Also crucial is that cash transfer programmes – whether based on cash cards, vouchers or other instruments – make sure that the money reaches the beneficiaries directly without going through any intermediaries.

Rousseff and Graziano da Silva agreed that the third essential requisite was that women are the recipients of such transfers.

School feeding

Outlining other Brazilian initiatives, Rousseff mentioned her country's Food Purchase Programme, which buys agricultural products from smallholders and delivers them to at-risk categories, including children and youth through school feeding programmes. The programme is a cornerstone of the country's Zero Hunger strategy.

Brazil, together with FAO and the World Food Programme, is providing money and expertise to replicate the programme in five African countries, and has also exported it to other countries in Latin America.

Graziano da Silva noted that Brazil's social technology initiatives could well be used as a model for other countries in their fight against hunger. “Brazil and FAO could work together to help introduce such techniques elsewhere,” he said.

Millennium Goals

“Ending hunger and poverty is an essential first step in achieving other Millennium Development Goals, such as universal primary education and environmental sustainability,” he noted, adding that it was essential to bring the private sector and civil society on board to guarantee success.

Graziano da Silva also praised Brazil's decision to eliminate taxes on a series of essential food products as "a good idea that benefits poor families".

FAO and Brazil also discussed possible cooperation to combat deforestation.

In connection with hunger-mapping, he mentioned FAO's Voices of the Hungry project offering a new, faster and more precise way of measuring hunger and food insecurity across the world, to be field-tested by FAO in several pilot countries.

Rousseff was accompanied by Antonio Patriota, minister of foreign relations; Gilberto Carvalho, chief minister of the General Secretariat of the Presidency of Brazil; Aloizio Mercadante, education minister, and Helena Chagas, communication secretary.