Background
On July 24, two key events took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,:
President Lula da Silva announced the Brazil G20-led Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty.
The UN released its flagship annual State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (2024), commonly known as the SOFI report.
These two moments underscore the urgency for action ahead of the November G20 Summit. The world is off-track to achieving the SDGs, including the global goals to end extreme poverty (SDG1) and hunger and all forms of malnutrition (SDG2).
According to the 2024 SOFI Report, approximately 733 million people faced hunger, with 1 in 11 people worldwide and 1 in 5 people in Africa affected. Child hunger and malnutrition are at their worst in generations: 148.1 million children under five are stunted and 45 million children wasted, the most life-threatening form of malnutrition that will have devastating life-long consequences for health and well-being. The report warns that more countries are off track than on track to achieve the seven global nutrition targets as the double burden of malnutrition continues to increase unchecked.
Nearly one-third of the global population—2.33 billion people—face food insecurity. In Africa, 58% of the population faces extreme food insecurity. Acute food insecurity reached a historic high of 281.6 million people across 59 countries, and 36 million people in 39 countries were on the brink of famine.
Economic barriers further exacerbate these challenges. The World Bank estimates that COVID-19 increased extreme poverty in the world from 8.9 percent in 2019 to 9.7 percent in 2020 for the first time in decades. An additional 23 million people were pushed into extreme poverty for a total of 712 million people in 2022. The poorest countries and children were disproportionately affected. It is estimated that 2.83 billion people are unable to afford healthy diets in 2022 and approximately 30% of women globally are experiencing moderate to severe food insecurity.
Humanitarian needs are escalating, with nearly 300 million people, including 1 in 5 children affected by conflict, requiring assistance in 2024. Additionally, displacement due to food crises has surged, impacting over 90 million people, with a significant portion being internally displaced.
The global food crisis is driven by a combination of conflict, economic shocks, climate extremes and persistent poverty and inequality. If current trends continue, in 2030 about 582 million people – half of them in Africa – will be chronically undernourished. Immediate and comprehensive actions to address these drivers and the financing to scale up interventions to save lives, build resilience and secure the future are essential to reverse the trend in the countries most affected and put the world back on track to end hunger by 2030.
The Global Alliance’s establishment is an important global effort to eradicate hunger and poverty. The initiative is a shared responsibility, extending beyond Brazil and the G20 to include all nations and stakeholders. The Global Alliance seeks to enhance global partnerships, mobilize essential resources, as well as disseminate knowledge and successful policies and practices to combat hunger and poverty on a worldwide scale.
The Brazilian government has extensive expertise and received international acclaim for their poverty-reduction ventures, such as the Bolsa Família conditional cash programme for stabilizing household incomes. The Global Alliance’s Policy Basket draws from Brazil’s experience and other best practices and approaches. The types of policies and programs that are included are determined by objective criteria: 1) Well-defined policy instruments, with a clear scope; 2) Implemented/implementable by governments; 3) Evidence-based; 4) Primarily reaching out to people persons experiencing poverty and hunger; 5) Contributing primarily to reach Sustainable Development Goals 1 and 2.
This Global Alliance represents the core of Brazil's G20 presidency agenda to eliminate hunger and extreme poverty by 2030. It offers an opportunity to get back on track to achieve SDG1 and 2, with benefits for the broader 2030 Agenda.
The Global Alliance will be officially launched in November at the G20 Summit. Between now and then, it is critical to raise awareness about and build support for the Global Alliance and to urge world leaders to formally join. Countries can join the Global Alliance by submitting a Statement of Commitment detailing how a state plans to support the initiative to the Brazilian G20 Presidency – find a template document here.
This would demonstrate strong collective and national level political will to elevate and prioritize ending extreme poverty, hunger and malnutrition, which is key to mobilizing the financing that is needed, including through the World Bank’s IDA21 Replenishment in December and the Nutrition for Growth Summit in France in March 2025.
