"Hunger has the face of a woman and the voice of a child. Even though they prepare most of the meals and grow most of the food, women and girls are the majority of hungry people in the world," stated President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in Rio de Janeiro, during the ministerial meeting of the Task Force against Hunger and Poverty.
The Global Alliance against Hunger is the great asset of the Brazilian presidency vis-à-vis the Group of 20 in 2024 and the best news for women in the last month. "Hunger has the face of a woman and the voice of a child. Even though they prepare most of the meals and grow most of the food, women and girls are the majority of hungry people worldwide," stated President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Rio de Janeiro, during the ministerial meeting of the Task Force against Hunger and Poverty.
On the occasion, the leaders of the member countries and those invited to the Summit agreed to establish the Alliance, which will facilitate technical and financial partnerships, allowing countries to join and implement programs to combat hunger and poverty.
The Task Force for the Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty is made up of the Ministry of Social Development and Assistance, Family, and the Fight against Hunger (Ministério do Desenvolvimento e Assistência Social, Família e Combate à Fome /MDS), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Ministério das Relações Exteriores /MRE), and the Ministry of Finance (Ministério da Fazenda /MF).
To explain the initiative, the group has been working with the analogy of a hamper. In other words, a kind of menu of good experiences that the Alliance will make available for implementation in all countries around the world that want to join the initiative. One example of a public policy of this nature is the Bolsa Família Program, which today helps approximately 20.8 million families (ComunicaBR/May 2024).
Timeline of the Global Alliance against Hunger
September 2023 - President Lula proposed the creation of the Alliance during the G20 Summit in New Delhi, India, when he was handed the baton of the forum's presidency.
February 2024 - Presentation of the idea in an online meeting.
May 2024 - Delegations reached consensus on the Terms of Reference and the Governance Framework of the Global Alliance against Hunger with the criteria for the composition of the catalogue of public policies and the template for the Declarations of Commitment.
June 2024 - Completion, at a technical level, of all the documents supporting the initiative.
July 2024 - Ministerial meeting to analyze and adopt the texts. A sort of pre-launch for the implementation of the Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty.
[Scheduled] November 2024 - Final launch during the G20 Leaders' Summit in Rio de Janeiro.
To explain the initiative, the group has been working with the analogy of a hamper. In other words, a kind of menu of good experiences that the Alliance will make available for implementation in all countries around the world that want to join the initiative. One example of a public policy of this nature is the Bolsa Família Program, which today helps approximately 20.8 million families (ComunicaBR/May 2024).
Against another kind of poverty: time poverty
In Brasil, black and mixed-race women face greater income disparities, as well as barriers to education and employment. There are also clear disparities in the amount of time women devote to housework and caring for others. In 2022, women spent nearly twice as much time as men doing this invisible work.
According to Oxfam, if the invisible work done by women were paid a minimum wage, this would mean an injection of 10.8 trillion dollars a year into the world economy.
- AMOUNT OF TIME WOMEN DEVOTE DO CARE WORD (HOUR/WEEK)21,3
- PERCENTAGE OF WOMEN BELOW THE POVERTY LINE32,3%
- WOMEN'S PARTICIPATION RATE IN THE PAID LABOUR MARKET53,3%
In other words, in the case of women, combating poverty also involves combating the time poverty that women experience, and this issue has been given great prominence in the Women's Empowerment Working Group (EWWG) and the Employment Working Group, as well as the civil society engagement group Woman20.
"All G20 members have discussed the issue of caregiving as an important element for development and GDP growth as well," underscored the Executive Secretary of Brasil's Ministry of Women and coordinator of the EWWG, Maria Helena Guarezi.
In the beginning of July, the Brazilian Federal Government anticipated the G20 discussions and sent to Congress a proposal for the establisment of the National Caregiving Policy, which has the mission of ensuring the rights of both those who provide care and those who are cared for. The text was put together under the coordination of the Ministry of Women and the MDS, as well as 18 other ministries, representatives from states and municipalities, and academics.
As Woman20 coordinator Ana Fontes explained, it is up to the members of the Forum to recognize that caregiving is a job. "We want to ensure pay and social protection for women, and also eliminate the high level of informal work that exists in most G20 countries," she summarized.
