The conference, hosted by University of Brasília on 22 June, reinforced the role of academia in informing public policies to fight hunger and poverty through the Global Alliance.
Osmar Júnior, Executive Secretary of the Ministry of Social Development, Assistance, Family and Fight against Hunger (MDS), participated in the opening ceremony and argued that combating hunger is a condition for sustainable development. “Food supply is a public responsibility. A country cannot remain entirely subordinate to the global dynamics of supply and demand without public instruments that protect its domestic market,” he pointed out.
According to the executive secretary, the conference between Brazil and Mexico is an excellent opportunity to assess this food scenario. “The joint Brazil-Mexico agenda for reducing food prices, with defined focal points, is a technical exchange, a true cooperation between sovereign nations where each country contributes the best of its experience,” he explained.
The conference reinforced the role of academia in producing knowledge to improve public policies to combat hunger and poverty, according to the coordinator of the Academic Cooperation Working Group in support of the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty of the MDS (Ministry of Social Development), João Paulo de Faria Santos.
“Today, our idea is to share these lessons with the academic community so that we can bring them to fruition in Brazilian civil society. We are an academic cooperation working group that is trying to put back on the world agenda, under the leadership of President Lula, the idea of having a real project to overcome hunger and poverty,” Santos assessed.
Photo: André Oliveira/MDS