Rio de Janeiro (from the special envoy) - The Angolan Head of State, João Lourenço, said it is imperative to look at the issue of fighting hunger and poverty, from the same perspective and with the same sensitivity.
The President of the Republic was speaking on Monday afternoon, at the 19th G20 Summit, opened at the Museum of Modern Art, in Rio de Janeiro, by the host Lula da Silva.
João Lourenço said that hunger is a scourge that fundamentally affects developing countries, but it is not an evil exclusive to these geographies, as the phenomenon is also observed in developed, industrialized countries with a large Gross Domestic Product.
At the beginning of his speech, he highlighted the fight against hunger and poverty, 'which constitutes, without a doubt, one of the biggest problems facing humanity'.
According to the Statesman, reality 'requires from all of us, from all governments, entrepreneurs, humanitarian organizations, association leaders, religious organizations and other similar institutions, a courageous approach to identify, without taboos, the main causes of this problem and the pragmatic and lasting solutions to avoid the use of welfare, which in no way solves this problem at the root'.
The timely initiative of Brazil's creation of the Alliance in the Fight Against Hunger and Poverty, of which Angola is a founding member, paves the way for the emergence of a valuable instrument that will help reverse setbacks in the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, related to the eradication of poverty and hunger, he said.
'Within the framework of this alliance, it is essential to look at the urgent need to create conditions that favor the development of sustainable agriculture at a planetary level to ensure food security and achieve the goal of zero hunger,' he added.
João Lourenço drew attention to the need to mobilize efforts and resources to support countries in the implementation of effective public policies that are essentially based on structural and transversal actions, with a view to reducing inequalities.
According to the President, Brazil's experience in the fight against hunger and poverty is very inspiring for the practical results it has achieved and for demonstrating that investment in agriculture is the right option that helps to build the foundations for the promotion of different factors of development and improvement of the social living conditions of the populations.
'In Angola, we are investing in agriculture, as part of the diversification of the national economy, to strengthen food security, reducing the serious dependence we faced in terms of food imports,' he stressed.
He said that this framework has required a persistent effort from the national authorities to change it, supporting not only family farming, but also promoting the development of modern agriculture, which serves as a basis for boosting national industry.
'Angola has enormous potential, with vast tracts of fertile land, abundant water and excellent conditions for exporting its agricultural production surpluses,' said the President of the Republic.
He maintained that this makes the country an attractive and interesting destination for foreign investment in food production.
'It is on the basis of the combination of national effort with foreign private investment that we look to the future with optimism and belief that we will achieve the goal of poverty eradication, established in the United Nations 2030 Agenda on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and in the African Union's Agenda 2063,' he stressed.
João Lourenço also said that it is certain that, along with other challenges related to agriculture, there is climate change, which in many circumstances aggravates the poverty of entire communities, by negatively affecting the conditions for carrying out agricultural activity, caused by severe droughts.
He also mentioned floods and other natural phenomena, which worsen the living conditions of the populations, who already face situations of great vulnerability.
'To address these problems, which in the case of Angola is expressed by a severe drought in the south of the country, the Angolan government has drawn up a programme, the first phase of which it is successfully implementing and which consists of the transfer of water to the most affected areas, from the Cunene River,' he said.
According to the President of the Republic, this allowed generally nomadic populations, who were essentially dedicated to pastoralism, to settle in these areas, which now have pasture and water for their animals and the possibility of producing agricultural goods for their consumption.
He said that a first canal has already been built - the Cafu - over a length of 165 km and its water retention reservoirs, already at the service of the communities, and other similar projects are still under construction in the province of Cunene, those of NDue, Calucuve and Cova do Leão, expected to be completed in 2025.
'As part of the broad program to combat the effects of drought in southern Angola, we also have in our portfolio the construction, by 2027, of six large reservoirs to retain millions of cubic meters of water in the province of Namibe, and the Executive is in the process of mobilizing funding,' he said.
The Head of State informed that, in the face of a situation of enormous shortages caused by these natural phenomena, the government has acted very promptly to mitigate the difficulties that the populations face, through the KWENDA program, which has in its essence some similarity with the 'Bolsa Família' program in Brazil.
'In the case of Angola, while the problem is not structurally solved, we decided to assign a certain pecuniary value to the needy populations on a monthly basis, which they use to make small investments in activities that guarantee them some financial return, in order to be able to live with a certain autonomy and dignity,' he said.
The statesman considered 'excellent' the work done by Brazil during the period he was at the helm of the G20. ADR/ART/DOJ
