“The yellow light of hunger was lit in Brazil,” says the Brazilian UN agency that won the Nobel Peace Prize | World

The award was announced on Friday (9) in Norway, by the Nobel Committee, due to the agency’s efforts “to combat hunger, for its contribution to the improvement of peace conditions in conflict-affected areas and for acting as a force driving efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict. ”

In a telephone interview with BBC News Brazil, Balaban, director of the Center of Excellence against Hunger and representative of the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) in Brazil, says that the “yellow light of hunger in Brazil has been lit” due to “to the regression of social policies” and that it will be necessary to act quickly to prevent the country from returning to the Hunger Map, when more than 5% of the population faces severe food insecurity “.

“This situation can be reversed if there is a national union. The Brazilian population itself asking for and pressuring public entities. And the Nobel Prize was very important for that, because it sheds light on a problem that affects the world and was a little forgotten” . , He says.

Asked if, in his opinion, the government of Jair Bolsonaro is committed to “reversing this situation,” Balaban defends “demonstrating the importance for all public policy makers of directing resources to the most vulnerable populations.”

See below the main excerpts from the interview.

BBC News Brazil – The World Food Program (WFP), a UN agency from which Mr. is the representative in Brazil, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize this Friday. Like mr. received the news? Were you surprised?

Daniel Balaban – It was a total surprise, nobody expected it. PMA headquarters are in Rome (Italy) and, when the award was announced, it was dawn in Brazil. Prizes are prizes. Are important. But more important is to shed light on a problem that affects the world and that was a bit forgotten, which is the issue of fighting hunger, fighting poverty, fighting inequality.

There is no way to have a more sustainable planet, a planet we all dream of with 690 million people going hungry. There are three Brazil. WFP’s daily job is to prevent these people from dying and to help them. We feed more than 100 million a day around the world, especially in developing countries, the poorest, helping to create public policies. It is a very difficult and complex job, but we have to show the population that we can solve this problem.

BBC News Brazil – How important is Brazil to the World Food Program?

They shot – Brazil has been a long time partner of the World Food Program and has worked together with the agency. We gained a lot of notoriety when we managed to lift 50 million people out of extreme poverty and when we left the Hunger Map (in 2014, during Dilma Rousseff’s government) through public policies that we developed ourselves. I always say that these are state policies.

The big problem is that these policies have to be permanent, no matter who is in government. We continue to be a very unequal country with a considerable part of the population in a vulnerable situation. We cannot stop dedicating part of the budget to social policies that were very successful. Brazil was an example for the developing world in this regard, from policies to support family farmers to income policies with conditionality, such as Bolsa Família. And it has to continue.

BBC News Brazil – Hasn’t Brazil continued with these policies?

They shot – What happens is that Brazil began to suffer a very big economic crisis from 2015. When a country suffers an economic crisis, there are budget cuts and pressures to achieve fiscal balance. Social policies ended up having the greatest impact.

If resources begin to dwindle, the social program begins to diminish its strength and its impact on the population. We are at a key moment: The yellow light of hunger is on, but we still have time to turn back. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel. The social policies that were created were very successful.

It is enough that resources are reinvested and support to the most vulnerable populations is resumed. You can reverse this situation if there is a national union. The Brazilian population itself asking for and pressuring public entities. And the Nobel Prize was very important to draw attention to that.

BBC News Brazil – Data released recently by IBGE shows that, after falling back more than half in a decade, hunger has spread again to Brazil. In five years, the contingent in this situation reached at least 10.3 million. Has Brazil returned or will it return to the Hunger Map?

They shot – The Hunger Map is a UN publication that takes into account the most current number of countries. Brazil did not appear in the last Hunger Map because the data used is older (than those published by IBGE). In any case, these 10.3 million people are equivalent to less than 5% of the population, a parameter that the UN considers for a country to enter or leave the Hunger Map. But that doesn’t mean we’re okay. We have noticed a increase in the number of vulnerable people, retrogression of social policies. If nothing is done to reverse this situation, Brazil can go back to the Hunger Map.

BBC News Brazil – Income concentration has increased and inequality has deepened during the current government. The Lord. Do you think that the government of Jair Bolsonaro is committed to “reversing this situation”?

They shot – We do not enter into analysis of governments, of government actions. We believe that these policies reflect the interest of the population in each country. Each government reflects its population, especially in democratic countries, like Brazil. We need to alert the entire population that this is the moment of union and joint work so that this image does not return. This is our role: call the union.

We do not criticize any government, neither the current nor the previous ones. But policies adopted as a whole. I believe that all governments have good intentions, no government wants hunger, no government wants lack of health and education. The crucial point is to demonstrate the importance for all public policy makers to focus resources on the most vulnerable populations.