UN General Assembly
2006

When I first addressed the Assembly from this rostrum, in 2003, I stressed the need for urgent and relentless action to fight the scourge of hunger and poverty in the world. This is what we are doing in Brazil: we have combined economic stability with social inclusion policies; the standard of living of Brazilians has improved; employment and income have grown; the purchasing power of the minimum wage has increased. Our resources are scarce, but even so we have achieved surprising results. The family stipend at the core of our zero-hunger programme assures a basic income to over 11 million Brazilian families. Well-fed people can enhance their dignity, their health and their learning capacity. Putting resources into social programmes is not expenditure; it is investment. If we in Brazil have done so much with so little, imagine what could have been done on a global scale if the fight against hunger and poverty had been a real priority for the international community. Where there is hunger, there is no hope; there is only desolation and