Global meeting on countering hunger, poverty kicks off in Qatar

ISTANBUL

The first summit of the Global Alliance to Fight Hunger and Poverty opened Monday in the Qatari capital Doha with international participation.

“Leaders, ministers and CEOs from over 200 member countries and organizations are gathering at the Qatar National Convention Center for this one-day event,” the alliance said in a post on the US social media company Facebook’s platform.

The meeting came ahead of the Second World Summit for Social Development, the statement said, calling the event “a pivotal moment in the global fight against hunger and poverty.”

The gathering comes nearly a year after the alliance was formally launched at the November 2024 G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil under Brazil’s presidency, where one of the main outcomes was Qatar’s pledge to host the coalition’s first leaders’ summit.

The meeting is also part of the program of the Second World Summit for Social Development taking place in Doha from Nov. 4-6.

On Oct. 31, Qatar’s permanent representative to the UN, Alya Ahmed bin Saif Al Thani, said the UN social development summit will be the first formal session of the UN General Assembly ever held outside New York or Geneva, in line with the Assembly’s rules of procedure.

Qatar’s Minister of State for International Cooperation Maryam bint Ali bin Nasser Al Misnad opened the summit on the sidelines of the Second World Summit on Social Development, according to a statement by the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

She said Qatar’s hosting of the summit stems from its conviction that eradicating hunger and poverty is a collective responsibility that requires international solidarity and genuine partnership based on justice and equality.

She noted that “over 700 million people worldwide still live in extreme poverty, with conflicts, climate change, debt and funding shortages threatening development in many countries.”

In her speech at the summit, Annalena Baerbock, president of the 80th Session of the UN General Assembly, said the persistence of hunger worldwide is an unacceptable human tragedy, reflecting the international community’s failure to address the roots of conflict, confront climate change and ensure equitable distribution of resources, according to QNA.

Baerbock explained that in 2024, around 673 million people suffered from hunger while 2.3 billion experienced varying levels of food insecurity.

She stressed that these figures task the world with an urgent moral responsibility, especially since a significant portion of food is wasted daily in other parts of the world.

She warned that “if global warming continues to rise by another two degrees Celsius, an additional 189 million people could suffer from hunger, and the number may reach 1.8 billion if the increase hits four degrees.

In his remarks, Brazilian Minister of Social Development and co-chair of the alliance Wellington Dias said the alliance’s impact had extended beyond the initial “fast track” countries, helping to restore hunger and poverty to the global agenda.

He added that since 2023, Brazil has lifted 24.4 million people out of hunger and 7.6 million out of poverty through evidence-based policies and comprehensive initiatives for economic and social inclusion.

Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said that hunger and poverty remain among the “most pressing” challenges of our time, according to a statement by the Egyptian government.

He noted that more than two billion people worldwide suffer from varying levels of food insecurity, while one in every five people in Africa experiences hunger daily.

Madbouly stressed that “the famine in Gaza clearly illustrates how conflict destroys lives and deprives people of their basic rights.”