CAIRO: Minister of Social Solidarity Ali Al-Moselhi returns today from a week-long visit to Brazil where he was looking into their highly successful Zero Hunger (Fome Zero) program, with an eye to implementing a similar initiative in Egypt. The Egyptian delegation was received by the Brazilian Ministry of Social Development and Hunger Alleviation, which is responsible for implementing the Zero Hunger project. Al-Moselhi was invited to Brazil by the Minister of Social Development Patrus Ananias. The two ministers first discussed the Zero Hunger program at a meeting of Arab and South American ministers in Cairo last May. During last week's trip, the delegation from Egypt visited Brasilia, Sao Paolo, and the Sao Paolo suburb of Guarulhos, where the Zero Hunger program has been particularly effective in alleviating hunger and poverty. A spokesperson from the Ministry of Social Solidarity told Daily News Egypt that the delegation went to Brazil "so they could take a close look at the experiment aimed at alleviating poverty. They have done this through programs with specified goals in different fields such as health, education, and the social protection of families. The spokesperson could not elaborate further on precisely what the Minister hopes to bring back from his visit or on whether he plans to emulate any of the Brazilian programs directly. The spokesperson did tell Daily News Egypt that the two ministers signed an agreement to initiate an open exchange of information and strategies regarding social programs in both countries. According to an adviser to the Zero Hunger program in Brazil, the delegation was especially interested in finding out exactly how the hunger alleviation program works. The delegation, which was comprised of officials from the Ministry of Social Solidarity, the Ministry of Health, the Dutch embassy in Cairo, and the World Food Program in Egypt, was given an extensive overview of the different programs included in the Zero Hunger initiative. At a press conference held in Brasilia, Al-Moselhi lauded the program, saying that it "is not simply an income transference program - it seeks to develop human resources, be it through education or through the creation of opportunities. The Brazilian World Food Program was implemented in 2003 by the administration of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in order to address serious problems of hunger and poverty. It is the biggest initiative in Brazil's history designed specifically to this end, in a country where 44 million people are threatened by hunger. The broad vision of the program is to guarantee that all Brazilian citizens have access to enough food. It seeks to achieve this goal through a number of initiatives, including providing poor families with direct financial aid; building cisterns in arid regions; creating low-priced restaurants in poor neighborhoods; educating citizens about healthy eating habits; and supporting small-scale farming through microcredit loans. The largest initiative within the project has been the Family Voucher (Bolsa Familia) program, which provides 11 million impoverished families with an income supplement that helps them pay for food. The Egyptian delegation was most interested in learning about this program, and specifically about how families are selected to receive the assistance. They were also taken to a low-priced restaurant in Guarulhos, the Sao Paolo suburb, where meals are prepared and sold for 1 Brazilian real ($0.47). The restaurant, which was established in 2001, has served 997,000 meals since it first opened its doors. Al-Moselhi met Eloi Pieta, the mayor of the city, which has been held up by Brazil as a testament to the success of the program. The Bolsa Familia delivers funds to over 45,000 families in the city and since 2003 hunger and poverty have decreased drastically. The fund is structured in such a way that families with more children receive greater financial compensation - it provides 15 reals per child attending school to families with incomes below 120 reals per month, and an additional 50 reals to families that fall below an extreme poverty line of 60 reals per month. The delegation also looked into a program that provides free meals to children at school, which is intended to alleviate financial pressure on families so that they only have to provide one or two meals per day. The Zero Poverty initiative has been dubbed a huge success both by Brazilian and international organizations, including the World Bank. Since its inception in 2003, it has succeeded in bringing millions of Brazilians out of poverty and drastically increased access to food in the country's most impoverished areas. Al-Moselhi said that he was interested in replicating the success of these initiatives in Egypt. He told a Brazilian news agency that of the 75 million people living in Egypt, 20 percent live below the poverty line and another 20 percent would benefit from financial support and more access to food. The Egyptian government has been considering different measures to address these problems, and is looking at Brazil's programs in an attempt to develop its own initiatives. Both the Ministry of Social Solidarity and the Brazilian Embassy in Cairo said that the visit had been a great success.
