Bull's eye on rural poverty eradication: SSTC conference kicks off in Brazil

BRASILIA – 21 November 2017: The international conference on South-South and Triangular Cooperation (SSTC), held under the auspices of the International Fund for the Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Brazilian government, kicked off on Monday at the Convention Center in Brasilia.

Titled “Leveraging Innovations from the Global South to Rural Transformation,” the two-day conference aims to share and exchange the expertise and innovative solutions to eradicate rural poverty worldwide via holding a marketplace exhibition, where the participants present their solutions to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, which aims to eradicate poverty worldwide.

SSTC conference also focuses on increasing the agricultural production to reach food security, and on boosting investment among the developing countries.
"The conference is timely a good opportunity to share the knowledge and innovations in Brazil to face the increasing number of hungry people worldwide and to produce more food by 60 percent in 2050," said President of IFAD Gilbert F. Houngbo at the conference.

Around 150 children, women, and men go hungry every day, he added. Over almost 20 years, IFAD has supported the policy dialogue between Brazil and other countries as a long-in to other markets of Mercosur (Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, and Venezuela). "SSTC is also about youth. Young people have a particular affinity to technology and communication," Houngbo said.

“We have to find solutions to fight poverty… and find job opportunities,” said Dyogo Henrique de Oliveira, Brazilian Minister of Planning, Development and Management at the conference. He added that in 1980, 30 percent of Brazilians lived under the poverty line, but the number has been shrunk to five percent, noting that his country is ready to help other countries to fight poverty, Oliveira continued.

By 2018, Brazil’s growth rate will hit two-three percent, with inflation under control, highlighting the role of cooperation between the country and IFAD, as the fund has projects worth $860 million in Brazil,

"The Brazilian government presented its implementation programs for the agricultural researches, which are being conducted by the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa)," said Blairo Borges Maggi at the conference.

The conference has been organized by other United Nation organizations namely, the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), The United Nations Office for the South-South and Triangular Cooperation (UNOSSTC), and the International Land Coalition (ILC).

The South-South Countries (Global South) are the developing states that locate on the southern part of the earth including Middle Eastern, South American, Asian and African countries. These countries created an international cooperation unit, which was adopted by the United Nations in 1978; in the 1990s, they began to share technology, sources and knowledge among them.

In adoption of the 2030 agenda of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which aims to eradicate poverty worldwide, the unit was expanded to integrate the North-South countries of the world, creating the South-South Triangular Cooperation Coalition.