The Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty is a key initiative led by Brazil during the 19th G20 Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro, in 2024. This effort would act as a platform to connect countries in need of support with public policies aimed at eradicating hunger and poverty, while linking them with partners willing to provide expertise or financial assistance.
About G20
The G20, or Group of Twenty, is an informal group of 19 countries, the European Union, and the African Union, representing 85 per cent of the global GDP, 75 per cent of the global trade, and nearly two-thirds of the world’s population. It serves as a major forum for international economic cooperation. The G20 has no permanent secretariat; instead, the presidency rotates annually and is supported by a troika of the previous, current, and the next presidencies.
About the Alliance
This alliance was created to enhance and expedite the global efforts to eliminate hunger and poverty that are mentioned in Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 1 and 2, while addressing inequalities (SDG 10) and contributing to revitalise global partnership for sustainable development (SDG 17).
At the centre of the alliance is the Policy Basket, a collection of thoroughly evaluated policy tools designed to ensure donor investments are directed towards impactful and cost-effective initiatives. Serving as a neutral facilitator, the alliance fosters partnerships and mobilises financial and knowledge resources to put these policies into action.
In a novel approach, the alliance reduces transaction costs and prevents redundant efforts by utilising a unified database, making it easier to identify knowledge gaps and funding opportunities.
Background to the Alliance In 2015, all 193 UN member states adopted the ‘2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’ with goals to end poverty and hunger and achieve food security and improved nutrition by 2030. However, the COVID-19 pandemic caused significant setbacks, increasing extreme poverty and decreasing nutrition standards, particularly in the Global South. The uneven economic recovery, rising global conflicts, and the harmful effects of climate change further hindered efforts to combat hunger and poverty.
The Global South refers to a group of countries often characterised by social inequality, lower levels of economic development, and geopolitical influence. These countries are generally a part of Africa, Latin America, and Asia.
Progress towards the 2030 targets is too slow, and projections suggest that 622 million people would live below the extreme poverty line by 2030—double the target level. Additionally, around 582 million people are expected to experience hunger by 2030, nearly the same number as in 2015.
In this context, Brazil launched the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty during its G20 presidency. The idea, first proposed by the Brazilian president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, at the G20 Summit in New Delhi, aligns with the Deccan High-Level Principles on Food Security and Nutrition, adopted in 2023. President Lula da Silva expressed concern, highlighting the worsening global situation, with unprecedented armed conflicts, forced displacements, extreme weather events, and deepening inequalities. He pointed out hunger and poverty as the ultimate symbols of this collective tragedy.
Members of the Alliance Membership in the alliance is open to governments, international organisations, academic institutions, development funds, and banks as well as philanthropic organisations. Member countries could adopt the alliance’s proposed policy instruments and programmes, receiving both technical and financial support from other members.
As of April 2025, the alliance consists of 93 member countries (including India), 27 international organisations, 10 financial institutions, and 50 philanthropic foundations and non-governmental organisations.
Pillars of the Alliance The alliance is structured around three pillars—national, financial, and knowledge. The National Pillar is exclusively for national governments and focuses on implementing policy instruments from the Policy Basket and/or supporting other countries in adopting similar policies.
The Financial Pillar includes a broad range of supporting entities that have made general commitment, according to their own rules and mechanisms to assist member countries in fulfilling their national obligations within the alliance.
The Knowledge Pillar encompasses respected institutions committed to fostering knowledge generation, providing technical assistance, and facilitating voluntary knowledge sharing among the alliance members on mutually agreed terms.
Understanding ‘Hunger’ and ‘Poverty’
Hunger, as defined by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, is an uncomfortable or painful physical sensation caused by insufficient consumption of dietary energy. It becomes chronic when an individual fails to consume enough calories (dietary energy) to maintain a normal, active, and healthy life.
Poverty is, according to the World Bank, a pronounced deprivation in well-being, where individuals lack the resources to meet basic needs, such as food, shelter, health care, and education. It goes beyond income, including multiple deprivations (multidimensional poverty), and reflects a lack of opportunities and capabilities to live a dignified life.
India and Global Hunger Index 2024
In the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2024, India ranks 105th out of 127 countries, reflecting a serious level. The GHI, published by Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe, measures hunger using four indicators of (i) undernourishment, (ii) child stunting, (iii) child wasting, and (iv) child mortality.
India and Global Multidimensional Poverty Index 2024
India has the highest number of people living in multidimensional poverty, with 234 million identified in the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index, 2024. The Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative and the United Nations Development Programme released the report on October 17, marking the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.
Policy Basket
The Policy Basket is the central online collaborative tool of the alliance, offering a selection of rigorously evaluated policy instruments and programmes that could be tailored to specific national or subnational contexts.
This platform is designed to help countries select and implement effective policy instruments by collecting and sharing information. Members could contribute by sharing successful policy examples and country-specific cases. They would collaborate to add new content or improve existing entries, ensuring that updates are consolidated and duplication is avoided.
Including a policy instrument in the basket allows the Alliance Support Mechanism to match members needing assistance with those who could offer support.
The basket composition is structured at two levels: First, it outlines a general policy instrument along with a brief description of its main features; second, it provides country-specific examples to illustrate variations in designs, implementation, and impact. For instance, a Conditional Cash Transfer is presented as a policy instrument, with serving country example of Brazil’s Bolsa Familia.
The selection of policy instruments and country examples is guided by five inclusion criteria:
(i) Well-defined policy instruments
(ii) Implementable by governments
(iii) Evidence based
(iv) Primarily reaching out to persons experiencing poverty and hunger
(v) Contributing primarily to reach SDGs 1 and 2.
The Policy Basket Wiki is an online collaborative tool through which members of the alliance can make direct contributions to the content of the Policy Basket to enrich, expand, and refine it by completing relevant template and using their credentials. In the next step, moderators would review the submissions to ensure they meet the inclusion criteria and request adjustments if any criteria are unmet or if the template is incomplete. Finally, if the submission meets all the criteria and is complete, moderators would verify the content, offer feedback and recommendations for adjustments, and request further revisions, if needed. Once approved, moderators would confirm the submission for inclusion in the Policy Basket.
Functioning of the Alliance
The alliance would serve as a platform for countries to support each other’s public policies focused on eradicating hunger and poverty. According to the factsheet released by the alliance, “Any member country could access proven best practices from other members and identify potential partners willing to help develop its own national model”. Assistance could include technical expertise or financial support.
The evidence-based policy basket, developed by the alliance, consists of over 50 policy instruments that member countries could access support for. Notably, the “Sprints 2030” focus on high-impact areas with targeted initiatives for the most vulnerable populations. The policy instruments include school meals, cash transfers, smallholder and family farming support programmes, socio-economic inclusion programmes, integrated maternal and early childhood interventions, and water access solutions.
Unlike many initiatives, the alliance does not have an exclusive fund. Instead, it aims to play a matchmaking role, linking countries in need with motivated donors and technical member countries and institutions like the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), and the World Bank.
2030 Sprints
Ahead of its formal launch on November 18, 2024, the alliance showcased the success of its approach by driving early action and commitments from a wide range of members across six key areas of its political agenda. The key areas include (i) cash transfers and social protection; (ii) school meals; (iii) maternal and early childhood health; (iv) socio-economic inclusion; (v) support for family farming and small producers; and (vi) access to water. These commitments, announced at a special event during the G20 Social Summit, on November 15, 2024, are referred to as ‘2030 sprints’. The sprints represent the largest collective effort to combat hunger and extreme poverty, aiming to implement large-scale, evidence-based policies and programmes to uplift the world’s poorest and most vulnerable populations.
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