How does the Lula Institute help in the fight against poverty and hunger?

One of the main missions of the Lula
Institute is to contribute to the fight against hunger in Africa and around the
world.During his eight years
in office, former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva invested in policies that
helped take Brazil off the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Hunger
Map, and meet the first Millennium Development Goal (To reduce hunger and
poverty by 50% by 2015) and the World Food Summit goal (To reduce by 50% the
number of undernourished.).This
means that Brazil lifted more than 19 million people out of malnutrition.Since he left the government, Lula has determined
that Africa and Latin America, two continents in the development process to
which Lula had devoted special attention when president should be the principal
focus of projects developed by the Lula Institute. 

Learn more about the activities of the Lula
Institute:

How can Lula continue to
fight for this cause if he is no longer president?

Principally through the exchange of
knowledge and experience that he and his team accumulated with developing
countries facing challenges similar Brazils.Lula is gives speeches, meets with authorities and
leaders of social movements and participates in symposiums, debates, forums and
conferences.  He invariably talks about
the programs to combat hunger and provide social inclusion, family farming and school
meals distribution projects, that helped Brazil achieve the social advances of
the last 12 years.

See Lula’s
conversation with young people from 20 African countries in 2014.

Does the Institute give
money to these countries?

No. Lula Institute does not provide any monetary
investments to governments anywhere in the world.Nor does it fund, or seek funding for projects of
any kind.  Its
work is always in the sense of sharing the experiences of government officials
and the public policies of the Lula government to combat poverty and hunger, to
encourage the struggle for peace and respect for human rights, strengthen
democracy and cooperate in cultural exchange and trade between the Brazil and
the African and Latin American continents.

And is this something
that works?

After four years of work, we are certain
that it does.Former President
Lula remains a major world reference and is constantly invited to receive
honors and visit nations around the world.
 The Lula
Institute receives invitations to various national and international events and
is always touted as reference in the fight against social exclusion.
 In
2013, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban-Ki Moon, said
the (bolsa familia) family allowance model has been replicated successfully in
Africa.   Even in the city of New
York the program served as a model.Today
in many countries, particularly in Africa and Latin America, social programs
and public policies inspired by Brazilian programs are in place and running in
countries, like Ethiopia, Senegal and Angola.

In what kinds of events
does the IL participate?

The Institute is especially active in
Africa.  For example the Lula Instituute helped
to promote a
seminar held
in 2013 in conjunction with the African Union ,Nepad (Africa’s development agency) and the FAO,
inAddis Ababa that was attended by seven heads of
state and  400 government officials,
representatives of multilateral organizations and scholars who defined a
program of action aimed at eradicating hunger in Africa by 2025.  This proposal was later endorsed, in January
2015, by the African Union. In 2012, the Institute
organized the “Forum for
Social Progress”, in Paris, together
with the Jean Jaures Foundation, attended by intellectuals and representatives
of government from around the world including French President Francois Hollande
and President Dilma Rousseff .  In 2015, the
Institute participated in two important forums for exchanging experiences on
inclusion social, in Ivory Coast and Senegal. The Latin American Initiative has
organized two major forums in 2015and the African Initiative has held six open
debates of the series “Conversations on Africa.”

Does the government provide
funds to the Lula Institute for such purposes?

No. Lula Institute does not receive any
public funding.It is funded by
contributions from individuals and companies and organizes events and activities
in partnership with multilateral organizations, NGOs and agents for social
change.For example, the last
“Talk of Africa” was organized in partnership with the Olodum group,
the National Coordination of Black Organizations, CONEN, and the São Paulo Professional
Union of Journalists .

Why have I not heard
about the things that Lula Institute does?

To learn about the activities of the Lula
Institute, visit our website where we post news, videos, audios and photos of
events held by the Institute every day as well as the activities that include
the participation of the former president.You can also find information about President Lula’s
activities on his Facebook page, on Twitter and on the Institute’s website, all
public and open access.In
addition, we provide daily information about the activities of the former
president to the press, various blogs, civil organizations and other
organizations. The Lula Institute has a team to respond to the requests from
the national and foreign press.