African nations will adopt Brazilian income distribution programs

Criado em 20/03/13 10h36 e atualizado em 25/03/13 12h21
Por Renata Giraldi Edição:s Fonte:Agencia Brasil

Vatican – In comments made at a news conference following a meeting with president Dilma Rousseff who is in Rome for the inaugural mass of the new pope, the director general of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Brazilian José Graziano, declared that the organization was making significant progress in its work.

According to Graziano, as part of efforts to reduce poverty and hunger, attempts have been made to interest African countries in Brazilian welfare program models that improve income distribution and combat poverty. Graziano reports that the response has been positive in a number of West African nations, representing a new stage in Brazil's efforts to share experience and knowledge of its successful social assistance programs, such as Bolsa Familia. The importance of this, said Graziano, is that these African nations are not Portuguese-speaking (Brazil has been aiding Portuguese-speaking nations in Africa for many years).

At the same time, Graziano reported, there has been interest by some African nations in adopting the monitoring system that Brazil uses to control deforestation in the Amazon. The system uses a Brazilian satellite. The interest, says Graziano, stems from the fact that many countries in Central Africa have a type of dense vegetation similar to that in the northern region of Brazil, also known as the Amazon rainforest.

José Graziano added that some of the BRICS nations have offered to increase their donations to FAO. Russia will contribute an additional $1 million dollars, China $11 million and Brazil $5 million. At the moment, Brazil is the 10th biggest biggest contributor to FAO, Graziano revealed.

Editors: Carolina Pimentel / Nira Foster
Translation: Allen Bennett