Brazil reduced by 50% the number of people suffering from hunger, according to the UN 

The UN said on Tuesday that in the past decade, Brazil has managed to halve the percentage of the population that suffers from hunger, thus fulfilling one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set by the United Nations for 2015 . 

These are the conclusions drawn in the report on the state of food insecurity in the world published by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and two other UN bodies: the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme Food (PMA). 

The Millennium Development Goals are a list of eight points set by the United Nations in 2000, which are intended to improve the living conditions of the people by the year 2015. 

Thus, the document notes that the 'Zero Hunger' program made hunger a fundamental problem included in the political agenda of Brazil from 2003. 

'Ensuring that all people eat three times a day - as former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said in his inaugural speech - became a presidential priority, "says the report. 

Thus, in the periods 2000-2002 and 2004-2006, the rate of malnutrition in Brazil fell from 10.7% to less than 5%. 

According to the UN, the 'Zero Hunger' was the first step to ending hunger and, over the years, this approach has gained momentum by strengthening the legal framework for food security. 

The document notes that the reduction of hunger and extreme poverty in both rural and urban areas is the 'result of coordination between the government and civil society, rather than in one single action action'. 

The 'Zero Hunger' program consists of an integrated system of actions performed by 19 ministries, and applies a dual carriageway link to social protection with policies that foster employment, agricultural production and family nutrition. 

Economic policies, the report says, and social protection programs, while combined with programs for family farms, contribute to employment creation and increased wages, as well as the reduction of hunger. 

All these efforts led by Brazil that poverty was reduced from 24.3% to 8.4% between 2001 and 2012, while extreme poverty has also declined from 14% to 3.5%. 

The UN also notes that in 2011 Brazil introduced new policies to address extreme poverty, they beheld an improvement in access to public services to promote education, health and employment. 

Furthermore, the report reveals that another of the pillars of food security policy in Brazil is the National School Feeding Program, which provides students of public schools and free meals which benefited more than 43 million children in 2012.