PRESS RELEASE : International Development Minister begins reset of relationship with Global South on first overseas visit [July 2024]

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 24 July 2024.

International Development Minister Anneliese Dodds is in Rio de Janeiro for the G20 Development Ministers’ Meeting.

• minister to set out how she will modernise the UK’s approach to international development
• the UK’s intention to join the Brazilian President’s Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty also set to be announced

The UK’s Minister for International Development Anneliese Dodds is in Rio de Janeiro representing the UK at the G20 Development Ministers’ Meeting – on the first visit by a member of the new government to South America.

The government wants to modernise the UK’s approach to international development – with a focus on genuine respect and partnerships with other countries.

In meetings with Brazil and other key Global South partners, Minister Dodds is raising shared challenges and common interests, such as tackling global poverty, instability, and the climate and nature crisis, accelerating reform of the global financial system and unlocking economic development and growth.

Today Minister Dodds will also confirm the UK’s intention to join the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty, an initiative created by Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Minister for International Development, Women and Equalities, Anneliese Dodds said:

The new UK government’s mission is to create a world free from poverty on a liveable planet. To tackle global crises and deliver sustainable growth, we need to draw on the strength which comes from equal partnerships.

We want to build relationships based on genuine respect, such as Brazil’s Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty with its focus on action, sharing solutions, exchanging expertise and unlocking much-needed finance.

Poverty and a lack of opportunities are drivers of vulnerability, conflicts and uncontrolled migration, a vicious cycle which breeds more poverty and hunger. We cannot change the past, but we can change the future. That change starts now.

The Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty builds on Brazil’s internationally renowned successes in tackling poverty and inequality through support to family farms, and through programmes like the Bolsa Família, which uses cash-based transfers to improve access to food, the health of mothers and children, and school attendance. It has benefited more than 55 million people in total so far.

The UK has contributed its own expertise to the work of the Global Alliance Taskforce and will offer further support to add momentum – including our readiness to join the Board of Champions and bringing in the UK’s global network of development, academic and civil society organisations.

During the 2-day visit, the minister has also visited a quilombo, a community set up by an Afro-Brazilian community which plays a key role in environmental preservation, reaffirming that gender and racial equality will be a domestic and international priority for the new UK government.

Background

• the Brazilian presidency of the G20 officially started on 1 December 2023, with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as chair. The theme of the Brazilian presidency is ‘Building a Just World and a Sustainable Planet’. The presidency will culminate in the G20 Leaders’ Summit, which will take place in Rio de Janeiro later this year, on 18 to 19 November 2024