Growing a Better Future - Oxfam International

Box 7: A tale of two BRICSThey may both be members of the BRICS group ofemerging economies, yet on the question of hunger,Brazil and India are poles apart. Despite more thandoubling the size of its economy between 1990 and2005, 118 India failed to make even a tiny dent in thenumber of hungry people. In fact, it increased by 65million 119 – more than the population of France. 120Today, about one in four of the world’s hungry peoplelives in India. 121In Brazil, however, where economic growth has beenslower, hunger has been rolled back at an incrediblepace – the proportion of people living in hunger almosthalved between 1992 and 2007. 122Why this marked difference? There are, of course,many factors at play, but ultimately it comes down togovernment failure in India and government successin Brazil, where a purposeful political leadership wasbuttressed by a strong citizens’ movement led bypeople living in poverty.In India, the government has presided over a longperiod of unequal growth concentrated in the servicessector and urban areas, despite the fact that themajority of poor and hungry people live in rural areas.Had the government undertaken effectiveredistribution, then hunger could still have beenreduced. Sadly, India failed to prioritize hunger ordevelop a coherent strategy. Ambitious initiativessuch as the National Rural Employment GuaranteeAct to provide 100 days of paid work to rural men andwomen, or a massive fertiliser subsidy programme,have been unable to make inroads without sufficientpolitical buy-in and support.In Brazil, the opposite was true. A national crosssectoralstrategy – Fome Zero (Zero Hunger) –launched in 2003, consisted of 50 linked initiativesranging from cash transfers for poor mothers toextension services for small-scale food producers.Crucially, Fome Zero was championed by thenPresident, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, which ensuredthe buy-in across government necessary to deliversuch a broad agenda.Although the benefits were realized quickly, FomeZero was a long time coming; the result of 20 yearsof activism from Brazilian civil society and socialmovements. They organized and challenged, andhelped expand the political horizon, electingpoliticians with the vision to make a difference. 123‘Case Study: Brazil’s Strategies to Reduce Hunger’www.oxfam.org/grow‘Why India is Losing its War on Hunger’www.oxfam.org/growTime to rebuildThe broken food system is exacerbating the very driversof fragility that make it vulnerable to shocks. It is locked ina dance of death with the age of crisis it helped to create.Happily, most of the solutions are known, and manynecessary changes are already underway, led bygrowing numbers of consumers, producers, responsiblebusinesses, and civil society organizations. Overcomingthe vested interests at the heart of the system will be thesingle greatest challenge. History shows that justicetends not to come about through the benevolence of thepowerful. Decolonization and independence, thecreation of welfare states, the spread of universalsuffrage, the creation of international governance: allhave been won through struggle and conflict, often linkedto destabilizing shocks or periods of flux. The age ofcrisis is a terrible threat, but also a tremendousopportunity. The prize: a new prosperity in whicheveryone can have a fair share.Growing a Better FutureChapter 2: The age of crisis:a skewed and failing system41