I am honored to participate in this event that celebrates the International Women's Day. Since 1995, my first year in the Senate, I have addressed the high chamber of the Brazilian Parliament on this important occasion to commemorate the advancements in the fight for equality of economic, social, political and cultural rights between women and men. This occasion also offers an opportunity to reflect how much remains to be done in this field, in order to ensure that women do exercise all their rights and fundamental freedoms.

We have the privilege today to make the voice of Brazilian women heard in this house, which, no one doubts, is the World's Parliament. I would like to congratulate the Commission on the Status of Women for having chosen the link between gender equality and the achievement of the development goals as established in the Millennium Development Goals as the central theme of this year's celebration.

The current debate makes clear that the acknowledgement of women's strength and their distinctive contribution, the overcoming of obstacles to the promotion of the status of women and the elimination of discrimination are fundamental factors for the realization of these major aims. The recognition of women's rights and gender equality is an essential ingredient to the realization of the fundamental values inscribed in the Millennium Declaration, which our governments endorsed at the highest level. Freedom, equality, solidarity, peace, tolerance, respect for nature, shared responsibility... Which of these principles can stand if the complementarities and differences between men and women are not taken into account? Which of them is meaningful without recognizing women's rights? In these difficult days, I would also like to emphasize that the pursuit of gender equality is not only an inseparable and indivisible element of development, but also a key factor for PEACE. Peace, Equality and Development constitute three major goals of the IV World Conference on Women. Brazil and its Government are firmly committed to them.

Mr. Moderator, The situation of extreme poverty and hunger in the world remains dramatic. The feminization of poverty, a problem that was denounced in Beijing and in the succeeding summits and social conferences organized by the UN over the last decade, has exacerbated. We acknowledge significant global advances in some sectors, for instance the generation of opportunities in the job market and the improvement of women's access to basic social services. Progress at the national and international level is still limited. Concrete measures to create a more favorable environment for women's social inclusion are rare. We have not succeeded in avoiding inequalities between men and women, in terms of wages and functions in the job market. Neither have we been able to rescue a huge population, composed mainly of women, from extreme poverty. In this respect, one notices that the feminization of poverty has increased all over the world and prominently in Latin America.

Women represent 51% of Brazil's population and 40.4% of its economically active segment. In 1970, this latter percentage was of only 20%. In this period, there was an average annual growth of 12%. Depending on the region, 26% to 30% of our households are led by women.

Legislation and policies in our country guarantee equal rights and opportunities for men and women, as a result of a long-lasting struggle for women's rights. At the moment, women represent only 8.8% of members of our National Congress.

In the executive branch, we are commemorating a major advancement: for the first time in our political history, four women were invited by the President of the Republic, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, to integrate the top level of the Federal Government. We are all in strategic areas: Senator Marina Silva, Minister of Environment, a woman committed to environmental questions, who grew up extracting latex from the rubber trees in the Amazon region, a union leader who became literate only at the age of 16. Another woman at the top level of the Government is Dilma Roussef, Minister of Mining and Energy, a former guerrilla, a political activist who was imprisoned and fiercely persecuted during the dictatorial regime in Brazil (1964-1989). Benedita da Silva, Minister of Social Affairs, a former slum dweller in Rio de Janeiro and the first black woman to be elected Senator in Brazil.

And myself, Minister for Women Policies, a former Senator, a teacher, a union leader in the educational sector, coming from the far southern Brazil, in the border between my country and Uruguay, a region where the Brazilian people advocated the objectives of union and integration that led to the creation of Mercosur. This brief reference to the background of the four top female officials is intended as a tribute to the history of the struggle of women in our country.

Ladies and Gentleman, At the same time that we highlight the gradual increase of the level of participation of Brazilian women in decision-making, it is necessary to recognize some shortcomings, like the high level of household employment, an occupation which is poorly paid and one in which women prevail. This sector represents 19% of the economically active female population. 56% of those women are of African descent.

A large number of Brazilian women have jobs in the informal sector of the economy. In 1985, 41% of employed women earned the equivalent to the minimum wage, whereas this percentage among men was 23.1%. Twelve years later, in 1998, the proportion of women in the same wage situation was almost halved: 25.8%. This is undoubtedly an advance, but the figure remains high and the difference in relation to men remains significant. Another indicator that reflects the situation of the working woman in Brazil is the fact that women earned, in 1993, average wages equivalent to 49.4% of wages earned by men. In 1999, this percentage rose to 60.7%.

Nevertheless, mechanisms of discrimination against women in the economy and in the job market remain. They bypass the system of legal protection and have deep cultural and structural roots, which contribute to the feminization of poverty. As indicated by the Beijing Platform of Action, women's poverty is directly linked to the lack of autonomy and opportunities, poor access to economic resources, education and health services, and fragile participation in decision-making processes. Eradicating poverty requires decisive actions to overcome these shortcomings. Strategies of a strictly macroeconomic nature will not be sufficient to reach the aims that 147 Heads of State and Government, from 191 countries, established during the Millennium Summit to halve, by 2015, the percentage of people who survive with less than one dollar per day and people who suffer from hunger all over the world. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the goal of halving poverty by 2015 is being postponed to 2050. This is alarming. The person who is hungry cannot wait. One cannot wait until 2015, let alone 2050.

In Brazil, we are convinced, as citizens, of the moral duty to eradicate hunger and extreme poverty. We firmly believe that this goal can be achieved. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva determined that the eradication of hunger in Brazil, in the next four years, is the top priority of our Government. According to him, "Brazil cannot continue to live with so much inequality. We need to win over hunger, extreme poverty and social exclusion. Our war is not aimed at killing anyone - it is aimed at saving lives". To do so, he has called on civil society, the productive sector, workers, teachers, students, and businessmen... Women and men, therefore, are being called to contribute to the struggle for the eradication of hunger and poverty in our country.

Only someone with the sensibility and the background of our President could decide that the fight against hunger, extreme poverty and social and economic exclusion should be his first priority. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is a metalworker, a migrant from Northeastern Brazil, one of the poorest and most disadvantaged regions of the country. When he was a child, he experienced hunger and worked in the field to help his mother, who was head of the family, support his seven brothers and sisters. Therefore, the life history of our President and his knowledge of Brazilian reality with its diversities made this unprecedented measure possible.

Since 1 January 2003, Brazil is setting up a program to fight hunger, called Zero Hunger. This program aims at guaranteeing quality, quantity and regularity of the access to food to 46 million Brazilians who survive with less than a dollar a day. Three types of actions are being carried out: 1) structural actions to combat the root causes of hunger and poverty; 2) specific or emergency actions, aimed at directly assisting families who do not eat adequately; and 3) local actions, which will be implemented in the communities with the participation of civil society.

The first set of actions includes policies for job creation and income generation, for increasing access to social protection networks, incentives to family agriculture, intensification of land reform, consolidation of programs of redistribution of resources, such as "bolsa-escola" (a scholarship for poor families aimed at increasing their income and keeping children at school). In the second set, there are specific initiatives such as increasing the coverage of "merenda escolar" (school lunch). In the third set, there are complementary actions, plans for creating food banks and popular restaurants.

It is also important, in a proposal of this nature, to stress the right of women to breast-feed their children, as a way of combating child malnutrition. Women are often denied this right by public and private employers, or because of poor economic conditions and lack of orientation, which result in harmful consequences for the development of the child and the woman's health. The right to breast-feed must not be incompatible with the right of women to work. The State must make sure the legislation is enforced.

The conceptual basis of the Zero Hunger program is to include the social objective as the foundation of development policies implemented in Brazil. This basis has been ignored by previous governments: the initiatives to fight poverty adopted until now in our country had an exclusively assistencialist nature, in general terms. Therefore, our proposal to act upon the structural causes of poverty will result in the establishment of a new articulation between demand and production, which aims at stimulating agriculture, bringing dynamism to local economies and fighting social exclusion.

It is important to emphasize that the program has already begun in some Brazilian towns with low human development index. It should also be noted that civil society organizations are actively participating in all steps of the formulation and implementation of the Zero Hunger program, through a National Council of Food Security, composed of 62 members: 3 female ministers, including myself; 10 male ministers; 11 observers and 38 representatives of civil society. The President of the Republic challenged each member to be able to say, after 4 years, with pride, in any part of the world: In Brazil, everyone has breakfast, lunch and dinner every day.

We recognize that the eradication of poverty and its negative effects require reverting concepts, structures and social and cultural projects that keep women in a situation of submissiveness and maintain their unequal access to economic, political and social resources. The fight against poverty turns itself in a fight for autonomy, dignity, respect and promotion of all human rights, including the right to development.

Many social programs that are being implemented in Brazil recognize the extraordinary value of the empowerment of women to reach different targets related to the poverty eradication. At the same time, a coordinated effort is being made to provide identification documents to Brazilian women who still do not have them. Women and mothers with low income are receiving credit cards, which allow the implementation of different programs of redistribution of resources.

In the educational field, approximately 3 million women are receiving resources to keep their children at school. The "bolsa-escola" program is promoting a wider access to education and making sure that children attend classes and are kept away from the streets, from drugs and from child labor. In such programs, the autonomy of women is recognized by the State.

Finally, Mr. Moderator, in order to eradicate poverty and reach an effective situation of social equity and gender balance, it is necessary to reconcile the universal principle of equality with the recognition of specific needs of those groups that have been historically and culturally excluded and discriminated. I am referring specially to women, indigenous groups and people of African descent.

Our Constitution recognizes the social segments that face a structural and conjunctural situation of vulnerability. The Conferences of Beijing and, more recently, Durban, and their respective preparatory processes, helped Brazilian society to acknowledge the importance of objectively considering the historic, cultural and economic roots of discrimination, and to develop strategies and programs designed to build a fair and democratic country. At the dawn of the new century, the Member States of the United Nations that decided with one voice to define common goals must respect the principles established in the Millennium Declaration. Firm in our purpose, we have to start eradicating hunger because the right to food and the right to life are closely related. Eradicating hunger, extreme poverty and social and economic exclusion must be an obsession of all peoples and governments of the world, not only of the victims of hunger.

Therefore, in this International Women's Day, I wish to reiterate that the role of women in this effort cannot be ignored or underestimated. The key to the success that we all wish for is to fully include in our policies to combat poverty strategies designed to ensure that women have control over their lives and actively and equally participate in all fields: cultural, social, political and economic. This is, no doubt, our major challenge.

Thank you very much.

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