By Marcela Ayres

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) -Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva kicked off a global effort on Wednesday to end hunger and extreme poverty, aiming to make it a hallmark of Brazil's G20 presidency as he seeks to restore the country's soft power on the world stage.

Alongside foreign officials in Rio de Janeiro, where finance and development ministers from the world's largest economies are meeting this week, Lula hailed the nascent Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty.

"Nothing is as absurd and unacceptable in the 21st century as the persistence of hunger and poverty, when we have so much abundance and so many scientific and technological resources at our disposal," Lula said.

"No issue is more current and more challenging for humanity. We cannot normalize such disparities - hunger is the most degrading of human deprivations, an attack on life, an assault on freedom."

Brazil will officially launch the initiative in November, when heads of state gather for the G20 Summit in the South American city.

In practice, the event on Wednesday paved the way for countries and institutions to join the proposal, which aims to pool knowledge, resources and partnerships to combat malnutrition.

The Brazilian government estimates it could attract participation from more than 100 countries.

Before the announcement, World Bank President Ajay Banga declared his support for the initiative during a bilateral meeting with Lula, the presidential office said.

Inter-American Development Bank head Ilan Goldfajn said at the event that along with the African Development Bank, the IDB would support the alliance with loans against International Monetary Fund Special Drawing Rights monetary reserves (SDRs).

The IMF approved the channeling of SDRs to multilateral development banks to boost their lending capacity in May.

Replicating the strategy adopted earlier this week for the G20 development ministerial meetings, the Brazilian G20 presidency released a chair statement stating some diplomatic members wanted to speak on conflicts impacting the global economy like Russia, Ukraine and the war in Gaza.

The Brazilian G20 Presidency will conduct the discussion on these issues with diplomats in the coming months in preparation for the Rio de Janeiro Leaders’ Summit, said the statement.

'ON THE PATH' TO ELIMINATE HUNGER

Lula, a former factory worker in his third non-consecutive term, created a national program in 2003 to eradicate hunger in Latin America's largest economy.

In 2014, Brazil exited the Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) "hunger map," with an undernourishment rate below 2.5% for three years.

However, the country has been unable to maintain these levels since 2021, when its three-year average rose to 3.4%, before worsening to 4.2% in 2022, as per revised data.

Earlier on Wednesday, FAO's annual report on the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World showed that Brazil's rate fell to 3.9% in 2023, the first year of Lula's new administration.

"Today, I can confidently say that on the path we are on, it is possible for us to eliminate hunger in Brazil under President Lula's government by 2026," said Social Development Minister, Wellington Dias.

The report found global levels of moderate or severe food insecurity have been stable for three years, indicating little progress toward the goal of eliminating extreme hunger worldwide by the United Nations' 2030 deadline.

The report estimated that more than 700 million people may have faced hunger in 2023, one out of 11 people globally, and one out of every five in Africa.

(Reporting by Marcela Ayres; Editing by William Maclean and Aurora Ellis)