Catholic Relief Services has joined a coalition dedicated to using sustainable means to eradicate hunger and poverty around the world.
“CRS is delighted to join the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty,” said Sean Callahan, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) president and CEO, in a press release. “Ending hunger and poverty requires more than goodwill. It requires a sustained commitment to strengthening the systems that shape opportunity.”
The Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty has over 200 members from more than 100 countries and about 20 international organizations. It was founded in 2024 at the behest of the Brazilian presidency of the G20 to combat poverty and reduce inequalities.
Members join the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty through one of the organization’s three pillars: national, financial support, and knowledge. CRS joins the alliance under its knowledge pillar, according to the release, and will focus its efforts toward advancing social equality and inclusion, civic engagement and justice, care for creation, and local leadership.
“Durable change happens when we pair global solidarity with local leadership,” Callahan said. “CRS believes that the best way to ensure long-lasting change, especially change that can spread and be sustainable, is built through lifting up our local partners and helping them grow.”
“We are committed to the Catholic social teaching principle of subsidiarity and believe that joining the Global Alliance will help us spread that principle farther,” he said.
According to the release, CRS plans to share its experience with the alliance of aiding local communities around the world, “from building resilience with climate-smart agriculture to helping mothers and children access and eat nutritious foods and strengthening local government.”
In Central America and southern Mexico, the release noted, CRS collaborated with local governments and partners to boost agricultural development and water management, mobilizing “more than $150 million to scale regenerative agriculture,” increasing yields by more than 40%.
“We have had tremendous success helping our local partners become stronger,” Callahan said. “When local governments and organizations are more capable, their communities become stronger, and their people live better.”
