President Rodrigo Duterte is set to sign anytime soon an executive order creating the Zero Hunger Task Force, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles announced Monday.
Nograles, said that this part of the the Duterte administration’s commitment to support the sustainable development goals (SDGs) of the United Nations, noting that the Philippines was ready to collaborate on programs that were essential to improving living conditions and quality of life while at the same time working to preserve the environment.
“We’ve set a lofty aim of reducing hunger by 25 percent every two and a half years and we have identified a little more than 30 provinces to focus on,” Nograles explained.
The Cabinet secretary made the remark after a visit to Malacañang last April 25 by members of the United Nations Country Team (UNCT).
The body encompasses all the entities of the UN system which carry out operational activities for development, emergency, recovery and transition in host countries.
“We specifically discussed the administration’s ongoing initiatives in the field of food security, “green economy” and peace, highlighting the impending creation of a Zero Hunger Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF), the goal of which is to eradicate hunger in the country by 2030, laying down a sustainable and effective national environmental policy, as well as pushing the peace process in Mindanao forward with the creation of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM)” Nograles noted.
According to the Cabinet secretary, the meeting focused on exploring “common alignments” between domestic Philippine policy and overall UN objectives.
“We covered a range of topics but we zeroed in on our goals that we could collaborate and work together on. On the government’s part, we fully emphasized the zero hunger program as a key to medium and long-term development.”
Present during the meeting were officials representing various UN agencies, namely Mr. Khalid Hasan, Ms. Kristin Dadey, Mr. Titon Mitra, Ms. Rena Dona, Ms. Jutta Neitzel, Dr. Gundo Weiler, Ms. Maria Ermina Valdeavilla-Gallardo, Mr. Mark Bidder, Mr. Cris Rollo and Ms. Eden Lumilan.
