Caracas, 19 Dic. AVN.- On Wednesday the Bolivarian government signed three agreements with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as part of the Joint Action Plan for the eradication of hunger and poverty.
"These are agreements that will allow us to strengthen technical assistance, monitoring and control of public policies for Latin America and the Caribbean," said Venezuelan Vice President of the Social Area, Hector Rodriguez, who explained that Venezuela signed these agreements as representative of the social area in the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) and the Common Market of the South (Mercosur).
"Venezuela has a great social responsibility we must assume as Bolivar taught us, as Chavez taught us, with great humility and great energy for the great Latin American and Caribbean homeland," said also Minister for Youth during a meeting with director general of FAO Jose Graziano da Silva in the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry office in Caracas.
Rodriguez recalled that Venezuela has been recognized by FAO for their hard struggle in reducing hunger in the country and noted that in the homeland of Bolivar "four million Venezuelans overcame hunger," thanks to the various policies of the Bolivarian Revolution.
In this regard, he said that in the country there are more than 22,000 food distribution centers, working through initiatives such as the meal centers, School Feeding Program, and food markets Mercal and Bicentennial.
"These are all the efforts we make every day for our people to eat," said Rodriguez, who was also accompanied by the Ministers of Food, Felix Osorio, and Agriculture and Lands, Yvan Gil.
During the meeting three documents were signed: Venezuela's project of socioeconomic fishery management and sustainable environment, memorandum of understanding between Venezuela and FAO for technical assistance to strengthen the Alba Food fund, and the executive program to implement technical cooperation initiatives in the fields of security, nutrition and food sovereignty and reduction of poverty in the region, reported the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry on its website.
Although significant advances have been made, Minister Rodriguez warned that 47 million people still suffer from hunger in the Latin-Caribbean region so they are definitely working to eradicate this problem by 2024 .
The meeting between Venezuela and FAO came a day after the Second Extraordinary Summit of ALBA and Petrocaribe, in which ministers agreed to implement an action plan for the eradication of hunger and poverty in conjunction with FAO.
"Here we have built a working plan" Rodriguez said, and added that this plan includes boosting the role of the women in the fight against hunger because "the Latin American and Caribbean women is the main labor force for these realities to change."
Encouraging local markets is another issue addressed in this plan of action, but likewise direct food distribution should be made in some cases.
"The water issue is critical in the battle against hunger," added Rodriguez, who stressed that Venezuela has recently approved the National Water Plan, although a particular diagnosis must be made by the governments of each country "because there are different realities."