Venezuela and the United Nations Organization for Food (FAO) have created a new program of cooperation to eradicate hunger "Food and Nutritional Sovereignty for Latin America" (SANA), which through its support, strengthen the Action Plan for the Eradication of Hunger and Poverty "Hugo Chavez", will consolidate social movements and the solidarity exchange of foods.

With an initial budget of $ 12 million US dollars of the Venezuelan government, SANA includes 21 countries stakeholders in the Petrocaribe Agreement and the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA).

"Venezuela is implementing not only food security initiatives with significant impact to its own population, it is also a key partner in various South-South cooperation initiatives seeking to realize the dream of a Latin America and the Caribbean free from hunger," pointed out Raúl Benítez, FAO Regional Representative.

"Venezuela has not only achieved the objective of reducing hunger in the Millennium Development Goals, it also maintained its level of undernutrition below 5%, by increasing its national interventions and its international cooperation in order to totally eradicate hunger in the region. Venezuela and FAO deeply believe in this objective and are working together to reach it through the SANA initiative," said Marcelo Resende, FAO Representative in Venezuela.

The 3 main components of the program SANA :

The first consists of technical support to major regional initiatives against hunger, such as the Action Plan for the Eradication of Hunger and Poverty "Hugo Chavez" and the CELAC's Plan for Food Security, Nutrition and Hunger Eradication "FAO has supported these plans since their inception, and we hope to continue to potentiating their impacts together with Venezuela through the SANA program," said Marcelo Resende.

According to FAO, over 30 million people are freed from hunger in Latin America and the Caribbean over the last 25 years. Therefore, this region is the only one to achieve the goal of hunger of the Millennium Development Goals.

The second component of SANS Program, proposes to consolidate the social movements by building the capacity people-leaders and rural organizations so that they are able to participate in the formulation and implementation of food safety public policies.

Finally, the third component of SANA aims to work with the family and rural farming organizations and governments to create exchanges and a solidarity food marketing.

Raúl Benítez noted that this program could improve and deepen the progress in the fight against hunger and explained that if we managed to reduce hunger in the region "Now we are aiming for its eradication, we want a Latin America and Caribbean more prosperous and just."

HL/ HaitiLibre