Some 20 deputies participated in a day of reflection on the establishment of a Parliamentary Front Against Hunger (FPF), recently organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

Nathanael Hishamunda, FAO Representative in Haiti, drew the attention of Parliamentarians to the fact that the fight against hunger requires a multi-level governance approach that includes both Executive, Legislative and Judicial powers, economic agents and Organizations of the Civil Society.

He particularly stressed the role of the legislature in this approach to fighting hunger, through legislation that can accompany food and nutrition security policies and programs, and has drawn the attention of parliamentarians to their ability to put the issue of food security at the highest level of the political and legislative agenda.

The deputy Tanis Tertius, chairman of the Committee on Agriculture and Food Security in the Chamber of Deputies, said he relies on FAO's technical support for the establishment of such a Front, like other countries of the region "The creation of a Parliamentary Front against Hunger will allow us to respond to the different facets of poverty and hunger and to identify the possibilities of solution through the implementation of adapted public policies."

The day focused mainly on issues related to the processes and mechanisms for creating this front: the different steps involved in creating an FPF, its composition, mandate, objectives, relevance, structure, legal status, its legitimacy within the legislature, its internal regulations, its strategies, its conditions of sustainability, among others.

At the end of the day, FAO's Special Ambassador "Zero Hunger" for Latin America and the Caribbean, former Dominican Deputy Guadalupe Valdez, who facilitated the discussions, stressed that despite the major challenges faced by Haiti, achieving food security as a goal of sustainable development by 2030 is possible if all actors combine their efforts in the same direction.

Ambassador Valdeza recalled that with the support of FAO, 17 Parliamentary Fronts against Hunger, 4 Framework Laws and 20 laws on food security and nutrition issues have emerged in some countries in the region "Haiti could be the 18th country to join the Regional Coordination of Parliamentary Fronts against Hunger and the first Francophone country in the world to create one.

HL/ HaitiLibre