Monterey, NL. The government of Nuevo León, through the Secretariat for Equality and Inclusion, relaunched the strategy “Zero Hunger”which was launched by the previous administration, with the aim of eradicating extreme food poverty and food waste in the entity, through coordinated actions in which the private initiative and organized civil society participate.
13 strategic projects will be implemented, among them, the delivery of an economic resource such as food aid; accompaniment for the development of productive capacities, economy and food self-sufficiency; among other issues.
In the multidimensional measurement of poverty from 2016 against 2020, carried out by the National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy (Coneval)indicates that in 2016, there were 997,900 people in poverty in the state, however only 1.3% were in extreme poverty and 17.6% in moderate poverty.
Also in 2020, the population in poverty increased to 1 million 425,000 people, and although the Zero Hunger strategy was applied, it was not possible to obtain the white flag due to the loss of thousands of jobs due to the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as rising inflation, therefore, extreme poverty grew to 2.1%, and moderate poverty to 22.2 percent.
To address this problem, Governor Samuel García Sepúlveda, accompanied by his wife Mariana Rodríguez, from Amar a Nuevo León, reported that 333 million pesos will be invested initially; 211 million state contribution and the private initiative will disburse 122 million pesos.
“That is the floor, with this we start, but Martha (Herrera, Secretary of Equality and Inclusion) said it very well, 1,280 million pesos are used to raise the white flag.”
There is a crisis that as a government cannot be dismissed, which is hunger, for which the main legacy of a government is to achieve social mobility, the president emphasized.
“With this cabinet, with this team, with Martha (Herrera, Secretary of Equality and Inclusion) and with the whole of society, with all the sectors together, we are going to once again reach 0.7% percent (of extreme food poverty) and I very much hope soon raise the white flag, “he said.
For her part, Martha Herrera, Secretary for Equality and Inclusion, commented that with the combined efforts of all sectors, serve more than 55,000 people in the statebut factors such as the pandemic and inflation have aggravated the problem of hunger and the situation of families.
“That is why today we are launching Zero Hunger in Nuevo León as a strengthened, multi-sector, inter-institutional, transversal and sustainable strategy aligned with the State Development Plan, the State Strategic Plan, and the United Nations 2030 Agenda to thereby overcome the food poverty and food waste in the state,” he said.
“The goal is to serve 430,000 peoplereduce food losses and waste, and achieve food self-sufficiency for the 54% (of the population) that are of productive age,” added the official.
For her part, Lina Pohl Alfaro, representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), praised the launch of this new Zero Hunger route and that Nuevo León is going to be the first state and the first place in Latin America and the Cribe that it faces in a determined and committed way (food poverty), with a structured and comprehensive program to address the great problem that is hunger”.
During the presentation of “Zero Hunger”, an agreement was signed to establish the Inter-institutional Committee, which will have the bases for the operation of the actions of the state strategy.