Gov’t partners with private sector to end hunger by 2030

THE GOVERNMENT and private sector on Monday synergized plans to combat hunger and malnutrition in the country. “Hunger is a silent enemy that can no longer be ignored… In our campaign against hunger, we should be all in, all out — anyone who can pitch in should help, and those who can help should go all out,” Cabinet Secretary Karlo Alexei B. Nograles said at the virtual launch of Pilipinas Kontra Gutom (PKG), a multisectoral movement against poverty led by the government’s Task Force Zero Hunger. The task force, created last year through an executive order, mobilizes government resources to achieve zero hunger and end other forms of food deprivation. Mr. Nograles said the national government and its private partners have a “daunting task” to achieve zero hunger by 2030, which is consistent with the government’s National Food Policy. He said the movement will adopt a whole-ofnation approach to achieve its immediate and long-term goals of addressing involuntary hunger and malnutrition in the Philippines, an urgent concern given the millions of families that grapple with hunger in the country amid the coronavirus pandemic. “With the strong synergy and collaboration between government and the private sector… we will be able to augment our resources and craft better plans and strategies so we can reach more and do more,” he said.

PARTNERS

Since being organized in November last year, PKG has grown into a movement that involves around 70 partners from private companies, non-profit groups and various other organizations. Mr. Nograles said the anti-hunger movement’s programs aim to increase farmer income by as much as 20% within the year and double farmer productivity by 2025. Private companies will work with the government to “revolutionize” country’s disaster response “to facilitate a prepared, synchronized, and targeted action flow for food security when crises strike,” Mr. Nograles said. He also urged food establishments to allocate their “food surplus” for the movement’s food banks in the capital region. The founding members of the anti-hunger movement include multinationals and some of the country’s biggest companies such as Coca-Cola Beverages Philippines, Inc., Dole Philippines, Inc., Johnson & Johnson’s Philippines, Inc., McDonald’s Philippines, Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. and San Miguel Corp. A Social Weather Stations poll in September last year showed that about 7.6 million Filipino families had experienced hunger in the second half of 2020. —