Vietnam Launches National Zero Hunger Challenge

By Minggu Simon Lhasa BANGKOK, Jan 15 (Bernama) -- The national Zero Hunger Challenge (ZHC), a major initiative to eradicate hunger in Vietnam was launched Wednesday by the Vietnamese Government, in collaboration with the United Nations (UN), including the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). “Vietnam’s participation in the ZHC is not only an active response to a UN initiative, but also a practical move to further address poverty reduction, food security and nutrition in rural areas, especially in remote and isolated ones home to ethnic minorities and vulnerable groups in the north west and Central Highlands,” said Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung at the launch in Hanoi. The Zero Hunger Challenge was launched by the UN secretary-general at the Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development in Brazil in June 2012. It called on all societies to join forces to end hunger and achieve sustainable development by 2025, said FAO in a statement here Wednesday. To achieve this goal in Vietnam, UN agencies, coordinated by the UN Resident Coordinator and technically supported by FAO, provided concerted assistance to this process and formulation of a National Action Plan to implement the national ZHC. The National Action Plan will contribute to the country’s Socio-Economic Development Plan 2016-2020, in particular its Sustainable Poverty Reduction and New Rural Development national target programmes. The national action plan will create an institutional platform to design and implement food security and nutrition policies measures in a coordinated manner that will have a sustainable impact on national food security, sustainable poverty reduction and new rural development. -- BERNAMA