Duterte forms task force on “zero hunger”

January 16, 2020

President Rodrigo Duterte has created an inter-agency task force that aims to end hunger in the country.

Executive Order No. 101, which Duterte signed on January 10 but released Thursday, said the Inter-Agency Task Force on Zero Hunger is headed by the Cabinet Secretary.

It noted that involuntary hunger, food security, undernutrition, and child wasting, stunting and mortality, continue to be serious concerns in the country.

"There is a need to carefully coordinate, rationalize, monitor and assess the efforts of concerned government agencies and instrumentalities to ensure a whole-of-government approach to eradicating hunger and achieving food security," the EO read.

The secretaries of the Department of Social Welfare and Development and Department of Agriculture are vice-chairpersons of the Task Force.

The members include the secretaries of the departments of Agrarian Reform, Budget and Management, Education, Environment and Natural Resources, Health, Labor and Employment, Interior and Local Government, Trade and Industry, and Science and Technology, and Presidential Communications Operations Office; director-general of the National Economic and Development Authority; and chairperson of the Commission on Higher Education.

The Task Force members may designate an alternate to represent their respective offices in their absence.

The inter-agency group is tasked to formulate a national food policy and coordinate and rationalize the efforts of concerned government agencies and instrumentalities to ensure a whole-of-government approach to attaining zero hunger, among others.

The Task Force shall have a secretariat composed of personnel from its member-agencies.

The order shall take effect immediately. Celerina Monte/DMS