Panama joins Mexico and FAO in "Mesoamerica without Hunger" Program

Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The Republic of Panama has officially joined the regional "Mesoamerica without Hunger" program, aimed at eradicating this scourge by 2025. This mechanism, promoted by Mexico's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), seeks to improve family agriculture, and food and nutrition security, in the region.

The Mexican Agency for International Development Cooperation (AMEXCID), of the SRE, will finance the program in coordination with authorities of Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, and the Dominican Republic.

FAO coordinator for Central America and Panama, Ignacio Rivera, said that "there is an effort of the institutions and society as a whole to reduce and eradicate hunger, with agencies like FAO and AMEXCID supporting the States in this regard."

The lines of work of the Panamanian component of "Mesoamerica without Hunger" are focused on small-scale family farmers, with special emphasis on the nation's central provinces and regions, with the goal of development taking place in the framework of its social and productive environments.

Maria Luisa Navarro, Panama's Deputy Minister of Multilateral Affairs and Cooperation, said that "our goal is to put the country's wealth at the service of all with social justice and equity, in order to improve the quality of life and for Panama to grow with prosperity for all; this will only be possible by working hand in hand with the region to link strengths and take advantage of different capacities of the countries for a more effective cooperation."

Mexico's ambassador in Panama, José Ignacio Piña Rojas, said that "Mesoamerica without Hunger positions Mexico as a global actor of human development, by providing a means through which the government of President Enrique Peña Nieto cooperates and shares its National Crusade against Hunger experience, that is focused on ensuring food security for more than seven million Mexicans in food poverty, with the Mesoamerican countries."

Regionally, the program will contribute to linking strengths and taking advantage of the different capabilities of the countries for a more effective cooperation, and it will serve to strengthen compliance of the goal of eradicate hunger throughout the region by 2025.

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Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE), Mexico, DF, May 16, 2015; translation by SRE (edited)