Agriculture ministers from Latin America and the Caribbean came together Tuesday to discuss strategies aimed at eradicating hunger and poverty by 2025, Xinhua/People’s Daily Online reports. “The ministers debated common strategies to fight hunger and poverty, though the situation in each country was different,” the news service writes (3/17).

Thirteen countries were represented at the meeting, which was coordinated by Mercosur, the Andean Community and Caricom, according to the Latin American Herald Tribune. Representatives from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization also attended the meeting, which is part of the “fourth work-group meeting of the Latin America and Caribbean Without Hunger 2025 project,” according to the publication.

“One of the main subjects dealt with at the meeting was the possibility of establishing a mechanism to coordinate the organizations of sub regional integration with the work group against hunger,” the Latin American Herald Tribune writes.

According to a communique from Ecuador’s agriculture ministry, the cooperation “would be focused on establishing a project authority, which, making use of existing structures, would establish a program of priorities and investments for a list of projects” to develop the region. “The work group is also studying global food-security initiatives and suggested the possibility of the different partners in the region establishing a fund for that purpose,” according to the newspaper (3/17).