The theme of the Session was ‘Investing in sustainable food systems to end hunger by 2030 – IFAD’s role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.’ Budgetary and programme-related issues were also addressed during the Session.

Polish minister on food security

In his inaugural speech, the minister observed that ensuring food security for the global population is one of the fundamental challenges of today.

‘The fact that the number of undernourished people is approaching one billion and increases every year is a great tragedy. Mother Earth can still feed many generations of her children, but it requires coordinated effort on our part,’ stated minister Jan Krzysztof Ardanowski.

‘Our priorities must include improved resource efficient agriculture, local food systems, development of scientific research, animal and plant disease control,’ added the minister.

The head of the Polish delegation also raised the issue of food waste.

‘We must also take care not to waste food. Wasting food, the farmers’ work and the Earth’s resources while billions are starving is nothing short of immoral, in fact it is a sin against God the Creator. As a country with prominent agriculture, a country with its fair share of problems, including climate-related ones, Poland feels responsible for feeding the people on Earth, our brothers and sisters living on other continents,’ emphasised minister Ardanowski.

In his message addressed to the participants of the debate on sustainable food systems, the minister elaborated on his theses related to food waste.

‘Being mindful of our food is particularly important given that hunger and undernutrition are still rampant in the world. Food waste has negative social, economic and environmental effects,’ pointed out the minister.

‘For every food product we must consider its production, packaging, transport, energy demand and industrial waste emissions. Discarded food means wasting tremendous volumes of water and energy used for its production, transport, storage and preparation. Food waste has a negative environmental impact as well. As much as 8% of greenhouse gas emissions raises our planet’s temperature because of our wastefulness, with 30% of the world’s cultivated areas producing food that will eventually be wasted. On top of that, producing this wasted food consumes 25% of water needed for the entire agriculture,’ remarked minister Ardanowski.

The head of the Polish delegation also took this opportunity to point out the need to respect culture and tradition when providing developmental and humanitarian aid.

‘On behalf of Poland, a country with very strong ties to the ideas of freedom and democracy, I wish to note that any aid offered to countries suffering from poverty cannot be contingent upon them adopting any ideology. Forcing African countries to adopt the ideology of gender, abortion, sterilisation or euthanasia and making aid depend on them engaging in behaviours that indigenous traditions consider sick and unacceptable must be vehemently opposed,’ said the minister.

Meetings with the IFAD President and the FAO Director-General

During the meetings with IFAD President Gilbert Houngbo and FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu, the Polish Minister of Agriculture stated that current global problems cannot be solved without the cooperation of international organisations, entities from the private sector and NGOs. The same holds true for ensuring food security, especially given that our planet has sufficient resources to feed the human race. The problem lies in food access inequalities, which the minister denounced as not only illogical, but immoral as well. This was the context in which he declared Poland’s commitment to the organisation’s work aimed at eradicating hunger and modernising the agricultural sector.

Minister Jan Krzysztof Ardanowski asked the Director-General of FAO for a correction regarding Poland’s membership of the FAO.

‘Poland was among the FAO’s founding member states in 1945. It later left the organisation for political reasons. According to FAO, Poland joined the organisation in 1958, which in actuality was the date of our re-accession. This does not present a full account of our commitment to FAO’s work,’ stressed the minister.

The procedure of Poland’s accession to IFAD was completed on 29 January 2020. Thus, Poland became the Organisation’s 177^th member state. IFAD is a specialised UN agency whose main focus is providing financial support to developing countries, aiming to reduce poverty in rural areas, address nutritional concerns and increase food production. The Governing Council is IFAD’s main governing body. It consists of representatives of all Member States and holds sessions once a year. The sessions are also attended by invited Observers. The Board’s decision-making competences include approving new members, appointing a new president, approving the administrative budget, adopting policies, criteria and regulations.