The importance of food security cannot be understated.
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations food security definition, is when “all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.”
FAO in Papua New Guinea last week hosted a virtual Food Systems Summit Dialogue.
The dialogue consisted of three sessions: two panel sessions and a breakout session for guided discussions.
The aim of this dialogue was to bring together key partners in the food and agriculture industry to initiate cooperation and inclusivity between the Departments of Agriculture and Livestock, Foreign Affairs and Trade and FAO to develop a national pathway for a sustainable food systems pathway for PNG.
Session one’s theme three was focused on ‘Strengthening responsible, sustainable and resilient food systems in times of vulnerabilities shocks and stresses, without degrading the natural environment.’
The panel for this discussion consisted of World Health Organization’s representative, Derek Brown Australian Acting Minister Counsellor and National Fisheries Authority’s Deputy Managing Director for Technical and Operations, Noan Pakop.
Australian Acting Minister Counsellor Derek Brown highlighted the Australian Government’s many aid programs, especially in the agriculture sector.
Brown stated the urgent need for PNG to have a bio-security policy and bill in place. He said his team is working with NAQIA to see that this project is delivered soon.
“This bill is really critical to achieving traction on bio-security. Without a bio-security bill, there’s no base on which to build, there’s no base on which to gain any traction,” Brown said.
In addition, Brown announced that his team is finalizing a new economic governance partnership, which will entail 200 million Australian dollars over the next 8 years.
Brown, “We hope to have this new program up and running by April to May next year. This new partnership will have a key focus on agriculture and will complement the work of our current aid programs.”
Derek Brown said PNG’s rich agriculture and marine products have the potential for export to markets in Australia and thus the importance of having in place the bio security bill and policy.
FAO’s Head of Programme, Mirriam Mondia said the national dialogue comes after two sub-regional dialogues, all were focused on identifying gaps in current food security programs and supporting current initiatives in the country and region.
Mondia said, “It was important for us to see a high level dialogue where we looking more or less into the key policies, the strategies that are probably in place but maybe needs to be viewed in respect to supporting what we will be supporting the government in developing which is the national pathway for a sustainable food systems pathway.”
The discussions are hoped to bring about collective actions for food security that can change the way PNG produces, processes and consumes food.