They discussed the achievements of the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the EU in development cooperation and humanitarian aid, Slovenia’s activities in ensuring food security of developing countries, and the possibilities for further cooperation.

Acting Director-General Jukič underlined that Slovenia devoted significant attention to food security, which is one of the important national priorities in development cooperation and humanitarian aid, during its Council Presidency. Several discussions took place to this end in the EU Council working groups.

He added that Slovenia is closely monitoring the rise of devastating hunger in the world. For this reason, Slovenia considerably increased its humanitarian contributions to food security in 2021 and, through the WFP alone, allocated EUR 260,000 to prevent hunger in Madagascar, Afghanistan and Yemen. Other development and humanitarian projects that also ensure food security and resilience building are currently being implemented in Uganda, Rwanda, Syria and Sudan with the help of partner organisations.

The officials agreed that the growing impact of climate change should be taken into account in the programming of humanitarian and food aid. Measures should therefore be taken to mitigate it and prevent environmental degradation.

With its team of 1400 employees mostly working in the field, the World Food Programme, which is the winner of the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize, ensures the food security of over 100 million people in 80 countries in the world annually.