Enabling poor rural people
to overcome poverty



The proceedings of the Governing Council live was broadcast live on the internet (Rai24 News) and via satellite

On 6 September 2001, President Båge wrote to all IFAD Governors soliciting ideas for making the Twenty-Fifth Session of the Governing Council – his first as President of the Fund – more interactive, substantive and productive. To that end, the President proposed ‘Financing Development – the Rural Dimension’ as the overall theme of the Council. The replies received fully endorsed the proposed theme.

The Twenty-Fifth Session of the Governing Council will be held at a particularly important time in terms of world events, including the International Conference on Financing for Development to be held in Mexico in March 2002. That being the case, IFAD feels it would be particularly appropriate to focus on the goal set forth in the United Nations Millennium Declaration “To halve, by the year 2015, the proportion of the world’s people whose income is less than one dollar a day”. As a result of that declaration, many multilateral institutions and donor countries now accord greater priority to reducing poverty. With its longstanding focus on rural poverty, IFAD is now faced with new opportunities – and a corresponding level of responsibility – for playing a stronger catalytic role in promoting poverty-alleviation efforts in the developing world and in helping to attain the Millennium goal, which will call for greater resources in terms of external development assistance and domestic investment, especially in the rural sector. In this regard, the proposed theme of the Council will have a strong link with discussions in other fora and may also contribute to their outcome.

It is proposed to hold an interactive policy discussion – guided by a panel of high-level development experts – in plenary during the first day of the Session. The panel will be composed of the President of IFAD, the Chairperson of the Governing Council, two-to-three guest speakers and two-to-three heads of delegation, each of whom will speak for five minutes. That will be followed by a question-and-answer period.

On the second day, it is also proposed to hold, at one and the same time, six roundtable discussions on specific regions and topics, drawing on the regional assessments and strategies currently being developed by IFAD. These roundtable discussions will cover the regions indicated in the Programme of Work:

Each roundtable will be chaired by a minister or senior representative from the region concerned; IFAD division directors and senior economists will assist the groups and introduce the relevant regional strategies. National delegations are invited to attend the roundtable discussions of their choice and, in order to maximize interaction, may even wish to have different members attend different discussion groups.

This year proceedings of IFAD's Governing Council was broadcast live on the internet (Rai24 News) and via satellite on Eutelsat W2 @ 16 DEG EAST - B5 - channel 3
Uplink Frequency: 14434.23 MHz - V pol
Downlink Frequency: 11134.23 MHz - H pol
Symbol rate: 5.632 FEC: ¾ Data Rate: 8.448 mbits
From 0900-1900 CET on 19 February and from 0900-1800 CET on 20 February.

Television Stations are welcome to download and use any part of this transmission free of charge. The broadcast will include live coverage of the opening ceremony, conference highlights and a mixture of IFAD Films as well as statements from Conference Delegates.

 

Read more