Rome, 19 February 2001

Mr. Chairman,
(Mr President of the Council of Ministers)
Mr President
Madame Executive Director,
Distinguished Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a pleasure for me to address this opening session of IFAD's twenty-fifth Governing Council meeting as it gives me an opportunity to emphasize once more the close cooperation and jointly-held goals of IFAD and FAO. I am particularly pleased to note that since I last had the honour to address this distinguished Council just one year ago, IFAD and FAO have broadened and strengthened collaboration to fight against poverty and hunger in the world.

Mr Chairman,
Distinguished Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Our joint activities continue to grow as we work together in the pursuit of common goals. The recent edition of the joint FAO/IFAD/WFP publication Working Together, which was issued in November last year, portrays many of the ways in which the three organizations are collaborating in the rural areas in many of our member countries. Still, hunger and poverty persist. In a world increasingly bound together through globalization, the existence of some 815 million people deprived of the most basic ingredient of a healthy life - food - must surely resonate among us here as a moral outrage.

But hunger reduction is not just a moral imperative. It makes good economic sense. The economic cost of hunger and malnutrition, reflected in lost productivity, social programmes, illness and premature death, is extremely high. It is vital, therefore, that the problem of hunger be seen as a mainstream development challenge and not merely as a humanitarian issue. In particular, there is a need to increase substantially the funding available to address the root causes of hunger and to empower people to take part in development programmes that will lift them from the grip of poverty. There is a need to invest in improving the livelihoods of millions of rural people so that we can reverse rural decline and achieve broad-based rural development and sustainable social and economic progress.

That is why the three Rome-based food and agriculture organizations give such importance to the several high-level international meetings that are taking place this year. They provide opportunities to stimulate investment in sustainable rural development and to build a sense of urgency to renew and reinvigorate a process that has so far fallen short of the commitments made at the World Food Summit in 1996.

I am therefore pleased to note the level of collaboration that we have reached in the run-up to these meetings. In particular, the preparatory work for the Conference on Financing for Development has seen IFAD, WFP, and FAO joined in common cause to push for the return of rural development, food and agriculture to their former positions as key elements in the development process throughout much of the world. The presentation by the President of IFAD, on behalf of the three Rome-based organizations, to the second session of the Conference's Preparatory Committee in October last year, followed by the address to the subsequent Preparatory Committee session by the Deputy Executive Director of WFP, were of particular significance, and, I understand, much appreciated by the participants. In addition, I know that several of the delegations here today were instrumental in reinforcing our central concerns through direct contacts with your respective Representatives in New York. I hope you will continue to support this cause in a similar way at the Monterey Conference next month.

Mr Chairman,
Distinguished Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Our three organizations are also preparing a panel meeting to be held as a side event of the Conference itself. The panel meeting, whose theme is Reducing Poverty and Hunger: the Critical Role of Financing for Rural Development, Food and Agriculture, will provide an opportunity for governments, NGOs, the World Bank and our three organizations to exchange views and ideas on how to raise and target more effectively the necessary development resources to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. The outcome both of this side event and of the Conference itself will, of course, provide important inputs to the process leading up to the World Food Summit: Five Years Later, to be held at FAO Headquarters from 10 to 13 June this year.

In this context, I am also pleased to mention our close collaboration with IFAD in the preparations for the Summit. In particular, I would like to thank IFAD's Vice President, Mr John Westley, who so ably chaired the High-Level Panel which met here in Rome in June last year to explore the issue of resource mobilization for food security, agriculture and rural development, and to identify specific actions needed to raise resource flows and delivery capacities of donors and recipients for poverty and hunger reduction. The conclusions of the Panel meeting emphasized the need for all parties to move into an accelerated mode if the World Food Summit and other International Development Goals contained in the UN Millennium Declaration are to be attained. The Panel also recognized that closer partnerships would promote a common understanding of the links between food security, agriculture and economic development, as well as the ways by which improved investment in agriculture and rural development can contribute to the achievement of the Millennium goals.

As we know, the 1996 World Food Summit's goal of halving the number of undernourished people by the year 2015, is in danger of not being achieved. Annual reductions in the number of undernourished have been in the order of only 6 million per year; far below the 20 million originally needed. The WFS: fyl will address the two major constraints identified as hampering achievement of the target: political will and resource availability. The report of the High-Level Panel will be a key background document for consideration by the assembled Heads of State and Government, and other delegates.

In mobilizing the international community once again and committing it to adequately address these two crucial factors, the Summit will provide further impetus to our common struggle for a world free of hunger and poverty. I hope that IFAD and the members of its Governing Council gathered here today will join with us in carrying the message to Government leaders throughout the world. This is perhaps the most important issue facing the world today, and it is one that requires direct and concerted action by all to make a better, more prosperous and peaceful world for the future.

Mr Chairman,
On behalf of the Director-General, I would like to extend to the Governing Council best wishes for success in its deliberations.

Thank you, Mr Chairman.