Rome, 19-20 February 2002

It gives me great pleasure to send my greetings to the Governing Council of the International Fund for Agricultural Development.

Like the other entities in the United Nations system, IFAD is strongly committed to achieving the internationally agreed goal of halving the proportion of people living in extreme poverty by 2015. To succeed, we must focus on the poor where they live and work, and for 75 percent of the extreme poor, "home" is in the rural areas. For them, farming and related activities are the key to sustenance, to income and to survival.
As farmers and farm labourers, as pastoralists or fisherfolk, the rural poor are most threatened by degradation of the natural resources upon which their livelihoods depend. Perhaps nowhere is this link clearer than in water-stressed dry-lands, which are home to nearly 630 million rural poor people. For them, "desertification" is more than an environmental problem; it is a direct threat to their ability to grow crops, generate income, and raise their communities out of poverty.

Thus there is an urgent need to strengthen the mechanisms and institutions that are responsible for translating global environmental goals into sustainable development at the local level. One such body is the Global Mechanism of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. I would like to thank IFAD for its continued support of this mechanism and for its valuable contributions to the implementation of the Convention through its direct investments in dry-lands,

We must also reverse the declining flow of resources devoted to reducing rural poverty. This involves reinvigorating the level of investments that raise agricultural productivity and create off-farm employment. I hope that the International Conference on Financing for Development, to be held next month in Monterrey, Mexico, will find ways to mobilize additional resources for agricultural and rural development.

Money alone, however, will not achieve the 2015 target. We must improve the impact of investments in rural areas. IFAD has a key role to play in this effort. It has a long experience in working with the rural poor on the ground and in their communities. Through its community-based projects, IFAD has amassed important insights into the priorities, capacities, and needs of the rural poor. I commend the Fund for sharing this knowledge with all those who are dedicated to eradicating poverty.
By working together, I am confident that we can improve the conditions of all people who are trapped in poverty today and have no hope in the future. In that spirit, I wish you a most productive session.