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.

The panel discussion is being held to consider issues pertinent to the Governing Council's theme. Taking into account the comments made during the panel discussion, the theme paper will subsequently be submitted to the United Nations International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD), to be held in Monterrey, Mexico, March 2002.

The format of the interactive dialogue is a follows: The President of IFAD will provide the Council with an introduction on the theme document. The guest panelists will then deliver their statements in the following anticipated order:

• Ambassador Ruth Jacoby, co-chairperson of the Preparatory Commission for the United Nations International Conference on Financing for Development
• Mr Sartaj Aziz, Former Minister for Finance and for External Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan
• Ms Maggie Kogozi, Chairperson of the Uganda Women's Effort to Save Children/Orphans (UWESCO)
• Mr Roberto Bissio, Global Coordinator of Social Watch in Uruguay

Following the presentations of the four panelists, questions, comments and statements will be invited from the floor.

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