Rome, 19-20 February 2003

Mr. Chairman
Mr. President of IFAD
Distinguished Governors
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen

It is an honour for me to address this Conference on behalf of the Mauritian Minister of Agriculture, Food Technology and Natural Resources, who is unable to participate here today, but has asked me to pass on his wish for a successful anniversary session.

Over the last quarter of century IFAD has been focusing its effort on poverty reduction in rural areas of developing countries. About 1.2 billion people, one fifth of the world’s population live in extreme poverty. The 1995 World Food Summit placed poverty reduction on the global development agenda, and the Millennium Summit in 2000 recognised the urgency to address the problem of poverty reduction. Now the challenge ahead is to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. One of the key goals, indeed the overarching goal, is to reduce the proportion of people living in extreme poverty by half by year 2015. I am confident that the team of President Bäge would most ably meet the challenges ahead.

I also wish to thank IFAD for its continued support to my country since 1983. The ongoing Rural Diversification Programme supports the Mauritian Government comprehensive poverty alleviation strategy to stimulate diversified and sustainable economic development for low-income households. The Programme extends to various sectors, that is irrigation, extension services, fishing, micro credit and Community development.

The programme which started in 2000 is progressing satisfactorily and will be completed in 2006. The micro credit scheme addressed directly the pockets of poverty, and brings the disadvantaged people within a particular organizational framework in which they can understand and operate and can find some socio-political and economic strength through mutual support. The scheme has a positive response, and it has not been possible to satisfy all requests. Similarly the Community Development programme facilitates economic and social progress for the whole community. It supports the Government of Mauritius in its policy in reversing the emergence of social exclusion and potential marginalization pertaining to the young and women-headed households.

Under the Irrigated Agriculture sub-component, rural farmers are being provided with irrigation facilities to enable them to increase their yield and revenue as well. Also the fishermen are being trained to use Fishing Aided Devices (FAD) to improve their catch. The objective of the Government is to improve the standard of living of the poor and to give them the opportunity to participate in the economic development of the country.

Mr. Chairman, Mauritius shares IFAD’s vision of enabling the rural poor to overcome their own poverty. The rural poor should be empowered to influence their policies themselves, and be given the means to do so. In Mauritius there are no rural poor as such, but pockets of poverty in specific areas and feminisation of poverty. A study was carried out in 2001 to identify who are the poor and the forms of vulnerability. Subsequently a plan of action was devised to address the problem of poverty. The Government of Mauritius recognizes that poverty problems are multi-faceted and have deep seated root causes which can only be addressed effectively by policy revisions at macro-economic as well as at institutional level combined with a targeted gross root approach in areas suffering from acute poverty. Important policy changes are currently being introduced to address poverty related problems in the field of housing and education.

The theme for this year’s interactive panel discussion, ‘Achieving the Millenium Development Goals by Enabling the Rural Poor to overcome their Poverty” is linked to major UN initiatives like the FAO and WFP towards bringing the issues of hunger and poverty at Centre stage. The importance of concerted efforts to redress a weakening international economic environment, and developing a commitment to multilateral development cooperation would need to be reiterated. Today only 12% of total ODA goes to agriculture as opposed to 20% in 1980.

In addressing the fundamental issue of food security in the battle against hunger and poverty, impending factors like market inaccessibility, trade barriers and unequal terms of trade should be given due consideration. As long as the agricultural products of the poor fail to access international markets and fetch good prices, the fight against reduction of poverty will not progress. Each country’s policy specificity should be taken into consideration as there cannot be one overall solution. In the post Doha WTO negotiations in agriculture, small island developing states and other vulnerable developing countries have proposed modalities to address their specific problems. Mauritius being a small island state and a net food importer believes in a more flexible approach to the problem of food security.

Mauritius is fully conscious that a more productive agriculture is vital to food security and poverty alleviations. Conventional practices prove to have become obsolete if we are to keep pace with the alarmingly rising food requirements and exigencies, with the world population projected to increase by almost 90 million annually over the next decade. There is need to carry out appropriate research to adopt appropriate novel innovative technologies to increase food production. Agricultural research requires heavy investments which most of the time cannot be afforded by developing countries. In this context, developed states should devise strategic ties and work in partnership with less developing countries and donor organizations with a view to supporting agricultural research if the target set at the World Food Summit is to be met.

Recently leaders of African countries have been in the forefront in the fight against poverty. African Heads of State and Government acknowledged the importance of reducing poverty and formed the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD). The leaders have shown the political will, common vision and firm conviction that they have a pressing duty to fight and eradicate poverty, improve standard of living of the people, reaffirm sovereignty and integrity and enable their countries to participate actively in the global economy. The NEPAD initiatives need to be fully supported by international organizations as well as the private sector.

The mitigation of HIV/Aids infection is a matter of concern in the fight against poverty. There are about 42 million people worldwide living with HIV-AIDS, and almost 30 million live in sub-Saharan Africa. The epidemic has negative impact on the rural poor families and on the extremely poor. HIV-Aids is therefore a rural development issue empacting on rural development. Much effort should be made for tackling HIV/Aids not only as a purely medical model, but as social, economic and gender dimensions. IFAD has already started actions to mitigate the impact of HIV/Aids, and this is a laudable effort which should be continued and increased.

Mr. Chairman, to conclude I would like to express the appreciation of Mauritius to IFAD for its invaluable contribution to mobilize international efforts to combat poverty. In the name of my country I wish your meeting all success.

Thank you.