Twenty-Seventh Session of IFAD's Governing Council

18 February 2004

Dear Friends,

I am happy to send my greetings to the Governing Council of the International Fund for Agricultural Development.

The importance of rural development is now widely recognized. It was the subject of the Ministerial Declaration issued by the ECOSOC High Level Segment. last summer, at which I myself stressed that rural development has to be brought to the centre of the development agenda. Three-quarters of the 1.2 billion people classified as extremely poor live in rural areas, and depend on agriculture and related activities for their livelihood.

IFAD, which like the rest of the United Nations system is committed to helping Member States achieve the Millennium Development Goals, has a specific mandate to reduce rural poverty. Throughout its 26 years, it has focused on helping rural poor groups like smallholder farmers, poor herders, fishermen and, above all poor women, to increase their productivity and incomes. IFAD has helped to raise awareness about the importance of agriculture and rural development, and has provided many useful insights into the institutional and policy framework needed to help reduce rural poverty more rapidly.

We must now work to increase the resources allocated to agriculture and rural development and put in place policies that will allow the rural poor to benefit from the opportunities opened up by domestic liberalization as well as the challenges of globalization.

They can do so only if they have a fair opportunity to compete in world markets, and therefore they have a vital stake in the success of the Doha Round of trade negotiations.

I would like to commend IFAD for highlighting the importance of an open international trade regime for poor farmers, whose interests and needs are all too often overlooked. Your discussions at this Governing Council on the theme of Trade and Rural Development will, I am sure, bring forward new insights on this critical topic.

Achieving the MDGs presents a complex and ambitious challenge. All entities in the United Nations system are working increasingly closely together at it, within their different mandates – harmonizing their programmes and processes and making their operations mutually supportive and reinforcing. In this context I would like especially to commend Lennart Båge for the leadership he has given to the High Level Committee on Programmes. This committee of the Chief Executives’ Board is the principal body where different parts of the UN system can share ideas on policies and programmes, and develop common approaches.

All of us are working to improve the lives of the poor. I am sure your discussions will be guided by the desire to make an important contribution to that aim.