Mr. Chairperson of the Governing Council
Mr. President of IFAD
Distinguished Governors and Delegates
Ladies and Gentlemen
           
On behalf of the Government of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, I am honored to make a statement to this distinguished assembly on the importance that my country attaches to the noble mandate of IFAD, which is to help the poor to help themselves.

Honorable Governors! The challenge facing many developing countries is how to improve the livelihoods of the hard core poor. Experience has shown that the trickle down approach does not work well with the hard core poor who often suffer from isolation, consist mainly of indigenous people, have very little or no say in the national decision making process, lack access to productive assets, have minimum skills and are deprived from economic mobility. Imaginative and innovative approaches are required to reach this hard core poor. In our opinion, the key ingredients in assisting the hard core poor are effective institutional structure at the grassroots level, group mobilization, building on indigenous knowledge, the introduction of technologies that the poor can handle without great risk and an investment pattern that enables them to acquire productive assets that can be used on a sustainable basis. All these elements are closely linked to the mandate of IFAD, which is to improve the income and living standards of the rural poor through higher agricultural productivity, capacity building, knowledge sharing and other income generating agro-based activities. In this connection, we find the panel discussion on Innovation Challenges for the Rural Poor and the three Roundtables as most appropriate topics for the deliberation of the Twenty-ninth Session of the Governing Council.

Mr. Chairperson! The economy of Afghanistan is predominantly agrarian and agriculture provides for the livelihood of at least sixty-five percent of the total population of nearly, 25 million. Poverty, as measured by well known international indicators, is widespread in rural Afghanistan. Moreover, the 25 years of war and internal strife, coupled with the long drought of 1997-2001, have exacerbated the plight of the rural communities. Perhaps as much as 75 to 80 percent of the rural population in Afghanistan lives below one Dollar a day. Rural Afghanistan is also facing three other challenging problems, namely, the settlement of the returning refugees and the internally displaced population, improving the status and economic opportunities of rural women and the eradication of poppy cultivation which have world-wide damaging effects.

Ladies and gentlemen! The current strategy of the Government of Afghanistan for the rural sector is the promotion of integrated development that focuses specifically on meeting the needs of the poorest households. The six pillars of this strategy are: institution building at community level, a balanced investment pattern in rural areas that can satisfy both the economic and social needs of the community, the development of rural infrastructure, a free market incentive system, building the technical and human capacities of the rural people and taking special measures in improving the status of women in rural Afghanistan. Our recent democratically elected Parliament and democratically elected Provincial Councils have the responsibility to underpin the participatory nature of the integrated development strategy under the auspices of the Government led by President Hamid Karzai. My Government is pleased to note that the London Conference has endorsed the increasing role of Government institutions in the development process of Afghanistan.

Mr. Chairperson! Allow me to say a few more words about IFAD. The recently completed independent external evaluation has given a good passing mark to IFAD. Its operations by and large have been successful and improving steadily. Moreover, IFAD's mandate has acquired increased relevance and importance in the light of the Millennium Development Goals. In this connection, Afghanistan strongly supports the New Operating Model as envisaged under the Seventh Replenishment and which makes country level programme the centre piece of IFAD's intervention.

In the opinion of my country the two billion dollars programme proposed by the President of IFAD for the period 2007-2009 is the minimum to enable IFAD to play its relative role in assisting developing countries to achieve their Millennium Development targets. Afghanistan also supports the replenishment level of US $ 800 million and requests the industrialized nations and the OPEC members to be generous in their financial commitments to IFAD.

Distinguished Governors! Afghanistan strongly supports the proposal to earmark two- thirds of IFAD loans and grants for the Least Developed and low-income food-deficit countries. We also endorse IFAD's involvement in the debt sustainability for the highly Indebted Poor Countries.

Afghanistan urges the extension of the Associated Professional Officer Programme to include person from the developing countries. It seeks the reform of the voting rights in IFAD and improvement in the representation of List C countries in the Executive Board of IFAD.

Finally Mr. Chairperson, On behalf of my Government I wish IFAD and its able President all the success in the implementation of the New Operating model. My Government is eagerly awaiting the start of IFAD's operations in Afghanistan as the rural people of my country have not been the recipient of assistance from IFAD in the past.

Thank you Mr. Chairperson.