Mr. Chairman
Mr. President
Distinguished Governors
Excellencies
Ladies and Gentlemen

First of all, on behalf of my delegation and that of my own, I would like to extend my warm congratulations on your election as chairperson of the Governing Council. I am confident that with your able and wise guidance the deliberations of the conference would successfully achieve the expected and desired goals of IFAD and its member countries.

Allow me, Mr. Chairman, to say few words on the statement delivered by the president during the opening ceremony. The statement is not only lucid and informative but also stated the measures taken to overcome the challenge encountered and the achievements gained since the twenty-eighth session of the Governing Council. I fully agree with the president that much has remained to be done in fulfilling the mission of our organization to enable the rural poor to overcome their poverty.

Mr. Chairman,

My country, Ethiopia, since May 1991, has geared its development strategy in line with IFAD to enable the rural poor to overcome poverty.

It is a vivid fact that with 85 percent of the population living in rural areas, economic development will not be achieved without giving proper attention to the agriculture sector.

Our agricultural-led-industrialization strategy, supported by proper structural and institutional networks, with development agents posted at community level so that farmers have access on the appropriate knowledge and technology has been instrumental in increment of farm production and productivity. In major rural sites a number of agricultural training centers have been established to train farmers to improve their capacity.

A number of micro-credit associations have been organized mainly by targeting the rural women, with the view of running small businesses for additional income earnings. Measures have also been undertaken to facilitate access to education and primary health care by developing appropriate infrastructures. The devolution of power to the lowest administrative level has allowed the community to conduct their own affairs on matters that affect their own livelihood. Moreover, the rural communities are allowed to organize themselves voluntarily in cooperative associations aimed at promoting and protecting their interest within his existing liberal economic system.

Mr. Chairman,

Currently my government is committed to promoting rapid economic development. With this objective in mind, it is deeply involved in laying down the necessary basis for building good governance and democratic institutions with more private sector participation. The endeavour along this line is very encouraging. The implementation of the poverty reduction program is well underway with significant achievements in agriculture development as well as on education, health, water, energy, and road sectors that have direct impact on improving the livelihood of farmers and the rural economy.

It is evident that such achievement wouldn't have been possible without the cooperation and participation of the international community. In this regard, Mr. Chairman, allow me to say few words on IFAD's contribution to our development endeavours.

Based on universally accepted principles of partnership in development, IFAD on its part is operating in my country in running development programs since 1980. Among the ongoing projects IFAD's involvement mainly encompasses:

• Agricultural marketing improvement programme;
• Pastoral community development project;
• Rural financial intermediation programme;
• Agricultural research and training project;
• Special country programme -Phase II
• Southern region cooperatives development project.
  

These projects and programmes are expected to benefit more than 5 million households in the rural community. Thus, such intervention has been crucial in alleviating rural poverty and indeed in fulfilling part of the millennium development goal.

To meet the millennium development goal fully, it is necessary to engage in more areas of development:

• Promoting and facilitating efficient and equitable market linkages for agricultural products;
• developing and assisting rural financial system by providing micro-credit facility;
• Improving and encouraging access to and management of land and water by introducing water and soil conservation technologies;
• helping to create access to appropriate technology and information system for building farmers capacity to enhance their productivity and efficiency.

Mr. Chairman,

Finally, I conclude my intervention by reaffirming our commitment to strengthen and expand the relations and the cooperations that so happily exists between my country and IFAD and call upon member countries to redouble their efforts towards achieving the noble objective of IFAD for the better and brighter future by sharing the limited resources available at our disposal.

I thank you !