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

It is a great pleasure and privilege for me to address the Governing Council of the International Fund for Agricultural Development on behalf of the Nordic countries: Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and my own country Finland.

Like others, we too would like to welcome the Membership of the Government of Niue in the IFAD.

At the UN High Level Meeting the international community once again reaffirmed its commitment to work forcefully for the attainment of the MDGs. The international community also acknowledged the limited progress so far and agreed on the assessment that MDGs would not be met without urgent new actions and additional efforts. Africa, in particular, continues to present a major development challenge and is the only region that will not, in current trends, achieve the targets by 2015. In this connection, the Nordic Countries welcome IFADs renewed focus on the challenges of the Sub-Saharan African countries.

Rural and agricultural development has a special reference in the UN Summit outcome. The majority of the world's poor live in rural areas and earn their living from agriculture. Agriculture and rural development are therefore of primary importance for achieving the broad-based growth needed to halve the number of people who suffer from poverty and hunger by the year 2015.

Today's meeting is about IFAD and its challenges. Year 2005, the Year of Development was an active year also for IFAD. In addition to the important day-to-day work, processes for internal change and resource replenishments were conducted based on the results of the Independent External Evaluation and the Management's responses to it. We would once again congratulate IFAD's forward-looking approach of learning from the IEE-results, IFAD being the first UN organization to undertake such a thorough evaluation. The dialogue between the Management and the Board of Directors has produced a time-bound and results-oriented Action Plan, with elements for improving IFADs development effectiveness, focussing IFADs operational work on its comparative advantage, by making full use of IFAD's potential for innovation and by producing sustainable results on the ground.

The evaluation and the Management's responses were used as a basis for the 7th replenishment process, which final outcome we hope will be agreed upon later today. As the fund was established on the basis of partnership among shareholder categories, we firmly believe that the financing base should continue to reflect that special partnership also in the future. 

The replenishment agreement will reflect the common understanding among the shareholders on the way forward. Important elements are the foreseen adoption of a uniform system of comparison and allocation across the lending programme as a whole , the proposed introduction of a debt sustainability framework comparable to other IFI's, and further improvement of IFADs internal procedures and controls including anti-corruption work. On the PBAS system the Nordic countries underline the need to ensure that at least the same amount of resources as now is devoted to Sub-Saharan Africa.

Mr. Chairman,

Globalisation, trade liberalisation, a changing role of the government and a growing role of private sector have significantly changed the agricultural development setting. As far as international trade is concerned, there is a need to ensure that developing countries will be able to take advantage of the opportunities connected with the opening of markets in the developed world.

Several important changes in the international assistance framework have and will influence the conditions of IFAD's work. Among others, the outcome of the Paris High-Level Meeting on Harmonization and Development Effectiveness, and the particular attention given to the role of developing country Governments, have resulted in an increasing movement of the international development community towards a broad-based approach on rural development, while recognising the importance of focussing on the needs of the poor. 

The Independent External Evaluation has presented IFAD with a challenge of defining as clearly as possible the Fund's strategic niche and comparative advantage in relation to other actors. The Action Plan reflects the Fund's commitment to move forward. It needs to be noted that the country-based approach will pose a particular challenge to IFAD, taking into account IFAD's limited country presence. We welcome the direction of the new strategic framework aimed for sharpened focus and new kinds of partnerships with both national and international actors. This issue has to be kept in focus and revisited while the discussions on the UN reforms, international development architecture and country-based assistance arrangements are continuing and concrete proposals are taking shape.

In this context, the decision to make innovation the overarching theme of this GC appears particularly relevant.   IFAD has been praised for its innovative project-based work. The Nordic countries would encourage IFAD to seek new ways to make full use of its experience and share it with others. Innovation is not a product, it is a process involving i.a. partnerships, empowerment and technologies. While IFADs participation to innovation will take place in many ways, I would like to highlight some of those, where we could foresee IFAD's active role.

Growth in agricultural production is central to economic growth and poverty reduction, especially in Africa. In many countries, poor people's opportunities to participate in agricultural production are limited due to lack of productive assets. Land tenure is a key issue and must be addressed at both local and national levels. Investments for agricultural growth are crucial to enhance food security.

Strengthening the voice and participation of the poor of the poor in decision-making is an essential element of broad-based strategy to enhance long-term growth and equitable development. Empowerment of the poor helps to strengthen domestic accountability and to ensure that access to services and opportunities are equally distributed. Our own experience implies that institutions and policies, which promote the active participation of all members of the society in economic, social and political life, contribute to equitable growth.

Women play a crucial role in agricultural production and rural development as they often are responsible for food security in the family and in charge of most of the productive work. Their role must be recognised and IFAD should continue to work for improvement of women's access to productive resources.

Dynamic private sector is one of the main drivers of growth also in the agricultural sector. Efforts to accelerate the development of private sector require concerted actions to improve the investment climate and enhance the capacity of entrepreneurs to do business and increase agricultural production.  IFAD's important role is to facilitate the participation of the rural poor in this development. 

Finally, Mr Chairman

While we all agree that IFAD is facing a challenging future, we need to seize the opportunity for success. The international community has agreed on overarching development goals, the IFAD's membership has agreed on targets for the organisation, we have a road map and fresh resources to proceed with the implementation.

Mr. Chairman, I would like to reiterate the strong Nordic support to the important work of IFAD. We will continue to work actively with the Management and our partners in the Executive Board and the Governing Council to maintain and improve IFAD's role as a champion for the rural poor.

Thank you.