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

I bring to you all warm greetings from the President, Government and the people of the Republic of Kiribati on whose behalf I am honoured and privileged to address this Governing Council this morning.

At the outset, I would like to thank the Government of Italy for the cordial hospitality accorded to me and my delegation on our arrival.  I also thank the Secretariat for the excellent arrangements made for our meeting.

Allow me, Mr. Chairman, to offer my congratulations to you and members of the Bureau on your election to preside over the 30th Session of the Governing Council of IFAD. I am confident that under your able stewardship this Session will successfully deliver constructive and productive outcomes that will benefit IFAD’s membership.

Mr. Chairman,

My Government and people are grateful to the Governing Council for admitting Kiribati to the membership of IFAD at the twenty-eight session. The Kiribati Government would like to see the partnership it has established with IFAD to be a meaningful and beneficial partnership to help the rural poor in the world including those in Kiribati. The Kiribati Government is committed to contribute, what it can, towards the implementation of IFAD’s mandate and it is my intention to be able to confirm to the President, Kiribati’s contribution to the Seventh Replenishment Fund soon after the end of this meeting.

Mr. Chairman,

A Class “C” member of IFAD, Kiribati has very particular development problems. Our remoteness and insularity, narrow economic base, small population size and high population growth rate are factors that we must contend with. We must also contend with the HIV/AIDS pandemic and tuberculosis, among others, which require the diversion of already meager resources we have at our disposal to finance our development.

Even with these daunting challenges we are forced to operate in an environment of uncertainty.  I say uncertainty as our very survival as a nation and as a people with distinct culture and way of life is being threatened by global warming and sea level rise.

Consisting of low-lying coral atolls, Kiribati is particularly vulnerable to the impact of global warming and sea level rise.  As sea levels rise it will affect our ground water supply and gradually erode whatever land is available on our thirty three islands.

As a matter of survival therefore we have and will continue to appeal to the international community, including IFAD, to agree on a unified response to these phenomena including that of climate change.

Mr. Chairman,

With the constraints we have, agricultural production is very low and most food is imported. In our efforts however to ensure food security for our people, over sixty percent of whom  reside in the rural areas we call the outer islands, we have taken steps to increase food production, with a focus mainly on the indigenous food crops using organic farming in order to lessen reliance on imported food products.

Government has taken the initiative of setting up Farmers’Cooperatives on most islands, managed independently by local farmers. These coupled with FAO’s partnership in providing funds towards the procurement of basic agricultural tools for use by our rural farmers have assisted towards increased food production not only for domestic consumption but also for some marketing. Perhaps, IFAD can assist towards the setting up of agricultural training centres in the outer islands and capacity building for agricultural extension officers and the local farmers. 

With its wealth of experience and knowledge base we see that IFAD can play a critical role in our efforts to improve the livelihood of our rural poor people in Kiribati. The assistance we require is for technical assistance area and seed funding to improve local capacity to start self sustaining activities at the grass-root level. In this regard we are pleased to note the Strategy Paper for Pacific Island Countries and welcome the Technical Assistance Grant for the Mainstreaming of Rural Development Innovations Programme in the Pacific being implemented by the Asia and Pacific Division. Quality interventions directed at capacity building at the grass-root level should not require much financial resource. But these can contribute substantially to the greater impact and greater outreach to the rural poor of IFAD programme in the Pacific. 

Mr. Chairman,

At this point I would like to offer my congratulations to Mr. President, the management team and all staff of IFAD for the good performance they have achieved in 2006. I also congratulate the newly appointed members of the management team and wish them well in their work ahead as we collectively seek to address the challenges facing our rural people.   

Allow me to close by conveying to you all our traditional blessings of te mauri(health), te raoi (peace) ao te tabomoa (and prosperity).

I thank you for your attention.

the Honorable Teima Onorio
Vice President and Minister of Environment, Lands and Agricultural Development of the Republic of Kiribati