Mr. Chairman,
The President of IFAD
Distinguished Governors and Delegates
Ladies, and Gentlemen

It is always a great pleasure for me to participate and contribute in the discussions of the Governing Council of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).  Uganda congratulates IFAD for having attained 30 years. We are happy of what the fund has done for the poor man kind during this period. I must add that my delegation is pleased with the arrangements that have been put in place for the business of this 31st session of the IFAD Governing Council.

Mr. Chairman, the global adoption of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) some nine years ago was a reminder that poverty and hunger were still the main challenges to humanity that must be viciously addressed with utmost urgency.  To-date the problem still persists especially in Sub-Sahara Africa, where three quarters of the population of 1.1 billion people, still live in rural areas as smallholder farmers, fishers, herders faced with a diversity of challenges such as landlessness which are especially detrimental to poor rural women. 

Without appropriate remedies, such disadvantaged people are destined to remain in the realms of poverty and food insecurity.

Uganda is indeed proud to be associated with IFAD as a specialized international organization that exclusively focuses on their plight. 

Mr. Chairman, the relationship between IFAD and Uganda is not very recent. It started way back in 1981, a duration in which IFAD has financed 15 different operations in my country especially in partnership with local communities and institutions.  While some of the projects have closed, IFAD’s current operational projects are six with a total loan portfolio of about SDR 74.02 million.

We are also pleased to note that the recent reforms have seen IFAD shift its outlook from being a Rome based institution operating through co - operating institutions to more field presence. This enhances project supervision in addition to improving IFAD visibility and greater advocacy with Government and other development partners. We however feel that the IFAD office in Kampala requires more personnel for improved efficiency. 

Mr. Chairman, the ongoing approach of using the Country Programme Management Team (CPMT) in the IFAD portfolio was recently introduced in Uganda. It comprises Government technocrats, Project Managers and other stakeholders to foster, encourage and streamline formal and informal linkages among the various projects. It also helps to evolve solutions for problems and challenges at policy and implementation levels, thus nurturing a better understanding and learning process across the portfolio.

During the last session, my colleague briefed this August House of the Uganda Government’s drive, to increase access to rural financial services by the rural poor. The approach entails strengthening and establishing savings and credit cooperative organizations (SACCOs) and the Prosperity for All Programme.

Emphasis would be placed on targeting the financing of facilities of the value chain at all points to avoid haphazard approach to doing business in the rural areas. Government recently put in place a rural financial services policy to encourage the rural active poor to begin saving in order to be able to invest and produce.  With increased savings, there is no doubt that, the active poor will go into production and thereby increase their incomes.  We are also in the process of amending our land law in order to give better security of tenure to peasants and other interest groups in the country, thereby encouraging production.  The IFAD financed rural financial services programme is no doubt deepening these reforms and innovations.  It is for the above reasons that, the Government of Uganda calls upon IFAD to expand its resources available to borrowing member countries like Uganda, so that more programmes can be financed in a cycle, and thereby increase the number of people graduating from poverty.

Mr. Chairman, as we go into the discussions of the 8th replenishment of IFAD resources, it is the earnest belief of the Uganda Government that, this is completed in a timely and fashioned manner and possibly with a substantially higher replenishment level than in the past.  I have no doubt that IFAD resources have continued to expand, but Uganda prays that these resources be doubled.

I believe we can and must.

Together we can make rural poverty history.

I thank you all