The Rural Poverty Report 2010 – highlights and feedback on work in progress

The flagship Rural Poverty Report will look at rural poverty today and present a vision of the future, in the search for solutions that will enable rural people to overcome poverty in a rapidly changing world. This side event will provide a unique opportunity for policymakers and senior officials from IFAD Member States, as well as representatives of NGOs and farmers’ organizations, to engage in dialogue on the shape and content of the report.

Rural people face different problems and opportunities in different parts of the world. They have varied livelihoods, as producers of food and other agricultural products, as pastoralists, fishers, hunter-gatherers, and as labourers and microentrepreneurs. Women, men and youth confront different realities, while indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities frequently face particular and unique challenges. So what does the future look like for all of these people? Will climate variability, declining access to land and water, exclusion from global markets and low rural wages result in growing poverty and hunger? Or will we see increased investment in the rural areas and enabling policies leading to more sustainable land management, increased agricultural productivity, stronger rural organizations, and a growing rural economy in which the poor share the benefits? What needs to be done to make the second of these two outcomes a reality?

A presentation on the first draft of the report will be made, after which participants will have the opportunity to comment on the ideas discussed in the report and to highlight issues critical to their work in agricultural and rural development and rural poverty reduction that they believe should be addressed by the report.