Madame. Chairperson
Your Excellency Prime Minister of the United Republic of Tanzania
Mr. President of IFAD
Honourable Governors
Excellencies,
Distinguish Participants
Ladies and Gentlemen

Allow me at the outset to express, on behalf of the delegation of the Republic of Mozambique, our gratitude to the President of IFAD for the invitation extended to our Government to take part in this Thirty-third Session of IFAD’s Governing Council.

I am honoured to represent His Excellency, Aiuba Cuereneia, Minister for Planning and Development and Governor for Mozambique, who could not be here today, but sent greetings to this important gathering, that takes place for the first time on these beautiful premises of IFAD Headquarters.

Since I am taking the floor for the first time, let me join the previous speakers, by congratulating you Madame Chairperson and to the two Vice Chairpersons for the unanimous election and extend the full support of my Delegation for the successful discharge of the duties entrusted upon you.

Let me also express the appreciation of the Government of Mozambique to the President of IFAD, His Excellency Kanayo Nwanze, on completion of his one year term, for his strong leadership and commitments to the noble ideals of this Organization which aims to improve the livelihood of the rural poor. Our gratitude is also extended to your dedicated team and staff that spare no efforts to make this organization a better institution for the disadvantaged poor communities residing in rural areas.

This session of the Governing Council, is taking place at a critical time, following the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti on January the 12th   This is a tragedy that touches us profoundly.  We therefore would like to express our condolences and extend our solidarity to  the people and Government of Haiti .

We welcome the outcome of the High Level Meeting on Haiti called by the Government of Haiti with the involvement of the FAO, WFP and IFAD held in Rome last week that emphasized the need for medium and long term strategies to ensure the Reconstruction and Redevelopment of Haiti, particularly with regard to agricultural development, food security and nutrition.

In this process, and taking into account IFAD experience in empowering the poor in rural areas where a significant number of the population in this country is fleeing to, we pledge IFAD to avail support programmes to restore productivity infrastructures as well as the supply of agriculture inputs to improve food security in that country.

Madame Chairperson,

This session of the Governing Council,  follows some momentous world events  held in 2009, namely  the G8 Summit of L’Aquila in July, the world Summit on Food Security in November, in Rome and the UN Climate Change Conference of  Copenhagen    in December.

The Government of Mozambique is fully committed to play its role in order to ensure the implementation of such commitments, to reverse the scourge of hunger and poverty that is still affecting around 1 billion of people in the world, particularly in developing countries.

To intensify the fight against hunger the Government of Mozambique approved its Green Revolution strategy, and instruments intended to increase agricultural output and productivity and to generate more job opportunities in rural areas, where some 70% of the Mozambican population lives.

The Government has also approved its Food Production Action Plan for the period 2008 2011, to materialise this strategy. It is a Three-Year Plan that establishes national programs, priorities and targets, and activities along the value chain, with the intention of eliminating the deficit in the main agricultural products where the country is competitive, taking advantage of our country's vast agricultural potential.

Access to finance on the part of small farmers, the main agricultural productive force in Mozambique, is also an immediate challenge.  Therefore the government has created a Local Initiative Investment Budget for all 128 districts, in order to promote food production and create employment, and so they can assume the role as development centres and planning units in our country.

In this all process, IFAD as been playing an important role in  partnership with the Government of Mozambique, bearing in mind its comparative advantage,  particularly in areas such as rural finance services, rural extension, market linkages, artisan fisheries as well as agriculture and food security, thus contributing to improve the livelihood of the smallholders farmers in rural areas.

This task has been complemented by the combined efforts and coordinated engagement of FAO and WFP together with other UN operating agencies  in Mozambique,  in delivering as one, to ensure  efficiency and effectiveness  in achieving our development  goals at country level.

Madame Chairperson

We are encouraged by the constructive remarks  and recommendations made by the IFAD Evaluation Committee  held in Rome last December,  when   dealing with the Mozambique portfolio in the last ten years. The valuable experience and lessons learned will certainly contribute to improve this important cooperation and partnership for the years to come.

Therefore, we look forward for the visit of the Evaluation Committee members in the country as well the Country Programme Evaluation National Roundtable Workshop, planned to be held in May, 2010. We are confident that he Roundtable will collect different views and experiences from all involved stakeholders and provide guidelines to improve future interventions of IFAD in Mozambique, following the completion of the Country Programme Evaluation.

In this endeavour we also look forward for the establishment of IFAD field office in Mozambique, still this year. It is a step forward to deeper engage the policy dialogue in course at country level with the main development actors to increase the impact of programs and projects in rural communities and ensure sustainability.

In conclusion, let me welcome the entering into force the eighth replenishment as of first December 2009, to which Mozambique has already contributed and increased its chare. Under this framework we expect to see more projects and programmes being approved in favour of poor communities in rural areas, particularly in developing countries, to attain Millennium Development Goals.

Thank you very much for your kind attention!

17 February 2010