Madame Chairperson,
Distinguished Governors,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is, once again, a great honor to be at another Governing Council meeting whose theme is “Investing in the Youths”. It is important to direct our attention to these young women and men as they are the future farmers, entrepreneurs and indeed leaders. In developing countries, young people make up on average 20 percent of the population, which represents huge potential resource to these countries. Madame Chairperson, in my country, Zambia, youths constitute over 50 per cent of the population.

Statistics indicate that two out of every five urban youths and four out of every five rural youths cannot find formal sector employment. Each year, approximately 250,000 young people enter Zambia’s labour market. However, it is not easy for the formal sector to absorb all these young people. I believe this picture is also true for many other developing nations. The theme for this meeting could, therefore, not have come at a better time than now. 

Madame Chairperson,

Allow me to commend IFAD on the wonderful work it is doing in financing agricultural development projects in developing countries, especially its contribution in tackling the structural problems relating to poverty in the rural areas where the majority of our population lives. It is pleasing to note that, in addition to various programmes that IFAD is supporting, it has added another important dimension to target the youths in rural areas. IFAD support to youth empowerment will help address the issue of unemployment which most countries are faced with.

The Government of the republic of Zambia is fully aware of the challenges that man young people are facing. While the country is churning out a high number of school leavers every year, the youths become disillusioned when they fail to get into colleges or secure formal employment. The focus must therefore change from raising a cadre of youths whose aim is to get formal employment to training them in hands on skills to be self-employed. To this effect, the Zambian government has come up with initiatives such as the construction of Youth Training Centers, Youth Resettlement Schemes as well as put aside some funds through the Citizen Economic Empowerment Commission (CEEC) which are earmarked for young entrepreneurs.

Distinguished Governors
Ladies and Gentlemen,

The importance of increased investment in agriculture for food security and income generation cannot be over-emphasized. Apart from investment, there is need for continued improvement of sector policies. Further, there is also need for promotion of institutional reforms that will further stimulate and facilitate accelerated expansion of the agricultural sector.

There is also growing consensus in Africa that if agriculture is to be the main sector to stimulate the economic growth, investment should go beyond improvement of on-farm productivity so as to cover agribusiness and agro industry production. In particular, value addition should be promoted and supported as there exists great potential for both domestic and regional agro-food markets. Emphasis has been on promoting private sector investment in the agriculture sector from both domestic and international sources.

Madame Chairperson,

My country is also in full support of the African Union (AU) initiative on agriculture, namely, the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP). To this effect, we just signed the country CAADP Compact in January this year. The CAADP Compact comprehensively spells out the priority programmes for the development of our agricultural sector.

At this juncture, allow me to take this opportunity to express Zambia’s appreciation for IFAD’s financial assistance to the agricultural sector in my country through the support of a number of programs in the area of agribusiness, small holder livestock to name but a few.

Madame Chairperson,

Let me conclude by expressing my government’s willingness to include, in the development agenda, the specific needs of young people so as to enhance their participation in the global fight against hunger. These efforts will assist in the eradication of rural poverty and put our country on the path to prosperity.

I thank you.

19 February 2011