Mr. Chairman
Mr. President of IFAD
Your Excellencies
Distinguished Governors and Delegates
Ladies and Gentlemen

It is a great honour for us to participate once again in the annual meeting of the IFAD Council of Governors, whom I would like to salute on behalf of the Portuguese delegation and myself.

IFAD continues to play an irreplaceable role in the fight against poverty and hunger all over the world, and especially in the rural areas of Africa, where the indicators of malnutrition and health are still intolerable and extremely disturbing.

It is fair to underline the dedication and the excellent work done by Mr. Fawzi Al-Sultan as President of IFAD, during the last eight years, mobilising resources and wills to fight against hunger and rural poverty. May we congratulate you on the way you have carried out this mission. May we express our sincere good wishes.

I hope that the new President of IFAD will have all the conditions in order to state this UN agency in the front line of the fight against rural poverty by the uncompromising fight for the human rights, at the beginning of the new millennium.

The projects supported by IFAD are an undeniable fact today and represent a highly significant contribution towards reducing deprivation and weakness in rural societies, thus providing better conditions for sustainable development that is compatible with greater equity in the distribution of income.

Let me stress Portugal’s determination in this fight against hunger and poverty in the world. This is obvious from our commitment to international activities and cooperation, involving our bilateral and multilateral participation in international initiatives and organisations.

Indeed, Portugal has been pursuing a policy of cooperation with developing countries, and especially Portuguese-speaking countries and territories. Our main goals are to foster economic growth, reduce poverty and promote the sustainable management of natural resources.

The Portuguese Cooperation has sought to give priority to countries in which agriculture and fisheries are the cornerstone of the economy and are also of considerable social importance. For example, about PTE 76 billion will be allocated to cooperation this year, giving it a budget larger than that of some ministries.

With regard to cooperation in the field of developing agriculture and fisheries, Portugal has given particular attention to Portuguese-speaking countries and territories, though without ignoring other regions in Africa, Latin America and Asia.

At the same time, Portugal plays an active role in several multilateral organisations, including IFAD obviously, in which it pursues cooperation for development with the express purpose of ensuring sustainable development in the poorest rural areas, trying to help invert the negative trend that often prolongs the cycles of progressive deterioration in the living conditions of their inhabitants.

In recent years, Portugal has made considerable efforts towards cooperation for development, focussing especially on Portuguese-speaking African countries. Different state and private organisations have done remarkable work towards implementing bilateral cooperation with these countries in different fields, all of which is aimed at empowering people to be the true protagonists of development and breaking the cycle of poverty and inequality that is so marked in rural communities.

The problem of poverty is a phenomenon of alarming proportions and is intolerable at a time when the world economy, in the advanced stages of globalisation, has a growing capacity to create wealth.

We should not forget that about half the world’s population lives on less than 2 dollars a day and that about 1/5 of this population lives on less than 1 dollar a day.

We are determined to commit ourselves to working more closely with IFAD in order to achieve its goals. On 12 February, we had the opportunity to organise an informal meeting with IFAD in Lisbon to study concrete forms of institutional collaboration that, in cooperation with the target countries, will enable us to concentrate resources and know-how on anti-poverty programs and projects that will produce visible results in an acceptable timeframe.

Negotiations are already under way between APAD (Portuguese Agency for Cooperation and Development) and IFAD, with a view to creating a Trust Fund to provide additional financial resources for implementing effective collaboration between the two institutions in projects of mutual interest. We sincerely hope that this process will be successful and that we will soon be even more able to strengthen our institutional ties and active cooperation.

Allow me to draw your attention now to the independence process in Timor Lorosae and to the resulting need to make a joint effort to provide effective support to the economic reconstruction of the country.

There is a great shortage of food and considerable rural poverty in Timor Lorosae and the country urgently needs support for agricultural and rural development to increase food production and improve the quality of the nutrition of the most affected populations. They must also have access to satisfactory health care and education.

A decent standard of living, proper nutrition, basic health care and better levels of education, in addition to other economic and social measures, cannot just be considered development objectives. They are fundamental human rights that are the very foundation of democratic societies and must be developed and consolidated.

We live in a time when accelerated globalisation is the dominant trait in the development of the world economy, which naturally opens up new opportunities, at the same time as it poses important challenges. One of these challenges, perhaps even the main one, will certainly be greater equity in the distribution of income and a substantial reduction in the incidence of phenomena such as hunger, poverty and social exclusion in many regions of the world, and particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, where the indicators are both alarming and intolerable.

It is therefore important to keep a close watch on globalisation and enable world society to enjoy its fruits without any of the serious consequences for world humanity.

Here, it is important to underline the essential role of cooperation for development, which should be based on a matrix of responsible, extended partnerships that will be able to achieve more visible results and make the best use of the available resources.

It is therefore important to stimulate better knowledge and exchanges between the different national cooperation and development organisations, with a view to closer active cooperation with IFAD. This is how we will also achieve greater effectiveness in our fight against rural poverty.

Finally, I would like to thank IFAD and all that work or cooperate with it for their inestimable dedication to implementing projects to reduce poverty and foster sustainable development in rural areas, which are urgent challenges that are essential in the construction of more humane societies.

Thank you very much.

The Governor for Portugal

Carlos Inácio Figueiredo

President of Instituto de Financiamento e Apoio ao Desenvolvimento da Agricultura e Pescas (IFADAP - Institute for Financing and Sponsoring the Development of Agriculture and Fisheries), Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Fisheries