Mr. Chairman;
The President of IFAD;
Honourable Ministers and fellow Governors;
Distinguished Delegates;
Ladies and Gentlemen.

It gives me great pleasure to have opportunity to address the Twenty-Fourth Session of IFAD’s Governing Council. On behalf of the Government of Zimbabwe, I would like to join the rest of the world in expressing my deepest gratitude to IFAD for the unwavering support it is rendering to the developing countries, so as to improve the agriculture productive capacity and raise the standards of living of rural communities.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Zimbabwe, like the rest of the sub-region, has more than two thirds of the population who derive their livelihood from agriculture. Most of these people are very poor living under the poverty datum line. It is pleasing to note that IFAD has been supporting programmes and projects that are aimed at:

• Enhancing food security through sustainable development;

• Improving the agricultural productive capacity of smallholder farmers; and

• Raising the living standards of rural communities.

Mr. President, Zimbabwe’s relationship with IFAD dates back to 1980 when we gained our independence. Since then Zimbabwe has been working closely with IFAD in implementing agricultural development projects like the national agricultural extension and research project and the Agricultural Credit and Export Promotion Project. Through implementing the National Agricultural Extension and Research Project, research and extension services were reoriented significantly towards the smallholder farmers who had been neglected during the period prior to 1980. In addition, the range of research activities was expanded and research-extension linkages were strengthened.

Currently, IFAD is co-financing the Dry Areas Development Programme, which has two main projects, the Smallholder Dry Areas Resource Management Project and the South Eastern Dry Areas Project. IFAD is also co-financing the Smallholder Irrigation Support Programme.

The Smallholder Dry Areas Resource Management Project (SDARMP) is the first phase of the Dry Areas Development Programme being implemented in the Rural Communities of five participating districts in Midlands and Matebeleland South Provinces of Zimbabwe. The activities of this project earnestly commenced in 1996. The overall objective of this project is to provide poorer people living in the drier communal areas of Midlands and Matebeleland South Provinces with enhanced food security and incomes based on sustainable and drought tolerant resource management by and for the community. In the long run, the Smallholder Dry Areas Resource Management Project is aimed at strengthening the capacity of communities to manage and develop their shared resources to best and lasting advantage supported by Government and Non-Government Institutions whose capacities are also strengthened by the Project and to preserve the environment while enhancing improved outputs from better resource management.

The South Eastern Dry Areas Project (SEDAP) is the second phase under the Dry Areas Development Programme and is being implemented in selected districts of Manicaland and of Masvingo Provinces, which are all located in the South-East of the country. The overall objective of South Eastern Dry Areas Project is to provide a sustainable increase in the incomes of, and through it enhanced food security for, poor communities and households in the drier communal areas of Masvingo and Manicaland Provinces.

Mr. Chairman, I must mention that both the Smallholder Dry Areas Resource Management Project and the South Eastern Dry Areas Project use a participatory, bottom up approach with project stakeholders, as opposed to the traditional top-down approach. This approach has not been easy to adopt, it needed quite some considerable time for the implementing agencies to get used to this new and up-coming system. In accordance with Government of Zimbabwe’s policy, both projects have made considerable progress in decentralization. Annual work plans and budgets are being developed from the village level up through to district, provincial and national levels. The rural district councils manage most activities supported by the Government technical departments and the project facilitation units.

In addition, both projects are contributing immensely to the development of smallholder agriculture in Zimbabwe. These projects are strengthening the farmer-extension-research linkages. Participatory methods are being used to assist the smallholder farmers to identify methods to improve the sustainable utilisation of their natural resources. Several smallholder communities are already implementing their communal resource management projects. The communities are enthusiastic about these projects and are willing to contribute in cash or in kind towards the successful implementation of their projects.

Mr. Chairman, IFAD is also supporting Zimbabwe in implementing the Smallholder Irrigation Support Programme (SISP). The objective of the programme is to increase income and food security of irrigating households. Support is provided at both sector and scheme level. At the sector level, the programme: (a) strengthens the capacity of Government and other Institutions to enable them to provide farmers with appropriate and effective support services; (b) encourages active involvement of the civil society in the provision of services to irrigating farmers; (c) supports review and refinement of the policy and legal framework; and (d) improves coordination between relevant ministries and public institutions charged with water resources management and development.

The programme has made tremendous progress since it started. The recruitment of all the project staff was done and successfully completed. A total of 24 schemes, three in each of the selected 2 districts per province were selected to participate in the first phase of the programme. The programme is now in the process of assessing the type of assistance required by each of the selected schemes. More schemes will be include din the programme depending on the progress, which will have been made in the first selected schemes.

Allow me, Mr. Chairman, to once again thank IFAD for its unwavering and successful role in the development of smallholder agriculture in developing countries. I would like to encourage all the member states, beneficiaries and other organizations including civil society to maintain their commitment and support to IFAD’s basic goal of eradicating hunger and poverty. Let me also thank IFAD for maintaining a high level of its resources for rural development in Africa. I would like to encourage all of us to use IFAD’s principle of ensuring that the beneficiaries fully participate in implementing development projects. This means that we should take our time in listening to the resource poor farmers and use our resources to respond to their needs as the define them.

In conclusion, I would like to urge IFAD to continue pursing better ways of assisting the rural poor as it draws lessons from on-going projects and programmes.

Thank you.