Tuesday 7 March 2006, 17:00-19:30 hrs
Building 11, Centro de Pastoral - PUC (cepucrs) Campus - Events Centre in Rio Grande du Sul, Porto Alegre

IFAD will host a special event on empowering rural poor people and reducing poverty through land and agrarian reform.

On the occasion of the International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development, Porto Alegre, Brazil, 7-10 March 2006, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) invites you to this special event.

The special event will address the core issues related to sustainable reduction of poverty through land and agrarian reform.

Access to and control over land and other natural resources by rural poor people are critical for poverty reduction. International organizations like IFAD, national governments, and most importantly, organizations of the poor, can play key roles in creating an enabling legal, financial and institutional framework to achieve these objectives.

The land agenda however has to be seen in the context of a broader agenda for creating equitable sustainable livelihood opportunities for poor people.

The special event is expected to be opened by the Brazilian Minister for Agrarian Development, Miguel Rossetto. It will be chaired by the former Secretary for Land Reform of the Government of the Philippines, Ernest Garilao. The President of IFAD, Lennart Båge, will make an opening statement. Issues will be raised and discussed by, among others, the Director of IFAD’s Latin America and the Caribbean Division, Isabel Lavadenz-Paccieri, the President of the Centro Peruano de Estudios Sociales (CEPES), Fernando Eguren, and the Director of the International Land Coalition, Bruce Moore.
The discussion will address:

• the people-led approach, including issues of empowerment, capacity building and rights
• the government-led approach, recognizing the importance of the state in implementing reforms that provide greater opportunities for the poor, carried out in an inclusive manner
• the productivity enhancing approach, addressing issues on investments, incentives, and technology relating to land

The event will be followed by a reception hosted by the President of IFAD.