1 September 2004
Source: The Navhind Times

by Ratna Menon .

Phrang Roy, from Meghalaya, North-East India, is the first tribal person in the world to be (recently) appointed assistant president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) - a specialised United Nations agency with a mandate to combat hunger and reduce poverty in developing countries. His post equates him with an assistant secretary general in the UN system. In 1970, Roy qualified for the Indian Administrative Services and was allotted the Maharashtra cadre. He then went on deputation for a UN assignment and was subsequently absorbed into IFAD in 1981. Established in 1977, IFAD focuses on the rural poor and has co-financed 653 projects in 115 countries, including 18 in India. The North-Eastern Region Community Resource Management Project is one such project running in Meghalaya, Assam and Manipur. Twelve case studies of Asian tribal communities, funded by IFAD, have now been published as a book titled Gender Relations in Forest Societies in Asia: Patriarchy at Odds.

The book clearly brings out a marked deterioration in the position of women in indigenous communities, a phenomenon linked to market and state policies based largely on the predominant role of men. The book also illustrates the growing women’s resistance to this status quo: they are pushing for more ‘space’ through new forms of community and private management. While releasing the book in Delhi, Mr Roy spoke about IFAD’s work with tribal communities and the issues the book has raised.

Stating that most indigenous people, especially in Asia, are marginalised geographically and socially, he said that the process of commercialisation does not include them as benefactors, but captures their labour for extraction purposes.

Talking about IFAD’s support to women’s resistance to this resurgent patriarchy that accompanies both the state/market control and indigenous struggle for autonomy, Mr Roy said that IFAD tries to sensitise people through case studies. It tries to bring in gender issues when designing a project. IFAD has a gender mainstreaming initiative in collaboration with UNIFEM.

With regard to enabling the rural poor to influence policy agendas, Mr Roy said that in the design of a project, IFAD tries to take the conflict between agendas as an entry point for dialogue with a government.

Citing an example, Mr Roy said that when IFAD began work in Andhra Pradesh, the government wanted IFAD to support VFJM along with WB. But IFAD said VFJM would detract from our approach because the level of people’s participation in it was low. IFAD tries to reach out to governments and the United Nations on issues they might not like to hear, but it has not been very successful so far, he said.