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Development Today No. 18 November 17, 2004 (DT 18/04)
IFAD, Nordics to re-focus on rural poverty
In the context of the upcoming five-year evaluation of the Millennium Development Goals, the five Nordic governments and the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) are moving to strengthen the focus on the 900 million people living in rural poverty.
IFAD President Lennart Båge calls these people, many of whom are not part of formal market and tenure systems, the “forgotten people” in the development agenda.
IFAD and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs are co-hosting a seminar in Oslo next week to discuss how to channel assistance to the rural poor. Representatives from the Nordic Foreign Ministries, including Iceland's, will attend.
In an interview with Development Today, Båge stresses that efforts to achieve the MDGs are “off-track”, particularly in parts of Africa. It is estimated that there are still 900 million people, or three-quarters of those with incomes of less than USD 1 per day, living in the countryside, principally dependent on the rural economy and agriculture.
The World Bank's Global Economic Prospects 2005 also predicts that at current growth rates, all regions will be able to halve poverty by 2015, the first of the eight Millennium Goals, except for Sub-Saharan Africa.
Båge notes that for the first time in decades, there is renewed interest among donors in directing aid into rural development. Indeed, this spring, the Finns produced a Strategy on Rural Development and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced its Action Plan for Agriculture in Norwegian Development Policy.
Båge says the issue of rural poverty has been off the agenda since the 1970s and 1980s. “How to reach the rural poor is now coming to the fore. The analysis of the MDGs shows that you need a stronger emphasis on rural development,” he says.
Båge notes that one purpose of the upcoming seminar is for IFAD to discuss policy approaches with Nordic colleagues and to get a sense of whether they have a similar analysis.
Customary rights
A key ingredient in strengthening the livelihoods of the rural poor is “to secure their access to land and water,” Båge says.
But the rural poor tend not to be part of formal tenure systems. Rather, there exist in all societies customary land rights and other informal systems of commons use. This brings donors into politically sensitive areas of indigenous peoples rights and conflicts over land.
Båge agrees that formalising customary rights can be one way of helping some people out of poverty. However, he warns that introducing state-sanctioned property rights systems carries the risk that powerful elements grab the resources, further disenfranchising poorer members of communities. Indeed, formal land rights systems are more often a direct threat to the commons systems of the poor.
IFAD's approach has been to help the poor to access formal land rights systems where possible, while at the same time strengthening local communal systems of land use.
As Båge puts it: “In many cases, the formal system is developing and encroaching on the informal space. How can we ascertain that the people living within the informal system are not deprived of their rights.”
The Oslo meeting will address the issue of “social inclusion and stewardship rights” of indigenous people. But for Norway, Finland and Sweden, all of which have indigenous Sami populations, the land rights/indigenous question has always been delicate. Denmark (with no mainland indigenous population) continues to be the only Nordic country with a strategy on indigenous people as part of its overall development assistance policy.
AIDS Dimension
The IFAD President points to other dimensions of rural poverty, such as HIV/AIDS and conflicts and wars.
Båge says AIDS must now be taken into account in all IFAD's programming. “There is a disappearing generation of farmers,” says Båge. “Households are headed by grandparents or children, and the knowledge of the parents' generation is just not there.”
When the very sick move home to the countryside from the cities, there is the added burden in rural villages of caring for the dying.
Conflict resolution is another element that must be built into all efforts. Båge stresses that this can involve very concrete measures like strengthening local mechanisms for settling disputes between settled farmers and nomads. This can also be a key part of work with refugees returning home in post-conflict situations.
Another issue to be addressed in Oslo is how to expand choices for the rural poor beyond subsistence to “find new places in the global economy”.
