At the annual meeting of IFAD’s Governing Council, in Rome 19-20 February, development experts will focus on how IFAD’s work with the rural poor is essential to achieving the Millenium Development Goals of reducing by 50% the proportion of people in the world who live in extreme poverty by 2015.

Delegates from 162 member countries will examine ways to overcome the obstacles to eradicating poverty at four roundtable discussions on:

• Promoting market access for the rural poor
• Transforming rural institutions
• Enabling women to become more powerful agents of change in their communities
• Supporting indigenous peoples

In September 2000, the international community developed eight Millennium Development Goals, which are backed by specific health, education and environmental targets. These targets can’t be met without additional investment. Development experts estimate that USD 50 billion to USD 100 billion a year more than current levels of investment will be needed to achieve the targets.

Nevertheless, there are signs that the international community is taking the challenge seriously, and some progress has been made:

• Foreign aid levels are set to rise. European Union countries have pledged to increase their collective Official Development Assistance (ODA) from 0.22% of GNP to 0.39% by 2006. The U.S. has announced that it will increase its ODA by USD 5 billion by the same year.
• External debt relief is increasing. This will provide more resources for public services and poverty reduction. External debt servicing is being cut by USD 50 billion, more than twice the relief envisaged when the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC) was launched in 1996.
• About 80 poor countries have started developing poverty reduction strategies that give greater priority to poverty alleviation and to developing supportive conditions that enable people to overcome poverty.
  
  Regional initiatives such as the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) offer considerable hope for economic, political and social changes within Africa.
  

Despite these positive steps, more efforts and resources are needed. According to the World Bank, at least 65 countries are not on-track for achieving the targets. Most are in Sub-Saharan Africa. Most important, the additional resources must be focussed on those who need them most, where they need them most.

Of the 1.2 billion people worldwide living on less than USD 1 a day, 44% are in South Asia, 24% each are in Sub-Saharan Africa and East Asia and 6.5% are in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Approximately 75% of the 1.2 billion poor people in the world live in rural areas. The majority of these 900 million depend on agriculture for their livelihood. In Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, agriculture represents about 42% of GDP in the low-income countries and 27% in the middle-income countries. It employs between 65% and 80% of the labour force.

Clearly, to achieve the Millennium Development goals, the world must invest in rural and agricultural development. Yet, the proportion of ODA devoted to agriculture and the rural sector has fallen sharply in recent years – by almost 50% between 1988 and 1999. Today, only 12% of ODA goes to agriculture, compared with 20% in the late 1980s. Redressing this imbalance is essential to meeting the Millennium Development Goals.

In its quarter century of working with the poorest people in the world, IFAD has helped more than 250 million people take steps to overcome poverty through 617 projects in 115 countries. In so doing, IFAD has acquired invaluable knowledge about what does and does not work. Based on its knowledge and experience, the Fund has identified several key areas that require special attention. These will be the focus of discussions during the Governing Council session.

Poor access to markets is a major problem for many rural people. While trade liberalization and globalization present opportunities for the rural poor, they can’t take advantage of them unless they can compete on an equal footing. It has been estimated that the potential gains from freer trade in agriculture – the sector that most closely affects the rural poor – could mean an annual increase in global welfare of USD 160 billion, a figure that easily outstrips current aid flows. Meanwhile, subsidies for agriculture in the OECD countries are soaring. They totalled a massive USD 311 billion in 2001.

Another major challenge is helping poor people gain access to the resources and services they need to better their lives. In many cases, this is best done by supporting the development of self-help groups, small farmers’ associations and other organizations that enable poor people to advocate on their own behalf over the long term.

Discussions will also deal with issues relating to women and indigenous peoples, two groups of the extreme poor that are further marginalized because they lack assets, income and, above all, a voice. An estimated 70% of the world’s poor are women and the majority of the Earth’s 300 million indigenous peoples are poor.

When: Wednesday February 19. 14.30 am to 17:00 hours

Where: Palazzo dei Congressi
Piazzale J. F. Kennedy
00144 Rome (EUR)

Who: Moderator: Ms. Eveline Herfkens, UN Secretary-General’s Executive Coordinator, Millennium Development Goals Campaign
Panelists:

• Dr. Y. Seyyid Abdulai, Director-General, OPEC Fund for International Development
• H.E. Jan O Karlsson – Minister for International Development Cooperation & Asylum Policy of the Kingdom of Sweden
• H. E. Alpha Oumar Konare, former President of the Republic of Mali
• Dr Nafis Sadik, Special Advisor/Special Envoy of the United Nations Secretary-General for HIV/AIDS in Asia, and former Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)

The Chairman of the Governing Council, His Excellency Prof. Bungaran Saragih, Minister for Agriculture of the Republic of Indonesia and the President of IFAD, Mr. Lennart Båge, will also participate in the panel discussions.