Press release number: IFAD GC/03

Rome, 20 February 2001 - Nobel laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa has urged the international community to support ''the splendid work'' of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), in alleviating ''devastating poverty''.

In a videotaped message, presented to the 24th Governing Council of IFAD, which began its two-day session in Rome on Tuesday, Archbishop Tutu said: ''The international community defeated Hitler’s Nazism, it has defeated apartheid. The world faces yet another scourge in the devastating poverty afflicting so many billions of God’s children…(who) have neither electricity nor water. The international community can yet again help destroy and defeat this scourge especially by supporting enthusiastically the splendid work of IFAD in empowering particularly rural women and in supporting local initiatives for eradicating poverty.'' He added: ''I can assure you that your best ally in the campaign to defeat poverty, ignorance and disease would be IFAD.''

IFAD is a specialised agency of the United Nations, with the core task of alleviating rural poverty through agricultural and rural development supported by loans and grants. The know-how available at the grass-roots level and the participation of the rural communities also play a crucial role.

In an interview to IFAD officials, Archbishop Tutu spelt out some of his thoughts on issues most relevant to poverty eradication. ''If it were not for the women, we would not have got our freedom. Our freedom was ultimately due to the resilience of women, their incredible capacity for suffering and for not allowing ourselves to be pushed under,'' he said. Stressing the need for helping women, especially those in the rural areas, to become more fully aware of who they can be and what they can accomplish, he added: ''The women are ultimately the key to development, they are the key to eradication of poverty. Once you empower them, you empower a nation.''

Nobel laureate Tutu said the rationale behind poverty alleviation was simple: Poverty gives rise to ignorance and disease, jeopardises national economies, and endangers social and political security. ''We are bound up together and ultimately; we will sink or swim together'' he said.

Spelling out his vision of a world without poverty, Archbishop Tutu said: ''Isn’t it going to be wonderful one day if every child has a decent chance of survival, if every child can have access to an adequate education and healthcare. The spin off for individual countries and ultimately for the entire world would be tremendous.''

A man of immense moral authority, Archbishop Tutu was one of the leading figures in the fight against apartheid in South Africa. In 1985, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize because of his quest for a non-violent end to apartheid. He was chosen by President Nelson Mandela to chair South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

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IFAD is a specialised agency of the United Nations with the specific mandate of combating hunger and poverty in the most disadvantaged regions of the world. Since 1978 IFAD has financed 584 projects in 114 recipient countries and in the West Bank and Gaza for a total commitment of approximately USD 7.2 billion in loans and grants. Through these projects, about 250 million rural people have had a chance to move out of poverty. IFAD makes the greater part of its resources available to low-income countries on very favourable terms, with up to 40 years for repayment and including a grace period of up to ten years and a service charge of 0.75% per year.