Press release number: IFAD 27/04

Rome, 6 September 2004 – On the occasion of the African Union’s Extra-ordinary Summit on Employment and Poverty Alleviation in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, 3 to 9 September, Lennart Båge, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), reiterated the importance of investing in rural areas.

“To alleviate poverty and create employment in Africa, governments, donors and civil society must invest in rural people and the financial, health, education and other institutions they need,” said Båge.

The Summit was called by the African Union to generate new momentum in creating jobs and reducing poverty. Current data indicate that 70 per cent of poor people in Africa live in rural areas and rural poor people account for two-thirds of the labour force. In most African countries agriculture is the main engine of growth, the largest employer and the biggest export earner.

Moïse Mensah, former Assistant President of IFAD, who represented IFAD at the Summit hoped that one of the outcomes of the meeting would be to “adopt more proactive strategies to support entrepreneurs in poor rural areas and to provide them with business-related services such as market information and access to credit”.

Mensah also expressed concern that despite the significance of agriculture in the economies of developing countries, the share of official development assistance (ODA) earmarked for agriculture has been steadily falling. Since 1988, it has dropped by nearly half, and currently stands at barely 8 per cent of the total.

The Summit brings together delegates from the African Union Member States, United Nations agencies, NGOs, bilateral and multilateral development partners and experts to discuss ways to alleviate poverty by creating jobs. The 53 Member States of the African Union will also exchange best practices.

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IFAD is a specialized agency of the United Nations dedicated to combating rural poverty in the most disadvantaged regions of the world. Since 1978, IFAD has invested USD 8.15 billion in 657 rural development projects and programmes, about 250 rural people have been supported in their efforts to overcome poverty.