Release number IFAD/15/07

Rome, 16 February 2007 – The number of people migrating in search of a better life is on the rise worldwide, and the vast majority of them are from poor rural areas, experts reported at a round-table discussion at the Governing Council meeting of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

Lack of productivity in agriculture is the main reason for high levels of rural out-migration, said Aziz Khan, professor at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University in New York City.

“Poor rural people need to be able to make a living from agriculture – or we need to help them find alternative sources of income,” said Dr Khan.

“Lack of infrastructure such as roads to reach the nearest market or the nearest hospital is also a major cause of migration,” said Rosemary Vargas-Lundius, a policy coordinator at IFAD.

Rural development policies should focus on promoting initiatives that reduce constraints provoking out-migration and support investment by migrants in their place of origin, said Vargas-Lundius. “Establishing adequate agricultural pricing and marketing policies, providing access to financial markets and promoting decentralization may help create an environment that encourages migrants to invest back in their countries.”

Over the past 50 years, about 800 million people have moved from rural areas to cities and to foreign countries. Although international migration has a higher profile, for every person who has migrated to a foreign country seven more people have migrated domestically, said Frédéric Sandron, research officer at the Institut de recherche pour le développement in Paris.

One of the downsides of migration, experts say, is that it robs rural society of its most productive and skilled workers – usually young people. In some countries, it is rural women who are increasingly leaving home in search of employment – another aspect of migration that is changing the social and demographic face of rural life.

The international community is not going to be able to halt the tides of rural migrants, said Dr Khan, but it can make migration “more organized and more effective.”

One way to accomplish this, he suggested, is to link migrants’ remittances to formal banking systems, particularly locally based savings and loans associations. Recent research suggests that the money migrant workers send back to rural areas has overtaken agriculture as the main source of income.

Many rural migrants are heading towards medium-sized cities with populations of 500,000 or less, reported Cecilia Tacoli, senior researcher at the International Institute for Environment and Development.

“We need to remember the important role these medium-sized cities have in the rural economy,” said Tacoli. “Not only are they a source of income for migrants but they also represent an important market opportunity.”

In Africa, for instance, approximately 80 per cent of the food consumed in medium-sized towns comes from nearby rural areas, she said.

Panellists agreed that migration should be available as an option for rural people – but that it should not be the only means of survival for them.

“In some Latin American countries, cultural aspects drive migration as much as economic ones,” said Benjamin Davies, an economist for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

The Governing Council – IFAD’s highest decision-making authority – met on 14-15 February at the Palazzo dei Congressi in Rome. The annual meeting serves as a forum for discussing policy and budget issues relating to the global fight against rural poverty. Delegates from IFAD’s 165 Member States, including ministers of finance, agriculture and rural development, attend the annual meeting.

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IFAD is a specialized agency of the United Nations dedicated to eradicating poverty and hunger in rural areas of developing countries. Through low-interest loans and grants, it develops and finances projects that enable poor rural people to overcome poverty themselves. There are 185 ongoing IFAD-supported rural poverty eradication programmes and projects, totalling US$6.1 billion. IFAD has invested US$2.9 billion in these initiatives. Cofinancing has been provided by governments, beneficiaries, multilateral and bilateral donors and other partners. At full development, these programmes will help nearly 77 million poor rural women and men to achieve better lives for themselves and their families. Since starting operations in 1978, IFAD has invested US$9.5 billion in 732 programmes and projects that have helped more than 300 million poor rural men and women achieve better lives for themselves and their families. Governments and other financing sources in the recipient countries, including project participants, have contributed US$9.1 billion, and multilateral, bilateral and other donors have provided another US$7.1 billion in cofinancing.